"Cutting Edge  Information for the Modern Warrior"

Mention the word meditation and most people will think of someone sitting in the lotus position going ‘ohmmmmm’.  Whilst this image is true of some practitioners, you don’t need to adopt this position to meditate. 

Meditation put simply is the integration of mind and body – full concentration on what you’re doing at the time.   By extension, this means that if you’re totally absorbed in what you’re doing – you’re meditating!

The reason that meditation is so essential in achieving combat effectiveness is that when you gain the ability to quiet your mind and integrate it with your actions you gain the ability to act decisively and think clearly – the ability to do this in a combat situation will greatly enhance your chances of survival.

So, the question is ‘how do you bridge the gap between a clear head when sat quietly and a clear head when fighting for your life?’

Meditation allows the modification of our existing psychological state.  In effect, the mind can be trained as can a muscle. 

The key here is visualization.  After achieving a quiet mind when still, visualizing high stress situations vividly enough to induce physical reaction allows you to condition your mental response.

The visualization aspect is the concern of another article or two, therefore the rest of this article deals with how to meditate effectively when still.

HOW TO MEDITATE EFFECTIVELY WHEN STILL.

STEP 1. 

Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit.

Posture is important to effective meditation so straighten your spine.  If you lose your posture your concentration’s also gone.

Keep your neck upright and expand your shoulders.  Put your hands in your lap or anywhere that’s comfortable.  You should be tall and straight but relaxed NOT rigid.

STEP 2.

The core of meditation practice is breath control and abdominal breathing is what you need to learn.

Breathe in through the nose so that the lower abdomen expands and the chest stays still.  Exhale through the mouth and contract the abdominals so that abdomen falls.

Your breathing should be slow, deep and quiet

STEP 3.

Once you can do abdominal breathing you can employ the counting breaths method to focus the mind.

When starting out count “1” silently when you inhale, “2” when you exhale and so on up to “10” then repeat for as long as you desire. 

As your concentration improves, count “1” for a full exhalation and inhalation (count the “1” on the exhalation as the human body should exhale on an action – like punching for example) repeat this up to “10” and then repeat over and over.

Allow the whole of your consciousness to focus on the numbers and if you still have trouble with interrupting thoughts, ‘see’ your breath as mist in your minds eye and visualize it flowing in and out as you breathe.

NOTES

You can even meditate in bed as long as you keep a straight spine whilst lying down – so no excuses.  It can even help you sleep better by quieting your mind – try it just before you go to sleep and note the results.

The quality of your meditation is more important than the quantity.  5minutes of clear thought is endlessly better than 30minutes of distracted thought.

Try meditation like this for the next few weeks until the next issue of this e-zine comes out and shows you how to use visualization to increase your combat effectiveness even further.

Let me know how meditation affects other areas of your life – combateffective@aol.com