Meditation for the Soul

Meditation Meditation for the Soul for Soul

Happiness from within.

Happiness from within.

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Contents 5

Objective

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15

Types of Meditation

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Meditation

Supporting Client

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The History

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Misconception

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Pro and Cons

35

Design Solution

Visual Reference & Direction Sketches for Final Design Campaign Logo Development

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Final Design

Research Anaylsis

Series Removable Handle Implementations Ambient

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Target Audience SWOT Analysis

Design Rationale Conclusion Concept Development Tone/ Mood Board Communication Strategy

References

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Objective The aim of this project is to explore the roles played by the graphic communication within the context of social, political and ethical issues and broaden their involvement in a critical discourse.

In order to acheive this, the usage of appropriate graphic

design skills are to make a positive contribution to the society and educate both general public. In this case, it will be both sexes.

A production of the design project is to be shown through the concepts defined the in design rationale, that is

to be developed in a series of stages clearly showing the final design solution.

This book will reveal the topic’s background and a solution for creating an awareness to the society.

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med·i·tate [med-i-teyt] 1. to engage in thought or contemplation; reflect.

2. to engage in transcendental meditation, devout religious contemplation, or quiescent spiritual introspection. med·i·ta·tion [med-i-tey-shuhn] noun 1. the act of meditating.

2. continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation.

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Meditation Base on the dictionary meanings stated on the left, it is basically a practice where one seeks inner peace within his or her soul. Some may see this as a religious ritual and practice it by chanting mantras or other forms of meditation practice to attain his or her inner peace.

Others might use other techniques to apply on this practice just to get the soul to be at ease.

There are various methods and types of such meditation practices. However, every individual is different in the views of meditation.

Some may not even know what this practice is all about.

In this book, you will get to understand why meditation must be supported. Base on the research studies on this, an awareness must be created for the society to help one to seek peace in an effective way.

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The History Meditation has been around for more than thousand over years. There has been proof found in Indian artifacts of the history of the meditation called, “Tantra,� that speaks of such practices, dating back 5000 years.

In the history of meditation since 500 B.C, The Buddha has been a meditation icon.

The teachings from Him has become massively popular in the Asian continent where many countries adapted his techniques and started practicing different methods of meditation techniques.

Influencing His practices to other continents took a very long time; Western countries to be specific. It was during the mid-20th century when it started to be popular in the West. Researcher from 1960s-1970s began testing on the practice and gain the benefits on how one receives from meditating.

The benefits that were found by the researchers are the following pointers: 1. Assist to balance both mentally and physically.

2. Treats depression, stress and the anxiety.

3. Boost people up by increasing their self esteem.

4. Allows a person to think clearly and carefully.

From then till today’s world, meditation is continously being practiced. However, is it as popular as what it seemed to be base on the history found?

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Misconception When one meditates, it depends on how one practices it. In the era of The Buddha’s teachings were spread to the East, it was a form of a religious aspect. The Buddhists then took it very religiously and not many at that time would think or take it as a simple nonreligious method.

Base on Tony Sfeirs’s write up on meditation, one of the biggest misconceptions about meditation is that it is a religious act. Considering the origins of the practice, there are numerous forms of non-religious meditation that one can practice without using chants or mantras. He believes that one does not require to have pious thoughts to meditate. However, it’s up to the individual.

The second misconception that people assume is that people need to stop thinking.

According to Tony, one cannot stop thinking just like that.

The mind keeps on running.

Even when you sleep, you may be resting but the mind is still busy with thoughts.

Another misconception is the link with execises such as Yoga. He feels that one does not need to exercise in order to meditate correctly. Yoga by itself does not constitute meditation even though it assist relaxation and improves a person’s metabolism.

When one feels out of focus during meditation, Tony suggests that he or she must control their thoughts, in order for him or her to prevent the thoughts from going all over the place in a chaotic manner.

