From the valley the mountain top seems far and unreachable. It holds great power and looms over those below. It's beauty is inspiring yet overwhelming. As you begin to overcome your fear, you approach the mountain. It begins to lose some of it's magic and grandeur. You may even loose sight of the mountain top, but eventually, you reach the top, realizing you are in the midst of it's power. You are having a mountain top experience.

You look below from where you had just come from and see the valley. It appears different in it's expanse and splendor. It is surrounded and protected by the mountains. You soon realize that mountain top experiences are simply the ability to look at where you were once from a different perspective and so it is with life. Looking at your valleys from a different perspective and seeing the splendor and grandeur in them.

Meditation can take various forms. People use it to achieve various goals or end points. I can only talk about my experience of meditation. For me, meditation helps me focus, it places things into perspective. That is what the mountain top poem is relating. Nature has a way of teaching me spiritual lessons and meditation brings them into focus.

Meditation helps me appreciate the moment by moment pieces of my life. Contrary to general opinion , meditation does not dull or lull your senses. It brings you into a heighten state of awareness and allows you to appreciate where you are at a given time in order to take that moment in.

Author Caroline Myss, talks about where you have your energy or spirit plugged in to . In any given day, we plug in to people, disputes, controversy, fear, love , passion... We need to take account of all things we have plugged in to and call our energy or spirit back. Meditation does that for me.

Mindfulness meditation is a form of Buddhist meditation in which you are present in each moment. You are conscious of what is happening from without and within . In these moments you can touch the fruit of understanding and love and can heal your inner wounds. By concentrating on your breath, the inhalation and exhalation, you are always focusing on the moment.

My favorite meditation is by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Pick a form of meditation that you feel is right for you, trust your intuition . If walking works, then use walking, being conscious of each step. For some, a meditative state can be achieved by jogging. I find it hard to keep the thoughts from running a muck while I try to meditate, so I have just recognized them and then let them pass by.. We are so use to having constant chatter in our head that we find it hard to stop it. So just let the thoughts come into view and pass by, and continue. People think that mediation takes hours, well if you want to you can meditate that long. But mindfulness can be done any time and in short periods. I may be in traffic and I will begin to concentrate on my breath and repeat the meditation above.

Over time you will be able to achieve a relaxed heightened state of awareness in a short time. Although it does take practice. I hope I have at least made you think about meditation and where it may fit in your life.

A book I would highly recommend is "Living Buddha, Living Christ". It is a deep book with lots of insight.

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