Meditation: Finding Your Safe Place

Learning to meditate can be a confusing, frustrating and difficult task. The most important thing to remember is not to make it more difficult then it has to be. I find that one of the main problems when people are beginning to learn meditation is that they over think, over research and generally make a very simple process too complicated. Remember, life is simple; strive to keep everything as simple as life. In this spirit let us start the process of learning to meditate.
The key to learning meditation is to find a place where you can be alone, comfortable and most importantly undisturbed. There are many that falsely believe that you have to be sitting in a certain position to properly meditate, nothing could be further from the truth. You need to have your mind clear and free, not thinking how much your back is bothering you or that your leg is falling asleep. So after you have a quiet place the next thing is to find a body position that is going to work for you. Once you are comfortable you can begin your exercises. The first exercise is simple just close your eyes, take a deep breath and exhale slowly while you relax your body. Feel your muscles loosen and the tension ease away. You may have to take more than one session to learn how to totally relax your body and that is ok. You are an individual and this process is as unique as you are. Once you have mastered how to totally relax and let go you will begin to benefit from your sessions and you will be ready to move on.
The most important step in your meditation process is to find your safe place. In your mind you want to create a place that feels right to you. Think how you want it to look. What you will hear, smell, taste and feel. You should put all your imagination into creating this place. What you are creating is your safe place and your doorway into other places that will allow you to accomplish many goals. You will use this place every time you meditate no matter what outcome you seek you will always start and finish in this safe place. You want to spend as much time as needed in creating this place. You can only consider yourself done when your safe place has become as real and solid to you as the world around you now. This process can take a month or 5 years each person is different. It's also going to depend on how much time and effort you are willing to put forth and how open you allow yourself to be.
Within your safe place you will need to form a doorway. This doorway will be your exit into other places, times and events. The door can be a cave, a staircase leading up or down, perhaps a mirror it's up to you. What you see in your minds eye is what will be right for you. You can incorporate this doorway in your worlds design or after you have established a world. The point is to make the doorway as real and solid as you can. A helpful tip is to allow yourself to feel air or to see light coming from the door.
Each meditation session you will practice this exercise until you don't have to work at it. When you close your eyes with the desire to meditate you will be in this place. It will become automatic. You will be able to see your doorway, feel it. You will be able to move around your world and create or change whatever you desire. Nothing can ever hurt you here and you must feel that comfortable and it must be that real. You are god in your safe place; you are in control.
This process will take time. All things take time and each of us moves in our own pace. You must keep practicing and practice often. You will need to overcome the noises your mind makes. You will have to fight sleep and you will have to make your safe place real. This is all done by practice and time.
I know that right now this might sound very hard and perhaps even impossible. That is because you are thinking and making it more difficult then it has to be. Do not think about, it just do it. Allow your mind to explore; let your imagination run free. Then you will be able to explore further into meditation and the wonderful possibilities that have opened up for you.