Feature: Void Meditation

Void meditation is what is known as "stilling the mind". This practice helps enable you to learn how to control your thoughts instead of your thoughts controlling you.

The overall goal of this is to turn off all of your thoughts at once and envelop yourself in the here and now. You get your mind to be completely still for a set amount of time.

In the beginning, this will feel extremely difficult but with time it will become easier and easier, as your "monkey mind" will fill your head with idle thoughts within a millisecond of you trying to calm it entirely. This is normal and should be somewhat expected. It is okay to fail while you are getting the hang of it, you aren't used to quieting your mind like this and it is a bit of a significant difference.

This method of meditation can make you fall asleep if you are tired. Please don't use this method while tired unless you are okay with the possibility of falling asleep during meditation.

This method is based on a method handed around occult practice IRC channels and is adapted from thispastebin link.
Please note that the pastebin link is written in more of an occult/magickal lens and as such will use in-lens terminology.

Background:

Given I am alert
And fully awake
And I am not under the influence of any substances
And no assumption about my meditative background

Scenario Outline: Relaxation

As a meditator
In order to relax
Given I can breathe without any issues
When I do $action
Then I do this for a count of $count
Then I feel just that little bit more relaxed
Then I continue

Examples:

action count
breathe in six
hold my breath six
exhale six

It is okay if you need to change the count for any reason, I that six is what works for me. Make sure the counts are uniform. If you feel uncomfortable while doing this technique, please stop and continue later.

Scenario: Focus on the here and now

As a meditator
In order to focus on the here and now
Given I am relaxed
And I have a time limit in mind
And I have set a timer of some kind for that limit
When I focus on the here and now
Then I completely blank my mind until the time limit is up
But if my focus strays away from the here and now
Then I pull myself back to the here and now

This part is the part that is kind of hard to describe, but effectively you need to root yourself so deeply into the current moment and nothing else. This is only as difficult as you believe it is, and as such gets easier with practice.