How To Meditate

Full article here: https://unclegarrett.substack.com/p/how-to-meditate
There are many types of meditations. The one I practiced for many years and found to be extremely powerful is Mantra Meditation. There are 4 things we are going to cover here. First we will discuss the three concepts of meditation. Second, I will introduce a couple of mantras. The 3rd topic is the technique of staying focused on your mantra. Lastly, we will talk about posture. At the end, I will answer some frequently asked questions.

The three primary concepts of mediation are focus, will power, and awareness. The first concept is focus. Believe it or not, the average focus time is 4 seconds! We are never taught how to focus. For today's topic, focus means we use our mental will power to place all our attention on the mantra and at the same time, ignore everything else. This brings out our 2nd concept, mental will power. Will power is a mental muscle that we can train to grow stronger over time. Your will power will be challenged all the time. For example, if an interesting thought pops out during your meditation, are you going to entertain this thought just for a few seconds or are you willing to bring your focus back immediately? Do you find yourself ruminating on a thought for a few minutes before you even catch yourself? Neither your mind nor your body want to be still for a while and you have to tell them who is the boss. The 3rd concept is the awareness. The awareness is like the light, let you see your focus, your mantra. Awareness also sees your distractions like volunteer thoughts, emotions, internal or external physical sensations. Now it's the time you can use your will power to hold your focus only on mantra. After a while, all other distractions gradually fade out, and your awareness becomes one with your focus. You might feel disconnect with your body, your mind, everything around you, all you have is the awareness of your mantra. Hold onto this state as long as you possibly can, and you will be rewarded with deep peace, and delightful relaxation! You finally give yourself a chance to deeply rest.