Here’s How To Learn Meditate: Beginner’s 22-Step How-to Guide

In today’s article you’re going to learn everything you need to know about how to learn meditate. Now let’s begin!

How To Learn Meditate:

1. Think About What You Want To Achieve With Your Meditation

People come to meditation for a wide range of reasons — whether to improve their creativity, help visualize a goal, quiet their inner chatter, or make a spiritual connection. If your only aim is to spend a few minutes every day being at the moment with your body without being concerned about everything you have to do, that’s reason enough to meditate. Try not to over-muddle your reasons for meditating. At its core, meditation is just about unwinding and refusing to be caught up in everyday anxieties.

2. Choose A Conducive Environment

Find a nice, quiet place where you won’t be disrupted for fifteen minutes or longer. Sit down, meditate and place your hands on your lap. You can rest on the floor cross-legged with the support of a meditation mats, or on any bench with your feet placed on the ground. It is not mandatory to push yourself into a lotus position if you are not used to it.

Regardless of how you sit, it is important to preserve and continue the natural curve of your back. That means no drooping. Persons suffering with chronic back problems who doesn’t have a tolerance sitting for a long period of time can try other meditation positions

3. Warm-Up Your Body With Yoga Or Light Exercise

Before starting your exercise do a few drills or starter’s yoga exercises. These will help to improve circulation, remove any uneasiness, and will make your body feel lighter. At the least, take a walk around your building or office.

Doing minimum warm-ups before doing meditating exercises will also help you to sit peacefully for a longer period time.

SEE ALSO: How To Practice Mindfulness Throughout The Day In 21 Amazing Ways

4. Start With The Breath

Start every practice by taking breaths deeply, slowly inhaling and then exhaling and focusing completely on your breath.

5. Make Sure To Not Be Distracted

Let your family, friends or roommates know that you will be unavailable for the allotted amount of time and to not disturb you, put your phone on silent.

6. Let The Breath Be Light And Even

One powerful tip for profound meditation is allowing your breathing to effortlessly get lighter and smoother. Since the breath is much connected to your mind, a balance light and even steady breath, helps lead the mind to an ever quieter place.

7. Understand The Principles Of Meditation

First time meditators often think the objective of meditation is to get to the mark that they can centre within without being able to get distracted. A more helpful goal is being aware of when your mind has drifted sooner.

8. Use A Meditation Cushion

Meditation cushions are also known as zafus. A zafu is a circular pillow that helps you to sit on the ground while meditating. Because it does not have a back, like a chair does, it doesn’t let you slump back and lose focus on your energy. If you don’t have one, any old pillow or sofa cushion is ok to help you not being sore during long stretches of cross-legged sitting.

9. Let Them Be

Instead of battling within your thoughts, just let your train of thoughts come and go like seeing clouds in the sky. Letting your thoughts be, you will come into consensus with your thoughts. You will notice them, and they won’t bother you. You won’t be afraid of them, because you know that they will come and leave you. You won’t be identified with them, or let them control you. You will see, you aren’t your thoughts – you are the space in which thoughts arise.

10. Make The Commitment

Be committed to the practice. For the long run, if you can’t find time to add 5-10 minutes per day in your daily routine for meditation, then you definitely have some big issues that need to be resolved.

11. Focus On Your Breathing

This is what meditation’s all about. Instead of trying not to think about the things that might stress you out on a day-to-day basis, give yourself something positive to focus on: your breath. By fixating all of your concentration on your breathing, you’ll find that all other thoughts from the outside world fades away on their own, without you having to worry about how to ignore them.

12. Become “Present”

Become totally aware of your current surroundings. What do you hear? How does it feel to sit? Do you feel tension? Where are your thoughts?

SEE ALSO: How To Stop Overthinking: 20 Awesome Strategies To Not Overthink

13. Meditate At The Same Time Daily

There is great power in habit. Being in a daily basis of meditating at the same time daily, erases a number of questions and doubts that can stop you from practicing.

14. Bring Your Attention Back To Your Breath If It Wanders

Even when you’ve obtained a lot of experience with meditation, you still experience your thoughts might wander. You’ll start thinking about work or bills or the deeds you have to run later. Whenever you feel the outside world creeping in, don’t panic and try to avoid them. Instead, gently guide your focus back to the beat of the breathing of your body, and let other thoughts fade away again.

15. Meditate On A Relatively Empty Stomach

In order to meditate properly it is of big help to have an empty stomach. Mediation works best before meals or at least two hours after having eaten. When the stomach is full one can become sleepy or even get distracted by indigestion!

On the flip side it is best not to do and meditate when you are super hungry, otherwise you may find that the only thing on your thought is the prospect of food! Needless to say, this does not augment meditation either.

16. Set Your Intention Ahead Of Time

If you have a specific concern or decision you need to make and are having trouble finding the answer, set your aim for what you would like to get during the meditation. Don’t expect to get an unclouded solution in the form of your own voice, but just put focus to any feelings you may feel or signs that may possibly come afterwards. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to stop thinking about it and let the answer come to you.

17. Choose a time that’s quiet

Meditation is your time to unwind and to be present with yourself, so select a time that fits well with your schedule, when disruptions and distractions are unlikely. This way, you will be free to enjoy it.

18. Make a special place

If you try to meditate in your office chair, or in front of the TV, you might see yourself doing those other activities instead.

19. Use The Flicker Of A Candle As A focus Point

Focusing your sight at the flame of a candle can assist you with quieting the mind.

20. Have A Timer At Hand

You want to ensure you do your meditation long enough, but you also don’t want to break your centering by checking the time. Set a timer for the length of time you wish to meditate — whether 10 minutes or an hour. Your smartphone may have an automatic timer on it, or you can find many websites and apps that will time your sessions for you.

21. Experiment With Different Techniques

There are many distinct ways to meditate, there are: breath techniques, guided meditations, transcendental meditation, binaural beats, rainforest sounds, etc. Try things and see with what works best for you and what puts you into that state more effectively.

22. Have Gratitude For Your Practice

Even if you feel like you didn’t get enough from the practice, don’t give up. Be thankful that you took the time to sit down and practice. The effects may not be obvious at first, but in time you will be glad you started.

Thank you for reading this article about how to learn meditate and I really hope that you take action my advice. I wish you good luck and I hope its contents have been a good help to you.

Przemkas Mosky
Przemkas Mosky started Perfect 24 Hours in 2017. He is a Personal Productivity Specialist, blogger and entrepreneur. He also works as a coach assisting people to increase their motivation, social skills or leadership abilities. Read more here