Try to avoid eating before you meditate. If you eat too much before a meditation session, you will find it hard difficult to meditate. Instead of meditating on peace, light and bliss, you will meditate on pasta. If you are hungry, then drink some fruit juice or eat something light. If you try to meditate when your are too hungry, you will sit there and think of food.

Wear loose and clean clothing, otherwise you will be uncomfortable.

Set up a meditation schedule. It is suggested that you meditate two times a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Set a minimum amount of time for each mediation session. If you are a beginner, meditate for fifteen minutes or more. If you have been meditating over six months, then it is suggested that you meditate at least forty five minutes.

It is not necessary to meditate for more than one hour. Instead of meditating for over an hour, increase the intensity of the hour, until the hour becomes eternity. Needless to say, if you meditate for more than an hour and the meditation is going well, don't stop simply because you have gone beyond your normal time.

Pick a spot in your bedroom or another room to meditate in. Put a small table there. Place a pretty rug in front of your meditation table. Place a candle on the table. Flowers are nice too.

It is easiest to meditate by candlelight. During meditation, your eyes become sensitive. Candlelight is a soothing and natural light. Some enjoy burning insence. Good insence contains aromatic oils that soothe your central nervous system, and the fragrance of insence is nice.

Meditation is an act of supreme beauty. When you meditate, you will discover your own inner beauty and the beauty of eternity. Anything that you can do that will add to the beauty of your meditative experience will be helpful.

Sit on your rug in a cross-legged position. If you find it more comfortable, sit in a chair. The inportant thing is to sit up straight. Don't meditate lying down. If you lie down, your body will relax too much and your attention will waiver. You may feel comfortable, but you won't meditate well.

Now close your eyes. Chant the mantra "Aum", or a favorite mantra, seven times. Chanting a mantra to start your meditation makes it easier to enter into a high and pure state of consciousness. When you chant "Aum", or any mantra, do so softlt and gently. Extend the sound. Focus your awareness on the sound of the mantra and become absorbed in it. After you have chanted a mantra seven times, or as long as you like, open your eyes. Focus your attention on a candle flame, or on a flower, on a yantra, or on anything small and finite.

It is not a good idea to continually repeat a mantra during meditation. Repeating a mantra throughout your meditation causes you to fixate on a specific level of consciousness. In meditation you are trying to quiet your mind and stop your thoughts. Use a mantra to help still your mind initially, and then move into silent meditation.

Focus your attention on a candle flame and gaze at it. Begin by looking at a small part of the flame for a minute or two. Then look at the entire flame. If you start to get a headache, or if your eyes bother you, then you are trying too hard. Relax. Don't be afraid to blink or change positions if you need to.

Meditate. Look at the candle flame - or whatever object you have chosen to gaze upon - with intensity. After several minutes of gazing, close your eyes. Enter into the world of feelingf. Ignore your thoughts or enjoy them, but let them go.

Meditate. Focus your attention on your heart chakra. Your heart chakra is one of seven psychic energy centers in your subtle physical body. Each chakra is a gateway to a different level of reality. The heart chakra is the central chakra. It is the best to meditate on for the first five or ten years of your meditative practice. The heart chakra is the chakra of love and purity. Meditating on this chakra each day will give you humility, purity and spiritual balance. The other chakras are fine to meditate on occationally. But, for daily meditation, the heart chakra is the best.

Your heart chakra is located in the center of your chest. If you don't know how to find it then here is an easy way. Hold either your right or left hand out in front of your chest. Extend your index finger. Now say "ME" out loud and, as you do so, touch your chest. You will automatically touch your heart chakra. Your heart chakra is not in your physical body. It is in your subtle physical body, but it connects with your physical body in this location.

The first few times you meditate, use this method to find your heart chakra. After you have practiced gazing for several minutes, place your finger on the spot you have located, close your eyes, and simply "feel" the spot your finger is touching. Then, after a couple of minutes, let your hand down. Continue to hold your attention on this spot just as you did when your finger was there. This becomes easier with practice.

NOTE: After two or three sessions of meditating on your heart chakra, it will no longer ne necessary for you to physically touch your chest with your finger to locate it. You will sense the spot automatically and can start focusing on it as soon as you have finished gazing.

Focus your attention on your heart chakra. Ingnore your thoughts. As you focus more intensely, you may feel as if you are floating. Sensations of peace, joy, and love will enter into you. They will be very subtle st first. Then they will grow stronger.

Don't expect to be able to stop your thoughts for sustained periods of time until you have meditated for many years. You don't have to stop all thought to have a good meditation. Simply pay no attention to your thoughts and you will unhook yourself from them. Let go of your thoughts. Let the current of the meditaiton take you where it will. As you meditate you will observe your thoughts changing. At the begining of your meditation session, your thoughts will be very worldly. You may be thinking, planning, or worrying.

As the meditation progresses, your thoughts will become more pure. You will think of contructive things that you can do for yourself and others. As your meditation progresses even further, you will notice the phenomena of meditation. You may see dazzling lights, feel nergy coursing through different parts of your body, feel as if you are floating, hear sounds, or smell frangrances. Be neither attracted nor repulsed. You are watching a movie. If the visions are beautiful or horrible, don't get caught up in them. Enjoy your popcorn.

Enjoy the experience. Don't expect anything. Whenever you expect something from a meditation, you set yourself up for immediate frustration. Don't program your meditation. Site and enjoy it. Then, when you have grown accustomed to sitting and meditating, try to stop your thoughts. That's the bottom line in meditative practice.

At the end of your meditation session, chant "Aum" seven times. Chanting a mantra at the end of your meditation session will help you to retain the light. Bow and offer your meditation to eternity, as you would offer a flower to your lover.

If you have a Spiritual Teacher, then think of your Teacher at the beginning of your meditation. Your teacher is your mantra. Repeat your Teacher's name several times. Think of a nice moment you had together - when you meditated together, when you talked - something intimate. When you think of an Enlightened Teacher, you contact them inwardly. An Enlightened Teacher is light. When you focus on them, that light physically enters into you. The Teacher will teach you how to meditate from within.

You can meditate directly on God, on a Spiritual Teacher who is no longer in the body, or on a Cosmic God or Goddess. Do whatever works best for you. Be creative. As you progress, you will meditate in new and different ways. Never analyze your meditation experiences. Meditate and move on.

Meditate each day as soon as you wake up. This is important. It may be easier to meditate later in the day, so do so. But also meditate each day when you wake up. Your mind is calm when you wake up. You may be a little tired, but a shower will perk you right up.