Personal-development-is-fun.com Newsletter

One Interesting Thing You Can Do Today

Issue # 6, September 14, 2011

Hi!

I’m Meghashyam.

As you know, my online home is

personal-development-is-fun.com

My intention as I send this newsletter is to tell you one thing that changed me for the better in the last one month. Then I will ask you to do one small and interesting thing that'll improve your life in a small way TODAY.

So, shall we begin?

One Interesting Thing I Did In the Last 1 Month

As part of this experiment, I tried to meditate for half an hour a day for 30 days.

Now all of us know that meditation brings calmness and peace but the main problem is getting started with it. Is there an easy way to quickly get into a meditative state, relax and feel peaceful? I tried to find that out during the meditation experiment.

I tried breathing meditation in which I simply tried to be aware of my breathing. I tried "how am I?" meditation in which I tried to be aware of how I was feeling in any moment. Was I happy? Was I sad? What was the emotion I was experiencing? I tried to observe that emotion. I also tried listening meditation in which I tried to listen to all the sounds around me which I had ignored earlier - sounds of the fan revolving, the sound of vehicles on the road, the sound of a bird chirping far away...

Though all these meditation techniques brought a sense of peace, they were all very difficult to practice. It took a large amount of effort to actually get into a peaceful meditative state. If you are stressed out - you want to feel peaceful immediately. You don't have the energy to put in a lot of effort into the meditation.

Finally, after a lot of experimentation, I DID stumble upon a method of meditation called relax-your-body-and-breathe meditation that was quite easy to practice. I absolutely loved this meditation because it helped me feel peaceful in minutes without much effort. This meditation technique is the "one interesting thing I learnt in this month". :)

Here is the technique in detail:

1) Set an alarm to ring after 20 minutes. Lie down on the bed with lights off and eyes closed, or sit down in a comfortable position with eyes closed.

2) Let go of your body. By this, I mean: feel your body sinking on to the chair or the bed. Drop your body, don’t hold on to it. Let it fall on to whatever is beneath you. Release it.

3) As you release your body, and let it sink into your bed or chair, feel the sensation of your legs and thighs and back touching the bed or chair. Feel the sense of ease as you let go of your legs sink…If you were falling freely in air, would your body not be falling freely without any tension at all? Let your body fall like that on your bed or chair - and feel the sense of relaxation and freeness you feel as you let go of your body.

4) Keep feeling the peace as you sense your body relaxing. In this peaceful ambience, notice yourself breathing air in. Notice your belly rising as air fills it. Notice your belly becoming flatter and sinking down as you exhale.

5) Enjoy the sense of peace and thoughtlessness as you feel your body relaxing and sinking lower and lower and the air filling and leaving your lungs….Perceive that in this moment - there is peace - in this moment - this is all that exists.

6) Feel that all your problems, all your sorrows and grudges exist in the past and future - but right now - you are at peace. You can keep the peace with you as long as you want. Enjoy this peace as you feel your body relaxing and sinking into the bed or chair..and as you notice the air filling your tummy, making it rise - and leaving it…

7)Be like this - in this moment - at peace - until the alarm rings.

What is the One Interesting Thing You Can Do Today?

I absolutely loved the sense of peace and calmness that I felt after using it. And I loved the ease with which I was able to access that peace.

Why not try it out? That could be one interesting thing that YOU could do today!

Tweet Tweet!

www.twitter.com/meghufree

http://www.facebook.com/pdif123

I mostly tweet or post whatever I am thinking in that moment. I might be thinking about why carrots are red, or about the law of attraction or about my efforts to listen more and speak less. :)

Sometimes I also post quotes that stun me or links to articles I love.

More About The Meditation Experiment

Here's the first post related to the experiment and here's everything that I learnt from the experiment in a question and answer format.

That's about it for now.

Until next time please keep rocking. :)

Hoping you have a peaceful day,