Hello everyone, today I’m going over a how to meditation for beginners. I will also go over a little more advanced meditation. I have been mediating for 20 years or so and I still use this meditation. It is quite simple, but very effective.
Meditation is simply just a simple exercise that you focus your mind on a particular thing, to achieve a calmer state and sense of well- being. Essentially you are doing short exercises, daily, training your body and mind to feel the way you want over a long period of time. Most people, Including myself, want to meditate to be happier and get away from the normal everyday grind of life. View mediation supplies.
When, where, and what times to meditate
Always meditate in the morning before you start your day. This will set the pace for your day. Having a good feeling great meditation before your day, makes for a great day. As the day goes by its easy to lose focus and let the everyday grind of life change your mood, this is why you should have a small meditation at your lunch break at work, or while the kids are napping, anytime about half-way through your day.
If your at work you can go to your car, or in a chair in your break room or office. Everyone will think your just napping. Another good time to meditate is right when you get home from work, this really helps get out of the work mode, become more relaxed, and refreshes you.
Lastly, meditate right before bedtime, after you’ve done all your chores for the day and everything is winding down, meditation before bed will assure you go to sleep in a good mood and sleep better. Ideally you’ll want to designate a room or area for meditation. I don’t have an extra room, so I have, half of my bedroom set up for meditating.
Positions and Postures to meditate in
You can really meditate in any position you want. It’s about learning how to relax as much as possible. I don’t recomend meditating is a standing position, its strenuous and hard to relax. You can meditate in the traditional setting position with your legs crossed.
If your not flexible, like me, you can get a meditation cushion that supports your back and put your legs straight out in front of you, instead of crossed. You can also set in a comfy chair. Lastly, there is the lying down position that you just lay flat on your back.
I have found this is the most effective because there is no strain on any body part and you can relax every part of your body. I do recommend you do at least one of your meditations in a lying down position. It can be any of your meditations but at least the one you do right before bed.
How long to meditate
Each meditation should be 20-30 minutes long. You should start out meditating 1-2 times a day at 5-10 minutes per meditation and work yourself up to doing 2-3 meditations at 20-30 minutes per meditation. When, you first start you will find yourself to fall asleep quite a bit.
This is normal and it tells you that you are relaxing. Whenever you wake up just finish your meditation, or you can do two short meditations at 10 minutes each. As time passes and you get better you will find that you’ll stop falling asleep during your meditations.
Preparation Before meditation
Do some light stretching before you meditate, especially the meditation in the morning and the one when you first get home from work. Stretching will help you wake up and feel better so your less likely to fall asleep. Get comfortable, put on some comfy clothes and get some comfy mats or cushions, this will help you relax. I don’t recommend meditating in your bed, your mind and body are conditioned to go to sleep when you get in bed, your more than likely going to fall asleep.
This is the key to meditating and the most important thing. You’ll want to get yourself in a great mood and a smile on your face before you meditate. These 20 min exercises are training your mind and body to focus on something. If you want the sense of well-being you have to get yourself into a great euphoric feeling, before you meditate.
This is where the training aids and supplies come in. Some people like the meditation music, some like the sound machines, some like aroma therepy etc. I will have more articles about meditation training aids and tools later, but for this, how to meditation for beginners I’m just trying to get across the basics.
You can also think of the best time of your life, like your child’s first steps, the day you were married, or standing on top of a snow covered mountain. I even want you to say to yourself out loud that, ” I feel great and wonderful, I feel euphoric, I’m going to have a great day, I’m successful”, or anything you want to achieve through meditation.
These are positive affirmations. Every person is different and just find what works for you. I like the training aids and having the great thoughts. These trainings aids and thoughts later on will be like triggers. When, you find yourself angry, irritated, or any mood besides feeling good. You can simply play some meditation music and think of your happy thoughts and immediatley change your mood back to the one you want. Now that your feeling great, lets meditate.
How to Meditation-Time to meditate
When, you meditate you want to get out of your head, you dont want to be doing a lot of thinking. Your mind is your awareness. So focus on your hand, now your feet, now your other hand. When, you shift your awareness to your body it gets your thoughts out of your head. So start by breathing in and out nice and slow. I want you to breathe through your diaphragm(belly).
Your belly should rise and fall with each breath, not your chest. Keep your awareness on your breathe and your belly rising and falling. This will train you to keep focus and keep the thoughts out of your head. After your do this for 5 minutes, your going to go through each body part relaxing that part one at a time.
So shift your awareness to your feet, try to relax your feet as much as possible, say to yourself, (out loud or mentally) ” my feet are so relaxed”, Then shift awareness to your calfs, relax your calfs as much as possible then say,” my calfs are so relaxed”, repeat this process, with your thighs, your entire legs, then forearms, biceps, entire arms, stomach, chest, lower back, upper back, entire upper torso, then face and scalp, and entire head.
Now relax your entire body and shift your awareness back to your breathing and your belly rising and falling, staying relaxed and lying still with no movement for the rest of the meditation. This will train you to relax and focus.
Getting in a deeper meditation
Once you’ve meditated like I have described above, for 2-3 months or so you can stop going through each body part and relaxing it, you should be able to just relax your whole body now. I want you to take your great feelings and thoughts and add them to your awareness in your torso as your belly rises and falls with your breathe.
You can learn to think outside of your head by focusing your awareness on your torso area. Now focus starting on your left hand. Starting with your thumb just slightly move it so you feel it. Then slightly move your index finger, then your middle finger, then your ring finger, Then your pinky finger. Then your left foot, start with pinky toe and end with big toe.
Then your right foot, start with big toe and end with pinky toe. Then your right hand, start with pinky finger and end with thumb. Just keep going around in that order just slightly moving each finger or toe just to feel it. After you do this for about a month you can stop slightly moving your fingers and toes and just feel them. Mentally feel each area without moving it.
This will get you so sensitive into feeling and focusing and ultimately a deeper meditation. For me personally after getting closer to the year mark I started feeling a whirling going around my entire body that felt euphoric.
Anyone can meditate, Transcend your meditations
Well, that concludes, my how to meditate for beginners, I really hope my experience meditating will help you and you have learned something that you can take away from this article and apply it to your life, I’m excited you have chosen to start meditating and it is addictive, but it really does help just having some, “ME TIME”. Learning to meditate on your own can be difficult, You will find yourself asking questions like ” am I doing this right, Is this the right way to meditate, what do I do next” and you just wont know what to do. That’s why I recommend trying an online class that wont leave you asking questions. Click here to view all courses available. Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.
Thanks and happy meditating,
Zac