<div class="text-justify">With each new post about meditation, more and more of you are reaching out and saying how you can not concentrate enough and even though I suggested Vipassana as a great start, I do feel a need to explain how in certain meditation techniques you do not have to avoid or neglect your thoughts. Before we start, here is the list of previously published posts in this series that you can read and learn a lot:</div>
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<a href="https://steemit.com/health/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-one">PART 1:</a> Introduction to meditation and general categories
<a href="https://steemit.com/health/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-two">PART 2:</a> Mindfulness meditation
<a href="https://steemit.com/health/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-three">PART 3:</a> Vipassana meditation
<a href="https://steemit.com/health/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-3-categories-of-benefits-from-meditating">PART 4:</a> 3 categories of benefits
<a href="https://steemit.com/health/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-five-guided-meditation-technique">PART 5:</a> Guided meditation
<a href="https://steemit.com/health/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-six-breathing-techniques">PART 6:</a> Breathing techniques
<a href="https://steemit.com/meditation/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-seven-grounding-meditation">PART 7:</a> Grounding meditation
<a href="https://steemit.com/meditation/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-eight-gazing-meditation">PART 8:</a> Gazing meditation
<a href="https://steemit.com/meditation/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-nine-theravada-walking-meditation">PART 9:</a> Theravada walking meditation
<a href="https://steemit.com/meditation/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-everything-you-need-to-know-part-10-metta-meditation">PART 10:</a> Metta meditation
<a href="https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-part-11-meditation-for-children">PART 11:</a> Meditation for children
<a href="https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@zen-art/meditation-how-and-why-part-12-chakra-meditation">PART 12:</a> Chakra meditation
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<div class="text-justify">When you meditate, you can do so mentally, emotionally or both. Both is something to strive for but do not pressure yourself and enjoy the journey. Meditation is always about you being present and staying in a certain moment. You will learn that you can be present emotionally as well as mentally.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">When people become interested in meditating and try to learn as much as possible about it from internet, books, lectures or just by talking to people, a lot of them get discouraged when the issue of "not thinking" comes up. <b>Empty your mind</b> is a phrase that is often mentioned and it sort of frightens people. We are always thinking about something, how can we stop? Our natural behavior of not accepting negation does not help either so when you tell a person "do not think" he or she will think.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">When a person meditates for the first time, in 99% of cases a lot of mind chatter happens. <i>I should not think. I am thinking about not thinking, is that thinking? My leg itches. How long will this take? Did I remember to switch the light off? What will I make for lunch? Too much thinking. They said I should focus on breath, inhale, exhale. Am I doing that right? Am I breathing ok? When will I become enlightened? I wonder how much time had passed. I have to do that report for my boss tomorrow. I hate my boss. This is not working. Meditation is useless, I give up.</i></div>
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<center><h2>You are not weird,
that happens to everyone.</h2></center>
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<div class="text-justify">Not all meditation works with an empty mind and in my experience, emptying your mind is the worst way to start meditating. It is not our learned way of behaving and our body hates changes. As with everything else in life, meditation should be introduced gradually. There are mental meditations that are focus based where you pick a topic, object or a person and think only about that. There are also those where you notice your every thought and label it. You try to find the reason and a purpose for that thought.</div>
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<div class=pull-right>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQQNZRorb9mrnruvVcWCN3KrSfm9EoP4gHQTTwQLWLZgS/head-2379686_960_720.png</div>
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<div class="text-justify">If you meditate regularly, you will in time get better and better and you will reach the moment of an empty mind but start simple and make it as easy for yourself as possible. You can try with lighting a white candle and just looking at it and focusing on the flame. You could look at clouds or water. When you start thinking about something, notice it and accept it. Label it as worrying, remembering, planning, experiencing, fantasizing or something else and move on to another thought. Being present in the moment starts with recognizing what is happening at the moment and if you are thinking about cooking lunch and saying to yourself <i>Ok, I am thinking about cooking lunch because I am planning for that to happen. I accept that my mind is going there and know why</i> you are being present and perceptive. You are meditating. </div>
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<center><h2>Not all meditations
are without thoughts.</h2></center>
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<div class="text-justify">If you are being present in the moment, no matter what that moment is, and focusing on what is happening with recognition of your thoughts, you are meditating. Having a blank mind is not the only way to meditate and if anyone tells you that you are meditating wrong if you have thoughts, that person does not have a clue about meditation. Enjoy the meditative journey. You will soon get to the stage where you will be thinking about your body and your breath. You will be feeling your body and your thoughts will be directed to different body parts. The next step will be repeating certain phrases in your mind on mantras and in time you will get to that place where your thinking stops. You will be there with time passing and there will be absolutely no distractions. Until you get there, again, enjoy the journey and accept that meditation is a process, not a state.</div>
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<div class=pull-right>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmSFdxfF1jj6jCsy76eVbzJK9u8W9tLrBQSaWziVjSJnXM/yoga-2150140_960_720.png</div>
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<div class="text-justify">Mental meditations are those that deal with your thoughts. They will either redirect them, recognize and label them or not have them at all. When there are no thoughts, you will learn that you are not your brain. A brain is just an organ that you can control like any other one in your body. When there are no thoughts something extraordinary will happen to you being and no one can tell you what that is because it is individual and special for every person. All I can say that it is hard to explain and that the closest way for me to put it in words is <b>you become more</b>.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">When it comes to emotional meditation, METTA meditation or Loving Kindness is probably the most famous one. I have covered it already in one of my previous posts so you can read all about it there. In emotional meditations, we are being present in a certain moment emotionally. We are experiencing a certain feeling and basking in it, letting it spread to our entire body and then either releasing it into the space around us or shaping it gradually into something else.</div>
