Lotus Flower Meditation

"Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart. Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and closes lives in the Self-the source of love. Realize the Self hidden in the heart and cut asunder the knot of ignorance here and now." ~ The Upanishads
Sit in your meditative pose and breathe deeply and slowly. Relax your entire body. If you feel any tension, focus on the feeling of space in that area to relax it.
Inhale and move your consciousness up slowly from the base of the perineum up to the center of your chest. Continue to focus on your chest as you breathe deeply.
Allow your awareness of the sensations in your chest to deepen. As you breathe in, breathe into the heart.
As you focus on the heart during your breath, imagine a lotus flower slowly opening its petals as you inhale. As you exhale, just rest your awareness inside the lotus flower.
As feeling and thoughts arise, imagine them like drops of water on the petals of your heart flower that will drip down or evaporate as the seasons change.
As you rest within your lotus flower, feel the abundance of unconditional love emerge. Continue to breathe steadily as you exist harmoniously within your bountiful heart flower.
Once you feel comfortable in your heart flower, bring your palms together in the Salutation Seal or prayer pose and take a moment to feel gratitude for the benefits you've received.

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Never Lose Hope

Sit on the floor and close your eyes. Concentrate on your breathing until you are absorbed in your slow breath, in and out.
Continue your breathing as you read the following passage. When you have finished, continue breathing with your eyes closed.
Remember that your soul is, in essence, happiness itself and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of your mind.
Never Lose Hope
If you have given up hope of ever being happy, cheer up. Never lose hope. Your soul is, in essence, happiness itself.
If you keep the eyes of your concentration closed, you cannot see the sun of happiness burning within your bosom; but no matter how tightly you close the eyes of your attention, the fact nevertheless remains that the happiness rays are ever trying to pierce the closed doors of your mind. Open the windows of calmness and you will find a sudden burst of the bright sun of joy within your very self.
The joyous rays of the soul may be perceived if you interiorize your attention. These perceptions may be had by training your mind to enjoy the beautiful scenery of thoughts in the invisible, intangible kingdom within you. Do not search for happiness only in beautiful clothes, clean houses, delicious dinners, soft cushions, and luxuries. These will imprison your happiness behind the bars of externality, of outwardness. Rather, in the airplane of your visualization, glide over the limitless empire of thoughts. There behold the mountain ranges of unbroken, lofty, spiritual aspirations for improving yourself and others.
Glide over the deep valleys of universal sympathy. Fly over the geysers of enthusiasm, over the Niagara Falls of perpetual wisdom, plunging down the hoary crags of your soul's peace.
If you have made up your mind to find joy within yourself, sooner or later you shall find it.
by Parahamsa Yogananda

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Descending to Your Spirit Guide's Temple

Sit comfortably in a private place. Close your eyes and make sure your back is straight. Now draw your attention to your breath...
Notice the rising and falling of your rib cage. Feel any tension or anxiety leaving your body with each exhale....
Pull your breath deeper into your stomach area. Let yourself relax, starting at your toes and working your way upward, until you reach the top of your head and your entire body is relaxed... In your mind's eye, imagine yourself standing at the top of a staircase. You can see a radiant, white light shining out from below...
Visualize yourself descending the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs you find yourself inside a beautiful, sacred temple. Sitting in the center of the room is a dazzling being of light. This being invites you to sit down...
This can be any ascended master that you identify with; Jesus Christ, Kuan Yin, Buddha, or even Metatron...
Now see yourself reaching out and joining hands with this loving being. Feel this master's powerful, healing light come into your hands and pass through your body in waves. Let this light flow freely...
Feel its peaceful, healing wisdom expanding in your body, raising your consciousness. Let the essence of this pure light extend beyond your body, filling the temple around you. Then feel it stretch beyond the temple to infinity...
Finish the meditation: http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol17/pregnancy_meditation.asp

Meditation by Avalon De Witt
Visit www.AskAvalon.com for more mediations and spiritual insight. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

Candlelight Meditation

Imagine you are an unlit candle. Someone comes along and lights your wick and you begin to glow with orange light. Your flame grows stronger and your whole body becomes engulfed. Feel yourself giving off this warm light.
Your fire light is like the brightness of wisdom that is driving away the darkness of ignorance. You are the bright orange light. Feel yourself expanding, your light reaching out further and further until it fills your entire house...

