- Shaman Steve
4 TIPS TO HELP SUSTAIN THE MEDITATION HABIT
As I am sure most people have heard by now, meditation has numerous documented benefits to help us deal with a world that appears to get more chaotic by the day. The benefits include lowered stress, enhanced immune function, lowered blood pressure, and an actual increase of gray matter in the brain. That said, how do we reap the enormous benefits of meditation. The key to benefiting from this amazing practice is to train a daily meditation habit, but how do we build the habit? There are four key components to help you build a practice that help give you more peace than you have experienced in your life thus far.
The first component to a regular sustained practice is to have one particular location where you practice your meditation. It is imperative while building your habit to have one location to go where your mind, body and spirit knows that it is time to meditate. I have created a sacred space or altar in my bedroom. This is the space that I go to escape the drama of the everyday reality and enter a space of inner consciousness and peace. My body knows that when I sit down to meditate it is time to get lost in the bliss of the ethereal realm. As with any practice, it takes time to build a habit. Based on my experience, it typically takes 3 weeks to build a daily habit. What you do with your habit after this time is up to you. The changes that I have experienced have been profound. In a nutshell, I have become extremely comfortable in my own skin and reside most days within the eye of the storm. It is a very empowering feeling and enables you to focus on what is important in life and not on the distractions of daily life.
The second component to help in building your new positive meditation habit is to burn incense. When my nose experiences the wonderful fragrance of NAG CHAMPA incense, the subconscious knows it is time to go visit inner peace. You would be surprised how beneficial it is to disconnect in this manner everyday and go within. The way I view it, the body is the cell phone and consciousness is the phone charger. If we do not charge our energy, how can we function at peak capacity where mind, body and spirit are all in tune. We just have to see the value of working on our energy body. In this physical 3D realm, everything dies or decomposes and changes form. The only constant is the energy or your substance. Since energy can neither be created or destroyed it is eternal AND SO ARE YOU.
The third component to creating a new sustained positive habit is to burn a candle prior to meditation. Buddha said, "Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot life without a spiritual life." Fire is symbolic and a catalyst for change. The flame denotes Divine Love because love in its first origin is nothing other than fire and flame from the Lord as a sun. When we incorporate the flame into our ritual, we begin to merge with the eternal flame of consciousness. We return to our original source. The flame represents the source of our creation, our inner light.
The fourth component to a positive and sustained meditation practice is to practice your ritual at roughly the same time everyday. The mind, body and spirit begin to understand at this certain hour that it is time to plug directly into source for the ultimate recharge. I can't emphasize enough how important consistency is with any new habit. Without consistency, we are flailing in the wind. The most powerful tool we have in this experience is to tie mind, body and spirit to create the destiny for which we incarnated. We have all the power within ourselves to create the life that we want. We just have to clear the clutter of our mind and tame it. Meditation is the most powerful practice in which to do this.
My hope is that you see the value of a daily meditation practice. It can really help you gain control of your life force(prana). It will help you to respond to situations instead of reacting without thought or control. When we react out of fear or anger, nothing good can ever come in this manner. However, if we can slow it down and respond, only then do truly great things happen. If you can create a situation where you have the location, set the time and burn both candles and incense, you have the possibility to change not only your energy but your experience in this third dimensional reality. I wish you the best on your journey.