Even if you are an experienced seated meditator, you may find value in enlarging your repertoire with a walking practice. You may discover that uniting three rhythms -- stepping, breathing and mental counting -- is the most effective way to calm and redirect a chattering mind.

Learning how to center yourself and slow down the mind is an invaluable aspect of health. Meditation is an excellent tool for learning how to be present.

As the first song came to a conclusion, I absorbed the smells of patchouli oil and pine and felt the warmth of the humidity created by our collective breath and body heat in the small contained space.

When I sit down to meditate a crazy cacophony of ideas vie for attention, each one more urgent than the last. These ideas are like demons that need to be released into the air or they will undermine my ability to function.

To help us stay "soul conscious," try living your days by a quote or a mantra. When we communicate with people, our words carry a vibration. Words carry the energy of the feeling behind it.

Meditation is a companion to have throughout life, like a best friend we turn to when things get hard to deal with and we are in need of inspiration, clarity, and even inner happiness.

Some people think that their thoughts and feelings are the result of something outside of them. They blame others or a situation for "making them" feel a certain way, as if the thought came from outside and got in their head. We know this isn't true.

Meditation is complete indulgence in the experience of the present moment. We often think of indulgent behavior as being morally wrong, which it can be when it comes at the expense of a deeper connectedness.

What we believe colors our every thought, word and action. The idea that it is our work, family or lifestyle that is causing us stress, and that if we were to change these then we would be fine, is seeing the situation from the wrong perspective.

When we increase real, pure love, we increase self worth, balance, power, and truth inside the self. When I am in that state, a natural sense of worth and authenticity returns and a deep memory that "I am love" and "I am free" emerges.

When we meditate we aim to reduce the impact of "waste thoughts," allowing real genuine thinking to take over our mind. Negative and waste thoughts weaken our inner state of being, and positive and necessary enhance the soul's original inner power.

What I have included in this practice is the essence of the meditation: walking and listening. We, the everyday non-monastics, can modify this practice to be suitable for daily life.

When you speak with someone, you actually speak to the soul. Inside of every soul are experiences of past, present, and even the future.

I learned how to meditate and process disturbing memories and emotions. I healed in ways I never could have imagined. I'm a monk in a minivan now, driving through the suburbs of New York with a peacefulness and clarity I could never have imagined I could access.

At its core, meditation is nothing more than the opportunity to enter the space between the thinker and the thought, which lets us to know that we are more than our mental meanderings.

To anyone first coming to meditation they can be met with a plethora of advice and techniques that is enough to baffle and confuse. Where to go? What to do? Which is best? How to start?