Meditation

Meditation is commonly confused with various forms of concentration. Purity of the mind achieved during meditation is essential to gain access to Higher Self. There are a few techniques for meditation. A word or phrase also known as Mantra is repeated mentally to help us achieve and maintain a "blank" state of mind. Contrary to popular belief, promoted by people who attract followers or charge money to teach meditation, mantra has no sacred "meaning" and no mantra is essentially better than any other.   
 Mantra is a very simple thought. This thought is used to replace any thought that may come to our mind. Every time a thought comes during meditation, we use mantra to replace it. 
When we practice meditation regularly using the same mantra (whatever it is), soon we train our mind to associate the mantra with a calm meditative state. Changing mantras may be considered useful only in special situations, for example when we want to eliminate an undesirable meditation habit, preventing us from achieving a deep meditative state, and the existing mantra is identified as related to that habit. The best teachers will take time to give people individual mantras rather than teach everyone the same mantra. Mantras are usually composed from alternative vowel and nasal sounds and may contain several words. It is best if mantra is an exotic word or a series of words not encountered in everyday conversation.  The posture during meditation is also important to take a comfortable meditation posture.   
 A few alternate nostril yoga breaths is very helpful at the beginning of this stage - breathing in through one nostril and breathing out through another, closing nostrils with fingers and altering closed nostril with each breath. One of many benefits of meditation is that it opens your mind to new ideas. Meditation is a very effective technique for improving your creativity and problem solving capacity. Giving the mind a regular "break" and allowing our Nature to perform self-repairs everyday makes all the difference.