Today is a good day to start meditation. I am listening to this

relaxation-music: chakrasuite

I am going to order this kit from Amazon:

Insight Meditation Kit

I have a friend who is an instructor and she had this to say to me:

Really the simplest form of meditation is to pay attention to the breath. You breath becomes your anchor. So when you sit you just observe your breath, is it warm, cool, long, short, deep etc..... you just observe without changing the breath....then your most likely (if you are human) your mind will wonder...bring it back to the breath, you will think about life, food, bills, your son, the weather, and then you will notice you are not paying attention to your breath, gently bring it back to paying attention to your breath, repeat over and over again...it is a practice and develops over time. The key is to practice,. What is happening behind the scenes is that you are actually creating NEW neuro pathways in your brain....new way of thought and being are created. (it is the science of mind) it is very mysterious in a way...after awhile , you can mediate longer and longer..

and after certain things that used to trigger you no longer have an affect on you... but it is not on a conscious level...it just happens ... so for example, someone cuts me off and my past behavior was to get triggered, speed after that person and yell...one day after meditating for awhile ...I just laugh now ... and then I realize that I did not react

well, it is simple...not easy. AND most people tend to get frustrated and start beating themselves up ...this is where compassion for oneself comes into play... that is why I say gently bring yourself back to the breath

so the the Insight CD will teach you how to anchor into the breath, then it moves to sounds, emotions, feelings, etc as anchors

after mediating for awhile , you will no longer perceive yourself as "under siege." the perception changes

the shit can still be hitting the fan but you will no longer need to bite