Tony mentioned that people give up meditating as their first session was not successful. Patience is the key to meditation and efforts of meditating will be rewarded.

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POSITIVE

NEGATIVE

1. Decrease tension levels.

2. Reduction of pain for headaches, asthma, hypertension, insomnia, excess sleep and etc.

3. Better ability to see humour in various situations.

4. Better focus and stability.

5. Less tendency of being frightened or paranoid easily.

6. Better understanding on oneself.

7. Allows one to have the ability to believe in himself/herself better.

1. Try to focus on too many things at one time during meditation.

2. Believing in meditation where expects it to grant instant wishes.

3. Anger and frustrations arises when one does not have a good day after meditating.

4. Lack of patience during meditation.

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Pros & Cons Base on the previous section, meditation seemed to be such a joyous and fruitful practice where one becomes a happy person at the end of the day.

However, there will be some cases where meditation can be a devilish act, depending on how one meditates.

It’s all about how one seeks the mind and tell it what to do during the process of meditation. It can lead to positive thinking or negative enough where one will start believing things that are vicious and create a massacre.

On the left, there is a table that shows the pros and cons of meditation. Base on the table, we can analyse for ourselves how meditation can affect our lives positively and negatively. One of the best parts of meditation is, it is FREE! One can practice this at any time of the day and still gain the positive benefits.

The only thing that might give a glitch would be the part where one might be impatient to sit for a number of minutes, being at a calm position and thinking about only one thing.

It will take a while to get used to such a practice. With effort and patience, one will receive benefits base on how he or she wants to see it.

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Types of Meditation Understanding from the history, The Buddha’s teachings spread towards various countries in Asia and it took a longer time to hit the West. Base on various influences, different methods of meditation have evolved from that era and practice till the current century.

Here are some of the traditional techniques use in meditation., of which you will be seeing in the next few turns.

Vipasanna Meditation It is one of the most ancient techniques found in India. It’s a meditation method where it can self-transform their mindsets and beliefs by selfobservation. It focuses on how one feels deep down and brings it out to cleanse and allow new beliefs to enter.

This results a person to be filled with love, care, compassion, and a balance mental state.

Transcendental Meditation It’s a meditation practice that takes about 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, bringing the mind to a source of thought. It is not a religion, philosophy or lifestyle. It’s basic practice where without much effort, one can still comfortably at your own chair to meditate.

Vipasanna Meditation Transcendental Meditation Colour Meditation Zen Meditation

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Colour Meditation Colour meditation base on seven different colours.

Each colour represents each type of energy that has the positive and negative aspects on how one see’s during the meditation practice. Colours are to be seen during the meditation practice and it denotes what colours are

affecting your life during the initial process of your meditation. It tells you how you might feel within with just the appearence of the colour.

Let’s see the different colours that associates with how colour meditation is practiced.

Negative: Selfishness, aggression and anger.

Negative: Hate, bitterness, own self dislikes.

Negative: Judgement, criticism, inability to enjoy life.

Positive: Courage, anticipation excitement and energy.

Positive: Forgiveness, freedom and enthusiasm.

Positive: Optimism, joy, newness to life and wisdom.

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White is a colour that produces qualities of perfection, truth, love and wholeness.It is a very pure colour and will assits in the balance of all negative traits and attitudes of a person.

Negative: Being jealous.

Positive: Love and caring, balance in life, symbolisies money.

Negative: Weak willed or easily led traits in the nature.

Negative: Frustration, criticism and lack of self worth.

Positive: Trust and decisiveness, solitude and properity.

Positive: Intuition, responsibility and peace.

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Zen Meditation Zen meditation functions centrally as the very heart of the practice. This method of practice involves several positions, which are displayed here, such as Burmese, Half Lotus, Full Lotus, Seiza and Chair positions.

Burmese In this position, the legs are to be crossed and both feet must be flat on the floor. Back posture will be upstraight and hands will be above your feet.

