Title:           Pranayama meditation. Breathe until success.
Author:          Anonymous
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/0DCVHQRA
First Edit:      Tuesday 16th of October 2012 02:22:51 AM CDT
Last Edit:       Tuesday 16th of October 2012 02:22:51 AM CDT

Pranayama meditation is one of the easiest and simplest forms of meditation to learn, since it's entirely based on breathing. The name Pranayama meaning "extension of the breath". If you ignore all the religious and spiritual connotations, it boils down to a very simple process.
 
1. Find a relatively dark, quiet room where you know you won't be disturbed for the next 15-30 minutes.
 
2. Sit either with your legs crisscrossed like the stereotypical meditation pose, or with both legs straight out in front of you. You'll want to sit on a pillow or cushion for support, because it's hard to ignore discomfort at first.
 
3. Now close your eyes and take a few deep breathes. Breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth.
 
4. When you breathe in, focus on the feeling of air entering your nose, the cold feeling of it going into your throat, and through to your lungs. Pay attention to your lungs expanding as the air enters them. Hold the air in for a few seconds, and let it out, doing the same process as you exhale. Repeat this as long as you possibly can. It becomes a little easier every time you do it.
 
5. Inevitably you're going to have intrusive thoughts popping up. Although most people say to ignore them, I find it's easier to acknowledge them for a moment, before returning your focus to your breathing. As you continue through your meditation session, you should be getting less and less thoughts popping up, and the ones that do should be harder to notice.
 
6. Continue to do step 4, while doing step 5 whenever is necessary for the whole session. The first few sessions are sometimes hard to maintain. Eventually you'll want to go for anywhere from 10-30 minutes as is necessary by gradually building up the length of your meditation session.