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[image error]On my September 2010 Ask Jack call I assigned the Hour Of Power as the daily homework for the coming month.  The Hour Of Power, an idea I first learned from Canadian speaker Azim Jamal, consists of 20 minutes of visualization and meditation, 20 minutes of exercise, and 20 minutes of reading inspirational, motivational, or informational self-help books.  If you do this every day, you are certain to be happier, healthier and wealthier by the end of the year.

When I assigned this and then blogged about it, I received hundreds of posts on my Facebook fan page about how much this was helping people, but a lot of people also wrote "I don't know how to meditate.  Where can I learn to meditate?"  In fact there are thousands of websites that have free instruction and audio programs and procedures on how to meditate.  Just go to any search engine like Google and type in "how to meditate" and see what comes up.

The challenge is that there are hundreds of different forms of meditation.  I have explored in depth at least 20 different forms of meditation, including 10-day silent meditation retreats, and I now practice 3 or 4 different forms on a regular basis.  Each of the meditation techniques accomplish different things in my experience.  Some are calming and centering, some energize and analyze the body, develop neutral witness, or allow insight and wisdom to emerge.

There is a form of meditation that combines all of these into one that I teach in my Breakthrough to Success Training.  I call it the Betty Bethard's 4 Step Meditation since I learned it from Betty and have been teaching it in my groups ever since.

I find this technique to be the essence of simplicity.  It is also, however, profoundly effective.  May it support your inner peace and wisdom.

STEP ONE - PREPARATION

Physical Preparation: Avoid meditating on a full stomach, when overly tired, or while wearing restrictive clothing.  Do not meditate while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.  Use your own judgment when using prescribed medication.

Mental Preparation: It is helpful prior to meditation to prepare yourself mentally.  For example, you may read, discuss, or listen to or think about something of an inspirational nature.

Environmental Preparation: Find a quiet time when you will not be disturbed by the telephone, doorbell or other interruptions.  When you have moved into the inner stillness, all your senses are heightened, and a sudden noise can be a shock to your system.

This meditation can be done sitting cross-legged on the floor, or as most people find more comfortable, sitting in a chair, body erect, feet flat on the floor, hands together in your lap.  Let your hands touch together, fingertip to fingertip.

Relax.  It is helpful if your spine is straight.  It is surprisingly easy to relax in an upright position if you will imagine a string tied to the top of your head pulling straight up toward the ceiling.

Take several deep breaths through your nose and exhale through your mouth.  Then let your breathing become steady, rhythmic and relaxed.

Imagine a pure white light coming up through your left foot, up the left side of your body, all the way to the top of your head, across to the right side of your body, and down the other side.  Do this three times.

You can also ask to be shown the way to truth, wisdom and understanding.

STEP TWO - REPETITION

Repetition is simply the focusing of your mind on a single point.  It is an essential part of meditation.  It clears away the mental cobwebs and stills your active conscious mind.  You can do repetition with your eyes open or closed, whichever proves better for you.  If you use the eyes open method, fix your gaze on a single object.  A tiny light or candle in a darkened room, a picture, a religious symbol, a mandala, the word Love.  These and many other things have been used successfully as the focal point of repetition.

A great many people, including myself, have better success in concentration with their eyes closed, visualizing a word, face, object or symbol in their mind's eye.  It can be a religious symbol, a mandala, a flower, or a peaceful scene in nature such as a still lake.  You may wish to focus on a word, a seed thought, or a mantram that has special meaning to you.  Ones that I have used, with great success, are "I Am Love, or Sat Nam, or simply Re-lax".  You can just inhale as you say to yourself "Re" and exhale as you say to yourself "lax."  Repeat the mantram over and over without letting any other thoughts come into your mind.  Whatever focal point you choose on which to concentrate, let it represent your highest spiritual idea, never something materialistic.

At first your mind will quite likely want to stray.  Bring it gently back to the focal point of your concentration.  As it strays again, bring it back again.  Almost everyone finds his/her mind much too active to settle down to a single point at first.  But surprisingly soon you will find your ability to discipline your mind to one point growing stronger and stronger. 

STEP THREE - RECEPTIVITY

After what seems to be about ten minutes or so of repetition, you shift gently to receptivity for the next ten minutes.  Separate your hands and turn them palms upward in your lap.  Keep your body erect and relaxed.  Now let the mind you have been disciplining so vigorously relax.  Do not exert any conscious effort to think about anything.  Just set your mind free.  If you did repetition with your eyes open, you must close them as you go into meditation.  You have opened the various consciousness centers of your being.  Remain relaxed and passive, yet alert.

