Hello! I started this topic to explain my view about meditation and to listen o your opinions about it.
People are used to think that meditation is something supernatural and when somebody tells them about it, they think of such things like yoga, Chinese medicine, eastern culture and others.
In fact they don’t realize that meditation is not so far from reality. Yes, it appears in eastern world, it is an important part of yoga training, but it also exists in our everyday life.
For me, meditation is a process which occurs every time when I think about something in solitude. It does not depend on what subject I think about, but it depends on how I think.
My personal way of meditation is based on some principals: silence, patience and concentration.
Silence – I think it is the most important element when we talk about meditation. Why is it the most important? Because it is a basement for other principles like patience and concentration. I mean we can not be patient and concentrated when there is a noise which bother us. Of course it is my personal opinion about full silence, because other people like to practice meditation with a good music or nature sounds.
The second principle which is necessary for me to have a good and productive meditation is patience. I like to be very relaxed when I think about something in solitude. I put all my stress and troubles away and try to feel the moment. Usually I choose a room where is nobody around and where are not any disturbing things. I also recommend you to go outside, in a forest or in a park to practice meditation. Why outside? The answer is clear, there is air which refreshes your mind, there is sun energy which gives you inspiration and nature sounds which can be very pleasant for some people.
Now I want to go to the last principle I have mentioned. It is concentration. To accomplish this necessary principle I try always to think in solitude. Only solitude gives me the possibility of my mind concentration. I is very important to be concentrated on the idea you think about. It doesn’t matter what kind of idea you have. You can think about your health, about your work deals or about your family.
So this was the way I practice meditation. I also would like you to write how do you practice it and which are your principles.

I started practising of meditation just a year ago. Because I was in very depressive mood. I spoke with friends, went to the doctor but nothing really helped me. Every day I felt more and more depressed. So I decided to change my life and recall about meditation. A friend of mine ones told that it really helped him in hard times.
I stared with looking at the fire for 10 minutes and then I meditated by focusing on the breath and rosary.
By the way, at the beginning of meditation I didn't really want to sit, it was detrimental to the soul, but after approximately a week I felt that it did really helped and I could meditate for hours.
The hardest part was to not think at all. A lot of thoughts came to my mind without asking me.
And only after a month of meditation a felt that I could fully relax and stopped thinking.
And happily I felt happiness and no depression.
Unfortunately now because of work and family reasons I don't have a lot time for meditation. But if I have free time I practice meditation with the great pleasure.

I don’t meditate every day, but try to meditate at list one time per week. I think it is not enough, because our life has a lot of events and we have to give more rest for our brain, but meditation exactly is rest of our brain. When I begin meditate I try to relax my body and mind. It is not so easy at the begin, but then after some fight with thoughts, they recede. And it is my finally goal: to seat without thoughts and try to listen silence. It is harder than seems at the begin, because in our daily life we have a lot of little and big problems, different thoughts and push it all on the back of our consciousness it is not so easy.
After meditation I feel fresher, like I had a big holiday. And it gives me more energy for doing my daily work. But important moment we shouldn’t asleep during meditation, because it lost all sense. If you are tired and want some rest go and sleep, but if you want to feel fresher and to clear your mind, then go to meditation.
Also meditation help me to find an exit from difficult situation. For example when you have a situation and don’t know how to resolve it, you don’t have to think about it all day and all night. Maybe you should to get away from it, take a rest, meditate and solution will come itself. And often after all this I think how easy solution was and I don’t understand how I can’t seeing it before.
Also important moment is concentrating on breathing. Correct breathing calms, leads to improvement healthy of body, etc. The monks say that any disease can be cured with the help of breathing. Also I pay attention, that after a long meditation with correct and deep breathing I notice that my mood changed. I begin more relaxed and balanced. I reacted on problems calm and don’t get angry for any reason. It is important to breath correct, not only during meditation, but also in our daily life, to prevent stress and to react correct in extreme situation.

I can't deny my sceptical point on view upon meditaion and stuff like this, but after going to some Yoga classes I unserstood a lot. First it was so difficult for me, than we had to meditate about 15-20 minutes with candles and music...and then there were tea ceremony. It was like a game for me. I was loughting sometimes when our Yoga teacher was teaching us how to meditate correctly and how useful is it. Little by little, I was tought to breath correctly, and I really felt this light effect of meditaion. I became really calm and started to keep my emotions under control. Wow, it is amazing.
Basically, what you need is to relax and to learn how to breath in a right way, then you just close your eyes, listen to that relaxing music and you feel so good! It is a feeling I can't really explain.It's a kind of flying and enjoying everything.
Now I am coming home and meditate. It helps me a lot in being calm all the time and control my emotions and my mind. Then I go and take a shower and I am sure I can easily overcome each problem and everything is possible. It is very important to stay calm and to believe in yourself.