How to Meditate
Taken from the Breathe and Flow meditation course
When I first tried meditation it was an emergency, my mind felt out of my control and I needed something quickly to calm me down. I used a free guided meditation which walked me through a beautiful garden, using imagery to help me to escape my mind. Back then there was not much accessible, practical guidance on starting your own meditation practice, so, I would set my alarm for twenty minutes and sit in silence and suffer, constantly telling myself that I was ‘failing’. I would later learn that sitting in silence is more for the seasoned meditator: no wonder I felt like I was up against a brick wall!
Since then I have trained in Kundalini meditation, been on silent retreats where I meditated for eleven hours a day, experienced three days of meditation whilst looking into a partners eyes and developed a deep personal practice, which resulted in me creating my beginner’s meditation course.
I created the beginner’s meditation course so that I could make meditation more accessible, I wanted to empower and encourage others to meditate, through sharing what I have learned from many years of trial and error. Here are my top tips for anyone who is curious about starting or developing their own meditation practice:
Me getting nice and comfortable for my practice.
Start with some guidance
It is really important that, as a beginner you have somebody else holding the space for you, whether that is in person or a recording, so that you can fully relax and let go into the experience. Even now I still sometimes use my own recordings to help me to move more deeply into meditation, this way I don’t have to check the time or think about what to do next.
Make a commitment for 30 days
Dedicating a month to meditating every day is a great way to form a habit. Approach this commitment with a sense of kindness. If you miss a day you can either choose to feel guilty and ‘beat yourself up’ or you can take the opportunity to be loving towards yourself. Aim for the perfect balance of dedication without fanaticism.
Breathe
Focusing on the breath is my favourite way to meditate, not only is it a direct portal into your inner-being but it boosts the immune system, increases lung capacity and makes you feel AMAZING!!
Focus your Eyes
When you still the eyes you still the mind. Experiment with this, sit for a couple of minutes with your eyes closed and relaxed, feeling and meditating upon your breath. Now continuing with the focus upon the breath, focus the eyes either between the eyebrows or towards the tip of the nose, keeping the eyes closed. Notice the difference!
Don’t be Afraid to Change it Up
Once you have an established practice that you follow experiment with trying it on your own, adding other techniques and seeing how it feels to guide yourself. If you start meditation and really don’t like the practice try a new style; you are likely to find a method which is more enjoyable for you. If you don’t like any type of meditation, this may indicate that you are resisting the practice, if this is the case find a gentle style and try it for thirty days.
It Doesn’t Have to be long!
For me, a twenty minute practice is perfect, however, when you are first starting, five minutes could be all you need. It is not the amount of time you spend sitting, but what you get out of it. Check out the five minute meditations we have on our website to get you started.
Create Space
I find that having a special place to meditate really helps to get me in the mood. If you go to the same place to meditate every day eventually your mind and body will get the message that it is time to meditate. This could be a corner of the room or it could be as simple as having a special mat that you roll out where ever you are. I want to be clear, meditation can be done anywhere at any time , but if you are a beginner this is a nice way to get you in the right space.
Brain Dump
A practice I have established recently is writing before I meditate. I have taken this practice from ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julie Cameron. To do this you write three A4 pages of whatever comes into your mind with no filter and no stopping to think. When you are finished rip the pages up. This takes a good twenty minutes, but I find it a really helpful way to declutter the mind before meditation.
Meditation is for anyone in any situation. Experiment and see what works for you and if you haven’t already please check out the Breathe and Flow Beginner’s Meditation Course.