04/02/2020
10 Steps to starting a meditation practice: Part 1
The concept of meditation is quite simple, but, if you have tried to meditate, you have probably found it to be quite maddening at times. There are so many benefits from meditation: decreased stress, increased body awareness and self-awareness, and improved regulation of emotions and attention. These benefits also continue throughout the day as just the act of meditating improves the way the amygdala (part of the limbic system in your brain) processes emotions, decision-making, and memory. A regular practice of meditation can also improve your sleep, which ends up benefiting you in many ways because during sleep every tissue in our body is affected. It positively affects growth and stress hormones, our immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure, and cardiovascular health.
I would like to share some tips that have been helpful for me when trying to meditate. I practice two forms of meditation: Mindfulness meditation (or Vipassana) and Loving Kindness meditation (Metta). This blog post I will focus on Mindfulness meditation and part 2 will focus on Loving Kindness meditation.
10 steps:
1. Start out small. Even meditating 5 minutes a day is helpful especially if you can do this regularly and then just slowly increase time if you can.
2. Find a comfortable position to sit in, make sure you are warm enough, and have eaten a small meal beforehand. Make sure phones and TV’s are off so they will not be a distraction.
3. Setting an alarm can sometimes be very helpful especially if you are under any time constraint. Then, you are less likely to constantly open your eyes checking the time and you can sink into a deeper meditation. Ideally, the sound will be soft and pleasing so you are not jarred back into reality.
4. So, the idea is to focus on something other than your thoughts. Try to be in the present moment. Your thoughts need to just melt away. Believe me. You will have a lot of thoughts. But what I have found is that if you focus on your breathing and say softly to yourself (or silently): inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale etc…..while following your breathing and try to just focus on that then you might be less distracted by your thoughts.
5. You can also focus on a particular word that is meaningful for you that day. For instance: balance, peace, or harmony etc.
6. Or, listen to any sounds around you and label them. The whole idea of meditation is being and staying in the present and this is a wonderful way to do this. Thoughts are less likely to come up if you are busy naming all the sounds you are hearing.
For example, right now I hear a plane outside, the tick of a clock, and the yawn of a cat.
7. When thoughts do come up, and invariably they will, just label them. For example, if you start thinking about your weekend just say softly: planning. Or, you start thinking about an argument you had with someone say softly: processing. Or however you want to label thoughts that come up. When you label them this way you don’t give them any weight and they tend to drift off.
8. Try not to get frustrated. Just label thoughts and then let them go. No need to judge them or yourself. You won’t be perfect at this and no one ever is- even people who have been doing this for a very long time. That’s why it’s called meditation practice.
9. Remember that the “practice” part of a meditation practice IS the point. That is where the magic happens. It’s not really about successfully not having any thoughts ever during your practice time. It’s about training your mind to stay in the present for an allotted amount of time.
10. Meditation is also nice to do in groups. You can join local sitting groups or sit with a friend, spouse, or children. It’s a great practice to share!
I hope this helps you start a meditation practice – just remember one step at time and one day at a time. Any small amount does actually count!
