How To Meditate (For Beginners).

In my previous post I looked at the benefits of meditation. By special request of Gordie, this post will be a very simple “how to” on taking your first steps on the path to learning meditation.

First, the obligatory story filled with worldly wisdom.

I recently started doing Wing Chun, a form of Kung Fu originating from Southern China. One of the most striking things for me thus far during my instruction is how little distance there is between spirituality and actions in eastern cultures. This is perfectly embodied in the eastern martial arts. This connection is completely unrelated to religion, even though many use the power of meditation to strengthen their experience of their religion. It is about being fully invested in your actions. Each action and movement exists for its own sake.

There is no multi tasking. There is no stress. The body is relaxed and each movement happens as and when it must happen. What a sobering reminder about the power of meditation. Meditation is not an event it’s a state of mind. Many of us meditate when we blog. We disconnect from the outside world and become fully in touch with our thoughts, emotions and words. For others this connection comes at our day jobs or perhaps when spending a quiet moment with our spouse or in silent moments of prayer.

Meditation then, is an exercise that allows us to inject that level of meaning into our whole lives. It’s an exercise in finding the joy in those things we love to do and those things we don’t. Meditation is not an end in and of itself. Meditation has no meaning of itself. It’s a skill that will allow you to clear your mind of the smoke and mirrors keeping us from fulfilling our true purpose.

With all of this in mind this is a beginner exercise to get you started with meditation. It’s a very simple relaxation exercise followed by a focus exercise which will help you train your mind to deal with intruding thoughts while meditating.

Five Minutes is enough.

To start with 5 or 10 minutes is probably the ideal amount of time to practice. When you start, you’ll find your mind wandering and struggle to control it. Don’t panic. Your mind is simply chattery, over stressed working a mile a minute, the same as the rest of us. Many people tell me “I can’t meditate because my mind is just too active/stressed/troubled”. My answer to that is, “You need to meditate the most.” The chattery mind keeps on and on, never taking a breather. Eventually will come the moment where, exhausted, it will fail. So if you think meditation is too hard for you, this is for you.

First things first.

So what are you going to need?

• Minimum of five minutes a day.
• A quiet space.
• Comfortable loose fitting clothing.
• Comfortable place to sit. A pillow is essential if you plan to sit on the floor otherwise a chair works just as well.
• An alarm of some kind. Only use your mobile phone if you are able to set it to silent and the alarm will go off but other notifications won’t.

The important thing is that you’re comfortable. I for one have an old volleyball related knee injury that returns from time to time. In order to be comfortable I often meditate while sitting in a chair. The meditation police are not going to show up and fine you. Do what feels right to you.

Begin with the end in mind.

Meditation will help you to:

• breathe correctly.
• free your mind of conscious thought.
• feel more relaxed.
• relax more easily.
• feel less tired.

Step 1

• Settle down in your space.
• Sit cross legged on a pillow or sit in a chair while keeping your back straight.
• Relax your body as best you can.
• Place your palms face up on your thighs.

Step 2

• Concentrate on your breathing now.
• Breathe in through your nose.
• Breathe out through your mouth letting your tongue touch the roof of your mouth.
• Now breath deeply in and out.
• Don’t worry about your thoughts right now just breath deeply in and out.
• Feel your stomach and chest rise and fall.

Step 3

• When you feel comfortable close your eyes.
• Now concentrate on the air just at the entrance to your nostrils.
• Focus on this air as it enters your body and fill your lungs.
• While you do this expect your mind to wander; this is natural.
• When a thought enters your mind acknowledge it and picture it falling through your mind.
• Then continue focusing on the air just at the entrance to your nostrils.
• Continue focusing on the air at the entrance to your nostrils remembering not to oppose thoughts as they enter your mind, simply accept them and picture them falling weightlessly through and out of your mind.

This is a very simple exercise but very powerful for helping beginners to start feeling the benefits of meditation as well as setting a grounding in breathing and focus that will allow more meaningful meditation.

The whole process will seem a little unnatural at first, remember this is an exercise. As with any exercise of your mind, the more you do it, the stronger it will become. I’ll admit the first week I started I did very little meditating and a lot of fidgeting. Don’t stress if this is you It gets better. And it gets better very fast once you get over the initial hump. If you have any problems following these instructions leave a comment or send me a mail via the contact me section on Monetize Your Life and I promise to get back to you.

Related posts:

1. Why Meditation Is The Rocket Fuel For Lifestyle Design And Personal Development.