meditation

Sometimes your mind needs a break from it all. And no, you can’t just get up and go to Bahamas. Isn’t there a cheaper way? Yes there is. It is called meditation.

Contrary to some perceptions, meditation isn’t just closing one’s eyes and reaching Nirvana at a moment’s notice. It actually needs to be practiced regularly to bring results. There is a plethora of techniques out there. But most of them boil down to getting your body to be asleep while your mind is awake and not thinking.

The “not thinking” part is usually the worst. It’s virtually impossible to shut the mental rambling: “Am I thinking? Am I breathing? Am I getting enlightened? Did I just see the light? Why am I seeing stars in front of me?…” That mental conversation makes it difficult to achieve any higher levels of awareness.

My solution? Use HemiSync. It is a way of recording sounds so that the effect is to harmonize the two brain’s hemispheres. (http://www.hemi-sync.com/store/pages.php?pageid=8 has a much better explanation of how it works.) I use a HemiSync metamusic CD “Cloudscapes”. For anyone out there meditating – this system can relax your brain whether you’re doing anything else or not. I’ve used it successfully to meditate, to fall asleep, to take of stress, or just to get my wits together. I even used it when I was in labor.

But my true appreciation of HemiSync came when my son was about three months old. One day he just kept crying and crying. After hours of trying to feed him/change him/play with him/put him to sleep I was at the end of my rope. Then, at a stroke of inspiration, I turned the music on very softly and put the headphones on him. Of course it could’ve been the shock from the whole “headphones bigger than my head” experience, but facts are facts – he calmed down and fell asleep.

Needless to say, my opinion of this self-meditating CD grew tenfold on the spot.