Meditation made easy, tips for simple relaxation

This would be ideal if everybody could meditate like the master in this picture. The truth is not everyone (me included) can easily relax in the lotus postion. However, everyone can meditate. The main thing is simple yet focused relaxation. If you can just take some calming breaths, you're halway there. 3 deep inhalations going well into the lungs and 3 complete exhalations will slow down your heart rate and pulse, calm the mind and bring about instant relaxation. It really is that simple to start. Once you've mastered that, you can move onto higher levels and techniques.

My most frequent form of meditation is reminding myself to take some conscious breaths whenever I feel the stress of life coming on. This can be with eyes wide open and in the middle of other stuff, like when driving my car or at my work desk or even during household chores. I just slow down, breathe deeply and let go of burdensome thoughts. Try this yourself and see if it helps. And if you want to go for any deeper meditations, try some of these tips:

-Sit in a chair, on a pillow or even lie down (but don't fall asleep). Keep your back and neck fairly in alignment. Close your eyes. Relax, focus on deep breathing and let go of thoughts. Allow the breath to go all the way in like it's going beyond your lungs and into your belly. Then release the breath entirely. Even breaths coming in, even breaths going out.

-Try a mantra. Either a simple phrase like I am light or I am relaxed to keep your mind from thinking dozens of thoughts. It's much better to think of one thing than dozens of things. The object is to let go of the "monkey mind." Or your mantra can be something that has no meaning, no association for your mind to grasp to, like "keenum." If you allow yourself to think of keenum or some such non-word, it will be more likely to calm down and think of nothing. The whole idea is to train your mind to relax, take a break, something it's not used to doing (even for blondes).

-Set a timer, a quiet timer to let you know when 10 minutes have passed. If you feel good about it, increase your time with practice.

-Take notice of any impulses, thoughts or information you tend to receive during this time. Some amazing insights often are "revealed" to us during these states of relaxation. The more you do it, the more you might discover. Where do these thoughts come from? Hmmm... good question.

Enjoy and be at peace.