Continue the meditation: http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol16/pregnancy_meditation.asp

Spinal Breathing

Find a wall or flat surface to provide back support during this advanced pranayama technique.
Close your eyes and your mouth. Slowly and gently inhale and exhale through your nose. The breath should be deep but not forced and should fill your abdomen up through your chest to the top of your collar bone, before retreating during the exhale. Slowly repeat this a few times.
As you inhale, focus your attention and imagine there is a tiny tube or cord that originates at your perineum and stretches up through your spine to the stem of your brain and terminates at the center of your head. Once your attention reaches your head, imagine a tiny nerve turns forward to reach the point between your eyebrows.
With each slow inhale, imagine energy funneling up from your perineum up to the point between your eyebrows and then back down again to your perineum. Repeat this with each breath.
This exercise should be done for a few minutes before meditation. Remain seated when you are finished with the exercise and begin meditation immediately.

Benefits of this exercise: http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol14/pregnancy_exercise.asp

Lotus Pose (Padmasana)

The Lotus Pose is said to have been routinely used by Buddha and is a popular meditation pose. It may be uncomfortable at first until your ligaments extend. It's a common misconception that meditation should be done in the Lotus Pose, so if it is too difficult, any other seated pose will work well. This is one of the basic yoga postures, so take your time becoming comfortable in it.
How to do it
Bring your right foot onto your left thigh. Bounce the right knee and, if it touches the floor with ease, bend your left knee and grab your left foot with both hands and place it on your right thigh. Your hands should rest on your knees, either open or forming a mudra.

Benefits of this pose: http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol11/pregnancy_exercise.asp

The Spiritual Center

Sit in a comfortable sitting position, preferably cross legged.
Center your attention on the point located two inches below your navel, the spiritual center of the body.
Begin rocking back and forth slowly, decreasing the arc with each rock until you rest at your natural center of gravity.
Press your tongue on the upper palate. Breathe through your nose and taste your breath. Imagine your breath coming down into the spiritual center below your navel and returning.
Begin counting each inhalation and exhalation. Count to ten and then go back from ten to one, starting over once you reach one. If any thoughts arise, acknowledge it and let it pass by returning to the count.
Each time you redirect your thoughts, you are giving yourself the power to put your mind where you want it.

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Focus Your Energy

Sit in a comfortable position and begin breathing deeply. Relax and slow your breath. Breathe as if you are right next to a tree branch that can not be swayed by your breathing.
Close your eyes and put your hands out in front of you. Feel each hand and notice the life force that pumps through them.
Continue breathing deeply but breathe as if you are breathing into just one of your hands. You will start to feel an increase in energy in the hand on which you focus.
If you have a certain place in your body that needs healing, try focusing your breath on that area, as if you are breathing with that body part. If you are feeling depressed, try focusing your breath on positive thoughts. For example, if you are feeling down about your appearance or something you've done, try focusing on what is beautiful about your appearance or something good you've done by breathing into those thoughts.
Lastly, focus your breath on your unborn baby. Breathe into your womb, giving your baby rich oxygen and life force.
Take your time breathing into places that need healing or more life force. When you are finished, slowly open your eyes and return to the outside world.

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Blue Light Breath

Sit in a comfortable position with your spine straight as an arrow. Close your eyes and begin breathing deeply.
Notice which nostril is most open and exhale as if only through that nostril. Imagine a blue-white light flowing in that nostril and reaching the point between your eyebrows. Exhale the same blue-white light out the most open nostril.
Now shift the breath to the other nostril. Imagine a blue-white light as you exhale, focusing on the more closed nostril. Inhale the blue-white light to the point between your eyebrows and out from that point again. Repeat the process until both nostrils are fully open.
Next, focus on breathing in the blue-white light through one nostril, to the point between the eyebrows, and out the other nostril. Then switch on the inhale, breathing in through the one you've just breathed out and exhaling through the other.

