5 Easy Steps to Meditating (No Lotus Position Required)

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Posted on July 8, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Why Do You Need to Meditate?

The most important reason why people have been practicing meditation since time immemorial is that it swiftly brings you into alignment with your core being. This is where you will find balance and true peace.

In our modern-day culture, however, meditation is most commonly practiced to alleviate stress.

Both reasons are as good as any to start practicing this amazing art that is meditation. If you do already meditate — good on you. If you are thinking about it — now is the time!

What Exactly is Meditation?

Let’s cut past any preconceived notions about meditation. It does not require that you:

Sit in any position that you find uncomfortable
Need to chant or repeat a mantra
Need training or classes
Need to belong to a specific religion or faith

These things are optional and entirely up to the individual. The most important thing about meditation is…The art of being still and quieting your mind

Don’t forget to pin it!

It is the ability to bridge the gap between the thinker and the thought-less. You are offering your self a chance to still the mind-chatter (you know, that continuous loop of ‘what ifs‘ and ‘don’t mind if I do’s’). I like to refer to this is mind-static — just like the white noise you see on a TV screen when there is a disturbance with the reception. Our minds can be on a continuous buzz, enough to drive us to the brink of insanity.

This is where meditation will help you to de-clutter your thought processes and align you to your higher purpose through contact with your higher self.

Okay, Sounds Good but How do I go About This?

Simple. All you need to do is:

Concentrate on your breath — this easy step allows you to be more present and centered in your body. It also diverts your attention from thinking to breathing. If you like, use a mantra — this is a common tool used to stop any unwanted thoughts from creeping in.
Close your eyes and relax your body — Feel and imagine the stress draining away as you begin to let your vitality blossom.
Feel the tingle — acknowledge the prana or life force that is embodied in every single cell. This is sometimes felt as a tingling sensation in the body. Starting from your feet upwards, expand on that tingling sensation. This amplifies the life-force in your body. Notice how you feel when you do this. Are you feeling alive and vibrant? Are you relaxed and peaceful?
Opening your crown chakra — breathe in and imagine a white light streaming in through the top of your head (crown chakra) and permeating your entire body.
Relax — the above are only steps to get you into the present moment. When you feel relaxed and peaceful, just be with that feeling for as long as you can. You are now meditating!

You can start with just 5 minutes of still, quiet breathing a day and then gradually work your way up to 10-20 minutes at a time.

You do not have to stick to any method to get you to your place of inner peace, just do what works for you. The main point of meditation is to relax and take a break from the constant mind-chatter.

Try to practice this at least 1-2 times a day.

What are the Benefits?

Meditation gives you the space to relax your body and to recoup your mind
It is proven to reduce stress
It is a gateway to discovering your authentic self

And remember:

“Thoughts create everything ~ have clarity of thought and you can achieve anything…”

This was a guest article written by Cherie Roe Dirksen for Lightworkers World

Other articles you may enjoy:

Do You Need To Meditate? Part 1

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

There are so many beautifully written books on the subject of present moment awareness, my personal favourites being the Eckhart Tolle books, ‘The Power of Now’ and ‘A New Earth’. But I would like to touch on it a little bit in this blog.

Why must I be still?

When we are still, we are in the present moment. When the continuous noise of the mind is silent we experience present moment awareness.

“We use mantras and meditations as ‘training’ wheels to the stillness that is at the very core of our soul.”

Easier said than done, of course, but it can be mastered. With regular meditation (this just means breathing and quieting the mind for as little as 5 minutes a day) and proper breathing techniques and mantras, one can easily become a master of ones thought pattern. We use mantras and meditations as ‘training’ wheels to the stillness that is at the very core of our soul.

Once you have mastered this you will no longer need the ‘training’ wheels as you will be able to attain stillness instantly.

The Art of Letting Go

For those of you who are new to these practices, some of the techniques used to bring oneself into the present are very helpful but always bear in mind that you will never need anything to realize this potential whenever you want it.

“…when you feel the need to move onto something else or perhaps nothing else, as the case may be, then trust your intuitions.”

Some people cling to their mantras and meditation techniques and this can become a very stagnant practice as the Earth shifts into a new gear. Some practices will already be felt as outdated and one needs to change with the times, so to speak.

So when you feel the need to move onto something else or perhaps nothing else, as the case may be, then trust your intuitions. As practices for the sake of keeping a ritual going is of no good if you are not progressing.

The STOP Signpost

A useful tool to use is the STOP signpost. Clearly see a stop sign in your mind’s eye, now use it every time you identify yourself wondering into the terrain of useless or negative thought.

STOP!

Hold up the sign to your mind. When you do this it is a distraction to get you to stop dead in your tracks. Try it for yourself. Be the ‘lollipop lady’ of your mind by holding up the STOP sign and bringing the traffic of mind noise to a halt to let the helpful and positive thoughts across the road.

For what purpose do I need to get to this ‘Present Moment Awareness’?

Now that you have an idea of how to get to the present moment – what does it do?

“If we could all operate in this space a lot of problems would be alleviated.”

Well, it is the grounding force that enables you to truly live. The present moment is bliss, peace and tranquility. It is a tool to help you to find clarity. But intrinsically it is the place where we are most at peace with ourselves and the outer world. If we could all operate in this space a lot of problems would be alleviated.

