A Simple Meditation

• Sit or lie in a comfortable position, with your head and back straight
• Close your eyes, and begin to notice your breath coming in and going out. Choose one place in your body to notice your breath (for example, in your nostrils, your chest, or your abdomen).
• Continue to notice each in-breath and out-breath.
• Soon your mind may start wandering. Various thoughts and ideas may appear in your mind. These thoughts may be accompanied by feelings, positive or negative. You may get carried away in thought for several moments before you realize that your awareness is no longer focused on your breath.
• As soon as you realize that your attention has wandered from your breath, return your attention to your breath.
• Some people find it helpful to count their breaths in order to help .focus their awareness on their breathing. Some people count their breaths from 1 to 10, or from 1 to 100, and then start over again at 1.
• Others count their breaths to 10 or 100, but start over with 1 no matter where they are in the count each time they realize that their attention has wandered from counting their breaths.
• Try not to be discouraged, or think you aren’t meditating correctly, when your awareness wanders into thoughts. It is normal for your attention to wander from your breath during meditation. It’s part of the process of meditating, and it happens to everyone.
• Keep in mind that in meditation you are not trying to force your mind to stay focused on your breath.
• Mediation is not about force. It helps some people to think of their awareness as a pure blue sky, and the thoughts that arise during meditation as clouds that appear and float by in that sky. When you realize that your attention has wandered to these thought clouds, just let them be as they are in the sky, while gently turning your awareness from them back to your breathing.
• You can meditate for as little as 10 minutes at a time, or for up to an hour or longer, depending on your level of experience.
• In mantra meditation you simply focus your awareness on repeating your mantra word or words, instead of your breathing.Example While Inhaling mantra is "SO" exhaling is " HUM" (simple search on google for So HUM  gives amazing results)

So Hum - Meditation (17 minutes)

The 108 online repetitions of So Hum mantra is about 17 minutes of meditation practice, at a rate of about 6 1/2 breaths per minute, which is extremely relaxing both for meditation and reducing stress in the autonomic nervous system. The Hummmm... sound is intentionally somewhat longer than the Sooooo... sound, as this increases the effect of the relaxation and meditation by releasing the autonomic nervous system.

* Inhale silently with Sooooo...
* Exhale silently with Hummmm...

Sohum - audio & video available here and more videos are here

Chakra --- More Clarity

Chakra (derived from the Sanskrit cakraṃ चक्रं )is a Sanskrit word that translates as "wheel" or "turning".
Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices which, according to traditional Indian medicine, are believed to exist in the surface of the etheric double of man.

The Chakras are said to be "force centres" or whorls of energy permeating, from a point on the physical body, the layers of the subtle bodies in an ever-increasing fan-shaped formation (the fans make the shape of a love heart). Rotating vortices of subtle matter, they are considered the focal points for the reception and transmission of energies.

Seven major chakras or energy centres (also understood as wheels of light) are generally believed to exist, located within the subtle body.

It is typical for chakras to be depicted in either of two ways:

* Flower-like
* Wheel-like

In the former, a specific number of petals are shown around the perimeter of a circle. In the latter, a certain number of spokes divide the circle into segments that make the chakra resemble a wheel or chakra. Each chakra possesses a specific number of segments or petals.

Much of the original information on chakras comes from the Upanishads, which are difficult to date because they are believed to have been passed down orally for approximately a thousand years before being written down for the first time between 1200–900 BCE

Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda describes chakra as :

powerhouse in the way it generates and stores energy, with the energy from cosmos pulled in more strongly at these points. The main nadis, Ida, Pingala and Shushumna (sympathetic, parasympathetic, and central nervous system) run along the spinal column in a curved path and cross one another several times. At the points of intersection they form strong energy centres known as chakras. In the human body there are three types of energy centres. The lower or animal chakras are located in the region between the toes and the pelvic region indicating our evolutionary origins in the animal kingdom. The human chakras lie along the spinal column. Finally, the higher or divine Chakras are found between the top of the spine and the crown of the head.

The following seven primary chakras are commonly described:

1. Muladhara (Sanskrit: मूलाधार, Mūlādhāra) Base or Root Chakra (last bone in spinal cord *coccyx*)
2. Swadhisthana (Sanskrit: स्वाधिष्ठान, Svādhiṣṭhāna) Sacral Chakra (ovaries/prostate)
3. Manipura (Sanskrit: मणिपूर, Maṇipūra) Solar Plexus Chakra (navel area)
4. Anahata (Sanskrit: अनाहत, Anāhata) Heart Chakra (heart area)
5. Vishuddha (Sanskrit: विशुद्ध, Viśuddha) Throat Chakra (throat and neck area)
6. Ajna (Sanskrit: आज्ञा, Ājñā) Brow or Third Eye Chakra (pineal gland or third eye)
7. Sahasrara (Sanskrit: सहस्रार, Sahasrāra) Crown Chakra (Top of the head; 'Soft spot' of a newborn)