How to Meditate: A beginners Guide

When we meditate, we create far-reaching and long-lasting benefits in our lives: We decrease our stress, we get to understand our pain, we connect more, we enhance our focus, and we are kinder to ourselves. Let us walk you through the basics in our guide on meditating. 

What is Meditation?

How do you learn to meditate? In mindfulness meditation, we’re learning to pay attention to the breath as it goes in and out, and notice when the mind strays from this task. This method of returning to the breath builds the muscles of awareness and mindfulness.

When we pay attention to our breath, we learn how to return to, and stay in, the present moment—to anchor in the here and now on purpose, without judgment. The theory behind mindfulness seems simple—the practice takes patience. 

Why Learn How to Meditate?

While meditation is not a cure-all, it can provide much-needed room in your life. Sometimes, that’s all we need to make better choices for ourselves, our families, and our communities. The most crucial tools you can acquire for your meditation routine are patience, kindness, and a relaxing place to sit.

When we meditate, we infiltrate far-reaching and long-lasting benefits into our lives. 

Here are five explanations to meditate:

1. Connect better
2. Reduce brain chatter
3. Understanding your pain
4. Improve focus
5. Lower your stress

How to Meditate

Meditation is something everyone can do.

Meditation is simpler and harder than most people assume. Read these steps, create somewhere where you can unwind into this process, set a timer, and give it a go:

1) Take a seat

Find a spot to sit that you feel is peaceful and quiet.

2) Set a time limit

If you’re beginning, it can help to select a short time, such as five, ten or 15 minutes.

3) Feel your body

Sit in a chair with your feet on the floor, sit loosely cross-legged, and kneel—all are fine. Just ensure you are stable and in a position you can remain in.

4) Feel your breath

Follow your breath sensation as you inhale and exhale.

5) Notice when your mind wanders

Inevitably, your awareness will leave the breath and wander to other places. When you notice that your mind has wandered—return your awareness to the breath.

6) Be forgiving to your wandering mind

Do not judge yourself over the content of the thoughts you find yourself lost in. Just breathe and come back. 

7) Complete with kindness

When you are ready, gently raise your gaze; if your eyes are closed, open them. Take a moment and detect any sounds in the environment. Notice how your body feels right now. Notice your thoughts and emotions.

That’s it! That’s the practice. You focus your attention, your mind wanders, bring it back, and try to do it as kindly as possible (as often as you need to).

How Much Should I Meditate?

Meditation is no more complex than what we have explained above. It is that simple and that challenging. It is also powerful and worth it. The key is to devote to sitting every day, even if it’s for five minutes. The most important moment in your meditation practice is when you sit down to do it. Because right then, you’re saying to yourself that you believe in change, in caring for yourself, and in making it real. You are not just retaining some value like mindfulness or compassion in the abstract, but making it real.”

Recent research discovered that twelve minutes of meditation, five days a week, can protect and strengthen your capability to pay attention.

How to Make Mindfulness a Habit

It’s estimated that 95% of our behaviour runs on autopilot. That’s because neural networks underlie all our habits, decreasing our millions of sensory inputs per second into effortless shortcuts so we can function in this incredible world. These defaulting brain signals are so efficient that they frequently cause us to relapse into old behaviours before remembering what we meant to do instead. 

Mindfulness is the very opposite of these default processes. It’s executive control rather than autopilot and promotes intentional actions, decision and willpower. But that takes routine. 

The more we trigger the intentional brain, the more powerful it gets. Every time we do something intentional and new, we stimulate neuroplasticity, activating our grey matter, full of newly grown neurons that have not yet been groomed for the “autopilot” brain. 

While our intentional brain comprehends what is best for us, our autopilot brain drives us to shortcut our way through life. So, how can we activate ourselves to be mindful when we need it most? This is where the notion of “behaviour design” arrives. It is a way to put your intentional brain in the driver’s seat. There are two ways to do that—first, delaying the autopilot brain by putting obstructions in its way, and second, clearing obstacles in the path of the intentional brain so it can achieve control. 

Shifting the harmony to give your intentional brain more energy takes some practise. Here are some methods to get started. 

