Learning how to meditate for beginners is very enjoyable and exciting. Welcome to the world of meditation. All the basic concepts for beginning heart meditation are described on this page below.
Take your time and enjoy each separate practice as long as you want. Try to work through them in the order presented.
From Relaxation to Meditation
If you are new to meditation or to heart rhythm meditation, then I welcome you to this wonderful path you are embarking upon! Meditating is a wonderful practice to add to your daily life.
Meditation will help you in many ways, starting with relaxation and stress relief. As you settle into your posture and close your eyes, you turn your attention within and connect with your breath.
As you observe your normal breathing you immediately will begin to relax, physically, emotionally and mentally. This will give you inspiration.
As you continue to do the practices described, you will go from relaxation to a meditative state. Meditation is a different state of consciousness and as you settle into it you begin to connect with the unconscious world.
The Posture Quieting the Body
Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Let your spine be long and your belly be soft
Try to have your heart center exposed forward so that you feel that you’re receiving energy through your heart just through your posture.
Close your eyes and connect with your breath. Allow your mind to do whatever it wants to do and try to completely focus on the breath. Being with your breath is like being with a good friend.
Look for a stillness of the body and for an inner awareness of yourself towards yourself. Notice thoughts, feelings and sensations and just keep returning to breath awareness.
You may notice an impulse to move. Try not to act on it and it will disappear. Then more energy will pass from your physical body to your mind.
The human body is made of the earth, so let it feel like a rock.
Conscious Breath
Become aware of your breathing. Notice while you focus on the breath that the breath starts changing by itself. It tends to deepen.
Let the exhale begin like a silent sigh and descend like a waterfall. Towards the end of your normal exhale squeeze your stomach muscles to extend your exhale 3 more seconds. Feel your stomach caving in. Try to push all the air out of your lungs. You can breathe out much longer than your normally do.
Go a little further now on the inhalation and make it longer and deeper than normal. Inhalation has much to do with inspiration. To inspire, to be inspired. The inspiration happens in the last inch of the inhalation. In Spirit—Inspiration—moving into you. Inviting the spirit to come into you. You are opening up.
Be aware that your abdomen is breathing with you. Be aware that the breath is not just in the upper part of your chest. Your whole being is breathing fully.
Full Breath
Have the feeling your whole body, your physical being, is breathing—inhaling and exhaling. Soak up the energy that comes with the breath. You’re expanding yourself internally, opening up towards the energy.
Take this breath as the model of an approach to life: take it all in, resisting nothing; give out all you can, holding back nothing. Maximize the flow; increase involvement.
-Puran and Susanna Bair, Living from then Heart
Pulse and Heartbeat
Gently hold the breath after the next full inhalation as long as you comfortably can. What we’re looking for now in the holding is the heartbeat. The heart starts speaking to you through its beat. See if through the holding, you can become aware of the heartbeat. The way you recognize it is it has a double-beat, lub dub.
You may want to place your hand over your heart or contact a pulse point on your wrist, neck or chest area. The pulse is the echo of the heartbeat.
Imagine with every breath you touch your heart. It is tender and subtle. It’s the way your heart always wanted to be touched.
Heart Feeling and Gratitude
One of the powerful emotions of the heart is gratitude. As soon as your heart is touched by your breath, it is softened, and a softened heart is grateful. Experience how the heart approaches life: it is profoundly grateful for all that is offered. The heart never complains; complaints come from the mind when expectations are not met. The heart that is open accepts all that is given and gives all It contains.
–Puran Bair, Living from the Heart
You can continue to enjoy your meditation practice by staying with the conscious breath and awareness of your pulse/heartbeat. Enjoy this for as many breath cycles as you like. When you are ready, gently stretch in your chair and slowly open your eyes.
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