I've been reading heavily into holistic healing and balancing our chakras... I would like to start meditating but I'm not sure which form of meditation or yoga I should practice. I would like to incorporate my Taoist beliefs into it as well... Any suggestions?
Well, personally, I would keep it simple, by just trying to maintain your attention on breathing as deep as possible... This way you'd train yourself to remain focused, and at the same time boosting yourself up with a huge dose of oxygen, which should eventually allow you to reach higher states of consciousness, and also provide you with plenty of energy to start to heal and purify yourself...
There's no such thing as balancing the chakras. What would that do? That's just a euphemism for basically living free of mental conflict. There's mental and emotional conflict all the way up to enlightenment. Seek not to live free of mental and emotional conflict and you will have balance on these earthly planes.
I know the chakras don't actually exist... They are a means of visualizing everything within us. Every day I do as you mentioned... but I would like to incorporate meditation into my daily schedule in order to enhance my free-mindedness.
There are plenty of books on Taoist meditation. I was just browsing through a bunch on Amazon.com last night. I'm still mulling over which one to get. A basic strategy is to relax and concentrate on each chakra from the base on up. Just be aware of each of your psychic centers and don't think about anything else.
I took yoga classes in theatre school and it really effected me postively. There was one class in particular where she played a tape of a man leading us through the meditation and it was incredible. If I could get my hands on a good instructional relaxation tape, I'd bring it with me on my nature walks, pick a spot and meditate. It's just hard to know which one is the best to get... Thank you so much for your feedback everyone.