With meditation, you are shutting down the conscious part of your brain while staying aware. This allows for data to flow from your subconscious mind, and many things become possible.
The simplest way to experience meditation is to focus on your breathing. This is done by counting to a number during the in breath, and then counting to that number again during the out breath. The counting should be done slowly, and to a number you're comfortable with. The goal in this type of meditation isn't to get to high numbers
while breathing, just to be aware of your breathing. For this meditation exercise, you should be focusing on making your physical body relax, using PMR (Progressive Muscular Relaxation). This means that you start by relaxing your toes on the first breath, your feet and ankles for the next few breaths, moving up the body till you are totally relaxed. At this point, your body will begin to feel numb and you will feel very heavy. If you're familiar with meditation, this is the onset of a trance state.
I often get asked why anyone would want to experience meditation. People have different reasons, and I can only tell you my own. I learned how to meditate to quiet my mind and to stop thinking. Have you ever had a problem you just couldn't stop thinking about?
I used to stay up all night worrying about this and that, keeping myself awake because of my racing thoughts. Meditation to keep your thoughts in check is very important if you want to feel good about yourself. If you keep thinking about your
problems and worrying about what to do, you're only making things worse.
Now I'm not saying you should avoid your problems. That would be silly. However, thinking constantly about anything is NOT healthy. The mind needs time to relax in order to process new thoughts and ideas, and meditation can help you achieve this. When you're stressed out, getting a good night's sleep depends on being able to shut down your mind. An overactive mind will not get the rest it needs. 
Types of meditation:
Active Meditation
Active really means moving. Meditating while moving can be done during tai-chi or yoga; where graceful movements are combined with rhythmic breathing. I recommend qi-gong for those interested in active meditation. Buddhists use walking as an opportunity to meditate. Focusing on the physical movements while breathing rhythmically makes it almost impossible to think about anything else.
Passive Meditation
Sitting cross-legged, or standing and breathing. This is the classic meditation that everybody's seen. It is more difficult to do but it is useful for exploring deep mental states. For instance, if you wanted to go into a hypnotic state and recall things from the past.
The breath is the key. Once you have the breathing down, the rest is easy.
The method I use consists of breathing in to the count of 7, and breathing out during the same amount of time During the in-breath, I visualise white energy flowing into me. During the out-breath, I feel myself drifting into a heavier state. Each out-breath makes my muscles sink deeper and deeper into whatever I'm resting on.
This is a basic way of meditating, but there are many ways someone can meditate. Using visual stimulus such as a candle can add an element of concentration. Once you get into the deeper states, you need concentration
to be able to stay on the border of wakefulness/sleep. Try sitting cross legged (Or the lotus position if you can) facing a lit candle. Do the breathing excercise first while looking at the candle, then when you start to feel more relaxed, close your eyes but keep visualising the candle. Your ability to accurately picture in your mind something you've seen is a great asset in meditation. You don't need something visual however. If you aren't the visual type, keep trying to focus on the FEELING of sinking into the ground.
Hypnosis is a powerful tool that lets you explore your subconscious mind. By using hypnotic suggestions you will be able to reach deep states of relaxation.
Hynposis is a method of accessing the subconscious mind in order to give it suggestions. Hypnosis is mostly effective with relaxation suggestions, since it's a natural response to having too much stress.
Beyond Meditation has an audio hypnosis program designed to teach you to control your emotional states as
well as allow you to reach deep levels of relaxation and stress relief. By learning the self-hypnosis techniques taught on this 35 minute recording, you will be able to face any situation while remaining calm. Join the hundreds of others who have experienced the benefits of self-hypnosis, meditation and relaxation!
