Meditation 101: A Multi-Step Process

Like stress, happiness can be cultivated. The mind is a powerful medium. Here's a guide, rearranged and abridged from The New Meditation Handbook. Become aware of your breath. To feel the sensation is to be alive and present. Try to think more clearly by quieting the mind. Take out external conditions from your happiness equation. There are things you cannot control and impending changes that have a tendency to affect our moods. Look within. If your mind is not peaceful, we will never be happy, even if our external conditions are perfect ... without inner peace, there is no real happiness at all. The more we control our mind, the more our inner peace increases and the happier we become. Aim for enlightenment and Buddha-like balance -- wish for pure and lasting happiness. Beware of extremes and delusions. Recognize everything is an illusion. Along those lines -- perception is not reality, it is deception. Emptiness is not nothingness but is the real nature of phenomena; it is the way things really are as opposed to the way they appear. Exude the positive. Our suffering is a result of our own actions. Each action leaves an imprint on our souls -- so sow more positive seeds. Break the cycle of wandering meaninglessly, without freedom. Remove roadblocks, literal and figurative, to a smoother ride. Rinse and repeat. Return to your concentration. Increase your enthusiasm. Improve your understanding of the process. Familiarity of action, reaction breeds peace and calm. ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news