Level one in 4 steps

This post is about meditation and is about the first 4 of 12 steps towards enlightenment (whether worldly or spiritual). The first post is here.

Do you have control of your body? No, I'm not talking about moving your arms or legs, I'm talking about the inner body: the pulse, perspiration and not-moving your arms or legs.

Before we go into each step, let's have a look at what this level is about. It's about making the body stay as still as possible. Do it for a few minutes just to ground your self in everyday life and inoculate yourself from stress and panic. Do it for longer periods of time to get a more permanent calmness in your entire being.

Basically this level will make you experiment with the body by making you breathe differently. For me, there are three ways to breathe when I meditate.

• -fast and rythmic, sometimes even forceful breaths. This will make your pulse rise, it may even make you perspire and it's a forceful way to make you body do what you want.
• Slow and calm. Just breathe in slowly, and breathe out slowly. Don't worry about the rhythm, just let your breaths come naturally, but make sure that you complete every breath (all the way in, all the way out, all the way in, all the way out)
• Almost sleeplike breathing. This comes naturally when you fall asleep or if you go into deep meditation. However, its hard to come by this type of breath by will alone, because you need to slow you entire bodily system down. If you can't go in to this form of breathing at the beginning, don't worry - it will probably come by it self at some point, or you can return later after you've worked on different steps and try again - it will get easier, as you improve you meditation skills.

If you have some kind of focus, it will make it a lot easier. A good place to focus is on the tip of your nose. Notice how it gets cooler when you breathe in, and warmer when you breathe out? Good, keep noticing it and keep your focus, while you maintain your current breathing pattern.

If you're new to meditation, you might get impatient, because what you're doing seems like a waste of time. After all, you probably measure meaningfulness in ways of producing stuff or ideas, doing stuff, having obligations, stressing out over deadlines and all things that we value in life.

Meditation IS different. And it might take some time for you to realize the benefits. So, here are few ways to make it a bit easier:

1. When ever you're bored, commuting or something else: Just take a few minutes and breathe easy. I mean, why not - its not like your doing anything else?
2. Before any physical exercise breathe forcefully and deeply for 1-2 minutes. This should improve your performance. This is especially noticeable when swimming or snorkeling.
3. Before a meeting that makes you uncomfortable or gives you an adrenalin rush, go somewhere private, even the restroom or just close the door to your office if you have one, and breathe easy and calmly for 3-5 minutes (if you're already stressed, you probably will have to use some will power).

This works because it takes away the biological control of your existence. You're actually starting to break the bond between emotions and bodily reactions. It will make it easier for you to perform just as you want to perform, and it will make it easier to remain calm and undisturbed, even when that thing that wasn't supposed to happen, happens anyway.