I remember that when I was starting out in the meditation arena, it was insanely hard. I sat and my thoughts drifted to never ending places. Scolding myself didn’t do anything to help. If you are having difficulties starting your practice or you want a couple of tips to get started, this Saturday I have just what you need. Let’s get right into them.
Meditation doesn't have to be hard. Just relax and enjoy it. Photo by Spirit-Fire
Start small
You may want to be like the great masters and meditate for an hour or more, and that is a wonderful goal, but you can’t do that from the very start. It’s better if you sit for small sessions of 5 minutes. When you are starting out in the world of meditation, 5 minutes is going to be a good starting point, it will be challenging but not long enough to drive you crazy.
Once you can constantly do your 5 minute meditation, you can start going for more. Going for 5 minute increments after a couple of weeks is a good way to be able to sit for more time. Just remember, start small and slow and you will be able to get a good and healthy practice in no time.
Relax
Before you start your practice, devote a couple of minutes to relax your body. A good way to do this is to simply close your eyes and pay attention to how your body feels. Start from the tip of your toe and move your attention slowly through your body. If you find tension, focus on melting it away. Remember you don’t need to force anything, use a gentle thought to relax the rogue body part.
A minute or two of this relaxation practice will help you improve your meditation experience. I encourage you to also do it once you finish. Just to be sure that your body is relaxed and ready for your next activity.
Find the right time
If your life is very demanding and you need to be doing a lot of things during the day, adding a meditation practice would cause you more stress. Your practice is not another task in your day but a moment to align yourself. that’s why it’s very important for you to find the right times to practice.
A good idea is to meditate early in the morning, you would start your day feeling more relaxed and energized. You could also practice right before you go to bed, that way you will sleep better and feel fresher in the morning. If you find this times a bit difficult, try it during your day, perhaps one coffee break can turn into a meditation break.
Dress for the occasion
You need to feel good to start your practice, so those super tight jeans are not going to help you. Find the right clothes that allow your body to breathe. You need to feel free in your clothes. Find some baggy pants or any other loose clothing. You don’t need to look like a super-model to meditate.
One thing to keep in mind about your clothing is that you need to wear something that truly allows you to feel how you breathe in without constraining you. The idea is to allow the air to fill your body gently, if you feel that your clothes are making this harder, it’s time to change them. The rule is simple: feel comfortable.
Sit the way you feel better
When I started, I made one of the biggest mistakes ever: I tried to meditate on half lotus position right from the beginning. Not only this was very uncomfortable for me, it made the whole experience awful.
A better idea is to skip the weird positions that great masters use, at least at the beginning. Sit in a comfortable position that allows your spine to feel aligned. A good chair can do wonders for the newcomers. You need to feel comfortable, not hating the way you are sitting because your knees hurt.
If you truly want to meditate in lotus or half lotus, practice first to sit that way. Spend a couple of minutes every day sitting in the way you want to meditate to allow your body to get familiar with the position. After you can sit that way, you can start your meditation as the great masters do.
Bonus tip: Just breathe
Do not fall in the trap of trying to just skip your thoughts at the beginning. That takes a lot of practice. A better way to start is to count your breaths. Count one when you breathe in, count two when you breathe out. Do this until you reach ten and start over. If you just go beyond 10, then start over, don’t scold yourself, just start over.
If you can do it constantly, then start only counting when you breathe in. Do it until you reach ten. Once you can constantly do it, you can start doing it during the first minutes of your meditation, and then allow the nothingness to take you. It’s easier to start this way.
I hope these tips can help you improve your meditation practice. Now why don’t you take them for a spin today?
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Love this article!
I think there is a bit of an emperors new clothes syndrome forming around the concept of meditation. It’s so widely referenced that everyone feels they should know exactly what it is and how it should be done, and yet there just isn’t all that much information available in the basic dialogue.
You break it down Alejandro, you break it down!
Back when I started on meditation I was riddled with he idea that I was doing it wrong. In reality I was doing it the right way, but there was so little info about it that it was hard to understand what I should do. It was Mary from Goodlife Zen the one who got me in the right path.
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