Yesterday I decided to brush up on "how to meditate" by doing a little Google research. I settled on a "Zazen" site (seated meditation) and decided to be a little more traditional.
I usually sit in a chair by my bed with my feet propped up on the bed. This works because one of my legs was injured and doesn't cross like meditators do. But according to the Zen meditation site, the way I've been doing it is not likely to work.
So, I rearranged myself with my feet on a pillow, sitting straight up with my hands in the recommended position (both hands palm up, with the left hand cradled in the right hand, thumbs connected at the tip.)
The recommended position for the head is straight up with the chin slightly tucked in. They recommend keeping your eyes very slightly open.
I did my best to get in that position and maintain it. That took quite a bit of my attention since I've not been doing it. I found that keeping my eyes slightly open, looking downward without really focusing on anything was way too hard. I will come back to that one.
They also recommended the practice of counting your breaths from one to ten and then starting over. I'm not very good at that either, but today I worked on it.
I read somewhere that checking out your body at the beginning of meditation is a good practice. So when I did that today I found all sorts of achy spots and rearranged myself several times to get rid of them. It seems to me that it would be a good idea to do that several times a day.
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