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Half Lotus This position showcases the similarity of the burmese posture. However, the knees are tucked inwards and one foot is resting on one thigh.

Posture at the back remains the same.

Full Lotus This is similar to the Half lotus but this time, both feet are up Seiza A method where one kneels to rest on the thighs. and use a bench for support of the back and knee.

Chair This method is the most comfortable method where you can sit on the chair to meditate. By having both feet flat on the ground and using a cushion to support the back posture, this will aid the meditating process.

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Supporting Client Vipassana Meditation Centre (Singapore) is one of the earliest Buddhist institutions to propagate and perpetuate the practice of Vipassana Meditation in Singapore. This centre was set up in 1993 as a non-profit organization with the Registrar of Societies.

The objective of this set up is to provide opportunities and a venue for all Buddhist and non-Buddhists, who are interested in studying and practising the Teachings of the Buddha.

This centre practices Vipassana Meditation (The Four Foundations of Mindfulness) that is based upon the Pali canonical texts.

From time to time,VMC organizes meditation retreats, guided by learned and capable meditation teachers to provide opportunities for a more intensive mode of practice. VMC is also trying to set up a permanent centre where it can be conducive and comfortable for the practice of Vipassana Meditation in Singapore.

Promoting the practice of Vipassana Meditation is the organisation’s goal.

The centre observes annual events such as Vesak,Vassa entry and Kathina on the Buddhist calendar. Besides providing opportunities to accrue merits, such occasions also allow Buddhists to understand the significance of these occasions and thus enrich their appreciation and understanding of their own faith.

Vipasanna Meditation Centre 251 Lavender Street Singapore 338789 Tel: 64453984 Happiness from within | 21

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Research Analysis We have read so much on the secondary research that has been done. We shall now go into the part where a survey wasconducted on the awareness of meditation and how it is widely used by many individuals.

After gaining the results, a conclusion is required to finalise what is the current state on the topic. From there, we can then derive to the target audience that needs more of the awareness and from there we go through

another analysis of the topic by strength, weakness, opportunities and it’s threats.

Below are the sections related to analyse the topic meditation to understand how it can be supported or discouraged.

Target Audience SWOT Analysis

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Target Audience A survey was conducted to see the demographics and the psychographics of what’s individuals take on meditation Demographics 1. Popularity among the females.

5. The stress level for this group is moderate.

2. It’s popular among the females at the age between 21 - 29 years old.

6. Meditation is well known among this group of females.

3. The group consists of students and teachers.

Therefore, it belongs to the education industry.

4. The group faces stress on a weekly basis.

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7. It is being practice at a minimum rate of once a month.

8. They are willing to recommend this practice to various individuals.

Psychographics Base on the survey results, a conclusion can be made where females and males of the age of 21 to 29 years old, who are from the education industry. Be it the student or the teacher, both degrees are moderately stressed in a week.

The both females and males are highly keen on knowing stress reduction methods.

Meditation is something, which is vastly heard by both groups of females and males

who practice it a minimum of monthly once, and they have highly recommended this to their people as well.

Females and males have heard about this practice through various mediums. Majority of them have heard of meditation through the word of mouth, a very powerful form of information transfer.

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SWOT Analysis Base on Meditation, an analysis will be the following: Strength

Weakness

If this particular target group recommends this practice, that means it has a number of beneficial aspects of it.

Meditation is something that is convenient to many individuals as it can be practiced at any time of the day.

This relates to the pros and cons of meditation. When one meditates, it depends on how he or she meditates. It really depends on how one gets distracted and not concentrate on the breathing or a particular meditation method. False beliefs might then arise when one does the meditation.

No fees are required for this practice. In this way, people get double the happiness as it’s a free practice.

One example would be just depending on meditation to be the answer to all problems, which is wrong.

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Opportunities

Threat

Meditation have many opportunities in terms of spreading the information on its benefits through various mediums. The most powerful medium which most will believe is the word of mouth.

