1) Set aside "Official" time each day to be still (2x per day if you can!)
2) Stretch - this begins the 'going inward' process and brings your attention to the body
3) Focus on the breath - as this aids in centering you and relaxing you for meditation
4) Be purposeful - focus your attention on a single thing.
5) Be aware of how you are feeling. If you start to feel frustrated, release that frustration, focus on your breathing and gently turn your attention back to your item or topic you started out to focus on.
6) Try out different meditation methods - no 'one way' is right for everyone. Experiment and see what ways work for you...try lying down, sitting in a chair, sitting on the floor, with music, without music, try different kinds of music, guided meditations...mantra, breath work etc.
7) As your mind get quiet, focus on your toes - then slowly move up your body. Be aware of how each part of your body feels in that moment.
8) Create a meditation space. Even if you only have room in a corner - make it special with candles and anything else that helps you to feel calm.
9) Read a book (or several!) on mediation. See what your local library has if you don't want to buy the books before you know if they will help you. Take your time reading them.
Osho : One Zen monk, Bokuju, was passing through a street in a village. Somebody came and struck him with a stick. He fell down, and with him, the stick also. He got up and picked up the stick. The man who had hit him was running away. Bokuju ran after him, calling, ”Wait, take your stick with you!”
He followed after him and gave him the stick. A crowd had gathered to see what was
happening, and somebody asked Bokuju, ”That man struck you hard, and you have not said anything!”
Bokuju is reported to have said, ”A fact is a fact. He has hit, that’s all. It happened that he was the hitter and I was the hit. It is just as if I am passing under a tree, or sitting under a tree, and a branch falls down. What will I do? What can I do?”
But the crowd said, ”But a branch is a branch, this is a man. We cannot say anything to the branch, we cannot punish it. We cannot say to the tree that it is bad, because a tree is a tree, it has no mind.”
Bokuju said, ”This man to me is also just a branch. And if I cannot say anything to the tree, why should I bother to say anything to this man? It happened. I am not going to interpret what has happened. And it has already happened. Why get worried about it? It is finished, over.”
This is the mind of a sage – not choosing, not asking, not saying this should be and this should not be. Whatsoever happens, he accepts it in its totality. This acceptance gives him freedom, this acceptance gives him the capacity to see. These are eye diseases: shoulds, should nots, divisions, judgments, condemnations, appreciations.
Source: “Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi” by Osho
