Sit comfortably with your hands resting in your lap and your lower back well supported. You may sit in a good chair, in your bed or even cross-legged - whatever feels comfortable.
The sitting posture should be one you can maintain for the half-hour of meditation without noticing it.
If you lean too far backwards, you may induce a somnolent state in which your meditation becomes blurred and unfocused.
Soft light or darkness as well as a quiet environment are preferable for meditation.
Close your eyes. Take a few seconds to calm down.
Then start repeating the given meditation sound gently and effortlessly in your mind, without using the tongue, lips or throat. Let your attention rest on the sound whilst repeating it, softly.
Allow thoughts, impressions, emotions, bodily sensations, movements and other spontaneous activities to come and go freely as you repeat the meditation sound mentally.
If you become aware that your meditation sound has faded away perhaps because you have become absorbed in thought, start to repeat it again with as little effort as possible. Whenever you find yourself wandering away from the meditation sound, begin the mental repetition again, very gently.
The frequency of the meditation sound may vary. Each time you start it up again, go back to roughly the same comfortable frequency. It doesn't matter whether the sound follows your breathing rate; let it find its own natural frequency.
The meditation sound is in fact a combination of sounds, given by specially trained instructors and initiators from Acem. The combination has rhythmical and sound qualities suitable for meditation, but has no meaning attached to it. There are group sounds; i.e., everyone in the group uses the same sound. Usually later on, individual sounds may also be given. After two to three years enhanced meditation sounds may be used. Brain imaging research has demonstrated that only certain sounds are capable of eliciting the cerebral activities that give rise to bodily and emotional relaxation in meditation.
The meditation sound is to be kept as something personal. Do not write it down, say it aloud or share it with others. For the meditation sound to stay effective, it must engage the non-semantic parts of the brain. Accordingly, no particular episodic memories, relations or symbols should be associated with it.
Acem Meditation is a new practice that needs to become part of your daily routine, so it is important to establish regular habits from the very beginning. It will only get harder if you put it off.
Acem Meditation is practised for 30 minutes twice a day, or in a single daily session lasting 45 minutes. Most meditators fit in a morning session between their shower and breakfast, while the ideal time for the afternoon or evening session is before dinner. Meals increase your body's workload and impede the progress of meditation, so it is best to meditate either before eating or two hours or more after a meal.