One major threat that many might face with meditation is the method of practice. People might wonder if meditation is something where one practices to go to sleep mode.

Another threat would be individuals not believing in meditation. Some may believe it’s a bogus act.

Other opportunities such as creating an awareness, host seminars and workshops on how meditation can be beneficial to many individuals.

However some on the other hand are impatient to sit and focus. The other minor threat of meditation is when one does not meditate in a quiet environment as noise interupts the practice when a meditator is not strong enough to focus.

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Design Rationale In this section, we get to see brainstorming ideas and conceptualization on how meditation has been viewed in terms of the statistics and what can be done to help on supporting Meditation.

Base on the previous section, a conclusion is to be made in order to proceed with the concept development. In this part, there will be ideas and general common thoughts on how one can come up with a

motive to support the practice by stating the factors that affect the target group and how it can be implemented onto supporting Meditation.

The topics will be discussed in the next few pages are the following: Conclusion Concept and Development Tone/Mood Board Communication Strategy

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Conclusion Analysing the demographics and psychographics of the target audience both sexes who participate in meditation still get stress on a moderate level. This may be a bit of a worry on meditation. Survey results show that both sexes practice this once a month.

From my perception, they take meditation as a luxury instead of a necessity. This will defeats the purpose on achieving what one can get

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from meditating. Other groups like those below the age of 21 and above the age of 29 seem to be not really involved in the practice. From this, we can see that meditation needs more awareness where it can affect all ages.

Concept Development A campaign is needed for supporting the awareness of meditation. The campaign is named “Meditation for the Soul�. By creating this campaign, it should affect people of all ages and sexes on attaining the meditation practice regularly.

After brainstorming ideas, I decided to narrow down to three groups. They are according to their jobs, which are student, working adult and retiree. Each group has their own set of stress issues. The left shows the daily stress that each group faces.

Student: 1. Assignments 2. Deadlines 3. Examinations 4. Bad Record 5. Detention 6. Peer Pressure Working Adult: 1. Presentation 2. Deadlines 3. Late nights at office 4. Married with kids 5. Stress with in laws Retiree 1. Health conditions 2. Expensive medications 3. Lonely In Old Age Home

Each group will be associated with a meditation colour.

The colours are orange, green and purple. Orange means Enthusiasm, which suits the student group. Students are normally the most active individuals compared to the other groups. Green depicts Balance, which suits the working adult group, as they require a balance of their life between work and domestic stress. Purple depicts Peace, typically suited for the retiree where he or she comes to a point in life where they have decided to retire from their career and continue with life on a less stressed note.

The main purpose of indicating colours to the relative groups is to aid me in designing the solution for creating awareness.

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Tone/Mood Board The tone selected for the campaign on promoting Meditation is “Calm” as this is about being at a state of peace when one relaxes all muscles and the mind, to give a feel of the word “Contented”.

The message that must be delivered to the viewer is how one feels good about himself or herself when doing such activity on a daily basis. Since the target audience is on all

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levels, it should create a feel where one knows that not only it’s a serious practice but an activity that can be done with everyone.

Communication Strategy Base on the concept development and tone of this campaign, a number of deliverables are required to create the campaign feel.

They are the following: 1. Series of Posters 2. Removable Handle 3. Ambient Sticker

Series of Posters

Removable Handle

In the series of posters, the 3 three colours will be expressed. Each poster will have the student, the working adult and the retiree respectively. These posters will be placed in Clear Channel poster stands for viewers to see and understand the campaign while waiting for their bus.

This deliverable will showcase how one can empty their thoughts to be relaxed. This medium will be placed in the hand rails support in trains and buses. It will be easier for those who stand in trains and buses to see the campaign.

Ambient Sticker This sticker will be showing how one can start to meditate easily. It will be placed on the window glasses in the trains.

This will allow opposite sitting passengers to see the sticker and they may eventually try to do what it states.

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Design Solution After all that analysis of the whole topic, it’s time to execute the design outcome.

