Welcome to Gaia! ::

Meditation in the most simple way of explaining it is the concentration of sounds. It doesn't have to be an elaborate process, it can last five minutes if you want. I try to do short sessions everyday, less than ten minutes each depending on how far I need to go to calm my nerves.

I start with the loudest noise, often the closest background noise in the area. Sometimes it's a radio or something rather annoying. [This could be a machine or even a cricket, depending on where you are.] You stick to that sound until something else catches your attention, a second noise blending with the first one often. Don't try to take both of them at the same time, it'll just distract you. Meditation is kind of like using distractions to keep your attention in one place. You're sitting still but your mind is wandering.

With this, you're taking small noises and listening to them until they're loud enough to hear something new. The first noises will fade when you move on, become less noticeable and make you aware of the smaller things. Suddenly the smaller things make more sense. After you run out of noises to approach, you divert your attention back to where you started before you began.

I use this one when I'm sitting at stop lights. I don't recommend doing it all too often in front of the computer. It's something small to think about.

Meditation: I can't keep concentration very well, and I'm not sure exactly what to expect. How do I know when I'm doing it right?

What to expect? Well, these things are hard to describe in words, but I'll attempt to describe how I sometimes feel. When I hit a decent meditation state, my mind is basically blank and there is this odd sensation that is just... really hard to describe. It is the feeling of sheer silence... of balance or neutrality within the world. A quietude. There is also an energy to it... a focus. Sometimes if I open my eyes after attaining such a state, I get a brief bout of dizziness or out-of-body-ness... I've drawn so far inside that when I take in the oustide world again it takes a while to register mentally.

I guess... you'll just know it when you hit it. You'll feel different than you did before. It's an altered state of consciousness... you'll just know when you get there. confused

Visualization: I can get an image in my head fairly well, the problem is keeping it there. Also, same problem as meditation, I'm not entirely sure where the balance is between imagining something there and actually seeing it (which I've never been able to do).

What do you mean by seeing? Visualization is NOT as externalized as some think it should be for if it is, then you're hallucinating (aka, mentally disordered), not visualizing. What you want is sight in the mind's eye. In other words, you can visualize your spirit guide in front of you, but s/he isn't physically THERE in the sense that others could see it or even that you see it. But they are there in the mind's eye or as a presence. Imagining something IS visualization. exclaim

Meditation is one of those things that I have always thought varies from person to person, because techniques that work for some people do not always work for others. For example, I prefer someplace quiet to meditate. Some people prefer soft sounds to meditate. My advice would be to expirement with different scenarios to see what it most comfortable for you. Also, expirement with different places.

As for what to expect, that also varies from person to person. As has probably been stated several times before, you will know when you find it. Kind of like when you are looking for something special for someone, but you do not know what it is until you see it.

i usually first put all my focus going into state of nothingness, there i stabilize my mind and start visualizing things from scratch.
once you master visualization, you can enter different realms, dimensions and surf through time. of course its not like right in front of your eyes, its more of like symbolic feeling coming inside from you, as if you're in trance and totally lost from the outer world.