you are way too young to remember the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Beatles.
anyway suddenly everybody wanted to know what Transcendental Meditation (TM) meant.
Benson wrote "The Relaxation Response" (RR) which is TM without some of the frills.
The proponents of each technique have been flinging feces at each other ever since.
my interest dates from 1975 when the New York Times wrote an article about RR and TM.
since then i have read lots and lots on the subject and have practiced a number of forms of meditation on a regular basis.
i guess that's over 40 years now.
I'm a believer.
when you have practiced meditation for a while you get a degree of perceived relaxation much like the sense of perceived exertion if you regularly monitor your physical exercise.
and just like physical exercise, one must do the drill in the early stages feeling foolish because nothing seems to be happening until the benefit begins to kick in and one knows this is working because one can feel it.
i think i have it down.
if you want the benefit of my experience, (cough, cough as in who the hell am I ?) tell me what they are telling you, and i'll let you know what i think.
in the meantime here is something that works really well for me.
this is timed to 28 minutes, which is almost optimal for 2x daily practice.
sit in a firm chair with your spine erect and your feet flat on the floor.
close your eyes.
relax your muscles.
especially relax (open) your sphincter. if you can relax your sphincter, and everything seems to let go, so to speak.
listen to this chant, and breath in tempo
belly breath 1 2
chest breath 3 4
Alleluia inhale 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 belly out 3 4 chest rises
al - le - lu - ya
Alleluia exhale 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 belly in/ 3 4 chest drops
get lost in the chant. it gets intricate and wonderful.
how is Dad doing ?
And so my week begins.