This is the section where the solution is processed on showcasing the awareness.

Since we know it’s through a campaign, the solutions are broken up into several sections where one can understand what are the certain steps required for designing a solution for this campaign. Firstly, we will talk about the Visual Reference and Direction of the project. This will explain about how and what were the inspirations to start off. Secondly, we have

the section for Sketches. Here, we will be able to see the brief idea of the final design. This includes the hand-sketched logo designs as well. Thirdly, it is about the Campaign Logo Development. In this section, the logo will be shown in parts of it’s development such as the idealogy behind the logo and how can it link with the topic on Meditation. Lastly, the Final Design will be the ultimate outcome on how the awareness will be reached to the targeted audience.

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Visual Reference and Direction In this section, we get to see the various designs from other designers and motives that will give me inspiration on creating the final design. The designs that are showcased here refers to my inspiration of creating the logo for the campaign and also influence in the end product, which are the posters and ambient designs.

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Sketches for Final Design Base on the visual direction, the sketches show the initial development of the logo by using curve lines and ideas from the lotus designs.

As for the final design development, the sketches are based on how people meditate in different angles.

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Final Design

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Series In the series, the poster design shows the student preparing herself for her exams. Here is where the student shows that one needs to be calm before the storm.

The background gives a feel of a grunge edgy effect to showcase the student is meditating to bring out the Enthusiasm within her to assist the motivation to study for her exams.

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The poster design shows the working adult preparing himself for a presentation. It is slightly a similar touch to the student version. However, the slogan for this version of the poster is the feel of green, which represents Balance.

Every working adult needs a balance in his or her life as they need to juggle their work life and personal life accordingly. By giving this direction to the target audience, it allows them to visialise themselves practicing meditation.

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This poster design shows a retiree is sitting infront of all her medications. It indicates that when one retires, the medical bills will shoot up, resulting a collection of medication, which can be very depressing.

By showing the retiree practicing meditation, it expresses one to feel peace instead of feeling depressed.

It also shows that one is not demoralised while taking what has been prescribed.

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Removable Handle On the left, we see a removable handle design.

This can be placed on the hand rails nearing the ceiling of the MRT trains, SMRT and SBS buses. This particular removable holder targets the youth population.

The hole on the top will be inserted onto the long rails in the various transport systems.

The main purpose of taking such photography and creating a hole in the model’s head is to show the emptyness that one requires to do during meditation. The rock signs are to give a “fun” feeling on meditation to the youth.

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Implementations

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Ambient Here we have a design that is engaging the passengers of the train. This ambient allows passengers to try out meditation in a very simple way that many are able to achieve in a short time.

Whether they are students, working adults or retirees, this ambient is targetted for all groups.

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References The History Resouce: Project Meditation.org

Types of Meditation Resouce: Transcendental Meditation

http://www.project-meditation.org/wim/history_of_meditation.html

http://www.mum.edu/TM http://www.tm.org/meditation-techniques

Misconception Resouce: Improve Your Life with Meditation Tony Sfeirs, Designer Physique

Colour Meditation http://www.spiritualarts.org/WhatAreYourSpiritualColors.aspx

http://tonysfeir.com.au/improve-yourlife-with-meditation/html

Pros and Cons Resouce: Meditation in Psychiatry P. Carrington & H.S. Ephren, “Clinical Use of Meditation”,‘Curr. Psychiatr.Ther.’ 15:.101-108,1975. http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1979/joct79/medpsy.shtml

Benefits of Meditation for Stress Management

By Eleizabeth Scott, M.S. http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/p/profilemeditati.htm

Universal Psychic Guild http://www.psychicguild.com/colour/meditations.htm

Zen Mountain Monastery Zen Meditation Instructions http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php

Vipasanna Meditation http://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.html

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Supported by:

Vipasanna Meditation Centre

Published by:

Anitha Reku BDES 1.1 Graphic Design Society

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