'Meditation has been used in every part of the world, and from the remotest periods, as a method of acquiring knowledge about the essential nature of things' Aldous Huxley.
Meditation has been used for thousands of years to achieve higher states of consciousness and to access higher energies. Different states of consciousness achieved through meditation, can be linked to different brain wave patterns that can be measured:
BETA, ALPHA, THETA, or DELTA.
Beta is the fastest frequency and is our ‘normal’, everyday, awake state of consciousness.
Alpha is slower and is the state we achieve through relaxation and meditation, in this state you relive stress and your body heals more quickly. This is also the state in which we can begin to explore and communicate with our subconscious mind.
Theta is the next slowest frequency, in this deep state Visions and deeper experiences and encounters can occur, a connection to some larger divine consciousness. This is also the frequency we may have when dreaming.
The slowest brain waves are Delta, this seems to be the state where we receive intuition, experience feelings of empathy and connection to others. Healers using techniques such as Reiki produce these brain waves when working. Delta is associated with deep sleep, but recent research has discovered delta waves can be produced while awake.
Meditation expands the boundries of consciousness, the progression of this is classically discribed as:
1. Being aware while awake.
2. Being aware while relaxed.
3. Being aware while in the dream state.
4. Being aware in dreamless sleep.
Through meditation and techniques such as shammanic journeying, ritual, ect.... we can consciously tap into and work with these different levels of consciousness, combining them to achieve higher levels of awareness, experience and knowledge. Working with them in a creative way, we can draw energies to us, and create what we desire, manifesting the infinite possibilities of the quantum reality, into the physical reality of matter, both in our individual lives, and collectively......and that power is around you and within you.
The first step towards awareness is learning how to relax. The following meditation gives you an idea of how begin exploring conscious relaxation.
BASIC RELAXATION.
Stress is one of the major contributors to illness and disease. Stress is also connected with anxiety, resulting in negative thoughts and fear energies being added to the collective consciousness.
The best antidote to stress is relaxation, just a few minuets each day spent consciously relaxing can make a huge difference to stress levels and create a more positive outlook.
If possible, do a few stretching exercises before performing this meditation.
1. Find a quite place where you will not be disturbed. Wear lose clothes and, as your temperate may cool down during the exercise, make sure you will be warm enough.
2. Lie flat on your back with your arms beside your body, if this is not possible then sit comfortably arms and legs uncrossed. Close your eyes.
3. Bring your attention to your breathing, take three large, slow, breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. You should feel your lower stomach rise and fall with each deep breath. Then allow your breathing to fall into a regular relaxed pattern, observe this for a while.
4. Now bring your attention to your body, feel each part of your body relax, tell each part to relax, letting go of all the tension that you can feel there. Begin with your toes, say silently to your toes ‘relax toes’ then take a few moments to feel the relaxation in your toes as you let go of the tension that you keep there. Do this with each part of your body, feet, lower legs, thighs, hips, stomach, lower back, spine, chest, shoulders, neck, arms, head, face. Pay particular attention to neck, shoulders and brow.
Slowly count backwards form 10, as you do so, you feel yourself relaxing even deeper...
5. Now bring your attention back to your breathing, imagine you are breathing in relaxation in the form of a warm golden light. Feel this light filling every part of your body, relaxing and energising every cell. As you breath out imagine you are breathing out stress, you may imagine this as a grey mist leaving your body and being absorbed and neutralised by the golden light around you. Stay with this until you feel you have breathed out all the stress from your body and replaced it with this golden light.
6. Enjoy this feeling of peace and relaxation, any thoughts that come into your mind, allow to float by without becoming attached to them.
7. When you feel ready, let any images fade, open you eyes and gently move your body and stretch.
If you can make this a daily practice, taking between 10 to 30 minuets each day to perform, you will soon see a marked difference in how you feel.
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