Easy Meditation Techniques
If you've ever tried to bend yourself into a pretzel in order to meditate, you may have found that it increased your level of stress rather than decreasing it. Trying to clear your mind of all thoughts is frustrating too. (Don't you suspect that the Buddha occasionally wondered what was for lunch?) Fortunately, the meditation technique developed by Roy Masters, "Be Still and Know," has no such stringent requirements.
The purpose of "Be Still and Know" is not to bar all thoughts from your mind. In fact, the opposite is true: mindfulness is very much desired. Rather than denying thoughts and emotions, Masters asks that you pay close attention to them. In fact, he sometimes refers to his technique as an "observation exercise."
What he wants you to do is to recognize each emotion that arises, then accept it without reacting to it. The ideal is to reach a state of perfect equanimity. In such a state, you will be devoid of stress, since you don't react to the external events that cause it. You can't prevent bad things from happening, but you can completely control how you respond to them.
You can download the guided meditation on the website of the Foundation of Human Understanding, or you can order an audiotape or CD to listen to without being tied to the computer. Start working on your objectivity, and you'll be amazed at the improvements it makes in your life. And you don't even have to get into the lotus position!
Foundation of Human Understanding
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