In regards to meditation.

I'm rather new to the idea of meditation, though I'm looking to try it. I hear it can help with anxiety and depression. My question here, are there any specific methods to meditation?
Or, to make things even more interesting, any sort of text explaining the Jedi meditation process?

I was inexperienced as well until very recently, and THIS LINK proved to be a very helpful starting point.

There are a lot of different methods to try, but for me the guided meditations were the easiest to start with. They will teach you basic breathing exercises and help you to get a basic feel for sitting in meditation. The Insight Timer app is a great resource for these if you have a device you can access it with.

I'm by no means an expert, but these have worked for me so far. I also try to post updates in my journal every week or so and encourage my Master and others to hold me accountable when I start slacking off

There are millions of different ways to meditate. Take some time to find what's right for you and what's helps u personally. U like to cook?

I'm not naturally good at meditation (something I'm hoping to improve on by joining the Jedi Order, ha ha!) But lately I started VERY small: I downloaded a nice little meditation app that plays a gentle gong at your choice of intervals. I set it for 5 minutes with a gong every minute and 3 gongs at the end. Right before bed, I turn on the app and sit quietly for 5 minutes. Usually, I either focus on deep even breathing (counting the seconds that each breath takes) or focus on my heartbeat and feeling the blood running through me. And if my mind wanders, the gongs at each minute help to refocus me.

5 minutes isn't long, but it's a start, and something I can maintain. I never have an excuse why I can't take 5 minutes before bed!

Good luck, and may the Force be with you!

Early on in my time here, I threw together a little post about meditation and some of the common mistakes that people make starting out. Also of interest is this video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjelIPg3ys
which is pretty awesome at explaining the "goal" of meditation in the beginning (if it can be said to have a goal.)

Anything that reaches that place is meditation. Experiment! Get familiar with yourself and try different things, and see what works for you. We're all here to answer questions and help, too.

OddityOfFates wrote: I'm rather new to the idea of meditation, though I'm looking to try it. I hear it can help with anxiety and depression. My question here, are there any specific methods to meditation?
Or, to make things even more interesting, any sort of text explaining the Jedi meditation process?

There are as many different ways to meditate as there are people who do it. It's rather crazy overwhelming when you first look into it. I would recommend that if something catches your eye, try it. If you have nothing in mind yet, I have a half-formed theory that your preferred learning style (auditory/visual/tactile) is a good place to start.

Also don't forget that there are things without the word "Meditation" attached to them that also can give the same effect. Many repetitive crafts (knitting, cross stitching, chainmaille), coloring, hiking, running, walking, yoga, and the like can also be very meditative.

For me the first thing was to learn to quieten both the body and mind and let any sounds and thoughts happen like rain on the roof, with you inside of that perception as a state of uniform pure awareness being two parts, the awake awareness settling like a calm pond while capable of reflecting its environment with its essence being actually the water not its reflection, and the unknown required subconscious processes (autonomic nervous system) perhaps the fish swimming around or whatever analogy you like
:silly:

Then I contrasted that with another stage, a focus meditation, which was the same as above except with eyes open to fixate on one visual point - using the same principles to detach myself from perception but now also adding narrow margin of visual perception.
After that I stepped it up to adding normal vision more generally, and subsequantly more complex visual and auditory scenes, till finally adding in simple movements and more complex movements until it permeated all action. Then I shifted it into dream's by trying to increase lucidity, but I'm talking over 20 years of practise and it seems important to make experiential progress at each stage before moving on, for best results.

The eventual outcome of this was a greater awareness of my own turbulent energies, being both subconscious currents and conscious winds shaping the experience of awareness, eventually leading to an overall synergy between those two states of consciousness which give the appearance of both informing and empowering the conscious experience in subtle ways. It was not a particularly linear progression though, since our psychologies are just a little bit complex
:blink:

Adder wrote:
Then I contrasted that with another stage, a focus meditation, which was the same as above except with eyes open to fixate on one visual point - using the same principles to detach myself from perception but now also adding narrow margin of visual perception.

Ooo! I use that technique sometimes - a candle flame is REALLY good for this!

Meditation - the practice and discipline of becoming aware of how you feel, what your mind is doing, and the events of your surroundings, in order to develop independent control among each so we can function on a more stable basis in day to day life.

This can be achieved in a range of ways depending on your lifestyle and it's effects on you, from simply taking a couple of minutes every day to pay actual attention to what you are doing, feeling, and thinking, to entire elaborate rituals dedicated to removing you from the circus of your normal world and treating the effects of it that may be taking place with you at the time for the purpose of helping you regain control and attention back to yourself.

There are many good suggestions here. Just keep in mind that no one method is absolutely necessary and to let yourself experiment based on what you have the most trouble with. Meditation need not be an elaborate ritual unless you personally find it necessary for it to be for your circumstances.