I would like to sit for at least half an hour or an hour but I always get agitated and never manage to sit for more than 20 minutes. How can I make myself meditate for longer?
Hi!
When you say you are getting agitated, this shows you aren’t fully in a calm relaxed state. (Are you letting all your thoughts go, or are you focusing on your thoughts and becoming nerved that they won’t disappear?)
First and foremost: You can meditate for 10 minutes–in deep relaxation and achieve a better outcome than meditating for 20 "half a$$ed." Don’t put a time limit on it, but DO set a time to start (ex. 9pm every day).
Don’t force yourself to stay in meditation. If after 10 minutes, you are bored, ready to give up, then slowly open your eyes, take a few deep breaths and then move on to something else.
Eventually, your body will be accustomed to the relaxed state and you’ll automatically stay in longer.
**What is your purpose for meditation?
•Relaxing?
•Connecting to your Higher Self?
•Health?
Try not to set time goals. Concentrate on the quality of your meditation sessions and on meditating consistently.
Eventually, you will naturally find yourself meditating for 20 or more minutes, a good length of time to calm and quiet the mind. You can also try meditating for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening.
If you have to keep track of the time, try using an alarm or timer set on the lowest volume, so you don’t have to keep looking at your watch or clock.
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This is going to sound crazy but it will get you in tune with your body. During the meditation have a conversation with your body. Ask questions to the different parts of your body. Maybe it is you back complaining how your are sitting. After awhile you can quiet your body and quiet your mind to truly listen.
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I don’t know! it’s really hard. I can’t get my mind to be still.
maybe get one of those meditation tapes with the chinese bamboo flute playing with pretty bird sounds and running water lol. those are kinda relaxing. they play that stuff in my therapist’s office.
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Probably because you are trying to add structure to something that is structureless.
I made Life my meditation. Your eyes don’t have to be closed to meditate, you don’t have to sit in a ‘lotus’ position to meditate. I meditate, or become aware of, everything I am doing throughout the day. If I wash dishes I focus on how the water feels on my hands, if I wash my car I focus on the car. In other words, I stay with what ever it is I am doing instead of wandering off mentally in to the past or the future and forget what I am doing at this moment.
You are trying to add form to the formless, one will always have problems when they try to do this.
Just Be. Make your whole day a meditation, start letting go of any structured form of meditation, this isn’t meditation, this is ‘trying.’ When we are in the moment we let go of trying and we become the moment.
The past and the future are happening ‘now’ simultaneously, that is why it is so easy to stay in this moment….and to become the moment.
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I am not sure what method you use to meditate, but I find mantra recitation helps to anchor one’s mind in practice and this can be done, walking, driving, or whatever.
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Hi!
When you say you are getting agitated, this shows you aren’t fully in a calm relaxed state. (Are you letting all your thoughts go, or are you focusing on your thoughts and becoming nerved that they won’t disappear?)
First and foremost: You can meditate for 10 minutes–in deep relaxation and achieve a better outcome than meditating for 20 "half a$$ed." Don’t put a time limit on it, but DO set a time to start (ex. 9pm every day).
Don’t force yourself to stay in meditation. If after 10 minutes, you are bored, ready to give up, then slowly open your eyes, take a few deep breaths and then move on to something else.
Eventually, your body will be accustomed to the relaxed state and you’ll automatically stay in longer.
**What is your purpose for meditation?
•Relaxing?
•Connecting to your Higher Self?
•Health?
References :
simply put, stop trying to meditate. then you will have good meditation. BTW it doesn’t matter if your mind falls into discursive, agitated thoughts, if that happens just be with that
References :
Concentrate on the sound vibration.
Bg 8.8 P Attaining the Supreme
In this verse Lord Krsna stresses the importance of remembering Him. One’s memory of Krsna is revived by chanting the maha-mantra, Hare Krsna. By this practice of chanting and hearing the sound vibration of the Supreme Lord, one’s ear, tongue and mind are engaged. This mystic meditation is very easy to practice, and it helps one attain the Supreme Lord.
SB 3.15.25 P Description of the Kingdom of God
The actual fact is that the Lord is nondifferent from His name. The highest realization of spiritual value is to chant the holy name of God, as prescribed for the age–Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
SB 4.8.57 P Dhruva Maharaja Leaves Home for the Forest
Narada advises Dhruva to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord, which is as good as the meditation of concentrating one’s mind on the form of the Lord. As meditation on any form of the Lord is valuable, so is chanting of different names of the Lord, such as Hari, Govinda and Narayana. But in this age we are especially advised to chant the Hare Krsna mantra as enunciated in the sastra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
SB 4.21.42 P Instructions by Maharaja Prthu
In our Krsna consciousness movement, we accept this principle by rejecting four prohibited items–namely illicit sex life, intoxication, gambling and flesh-eating–and accepting the daily chanting of at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra and daily meditation three times a day by chanting the Gayatri mantra. In this way one can keep his brahminical culture and spiritual strength intact. By following these principles of devotional service strictly, chanting twenty-four hours a day the maha-mantra–Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare–one makes positive progress in spiritual life and ultimately becomes completely fit to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face.
SB 10.8.15 P Lord Krsna Shows the Universal Form Within His Mouth
Bahuni: the Lord has many names. Advaitam acyutam anadim ananta-rupam adyam purana-purusam nava-yauvanam ca. As stated in the Brahma-samhita (5.33), the Lord is one, but He has many forms and many names. It was not that because Gargamuni gave the child the name Krsna, that was His only name. He has other names, such as Bhaktavatsala, Giridhari, Govinda and Gopala. If we analyze the nirukti, or semantic derivation, of the word "Krsna," we find that na signifies that He stops the repetition of birth and death, and krs means sattartha, or "existence." (Krsna is the whole of existence.) Also, krs means "attraction," and na means ananda, or "bliss." Krsna is known as Mukunda because He wants to give everyone spiritual, eternal, blissful life. Unfortunately, because of the living entity’s little independence, the living entity wants to "deprogram" the program of Krsna. This is the material disease. Nonetheless, because Krsna wants to give transcendental bliss to the living entities, He appears in various forms.
SSR 5 Practicing Yoga in the Modern Age
These three words, namely Hare, Krsna, and Rama, are the transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His energy, to give protection to the conditioned soul. This chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother’s presence. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the Lord Father’s grace, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.
No other means of spiritual realization is as effective in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy as the chanting of the maha-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
"We request you to chant HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE, HARE RAMA HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA HARE HARE, and your life will be sublime."
References :
Author: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Srimad-Bhagavatam (SB)
Bhagavad-gita As It Is (BG)
Life Comes from Life (LCFL)
The Science of Self Realization (SSR)
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead(Krsna Book) KB
Srila Prabhupada letters(SPL), Lectures, Conversations
"We request you to chant HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE, HARE RAMA HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA HARE HARE, and your life will be sublime."
Further readings please try these sites:
http://prabhupadabooks.com/?g=155635
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http://krishnastore.com/compact-30-volume-srimad-bhagavatam-1977-edition-h-krishna-502.html?osCsid=2621855532ddf994350bf4713f5c1ee0
To meditate longer, you need to forget that you are meditating, while doing meditation you should not be aware of the process of meditation. What is meditation? It is your natural state, as you can manage to sleep for hours without effort, you have it in you to meditate for hours but you put effort in meditation. Meditate, forget time and everything else, be in your natural state. Please, contact a genuine Guru to get more information.
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