Any tips on clearing your mind?

[seawitch]

I'm new to meditation, and I'm having trouble clearing my mind completely. Since I'm a beginner, I was wondering if anybody had any tips for working your way up to being able to clear the mind completely when meditating?

[RosieMoonflower]

For me, it's just took practice. I created an alter and had space in front of it it meditate at. I burnt incense on the alter. I would only meditate when my roommate wasn't home and when I didn't have anything coming up I needed to be at right after, otherwise I would be thinking about what I needed to do next the whole time. Each time I did it, it got easier and easier to slip into the meditation and clear my mind. Hope that helps some!

Rosie Moonflower [ROSE]

[seawitch]

That does help. I do try to meditate when I can fully relax, and not really have to worry about anything right that second. What kind of scent is a good meditation scent? I'm not really into burning incense, and I like scented candles more. Or even like air freshener or something.

[Veronica_Rose]

Hiya Seawitch,

I agree with Rose; practice in anything you want to be good at is needed, including meditation. She's also right in saying you need to find a good time to do it, and create a relaxing ambiance. For me, I tend to meditate better at the end of my day (though I try to practice meditating in the mornings when I can), and I like to put some headphones in and turn on ambient sounds like waves crashing, or birds chirping or something nature-like, to block out other distracting noises. I personally I don't know much about herbs and incense. I burn a candle sometimes, but I have no recommendations for a relaxing scent, other than just using something you personally like. My favorite candle is apple cinnamon.

I hope that helps, and that you have relaxing and insightful meditations.
Blessed Be xx

[Airelinn]

The biggest thing that helped me was learning not to fight your mind. I read somewhere to focus on something like sounds. So for example:
Car outside. Siren. Jet. Water. Cat.
The goal isn't to think further than that; just to notice your thought about it. Then, it moves into other areas:
Pain in my back. Throat's dry.
Soon, you might notice you want to fidget or move:
Want to move leg. Want to wiggle foot. Want to scratch head.
The mind always wants to be moving from one thing to the next, always unsatisfied with the present. We naturally want to constantly change something. When you sit and notice it and acknowledge it, SOMETIMES it helps because you don't have to be a mindless slave to it (for a few minutes at least).
Meditating can still be hard, though, and there's lots of techniques. Try looking around Buddhist websites and forums for tips, too! Good luck!

[Seraphin]

Hiya seawitch!

Reposted this here from other threads!

I'm going to give you some tips to quite your mind. Hope you'll find this helpful.

Deep Breathing

Almost all esoteric Eastern teachings mention the importance of deep breathing to control one's mind.

I have some breathing exercises here in my BOS that have very detailed instructions on the proper manner of breathing but the trouble is, they are not mine (just copied it from a friend who is a Yoga teacher) so I'm afraid I cant post it here due to copyright policies. But if you really want, I'll send it to you via PM or e-mail.

Remember that constant, purposeful practice in breathing techniques is another essential condition in stilling your mind. I know it is not something one acquires over night. As one practices daily, one will gain better control of his/her mind and therefore greater confidence.

Pratyahara

After you've done doing some breathing exercises, you may now proceed to achieve pratyahara.

First, sit still in the most comfortable position, close your eyes and just watch your mind think what it wants to think without judging, choosing, evaluating, or reasoning. Let all thoughts, images, problems, issues, memories, reflections and ideas pass through the mind screen and you are just a disinterested audience. Don't fight or resist any thought, whether it's negative or positive. Just stay calm and watch the parade of thoughts before you.

As you continue this practice, you'll find your mind becoming calmer, the thoughts becoming fewer and fewer, until at last, the mind will be under perfect control. This might not happen in a day or two. It takes a great deal of practice to achieve control of the mind, which is more difficult than control of the muscles.

Dharana

After Pratyahara comes Dharana, or concentration, the fixing of the mind on certain points. This isn't yet meditation proper but still a continuation exercise in controlling and stilling the mind. You'll find that after watching your mind calmly for several days or weeks, you'll be in a position to catch one passing idea and to concentrate on it. One recommended practice is to try feeling only, like your hand to the exclusion of the other parts of your body. Another is to concentrate all your thoughts on tip of your nose and let the mind stay there.

After some practice, you'll soon experience some nay wonderful things like peal of bells ringing. Sometimes things will be seen, little orbs or rays of light floating and becoming bigger and bigger.

Please practice these techniques if you have some time and let us know how it works.