How to Meditate
You’ve decided to stick with a particular practice for a minimum of a few weeks. You want to ensure that you are meditating properly.
Set up your Meditation Space
It is a common misconception that the environment in which you meditate must be completely silent. It is best to have a quiet environment, but you can accept ambient noise.
I complained about the noise to my meditation teacher. He looked at me in a way I will never forget, and asked if he thought the entire city (13,000,000 people) of Bangalore would be placed under curfew to allow me to meditate.
His message was well received. We can’t be centered and unshakable if we obsess over the smallest details.
Use the following guidelines when setting up your meditation area. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect.
Tips on how to set up your own meditation space:
- Choose a quiet and private location (cooler environments are the best).
- Silence your mobile phone.
- If you are seated, make sure it is comfortable.
- If possible, meditate in the same spot every day.
- Keep your pets in a separate room when you are meditating.
- Remove clothing that is too tight, such as belts and watches.
What is the best position for meditation?
In general, meditation should be done with your spine straight and in a comfortable sitting position (unless you are practicing walking mediation).
How long should one meditate?
Answers to this question depend on your current level of meditation. Even a few minutes of meditation a day is better than nothing for a beginner. Most people start to feel the benefits of meditation when they dedicate 20 minutes per day over time.
How to meditate with your body
Contrary to popular opinion, sitting cross-legged on the floor will not make you more intelligent or enlightened. You must sit comfortably when you meditate.
Find a chair that is comfortable for you. It could be a floor mat for yoga or a chair with a backrest.
Simple body scans are a great way to relax your body before you start your meditation. Find a comfortable chair, close your eyelids, and focus your attention on your feet.
Relax your muscles. Next, turn your attention towards your knees. Relax your muscles. Continue this movement upwards to hips, abdomens, chests, shoulders, the right and left arms, necks, faces, and heads.
After completing this simple body scan you will feel relaxed and ready to meditate.
Meditation: What to do during meditation
A common misconception is the idea that you shouldn’t have any thoughts while meditating. This is simply not true.
Thoughts may pass through you like clouds in some deep states of meditation.
It is important to not let your thoughts overwhelm you. We don’t want more stress.
If thoughts arise, do not fight them but also don’t engage them. Just let them go and let them exist.
You can then take a deep breathe and relax yourself into meditative relaxation.
How to deal with emotions during meditation
It’s common to feel difficult emotions when you meditate. You might find yourself feeling incredibly angry or depressed for no apparent reasons.
The trick is not to resist or engage with emotions. Let them flow. Just let them out.
Meditation Tips
Want nothing? Do nothing and be nothing
Most of us spend our days wanting, doing, and being. Meditation allows us to temporarily forget all of this.
A great way to settle into deeper meditations, is to say at the start of your practice: “For the next twenty minutes, I don’t want anything.” I am nothing. “I am nothing. Relax and let go with this technique.
Sound has a powerful effect
Sound is a great way to begin your meditation. Since thousands of years, meditation practitioners have chanted Om 3 times to begin their practice. The sound vibrations calm the mind and help you sink into deep meditation.
Power of Breath
Have you noticed that each emotional state is accompanied by a specific pattern of breathing?
When you are anxious, you breathe fast and shallowly, but when you are relaxed, you breathe slowly and smoothly.
This phenomenon also occurs in reverse, meaning that by controlling your breathing, you can have a positive impact on your emotions and mind.
When properly practiced, breathing work can make meditations easier and deeper.
Breath is the connection between body and mind
It’s like driving a nail through a wall using another nail. It doesn’t work.
You need a hammer to drive a nail. To meditate, you may need to practice the correct breathwork.
Try adding a breathwork technique at the start of your meditation practice if you have trouble settling your emotions or mind. You will be amazed how effortless and easy it can be.