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The Third Eye Meditation

Breathe deeply. Inhale, slowly filling your abdomen up to your collarbone and exhale until the last breath is out. Relax.
Close your eyes. Place your attention on the area between your eyebrows. After a short time, a point of light will present itself in the center of your inner field of vision. Keep your focus there. For some people, it will be beneficial to raise their eyeballs as if they were looking up at about a 25-degree angle. For others, just directing their attention upwards will be easier and less distracting. After some experimentation, go with one of the ways exclusively. In the beginning of third eye practice, it may help to place your thumb at the outer edge of one eye and your middle finger on the outer edge of the other, while placing your index finger at the mid-point between your eyebrows. This gives you a point of focus to place your attention. It also allows you to prevent your eyelids from fluttering. This commonly occurs and can be distracting until you get used to the sensations that accompany this technique.
Let the light come to you. Be available to be filled. The more you continue practicing this meditation, the more layers of the veil of illusion will peel away and Reality will reveal itself to you. As you perceive the Truth, your understanding of the delusional concept that you are apart from the rest of the universe will lose its grip on you, and the knowledge that you are a part of all and everything will become undeniably apparent. Your chattering mind will eventually dissolve in the unspeakable transcendent light of love that is now and forever within and without you...

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The Dalai Lama's Meditation

Sit quietly, calmly with eyes closed, as relaxed yet aware as you can be.
Visualize yourself on the left side of your minds eye as you would appear to yourself and others in a moment of impatience. Really see this inner vision. Watch your face, observe your body language. What does your impatient self look like?
On the right side of your minds eye, see yourself when you are very patient. What do you look like when you have a lifetime of time. As tense as you appeared on the left as your impatient self, see yourself as relaxed in your patience on the right.
Now on the left side, see yourself as you appear when you're depressed. Look carefully. How does that make you feel? Can you be aware of the aura of doom and gloom you're radiating? And then, on the right side of your minds eye, see yourself as you are when you're joyous. Merge with that happiness. Know how others would see you.
Continue seeing all the seemingly negative feelings and behaviors on the inner left-hand side of your minds eye and the opposite on the right.
On the left, see yourself as jealous and on the right as how you appear when you are truly glad for someone else's success or happiness. On the left, see the bigoted you and on the right, the all-embracing. On the left the mean, on the right the sweet. See the stupid you and the brilliant. See the clumsy and the graceful. On the left, see the unsatisfied and on the right, the contented.
Go on and on, becoming familiar with the "you" on the left and the opposite "you" on the right.
Then see the total "you" who would be there on the left if none of the characteristics of the right side were present. Now see the "you" who would be the totality of yourself with the right side only if none of the behaviors and feelings of the left side "you" had ever appeared.

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Meditate on Reality

Find a comfortable space and position. Begin breathing deeply through your nose. Slowly draw out each breath, gently allowing the air to fill your body and then escape.
Close your eyes.
Listen to the sounds around you, whatever they may be. Listen to barking dogs, passing traffic, people talking. Listen to the sounds going on inside your body. Listen to your stomach's grumbling, your heart's pumping beat, the blood running into each part of your body.
With these sounds, create a mental image. Imagine each sound as a wave on the surface of a large lake or ocean. But instead of water, it is life. As you go deeper into the water, your breath becomes free and deep. This is the ocean of your life, where you exist and move.
Breathe in deeply, hold it for a moment and as you exhale, plunge deeper into the ocean of life.

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http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol14/pregnancy_meditation.asp

The Lion's Roar during Labor

Pratyahara is the act of directing your attention to a "disturbance." Instead of trying to avoid or suppress pain, accept it and experience it. As you get to know it, it will no longer feel dangerous. The pain may not disappear but the fear of it will. Fear and stress can complicate the birthing process and put your body through more suffering than necessary. Once you can accept the pain and allow yourself to experience it, birth becomes a powerful experience. Some women have said they were able to feel each movement of their uterus through this technique, while others have said they were able to allow the forces of nature to work.
The Lion's Roar
Many women have found this vocal toning technique to be very beneficial during labor. Open your mouth and stretch your tongue far out. While exhaling, make a relaxed, deep sound. This will automatically cause your body to respond and begin to relax from your groin to your pelvic floor and up.

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