When you are in the moment, there is no thought pattern about past or future there is only the ‘now’. You experience life as it is now.

When the constant stream of mind-numbing thought is detached we have no fear/stress of future or regret/anger about past. We are supremely concentrated in the ‘is-ness’ of the now. It is as simple as it sounds. When you attain this degree of inner peace you will find out just how perfect you are and everything around you too.

Problems will lose their potency and you will be able to laugh in the face of fear.

What could harm a being as perfect as you?

You are a soul with no beginning and no end. What a marvelous space to be in! That is why some people are addicted to meditation and forget to live! But the true master finds the balance in-between.

“There are so many basic things that we, as humans, have forgotten.”

We are still human and have to face the outside world but through the practice of being in the present moment and through awareness itself, you will be able to operate in your current reality with a more peaceful and accepting demeanor.

There are so many basic things that we, as humans, have forgotten. We don’t forget to eat or drink – so why do we forget to breathe correctly? We don’t forget to sit on the couch and turn on the telly – so why do we forget to be present?

I am scared of stopping for fear of having to confront what it is I really need to address

Most of us are nervous about being still and we try to occupy every bit of spare time we have in filling it up with nonsense. All this is really just a cover up for the fact that we fear what we may face when we quiet our minds.

We fear the psyche and all the hidden corners that we have not explored. We fear the clutter that we have stored in there, packing it in boxes and labeling it for another day that we know, deep down, we don’t ever want to face.

We must face these fears if we are to move on.

Read Part 2.

Excerpt from Part 2:

“You can plaster a wall over and over but if there are cracks of unresolved past issues hidden in the concrete, they will always break through leaving imperfections in your wall…”

The above blog has been taken from an extract in my latest book ‘Divine You — Redefining Love in the New Earth’, which is available at all leading bookstores. For more information please click here.

You may also be interested in reading this article:

Wherever You Go, There You Are: A Short Course in Mindfulness and Meditation

The Art of Not Thinking

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Simple Complexity — The Dichotomous Nature of Our Reality

I’ve just finished the painting I used in the header picture above (you can click on it to see the whole image). It’s a new style I’m dappling in.

When I stepped back from the painting — after I had downed my brush — the first thing that smacked me was the complexity of the background.

When I do my backgrounds it’s just mindless doodling, so, it takes me a while (and some physical distance) to actually ‘see’ what I’ve created. In this case, I knew immediately what this represented.

You are looking at the physical representation of what’s going on in my head…lol. This is what my binary code looks like all fleshed out.

Seriously, this is what it feels like to be Virgonian me. It’s frightening and beautiful at the same time.

To Think or Not to Think

Thinking can also be both exquisite and terrifying simultaneously.

‘Thoughts create things’ and there is so much man-made beauty in the world — there is also much insidious creation. Then there is also the fact that overthinking everything can lead to anxiety, stress and dis-ease.

I read somewhere that the more in the NOW you are, the less you age. You become, essentially, timeless (if you haven’t read any of Eckhart Tolle’s books yet on present moment awareness, I suggest you get cracking!).

There is nothing that ages us more than thinking too much. This can also be translated as worry.

To worry is to future project a negative outcome, did you know that?

Read related article: 6 Essential Steps to Manage Stress

Pearls of Wisdom

A friend of mine told me the other day that she devotes time every day to thinking and then, after the allocated time, she tries to just be thoughtless (as in being present with what she’s doing and not being a frivolous fool).

I breathed a sigh of relief as I am very guilty of staring at my wall, sometimes for an hour before I ‘catch’ myself!

I’ve come to realize that it is perfectly okay to zone out in this way. After all, that’s what meditation is. Read related article: 5 Easy Steps to Meditating (No Lotus Position Required)

Meditation is just the ability to stop the monkey mind from swinging about the jelly-brain jungle. Read related article: How to Stop Monkey Mind Manifesting

In Conclusion…

Thinking is clearly essential to our existence and creative expansion but the art of not thinking can prolong our corporeal sojourn. I want you to not think about that (only joking).

Go stare at a wall (or a flower, or the cloudy sky, or the stars 😉 ).

Other articles you may enjoy:

Keeping the Dream Alive

Why ‘The Echo’ is Important on Your Evolutionary Path

Community Power Groups are Reshaping the Way We Think

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you click HERE.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (The Art of Not Thinking) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons

Serenity…Your Passport to Peace

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Serenity — that wondrous state of being calm, peaceful and untroubled.

But how do we get there? You get quiet — it’s really that simple.

“Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Have you ever tried remaining calm when someone else is raging at you? Have you noticed how quickly they stop? Why is that? Well, you look like an idiot for one thing — it’s the best form of defense.

Serenity is all about being calm in the face of reality and in the words of Lao Tzu:

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

When you are able to observe your emotions as they rise within you, you will begin to master having greater control of how you act upon them — if at all.

Here are some blogs that may help you get to your state of serenity:

5 Easy Steps to Meditating (No Lotus Position Required)

Do You Need to Meditate?

Free Serenity eCard

And last but not least, I haven’t forgotten that it’s Friday and that means you get another e-card to add to the collection (click on picture, right-click and ‘save as’):