Thoughts and mental images may cross your consciousness.  Examine them placidly as they come and go.  You may "see" images and scenes or "hear" mental messages.  You may feel unexpected sensations such as chills or vibrations along your spine, or pressure sensations with calm, relaxed interest.  Since, as normal human beings, the only way you have of receiving communication is through your five senses, it is perfectly natural for any communication to manifest itself to you through one or more of these channels.

You may find yourself gently rocking back and forth, or side to side, or in a round-and-round motion.  Don't be disturbed.  This is merely a manifestation of your vibratory level raising so as to facilitate inner communication.  In your first few daily concentration-meditation sessions, limit yourself to about twenty or thirty minutes.  Normally, it is not wise to go beyond that length of time..

STEP FOUR - CLOSING DOWN

At the end of your meditation, close both hands into fists and imagine a luminous white light surrounding you, filling, you and protecting you. The main idea is that you are learning to place yourself in an environment of protection, guidance, and control.  This can be done in a variety of ways.  For example, imagine yourself in a ball of white light, or in a white balloon, just so long as the white environment totally surrounds you.  This procedure will close down the centers of your consciousness that you have opened during concentration and meditation, leaving your inner being protected from outside influences.

This is very important for those who are sensitive.  Develop the habit of surrounding yourself with the white light of protection whenever you feel negativity around you, not just at the time of meditation.

When closing down, however, you do not close off from people.  What you are doing is protecting yourself from being affected by any negativity while at the same time radiating love and harmony to those about you.  As a result, you will dissolve the negative vibrations. The white light is your protection; be sure to use it.

You may also use this phase to visualize yourself achieving any goal you might choose.  You could simply visualize yourself whole and healthy, or you might visualize yourself having achieved a particular goal.  If you use an affirmation during the repetition phase and do a related visualization during this phase, this is very powerful.

Your Inner Wisdom: After a while of meditating you will begin to discover that you have a great deal of wisdom inside.  It is simply a matter of taking the time to listen to what is within, and your intuition, sensitivity, and alignment with the universe all begin to grow.  It is as though all the powers of your mind and the secrets of the universe start to become available to you.  You will grow in strength in these gifts so long as you seek them for service to your fellow man rather than for selfish, material ends.

HEALING

When you have sat in daily meditation for one month or more, you may desire to practice healing meditation.  Anyone may be a channel for healing as the power of healing comes from God, the Universal Force, and not from the individual.  All that is required is the sincere desire to help another and healing will be sent.  As time and distance are no obstacle to the healing energy, healing can be channeled to anyone, anywhere and at any time.

Simply do the meditation as before, except that during the repetition phase, focus upon the person as being healed already; that is to say doing some activity that shows that they are healthy, and whole (walking, playing golf, dancing, working, etc.) Concentrate in this way for two or three minutes, then open your palms, relax and let the healing energy flow through.  Do this for another two or three minutes, and then close down as you normally do.

To channel healing after your regular meditation is particularly advantageous as your rate of vibration is at its highest level.  Consequently, you need only to do the concentration phase a minute or less, and then proceed into the meditation phase continuously keeping your palms open.

HOW LONG SHOULD YOU MEDITATE?

 You can divide any amount of time into these 4 segments.  I usually meditate for about 20 minutes during the week and for 40-60 minutes on the weekend.  On a 20 minute session might look like this: Preparation (3 minutes), Repetition (7 minutes), Receptivity (7 minutes), and Closing Down (3 minutes).

Remember, meditation is a practice. Don't expect to master it all at once. It takes time for the mind to quiet and to develop the ability to just calmly and naturally witness and observe whatever thoughts and reactions arise during the receptivity stage.  An image that helps me is to imagine I am standing on the bank of the river simply watching boats fly by.  I am just watching the thoughts and sensations that arise.  The trick is to "watch" the toughts and sensations as they arise.  If you get lost and suddenly realize you are thinking rather than watching, just "climb out of the boat", get back on the bank and become the watcher, the observer or the witness once again.  It takes awhile to develop this witness position, but the rewards of peace, calm, and insight are well worth the effort.

 

Summary of Betty Bethard's 4-Step Meditation as Taught by Jack Canfield

1.  Preparation: Sit palms together, visualize light up left side and down right side of body 3 times.

2.  Repetition:  Repeat whatever word, phrase, or mantra you have chosen.

3.  Receptivity: Palms facing up on lap.  Observer: watch your thoughts. feelings and sensations.

4.  Closing Down: Close your palms and visualize white light surrounding your body.  At the end, visualize yourself accomplishing a goal or being totally healthy or healed.