Do you ever become mentally overwhelmed by the amount of tasks you have to complete on your daily to-do list? Do you find yourself feeling as though there are not enough hours in the day to collect your thoughts and have a sense of peace? This short and simple 3 day plan for RELAXING YOUR MIND THROUGH MEDITATION, will give you a jump start to developing mental focus via meditation and enhancing your relationship with God, through His divine Word!

By definition, to meditate is to “think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.”

The art of meditation is a powerful resource that we all have access to. Once we allow ourselves to delve into this method of relaxation, it will provide us with a sense of relief from any turmoil that we may be experiencing at a particular moment in time.

In my original blog post DISCOVERING YOU, I briefly touched on meditating and how starting with 30 minutes of meditation each day could eventually expand into extended periods of meditation and peaceful thinking. I received many wonderful responses from individuals who were in a sound place with their daily meditations! They found meditation to be very effective and highly beneficial to their everyday lives. I applaud those individuals for taking such vital steps towards meaningful meditation periods each day! Conversely, there were several other people who were eager to begin daily meditation sessions, but they were not quite sure how to start and how to stay consistent. For those people, I will share my top 3 suggestions for daily meditations.

Day 1/Suggestion 1- Schedule at least 3 mandatory meditation periods per day. When I started meditating many, many years ago, I was under the impression that a few quick minutes of down time each day would keep me energized, high-spirited, and ready to change the world!! My goodness was I incorrect. Initially, I would have stressful and overwhelming meditation sessions. I would not give myself enough time to meditate and I would enter into meditation sessions with a laundry list of things I wanted to focus on and there was not one thing that was relaxing about that. I decided to break meditating down in 3 simple increments and I would like to encourage you to do the same. First, be proactive about meditating first thing each morning before you exit your bed, then during the afternoon/midday and finally in the evening before you drift off to sleep. During each session, focus on the silence in the room and clear your mind of everything. Close your eyes, and center your thoughts towards positive things and people who matter to you. Challenge yourself to hold your thoughts on those positive things only, without allowing your thought processes to shift outside of that. If by chance you begin to ponder on your busy daily schedule or to-do list…take a brief moment to regroup your thoughts and focus back in on a clear mindset. Sounds relaxing right?! It certainly is. I too, went through these steps and at this period in my life, meditation comes naturally to me all throughout the day and that makes for beautiful resting for my soul.

On this day, open your meditation period up with this prayer- Father God, please open my heart, soul and mind up to You. Give me a receptive spirit to hear Your Word and to apply the instructions that You give me to my daily life. Please clear my mind and allow me to focus and meditate on Your Word. I appreciate YOU and I thank you. Amen.

Read and study scriptures from Joshua Chapter 1 vs. 1-9 prior to today’s meditation period.

Meditate for 30 minutes after scripture reading.
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Day 2/Suggestion 2- During your 3 daily meditation periods, make the sessions all about you. There is a significant importance to devoting this time to ourselves. Please ensure that you are listening to your entire body (mentally, physically, and spiritually) and honing in on exactly what it is saying to you. Most often times in our lives and professions, we devote our time to helping others and giving a significant amount of our time to other individuals which is wonderful; however on occasion, we tend to neglect ourselves by not investing the appropriate amount of downtime into our lives. Make this time all about you until you have mastered it.

On this day open your meditation period up with this prayer -Dear God, as I prepare to meditate, please give me the strength and ability to continue to study Your Word and peacefully move forward through my day. Will you guide me and lead me through the path that you would like for me to go? Please continue to clear my mind as I work so diligently to come closer to You. I thank you Father. Amen.

Read and study scriptures from Psalm Chapter 19 vs. 1-14 prior to today’s meditation period.

Meditate for 30 minutes after scripture reading.
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Day 3/ Suggestion 3- Look forward to the next planned meditation session. For your health and well being, give yourself something positive to look forward to in your next meditation session. Once you are near a state of completion in meditation, start to transition your thoughts to focus on how you are feeling. Embrace the calmness and serene state that you are in. Lock those positive thoughts and feelings in and look forward to enhancing them at your next meditation time. This is bound to keep you motivated throughout your day.

Open today’s meditation session by sharing a special prayer created by you, with God.

Read and study scriptures from Philippians Chapter 4 vs. 1-9, prior to today’s meditation period.
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***Continue to meditate each day moving forward.***

Today’s writing is dedicated to my sweet baby nephews Daniel and Nathaniel 😇😇 January 23rd, 2017

Photo provided by MJB-O