Meditation and Spiritual Growth

Meditation is a private devotion or mental exercise consisting of a number of techniques of concentration, contemplation, and abstraction to heighten spiritual awareness. It has also been defined as, "Consciously directing your attention to alter your state of consciousness." Meditation has been practiced around the world since the ancient times. It was used back then and still used today for spiritual growth (becoming more conscious). Meditation is mostly concerned about your attention, where it is directed to, and how it alters or changes a person's consciousness. Although meditation has been used for spiritual growth, recently it has become a way of finding a peaceful bridge between stress and the fast paced world around us. It has become a way of taking time out of all the distractions and stress that occurs in our lives and relaxing and finding ourselves. Some other uses of meditation include healing, emotional cleansing and balancing, deepening concentration and insight, manifesting change, developing intuition, unlocking creativity, exploring higher realities, and finding inner guidance. There is no exact way to meditate. Different people meditate in different ways. However, there are many similar guidelines or ways that people go about meditating. First, put your expectations aside. Don't expect to all of a sudden have your consciousness altered. Be open to meditation but don't try to force something to happen. A few other things to avoid are over analyzing the meditation, trying too hard to make your mind blank or chasing thoughts away, and putting too much emphasis on doing it right. In other words, let the practice of meditation come to you and don't try too hard to force it. The second thing is to make sure that you are comfortable. This includes making sure that you wear comfortable clothes and if you are hungry to eat something beforehand. Third, find a comfortable and quiet place to meditate in. Make sure that the place is