I really really want to be able to meditate properly however I am struggling, I just cant seem to get to grips with it at all, any hints or tips for me?? I tend to either halfway through or get really fidgety and then that just breaks my concentration completely

I was the same when I first started meditating, the main thing is not to be too hard on yourself. I found guided imagery mp3's helped lots in the beginning as it helped me to focus so that stopped the fidgety feelings, another thing you might like to try is gazing softly at a lit candle for a short period of time say 5 min to start and then build up to a longer time over the course of your attempts. Try to just observe your thoughts coming and going without actually following them on too rather than trying to banish thoughts as this is nigh on impossible unless you are extremely skilled or experienced at meditation!

I found that just doing a short amount every day even if its only 10 minutes helps to programme your mind to expect times where you want to shut up the chatter and enjoy peace and stillness lol but it takes time so dont give up just little and often will make all the difference x

I think I get what you mean about the thoughts (where is the scratching head smilie when you need it ) Thanks for your suggestions, I will give the candle thing a try and search for some mp3's online to try out before I buy any

youtube is a good place for getting meditations and free podcasts from itunes there is also a website http://meditation.org.au/ they do a free daily meditation. Also if you go onto Chill website (i think its called helpmechill.com) they have free downloadable meditations too - and they are quite short which may help you get into it.

The best thing i have found just lately is healing sound frequency meditations on youtube. they sound abit odd but you can watch a colour patern vidoe thing while you listen and i have found it really helps me get into the right place quiet quickly

let us know how you get on

Thank you for the links, off to look on you tube now

lets us know how you get on

The Binaural Beats are an excellent, cheap and quick way to get meditative results.
Following a bit of research I found that there are loads of products on the market offering "meditation machines" flashing lights in the eyes, headphones, sound generators - all UTTER UTTER CRAP!!

SO - go here http://uazu.net/sbagen/sbagen-win-1.4.4.exe

Download and run this file (I have run EVERYTHING through Kaspersky virus checker and all is good)

After installation you will find an examples directory on your desktop, and you can play any of the SBaGen sequence files inside it by double-clicking on them. Stop a sequence by using Ctrl-C. If you want to edit a sequence instead of playing it, right-click and select "Edit sequence". If you want to write a sequence to disk as a WAV file (out.wav), right-click and select "Write to WAV".

Every new version of SBaGen now installs in two places -- into the Program Files directory, and also into an examples directory on the desktop. The examples directory is never uninstalled because it is there for you to edit and make modifications to. Feel free to move these example files to other locations, or copy or rename them.

I've never used anything for meditation. I'm not too keen on all the extras that one could use, which isn't to say they might not help.

I tend to use a mantra simply because I was into TM in my youth. But I've also used the "just not thinking" method.

I've found the if you accept the irritability and distractions, then meditation works even if you feel it wasn't a "good" time. It's a sort of resigned, "I'm not into it today but I'll do it".
If it really just isn't on, then do something else and don't punish yourself.

For deep meditation I first use "differential relaxation" to completely rest my body. It's a technique used in auto hypnosis but it is a relaxation technique in its own right. Sometimes I end up falling asleep, but that's OK, because I obviously need it.

In the end don't get in a frazzle over it. You'll get there if you're gentle with yourself.

Bob