How do YOU meditate? What works for you? What do you feel in your body? I know I'm not the only one to admit that I have a difficult time meditating. Here are some answers I received from the above question on an interactive Conscious Evolution site last year. I hope one of these methods will help you on your meditative journeys.

Method #1:
Ritual is very important to my meditation practice. In my practice that includes meditating at the same time every day: incense, a lit candle, acknowledging the four directions and an opening prayer and music. I have been influenced by Zen meditation, yoga relaxation and breathing practices, visualization techniques, mantra repetition and even dancing techniques to name a few. My meditation experience changes from day to day as sometimes it is very contemplative of my life; some days I feel connected to nature or I find myself praying for peace, compassion and love. At times my meditation takes me into a void where there is no thought or it can be very visionary where I receive insights about my life and that of others around me; sometimes I even see things far into our future. Every once in a while, I am BLESSED with feeling an all-loving presence that permeates my whole being with happiness and love. What is constant and most important about my meditation practice is that it has become as essential to my life as breathing air is for all of us. Best of all, I have seen how my behavior in my everyday life has become (for the most part-who is perfect?) a mirror of the peace and compassionate feeling I tap into when I meditate. I have been meditating for 20 years. May you have a blessed journey. From Pablo (Evolve Community Caf)

Method #2
Good question. I use a very unstructured approach, working toward the goal of making all my waking and sleeping moments meditative. If I am walking (or cycling), I develop a rhythmic cadence of affirmation around some issue (health, harmony, love, etc) and pace the affirmation to my pace. For instance, I like an eight-step pace and this harmony affirmation works well for me, "I am one with the universe and all things in IT. Not my will, but thine be done."

My hypnosis/hypnotherapy training has taught me that trance induction is easy. I use the following sequence of statements repeated sub-vocally (and paced with normal breathing cycle) to induce both trance and meditation: "Relax now. Release now. Renew now. Refresh now. Live now. Love now. Heal now. Grow now. Peace now".

I try to be in nature everyday, whether it is watching ants in my backyard or fishing on the local rivers and lakes. That is meditation to me. I also use spontaneous free-associative journaling as part of meditative practice. I picked this up from Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way." She calls such discipline "morning pages" and there is no doubt that this approach has great power to center one in meditative action and intuition.

I guess what I am seeing from what I am saying is that I am highly kinesthetic and prefer action meditation to passive meditation...and if you hadn't asked the question, I would not have realized this. Bravo. Hope that makes some sense. Nick (Evolve Community Caf)

Method #3
I meditate early in the morning -- it's a big part of my life. About four years ago I went on a weekend retreat in Oxford to the Brahma Kumaris and learned to meditate by Raj Yoga which means meditating with your eyes open. At first it was difficult but Discipline is the key. It calms my working mind and psychologically-wise, I am more at peace. Molly

Method #4
I read this in The Evolution Angel by Dr. Michael Abrams and liked it, so will share it with you.

The angels believe that we lost the ability to communicate with God directly when the churches put in a go-between for communication. These angels give us permission to use God's name, which is Yahweh, in meditating with God to connect at a deeper level and on an evolutionary plane. Yahweh is the name referred to in the Lord's Prayer. It is the name in the Judeo-Christian tradition that is said to be so sacred that it is never to be uttered aloud.

If you dwell on this name in your mind over and over, day after day, month after month, all good things will come to you. Do not use the name in an empty, mechanical manner. Repeat the name silently within. Saying the name over and over helps you to overcome that inner chatter.

Here's how it's done:
1) As you say the name your thoughts should gradually slow and lengthen. Repeat each syllable rather slowly. Saying each syllable in about a second and then lengthening it to 3-4 seconds with a little rest between syllables. It will feel good when you hit the correct cadence for you.
2) To further enhance the technique, breath in on the "Yah' and exhale on the "Vay." Your breath should be smooth, peaceful and in a leisurely fashion.
3) When you get that part down, add in the heartbeat. Visualize and feel the sounds, along with your breath, flowing in and out of your heart.

The Angel's say that this mediation will fix everything in your life and put it back into balance. You start developing in ways you never thought possible and at an astonishingly rate--with less pain.

Yes. This sounds like the meditation for me.