Everyone seems to be talking about meditation these days, that it is good for you to calm your mind, bring balance in your life, etc. Have you been thinking about wanting to try it but just don’t know how? Maybe you also have doubts and think “I cannot stop my mind from thinking, so I cannot meditate” or you claim that you don’t have time in your day to meditate. Does this sound familiar?
Actually all these thoughts are quite common and many people have them – including me a few years ago. To be honest, I must admit that I only recently started regular meditation again. I had been very good at it a few years back and then kind of lost the grip. And I am certainly no meditation guru! But the good news is, no matter how advanced your mediation skills are, you will still get benefits from it!
Now that I am at it again and I see how quickly it changes the quality of my day and my life really, I feel like I want to share this in a post to encourage you to try it and give you some tips on how to do it and take the doubts away that stopped you from trying it until today.
Let me address some of the usual doubts and worries:
- I cannot stop my mind from thinking
The good news is: you don’t have to! Meditation is a practice to slow your thoughts down and eventually reach a space where your mind slows down so much you that it feels like you are not thinking – but this might take months or even years! So in your early meditation practice, just take some time out of your day to be more focused on your breath, repeat a mantra in your mind or even focus on a specific subject during meditation. So you could also see it as mind training. On some days it will be easier and on other days it will be more difficult. Most importantly don’t beat yourself up about it! At least you took some time out of your day to slow down, to focus on your breathing – and a nice side effect is, that sometimes when sitting in stillness trying to meditate you allow your creativity to flow and come up with the best ideas!
You do not meditate. Meditation happens to you.
Also when you think about the fact that you want to meditate, it cannot happen because you are using your mind. So instead just try to focus on the guided meditation, or on your breath and every time your thoughts come up, you notice them and let them pass and re-focus on e.g. your breath until eventually, meditation will happen to you.
- I don’t have time to meditate
Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. And it all comes down to priorities. In the beginning, it is enough to take out as much as 5 – 10min every morning – as you progress 15 min, and then maybe 20min. You can easily cut this time somewhere else – for example spending 10min less on social media channels or watching TV.
- I cannot sit cross-legged with a straight back while I meditate
Ideally, you should sit up while you meditate because when you lie down you will likely fall asleep – especially at the beginning. What I like to do is sit in my bed up against the wall with a pillow behind my back sitting as straight as possible first thing in the morning after I wake up. The back support makes it much easier. Also, the morning after you wake up is a good time to meditate – your thoughts are still slower as you haven’t started your busy day yet. You can even sit on a chair if a cross-legged position is not comfortable for you.
- I don’t know where and how to start
When I first started meditating, I downloaded an app called “Headspace”. It is a perfect app for someone that is completely new to meditating. You start very slowly and gently – being guided through the sessions and not just meditating but also learning how to meditate and how it all works. The app is free for a few days and then you have to get a paid version, but it is worth it. Nowadays – if I do a guided meditation – I use an app called “Insight Timer”, which is for free and most of the meditations are free. It has thousands of meditations in lots of languages with different topics to choose from as well as a beginner section. I also use the “timer” option of the app if I don’t want to do a guided meditation.
Meditation helps you to become familiar with the mind. It is about understanding and transforming the mind.
As you see there is really no excuse why you should not try to meditate. The best thing is, that you can meditate pretty much anywhere and it does not cost anything! The benefits of meditation are endless and it does not matter if you do it for 5, 10, 20min or 1 hour per day. And for now, don’t worry too much about advanced forms of meditations, don’t overcomplicate it. One step at a time.
Just give it a try – start tomorrow and if you like, share your experience with me. I would love to hear from you.
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