Chapter 5 – Best Places To Meditate
Meditation has two main points to focus on; stillness and silence. In these two assets lies a depth of wisdom, healing and energy, but to obtain these fine benefits and a whole lot more you need to have a suitable environment to practice in. Noise is something that just cannot be completely avoided, although you can lock the windows in your home and close all doors, there will always be some sort of internal or external noise going on on due to the activities of others.
Life does indeed go on, and you cannot expect the world to come to a stand-still just so that you can meditate in absolute silence. However, with continued practice comes heightened skill, and so, filtering out the distant sounds of life and matter becomes an easier until it is as though you’ve filtered sound out completely.
Parks offer a natural atmosphere where you can connect with nature whilst being in the energy of the outdoors. Yes, this is a public place but as mentioned before, with practice comes an improvement of skill and at higher levels your concentration will be able to easily filter out external interruption. There is no real substitute for the abundant energy that is available in parks, forests, woodland, jungle etc. This energy will see you reaching higher levels of competency at a quick yet steady rate because of your direct connection to nature.
Rivers are great places to meditate by as they offer the flow of the river which is symbolic in many ways to life, like having a good sense of direction about you in all that you do – a direction that ‘flows’ in one, focused direction instead of back and forth or haphazard due to indecision and a mind that is constantly crammed with thoughts that rarely serve any usefulness or direct purpose.
Meditating by a river can positively affect your energy levels, raising your vibration (energetic frequency) to a higher level, making the trance-state easier to accomplish and allowing you to keep your posture for longer, so as to lengthen your session with minimal discomfort or agitation.
Beaches can be fun places to meditate at, with the sea offering a cleansing atmosphere where the thoughts can be visualised as floating away with the crash of the waves. The sea is highly influential to the spirit, just the sound of the waves lashing against each other has been recorded countless times to be marketed as an essential meditational tool, providing the practitioner with the atmosphere of the sea inside of their home or studio class environment.
Gardens are usually peaceful and private spaces which are a part of the home, offering the benefits of nature and the outdoors inside the comfort of your own property or the place where you reside. Meditating in the garden has similar benefits to practicing meditation whilst in your local park, but there is a bonus that comes with practicing in your own garden and that is the privacy that you would struggle to find in a public space like at the park.
Places of Worship provide you with a sacred space after mass of any sort or even before a mass is scheduled to begin, you can pop into your local church etc. to find ample peace, tranquility and comfort. Even if there are others who come along to offer prayer, the majority of people will respect the sacred space as a place of worship and prayer, and so they’ll be more likely to maintain silence.
Verandas can be very relaxing places to meditate if the surrounding environment is not overlooking a busy street or main road. Many places in the city have modern apartments that are designed with verandas, rooftop extensions or balconies in more high rise buildings, studio flats and private accommodation.
If you’re lucky enough to live in a property that boasts a great scenic view, peaceful surroundings and privacy then you have a distinct advantage where you’re practice is concerned, so make the most of such a wonderful daily opportunity and rise to new levels of consciousness.
Mountains are the greatest places to meditate as they promise heightened elevation in both the physical and emotional/mental planes to those who are able to make it to the mountain’s peak. If you are not as fortunate to visit a mountain, let alone climb one then find yourself a hill in a park or the countryside, making sure that it is high enough, make the climb only if it is safe to do so and you will have a decent spot from where you can meditate at peace whist in the sense that you are looking over the space beneath you. This alone will cause you to feel a sense of elevation.
Meditation is an internal thing, meaning that it is with you wherever you may be at absolutely any time. The beauty of ths is that this magnificent powerful tool/ability is available to you at any time and that means you will always have the opportunity to raise your level of consciousness no matter where you happen to be at any given moment. You can be at work, at home, with friends, on the train or the bus, at any leisure.
And what if your circumstances are not so good and you happen to be in a place that you are not happy to reside at for whatever reason, you can use the gift of meditation to keep your mind strong and focused even if all you really want to do is fall apart and break down – allowing meditation to guide, heal and re- energise you is the way forward here. Allow yourself the freedom in your mental space before trying to find this liberty externally, as all desired outcomes are owed to a conscious shift that begins inside. Find your core and tap your hidden power until you are able to use that power that has been dormant up until you made the conscious shift a reality.