Up .. fed .. medicated and meditated

Went to sleep on the sofa last night .. slept reasonably well all the same. I felt exhausted which I guess wasn't really a surprise after the last few days. Got taken to do the weekly shop too yesterday.

I've done about ten minutes meditation this morning .. found I had a few stray thoughts humming around .. but .. then .. that's the first time I've meditated for that long consciously for quite some time .. and I probably had a bit of a temperature the other night.

When you first start you can find yourself a bit twitchy and have stray thoughts going through your mind while the body and mind start relaxing.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Meditate-for-Beginners---Techniques-on-How-to-Meditate&id=396693

I have to say that I often had to meditate near a very busy road .. loads of traffic .. and I found it was ok .. maybe cause I was concentrating on my mantra .. didn't use music or guided meditations .. just thought the word med .. i .. tate over and over. A mantra helps clear the mind and relaxes it .. though it can take a while .. you can be a bit twitchy to start off with as the body destresses it self and stray thoughts will cross the mind for a while but just carry on when they do .. it'll happen less and less. I learnt that from a book but can't remember what it was now .. read it back in the 70's. Well, just glanced through it and decided to do that. I did a bit of yoga from watching Richard Hittlemans TV series including breathing techniques .. though the one I used to do mainly was the alternate nostril technique.

http://www.uccs.umn.edu/oldsite/lasc/handouts/alternatenostril.html

It's just a way of learning to relax and like other things .. if you do them often enough it makes it easier for your mind to do them .. building neural pathways etc.

There are lots of kinds of meditation out there and I guess some suit some people more than others .. and there are a few people who don't seem to get along with it.