Intentional Meditation

    Intentional Meditation

Basically, meditation involves thinking a mantra (A word or phrase) in concert with your breathing. Do this repetitively in a comfortable position in a quiet place. A simple example would be to think to yourself, “breathe in” when you take a long breath. Then when you exhale think, “Breathe out”. This can be repeated for minutes or hours. It can be done daily or more or less often.  The longer and more often this is done the better the results. There are many types and methods for meditation, but this the most simple. When you do this you are very relaxed and you are using your conscious by thinking and controlling an unconscious activity by breathing. When you do this. The conscious and unconscious minds both become involved and they overlap a little. This is the first step in establishing a real connection between the conscious and unconscious mind.

As you improve, you may change your Mantras. A common one is “Peace” while breathing in and “Be Still” when exhaling. People often notice their pulse and respiration slowing. This is good.  Some people cross their legs; cutting off circulation so more oxygen goes to the brain. It is important to be comfortable, so that you have the fewest distractions possible. Avoiding distractions may be most important as you begin. As you improve you will find that you can meditate almost anywhere. This isn't a new idea and was initially referred to as self-hypnosis. Then the idea was to hypnotize yourself in order to change because a state of hypnosis also brings the unconscious closer. However, I believe Intentional Meditation is more accurate and the word hypnosis carries un-necessary baggage which would only divert us from our goal.

For the purposes of Emolvement; we can change the purpose of meditation to be more intention oriented. Mantras are often passive and unchanging. With intentional meditation, initially called self-hypnosis, you can be more proactive. Here we can place orders for changes in ourselves. It is the same as repeating a mantra except an action oriented command is inserted, such as, “I will...Brush my Teeth”. We all have many programs. They are behaviors that we have been taught or just picked up or didn't. Some are useful, but some are not. This technique allows us to add new programs and eliminate those unwanted ones

It can be confidence building or changes in your body. Even your emotions are changeable. “I am …strong or confident”: “I am…calm” or even “I am…losing weight” are suggestions for making these changes, but use your own words. They will come from you and will be best understood by you. Try to avoid negatives. With anger I find that" I am ...anger-free" works well. But being calm may be more effective for some. This is just to demonstrate that your definitions regarding specific words could be as important as the commands you select. So be clear.

As you advance, you might use two alternating commands and later three...  then four. This pushes the commands deeper into your unconscious because you must concentrate on them to keep from losing one. After you can use several alternating commands, start changing the order. In a sense, you are now juggling. This requires even more concentration and will produce better results; since you have to remember the next command in order before the next breath. Nothing will replace the amount of actual time you put in, however. This is how your unconscious realizes how serious you are. It will respond after it hears consistent commands. We are usually so inconsistent in deciding what is important to us; changing our desires as we see new things. By repetition, the unconscious can be sure that this is what you really want.

Once you substitute commands for mantras, you may begin to notice that your commands start to appear in your behavior. Once you see this, you will know in your mind what you already knew in your heart. People can change in a forward-looking proactive manner instead of reacting to adapt. We have always known how to adapt. But we have less experience with intended change.

This raises many questions about what we really want to be. It can be confusing with all of the choices so start with the most obvious, be they anger or hygiene. Then some of the tougher ones will become clearer because you have eliminated much of the clutter by then. 

Also know that as you grow, you might experience some temporary discomfort as some things may have new or different values and this takes a bit of time to adjust to. But, it is a sign that you are making progress.



There are many books on the subject. Look them over and find one or more that resonate with you and then you can use this skill to change your unwanted programs.