Several questions naturally arise once you have learned to meditate.
• When and for how long should I meditate?
• What should I do when I feel resistance?
• How can meditation help me when I'm ill?
• Is guidance necessary?
This section provides answers to questions of this kind.
The results obtained from meditation depend on how much you put in. As with sports, success comes with regular training. If you meditate now and then it will help you to relax, but such desirable results as improved stress management, better sleep and personality development are achieved through regular meditation over an extended period of time.
Regular meditation means meditating for 30 minutes twice a day. Most people prefer to meditate once in the morning and once in the evening, for instance before breakfast and dinner.
If you only have time for one meditation, try to increase the length by 50%, so that you meditate for 45 minutes.
If you are pressed for time or have overslept, it is better to meditate for 10 minutes than not at all. You can meditate on your own for up to an hour if you want to, but not for any longer than that.
People generally start the day in a fairly relaxed and calm state of mind, so morning meditation is the perfect opportunity to release underlying tensions and work through residual psychological issues.
By the evening we usually feel more stressed and tired than we do in the morning. Meditating in the evening has the dual benefit of helping us to relax and recharging our batteries for what remains of the day. Evening meditations often feel especially deep and pleasurable because of our need to overcome accumulated stress and tiredness from the day's activities.
On holidays or when travelling, it may be difficult to keep to a regular meditation routine, especially if you are with people who don't meditate. Try to plan your day in advance and develop some sort of routine. One way of fitting your meditation in may be to do it before the others wake up in the morning or after they have gone to bed at night.
Very busy periods in our lives are when we need to meditate most, because meditation reduces stress and increases efficiency and persistence, but in such circumstances it can be difficult to find time for meditation. Be as flexible as possible about when and where you meditate; for instance, you may be able to fit in a meditation on the train or the bus.
Although this kind of meditation cannot replace your normal practice, it is a worthwhile source of relaxation. Bear in mind, however, that after several weeks of short and occasional meditations it can be hard to get back into your regular routine.
At times when you are experiencing more stress than usual, you may find it helpful to extend the duration of each twice-daily meditation to about 45-60 minutes, or to add a third meditation in the course of each day.
If you are working hard for an examination, increase the length or number of your meditations during the preparation period, but return to your usual routine in the last few days. A short period of moderate anxiety will improve your performance, so it is not advisable to meditate more than usual during the days leading up to the exam. While you are taking the exam, it may be helpful to meditate for a few minutes, especially if you reach a point at which you feel blocked. Meditation may allow you to withdraw from the subject a little, so that new ideas begin to flow. It is important, however, not to meditate for more than 5 or 10 minutes during an exam, or you may start to feel tired.
Just before entering a demanding situation such as giving a lecture or chairing a meeting, a few minutes' meditation can have a calming effect and increase your composure.
When you have a cold or some other illness, it may be difficult for you to meditate and you may find that you feel tired or restless when you do. Even so, try to meditate at least as much as usual, and if possible more. If you become tired or sleepy, lie down and allow yourself some extra sleep. In times of illness, both the body and the mind have an increased need to release waste. Many people find that additional meditation during the early stages of a cold helps to cure it.
It is always best to sit up when you meditate, because it is easier to fall asleep if you are lying down. However, during an illness, you can meditate while lying down, if that is the only possible way for you to do it.
Meditation can be so refreshing and energizing that it is difficult to get to sleep straight after meditating, and for this reason it is often inadvisable to meditate in the hour or two before bed.
If you suffer from insomnia, however, the reverse may be the case. Because meditation reduces stress and anxiety and releases natural fatigue, you may fall asleep more easily if you meditate just before going to bed or repeat the meditation sound while lying in bed, but not as a substitute for regular daily meditations. Many people find regular meditation an effective way of overcoming insomnia.
When circumstances deprive you of sleep, regular meditation will help you to function normally, even if it means getting even less sleep. When life gets back to normal, however, you should also try to get back to your normal sleeping patterns.
At times people fall asleep when meditating. We regard this as a beneficial experience. There are two reasons why this may happen: either the person has not had enough sleep recently, or the regular practice of meditation is in the process of bringing about some deeper changes in the mind, temporarily increasing the need for sleep. To allow sleep will sustain the process of change. We see manifestations of sleep regularly during the initial phases of retreats. Generally, they occur more often in younger people and in those who have overextended themselves socially or professionally, but also when someone is recovering from a major disease or an operation.
We don't usually feel like meditating when we are low or irritable, since meditation involves a meeting with ourselves and we may prefer to think about something completely different. It is worth trying to overcome this reluctance, however, because meditating may help us get out of the bad mood more quickly.
Some medications will have an influence on your meditation. Take them after you have meditated. This advice also applies to alcohol.
If you feel uncertain about your meditation sound, be sure to have it checked. Contact the person who gave it to you, or another of Acem's initiators. After you have been meditating regularly for at least a half-year, you may be given an individual meditation sound. Later on, after two to three years of regular meditation, an enhanced meditation sound may speed up the process. This sound may be completely new to you, or an addition to the sound you have already been using. Enhanced meditation sounds are more potent, but slightly harder to use as they introduce more curbs into the repetition of the sound. Enhanced sounds may be given up to four or five times, at intervals of three to five years, provided meditation has been regular. Whenever there is a change of the meditation sound, checking it is important. Initially, there is likely to be interference from the former sound.
If you stop meditating and then decide to start again, a guidance session, a long meditation or a retreat is strongly recommended. Be aware that it may take a few days or even weeks before you find meditations as effective as they used to be. An interruption may raise questions about your meditation that it would be difficult for you to answer on your own. Contact your instructor or your nearest Acem centre to arrange guidance and support.