Meditation In Love

Meditation - Easy Ways to Clear Your Mind Traffic

How to Clear your mind traffic.When you first begin to meditate, you may have so much mind traffic that you think it impossible to relax, let alone meditate.As soon as you close your eyes to let your body relax, your mind will start to file away all of the thoughts of the day. It's a bit like a computer asking you to save your files. There are three main types of thoughts that flash across your mind as they are filed away.They consist of the day's activities, tasks not yet completed (your to do list) and any conflicts that have not been resolved. Let's look at these thoughts in more detail.1. The day's activities.These thoughts are random and are a collection of memories to do with day to day activities. When you meditate, these thoughts flash across your mind rapidly. They are neither overly positive or negative, you may picture the sunrise you saw this morning, or remember the smile on your child's face. These thoughts get filed away easily.2. Tasks not yet completed.These are thoughts that remind you of tasks you still need to do. They cause an emotional reaction, and often distract people when they meditate because they think, "I have to remember that".When these thoughts come up in meditation, have a pen and paper handy and write them down, so that you know you will remember that thought. Your mind will then file that thought away and you can go into a deeper meditation without worrying about it. At the completion of your meditation, you can then transfer this list into your diary to complete the tasks.This exercise of writing down your 'to do' list is also effective for people who find it difficult to sleep at night when they have a lot on their mind. By writing down your tasks, you will sleep more soundly.3. Conflicts not yet resolved.When a conflict has not been resolved and weighs heavily on your mind, the conflict should be written down. A decision can be made later, about how to constructively resolve the conflict or concern. Perhaps talking to a friend, a teacher, parent or counsellor can help resolve the problem. Thoughts in this category can cause stress, which left unresolved can cause your body to experience unpleasant physical and emotional symptoms.As well as your mind filing away your mind traffic, you will notice that your body begins to relax as your thoughts slow down. You will find that your breathing changes, it will become slower, deeper and more relaxed. Your heart rate starts to slow down and your blood pressure will also begin to fall slightly.As you clear your mind traffic, you'll notice that the time between thoughts becomes longer. One of the processes that takes place in the body is the movement from the higher brain waves of Beta to the slower brain waves of Alpha. In Alpha your mind receives a profound rest. Alpha brain waves are slower and more calming than Beta. We move into Alpha brain waves quite naturally each night, prior to falling asleep. The practice of meditation allows you to practice moving into alpha brain waves on a more regular basis. This means that the body and mind are getting more time to rest. Every time you practice meditation the mind goes into alpha brain waves and starts to relax deeply and process your mind traffic. With regular practice of meditation, you will find that you have less mind traffic, and will be able to move into a meditative state more easily.The practice of meditation is especially useful for anyone who studies, by moving into Alpha brain waves prior to studying, you firstly clear out your mind traffic and scattered thoughts, which helps you keep your mind focused on your work. Work studied in Alpha makes memory recall faster.Most of your waking state is experienced in Beta brain waves. These are the higher brain waves that you use when you are being analytical, reasoning or judging how you feel about things. The higher the brain waves, the more difficult it is to concentrate and remember. The higher the brain waves the more you experience stress, anxiety and fear. Beta is the area of restless, churning thoughts. You may know the feeling prior to sleep when you toss and turn and find it difficult to switch off restless thoughts. Prior to sleep, you need to make the transition from Beta brain waves (faster) to Alpha brain waves (slower) for sleep to occur. If you are going over your mistakes, failures, etc, it is difficult for sleep to occur and when it does, sleep is restless.Most novices to meditation tell me that they find it hard to get beyond their thoughts in the early stage of meditation, because they experience so much mind traffic. I tell them to welcome their thoughts, because they are being filed away.When you begin your meditation, you can use the first ten minutes to write down your mind traffic onto a sheet of paper. Mind traffic usually comes through during the first five to ten minutes, if you write down those thoughts, just by opening your eyes, writing the thought, and then closing your eyes again, you will start to let go of the thoughts and drift into an even deeper meditation.Sometimes people tell me that they don't want to break their concentration, by opening their eyes, if you do this gently, without moving too much, you will stay in a meditative state. It is easier to meditate when you clear your mind traffic by writing it on paper. You will also sleep more soundly if you clear your mind traffic just prior to sleeping. The next time you meditate, do the Mind Traffic Exercise first to clear your thoughts so that you can move into a much deeper state of meditation.