Learn How to Meditate as a Beginner to Mindfulness
Meditation is a tool that you can use to quiet your mind, learn to be present in a given moment, and better identify and address the anxious thoughts that are repeatedly running through your mind. This post is going to help you learn how to meditate.
I have been incorporating meditation into my daily routine for awhile now, and I can definitely say that I have seen a positive affect on my mental health because of it.
I want to start off by saying that I am by no means a meditation expert, but I do have a lot of great knowledge to pass on.
To give you an idea of my experience with meditation thus far, I was first introduced to the practice in college where I was required to take several religion classes.
One of the classes I chose was centered on mindful meditation. Through the class we learned about the practice and as part of our homework, we committed to meditating for ten minutes every day, writing weekly reflections about the experience.
After completing the course, I’ll be honest, I did not immediately stick to meditating every day after that.
It took me a little bit of time to realize that I really missed it and notice that there had been significant improvements to my mental health, stress management, and mood due to my meditation practice.
After that realization a year or so ago, I implemented meditation into my daily routine and have never looked back since.
Reflecting back on my personal experience, that class in college really helped introduce me to meditation, and without it I definitely would have felt lost at where to begin.
This post is going to walk through several common questions about mindfulness and how to meditate.
What are the personal and health benefits of meditation?
Regular meditation practice can lead to several emotional and mental health benefits. Some of these personal and health benefits of meditation include:
- Reduce stress
- Manage anxiety
- Increase self-awareness
- Improve sleep
- Improve attention span
Meditation can help you reduce stress and manage your anxiety. How can it do this?
Essentially, as we live our busy lives and go through our day, your thoughts, feelings, and experiences pass by quickly, often without you really thinking about them or realizing it.
Your actions are typically a result of how you feel, but you may not be aware of the processes or feelings that were influencing you in the moment. Mindful meditation is about creating that awareness.
You will take a step back from those actions and daily experiences to really identify your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations.
By identifying the thoughts that keep coming to your mind, you can identify the anxious thoughts or stress patterns that your brain keeps coming back to. Once you identify these thoughts, you can better address them and reduce that stress and anxiety.
This also mean that you will improve your self-awareness through meditation and have greater awareness and focus on the present moment.
Additionally, a regular mindfulness meditation practice can improve your sleep patterns and help you beat insomnia.
Mediation helps establish healthy sleep patterns because it trains your brain to refocus wandering thoughts. Because of this, if you find yourself plagued with racing thoughts or negative thoughts when you are trying to fall asleep, you will be better able to refocus your brain and relax.
Lastly, meditation can also help you improve your attention span. A mindfulness practice can build your ability to redirect thoughts and maintain attention on a given task.
Those are just a few of the potential mental and emotional health benefits of meditation, but as you can see it’s a healthy habit with numerous possible positive results.
How do you meditate?
Now we’re going to go over how to meditate. There are numerous mindfulness activities you can do, such as mindful eating. However, this post is going to focus on traditional meditation.
To learn about mindful eating, read more here.
To learn about mindfulness activities you can add to your morning routine read more here.
When you are ready to begin your meditation practice, start by finding a quiet place where you won’t be distracted.
Sit down (this can be on the floor, on a chair, etc.) and be sure your body is upright so that you can breathe easily. Don’t sit up so straight that you’re uncomfortable.
The goal here is to eliminate anything about your position that may distract you during the meditation practice.
Once you’re situated and comfortable, set a timer for however long you would like to meditate.
As a beginner to meditation, try something small like five or ten minutes, then work your way towards a longer goal. Set your alarm to be a calming sound that will gently alert you the time is up.
Now, you’re ready to begin. It’s often best to close your eyes or lower them to focus on a single point to avoid distraction.
Turn your focus towards your breathing. Really pay attention to how it feels to breathe in, feeling the air move through your lungs. Focus on how it feels to exhale, the air releasing from your body.
Now of course, your mind will become distracted!
This is completely okay. Rather than getting flustered or frustrated, accept that these thoughts are present.
Don’t place judgments on your thoughts yet, just let them occur and simply notice them. Say to yourself, “I am thinking or feeling this way”. Then try to let that thought go and recenter your focus on the breath.
Continue in this same manner until your timer sounds. When it does, gently come out of your meditative state. Open your eyes slowly, and gently bring your thoughts back to normal.
When should you meditate?
Now that you know how to meditate, you may be wondering what is the best time of day to practice meditation.
Meditation can be incorporated into your daily routine at any point throughout the day. It’s best to choose a time when you won’t be rushed or distracted by other things you need to do.
So essentially, you can meditate whenever is most convenient for you.
I enjoy meditating either in the morning to start my day with a calm mind, or in the evening before bed as I start settling down for the night.
However, if you think your lunch break would be the best time to meditate for your personal schedule, go for it!
How soon will you see the benefits of meditating?
We’ve talked about the numerous personal and mental health benefits of meditation, so you may also be wondering how soon these benefits will start manifesting.
This really varies for everyone, but it in general you won’t see an immediate change.
Be patient and stick with it for several weeks. Once it starts to feel more natural, you will be more in tune to the benefits from the practice.
What should you do if you get bored or even fall asleep when trying to meditate?
Once you’ve learned how to meditate and begin trying to incorporate a meditation practice into your daily life, you might find that you get bored during meditation or maybe you even fall asleep when trying to meditate.
This is okay and completely natural to happen sometimes.
If you find yourself falling asleep during meditation, try to pick a better time of the day when you are feeling more awake. So if you are meditating right before bed and keep falling asleep, maybe choose to meditate in the morning.
This goes back to being patient with yourself. Meditation will feel unnatural and uncomfortable at first, but as you keep at it you won’t notice feelings of boredom as much.
You may also find it beneficial to use a guided meditation. You can find free guided meditations on YouTube or use an app that provides guided meditation.
I use an app called Sanity and Self which includes guided meditation, but there are also other apps like Calm or Headspace.
To find the right guided meditation app for you, read this post on the five best meditation apps.
How do you build up a meditation habit?
Building habits in general takes both time and effort. You’ll need to really commit to building this healthy habit, but it will be worth that investment of your energy and time.
To build a meditation habit, start by meditating for just a few minutes a day and gradually building up to a larger amount of time like 20-30 minutes.
If you try to meditate for 20 minutes as soon as you start, it will be more difficult and you’ll be more likely to give up.
If you start with just a couple of minutes, it will be easier to incorporate into your daily life.
Another key to developing a meditation habit is consistency. In order to build up a habit, you need to consistently take that action. Try your best to meditate every day. But also forgive yourself for the days when you miss.
In order to build consistency, track the habit. What you track will get done because you’ll feel a sense of accountability and achievement.
To help yourself stay on track, utilize this free Weekly Self Care Schedule and Monthly Journal that includes a page for habit tracking.
Fill out the form below to get those resources for free straight to your inbox. As a bonus, you’ll also get a daily planner and a stress management checklist to help you along your self care journey as well.
Now you know how to meditate and are ready to get started!
As I said before, meditation is a really beneficial tool.
Keep in mind, when it comes to mental health and self care, it’s really all about balance and adopting a variety of practices that can help you.
So if you have a great exercise routine in place and that helps you de-stress, that’s awesome. Think about adding meditation into your routine that exists now.
Combining exercise, meditation, journaling, etc. will allow all of those pieces to come together and help you achieve a sense of inner peace.
Comment below if you try out mindful meditation or if you have any other questions that this article didn’t answer!
For more posts on mindfulness and meditation, read more here:
3 Comments