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<div class=pull-right>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmahBYquRaGFmQSJUS54pcBLYH1RZcaCPKrU2FSuTnnEZL/imageedit_414_6173425029.png</div>
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<div class="text-justify">Our emotions are often fragile and can be easily manipulated. We hold great power when we learn how to control our emotions and it really can be learned. This is because emotions are for the most part generated by our thoughts. There is first a thought and then an emotional response to that thought. Since we can learn how to control our thoughts, we are also controlling our emotions by choosing one thought over another. Just remember that you are not your brain, you are not your thoughts or your emotions. You are that which chooses what to think and what to feel.</div> 

<center><h2>You are a creator, not just an experiencer.</h2></center>
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<div class="text-justify">I have said that emotions are for the most part generated in our brain. That is true. When you think about something that gives you joy, you will feel joy and when you think about a thing that gives you sadness, you will be sad. You will smile and feel warmth when I say puppies, ice-cream, a kiss, your favorite dance song, children, a smell of a fresh summer morning and you will feel a certain amount of negative emotion if I mention things like boss, politicians, murderers, abusers or injustice. There is first a thought and then an emotional response that follows.</div>
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<div class=pull-right>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmfBDzJ5H8pGRCDEPomcr2fzdRp2dGyGZu8F3ub48W7HJ9/colorful-1237242_960_720.png</div>
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<div class="text-justify">When meditating emotionally, there are two ways to do it. The first way is to generate a feeling by using your thinking. We first think about a reason or a cause for a certain emotion and then experience it. When we get to the point where we are in fact feeling joy or love or anything else, the purpose is to stay in that feeling as long as we can. The other way to do it is to generate an emotion without thought. </div>
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<center><h2>Want to feel love?
Feel it.</h2></center>
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<div class="text-justify">This is a trickier approach and it does require some practice and determination but it is reachable. You can get experienced enough in controlling your emotion to feel anything whenever you want. You can be in meditation and feel any emotion just by wanting to feel it. You will create it without your thoughts being involved. This happens when you reach a point in mental meditation where there are no thoughts whatsoever and you start using only your emotional self but be careful, this too has some things you should be aware of.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">When you reach a certain level of mindfulness and start functioning with your emotional self, you can either be a creator of emotions or the receiver of them. You can generate them or experience those that are not your own. How can you feel something that is not your own? Easy. At some point <b>you become more</b>, remember? That "more" can include feeling things that are from others, not from yourself. It all depends on your level of control and on your intention. You could decide that you want to sense emotional footprints of others and welcome them into your experience or you can decide how that is something that does not interest you and generate your own emotions. You are always the one that is in control.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">The best way to start meditating emotionally is to pick an emotion and try to generate it. You can think about things that will give you that emotion or listening to music for help. When you start feeling it, try to stop thinking about it and only feel it as long as you can. In time, you can mix mental with emotional meditation or go on with mental meditation and switch to emotional when thoughts become silent. You are always the one who will choose and experience what works best for you. There is no one correct way to meditate just as there is no one correct way to live. Remember that and enjoy your journey.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">The only purpose of meditation is to feel good. We meditate because it gives us peace, rest and teaches us how to be better when we are not meditating. Meditation helps us to be more healthy, calm and awaken. It transforms us into more loving and present beings that are in touch with ourselves and everything that surrounds us. It unlocks our full potential and allows us to tap into the energies that we are usually not able to. All of that can be achieved only if you follow your own intuition, there is no better teacher of meditation than yourself.</div>
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<div class="text-justify">I am not saying you should not listen to other people or accept their help. There are great lectures, teachers, and books you can use but think of them as helpers and guides, not teachers. You are your own teacher because no one knows what you are experiencing better than you. You know what you are thinking and you know what you are feeling. Listen to your inner self and follow your own path. Keep in mind that enjoyment is a must. The goal is to feel good and if you feel any discomfort or do not like something, change what you are doing. You should enjoy your meditation journey and it should bring you joy and relaxation. Meditate in a way that feels good to you and do not stress too much about is that way correct or not. If it feels good, it is the correct way. Let that be your only mission, to feel good. As the people from Mission impossible movies would say <b><i>This is your mission, if you choose to accept it...</i></b></div>
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<center><h2>Until next time,
KEEP YOUR SMILE ON</h2></center>
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<h6>Image sources:<br>
<div class="text-justify">
 - all images used in this post are from pixabay and are free for personal and commerical use, you can check them out by following these links: <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/face-head-empathy-meet-sensitivity-985965/">geralt </a>, <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/colorful-prismatic-chromatic-1237242/">GDJ  </a>, <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/hands-holding-embracing-loving-718562/">johnhain </a>, <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/yoga-yoga-pose-pose-body-fitness-2150140/">3333873 </a>, <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/head-man-person-people-face-2379686/">ElisaRiva </a>, <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/mental-health-cranium-head-human-3350778/">GDJ </a>, <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/meditation-mindfulness-nature-3480815/">Binja69 </a>& <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/awakening-emergence-transcendence-675330/">johnhain </a><br>
- heart image in my titles is from pixabay  and is under CC0 licence (free for private and commercial use) , you can check it out <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/hearts-colorful-watercolor-1994273/">here</a></h6></div>
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<h2>PROUD MEMBER OF:</h2>

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