• Put reminders around you to meditate. If you intend to do some yoga or meditate, put your yoga mat or meditation pillow in the middle of your floor so you won’t miss it as you walk by. 
• Refresh your reminders regularly. Say you use sticky notes to remind yourself of a new goal. That might work for about a week, but then your autopilot brain and old habits reoccur.
• Make new patterns. try a series of “If this, then that” messages to form easy reminders to shift into the intentional brain. For example, you might come up with, “If office door, then deep breath,” to shift into mindfulness as you start your workday. Or, “If the phone rings, breathe before answering.” Each intentional act to shift into mindfulness will strengthen your intentional brain.

Basic Meditations

The first thing to explain: What we are doing here is aiming for mindfulness, not some method that magically wipes your mind out of the numerous and endless thoughts that erupt and constantly ping in our brains. We’re just practising bringing our awareness to our breath and then back to the breath when we notice our attention has strayed.

• Get comfy and prepare to sit still for a few minutes. After you stop reading this, you will focus on your natural inhalation and exhaling breath.
• Focus on your breath. Where do you feel your breath most? In your belly? In your nose? Keep your attention on your inhalation and exhalation. 
• Follow your breath for two minutes. Take a deep inhale, raise your belly, and then exhale gradually, elongating the out-breath as your stomach contracts. 

What happened? How long was it before your mind wandered away from your breath? Did you witness how busy your mind was even without your consciously directing it to think about anything in particular? Did you witness yourself getting caught up in thoughts before you came back to reading this?

 We have little narratives running in our minds that we did not choose to put there, like: “Why DOES my boss want to speak with me tomorrow?” “ yesterday i should have gone to the gym.” “I’ve got to pay some bills” or (the classic) “I really don’t have time to sit still; I’ve got stuff to do.”

If you experienced these distractions (and we all do), you’ve made an essential discovery. Simply put, that’s the contrary of mindfulness. It’s when we live in our head on automatic pilot, letting our thoughts travel, exploring the future or the past, and essentially, not being present at the moment. But that’s where most of us live most of the time—and rather uncomfortably, if we’re being honest. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

We “practice” mindfulness to learn how to identify when our minds are doing their regular everyday acrobatics and possibly take a pause from that for just a little while so we can determine what we would like to focus on. Meditation helps us have a healthier relationship with ourselves (and, by extension, others).

Beyond the Beginning

Frequently Asked Questions About Mindfulness Meditation, Answered

When you’re learning how to meditate, it’s natural for questions to pop up often. These answers may ease your mind.

1) If I have an itch, can I scratch it? 

Yes—nevertheless, try scratching it with your mind before using your fingers.

2) Should I breathe fast, slow, or in between? 

Only worry if you’ve stopped breathing. Otherwise, you’re doing fine. Breathe in whatever way feels comfy to you.

3) Should my eyes be closed or open? 

No hard-and-fast rules. Try to do both. If open then not too wide, and with a soft, slightly downward gaze, not concentrating on anything in particular. If closed, not too hard, and not imagining anything in your mind’s eye.

4) Is it possible I am someone who just CANT meditate? 

Everyone wonders about that. Detect it. Escort your awareness back to your object of focus (the breath). When you’re lost and questioning again, come back to breathe again. That’s the practice. There’s no limit to how often you can be distracted and return to the breath. Meditating is not a race to perfection—It’s returning again and again to the breath.

5) Is it better to practice by myself or in a group? 

Both are great! It’s enormously supportive to meditate with others. And practising on your own builds discipline.

6) What’s the best period of the day to meditate? Whatever works. Consider your circumstances: children, pets, work. Experiment. But watch out. It will usually be tomorrow if you always choose the most convenient time.

7) What if I get sexually aroused by thoughts? 

No big deal. Meditation stokes the imagination. In time, every thought,feeling and sensation will pop up (so to speak). And come back. Same old story. Release the thought, bring attention and receptivity to body sensations, and bring attention back to your chosen object (the breath, in this case). Repeat.

8) Do you have any tips on incorporating pets into meditation practice? 

we don’t have to fight off distractions. If your dog or cat comes into the room, barks and meows, and brushes up against you or settles down on a portion of your cushion, it is no big deal. Let it be. What does not work is to interrupt your session to bond to them. If that’s what will happen, try to find a way to avoid them interrupting your practice.