Learn How To Do Meditation for Beginners – Take The Stress Out

What is Meditation?

Meditation is simply quieting your mind for a few minutes each day. It has a new age stigma around it, but monks or hippies aren’t the only ones who meditate. 

Fortune 500 CEOs use it, top athletes use it, stay-at-home moms use it. Hugh Jackman, Jim Carrey, Goldie Hawn, Russell Brand, and Tony Robbins (just to name a few) are all massive advocates of daily meditation.

Meditation is so important for everyone, especially those with mental health issues. My thoughts used to just run nonstop for days (and they still do). Sometimes, I couldn’t even sleep because my mind would be racing, mostly with negative thoughts about myself or what someone said or did to me. 

Meditation helps me quiet my busy mind for some much-needed relief from the constant barrage of thoughts. When you completely quiet your mind and stop your thoughts, even just for a few seconds, everything feels much lighter.

Meditation has allowed me to become more centered, and stress doesn’t affect me as much. I can handle whatever I encounter in my day and I worry less about what everyone else is thinking of me. Meditation makes it easier to let go of things because you’re training your mind to stop thinking. I REALLY recommend that you try meditation; it will change your life.

Currently, I meditate for 20-30 minutes per day. To someone who’s never done that before, it might seem like a long time to be sitting there doing nothing. You also might be thinking you don’t have that sort of spare time to waste. But I guarantee that you’ll be so much more effective in your life once you start meditating that you won’t know how you lived without it. You’ll get more done in less time and feel much better doing it.

Here are a few more benefits of meditation

Presence

We’re in the A.D.D. generation. There’s so much information at our fingertips that it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Most of us can’t sit through a 30-minute meal without checking our phones several times. Meditation helps you get centered and stay present. Learning to be present is essential for not getting swept up in anxious thoughts and being a good communicator.

Meditation Keeps You Emotionally Calm I don’t really get angry at little annoyances in life anymore. If a situation annoys me, I have the ability to just let the feeling go and carry on. A simple technique in a stressful situation is to take a deep breath in, hold for 4 seconds, take a long breath out, then repeat one more time!

Productivity Can Benefit From Mediation We’re always so busy these days with so much to do and so little time. It’s tough to be on 7 days a week. What helps me when I lose focus is a 10-minute meditation. This clears my mind, calms my thoughts, allows me to re-focus and keeps me from being overwhelmed with all the things I need to get done.

A Shower for Your Mind We must bathe our bodies daily, so why should it be anything different with our minds? As we go about our day, we collect all kinds of junk and muck in our minds. A negative comment from someone, stress from work and poor self-talk. These things need to be cleaned out daily by “resetting” and getting back to our breathing. Your mind runs and runs all day nonstop. Meditation is like turning your engine off for a few minutes for a rest and oil change.

Developing The Habit It’s hard to stop your thoughts, even for 10 seconds. If you’re a chronic over-thinker and someone whose mind races, sitting down for 20 minutes and trying not to think is really hard in the beginning. Like everything I’ve discussed in the book, we need to start off small and then improve a little bit each day. After a few months, you’ll get to a point where it will be the thing you look forward to most in your day. It feels like taking a nice warm bath

for your mind; it’s total bliss.

How To Do Meditation

1. I find a quiet place. I simply sit cross-legged with my back straight on my lounge or bed. Sometimes, I’ll light a candle if it’s night. I relax my whole body, my eyes, my face, my shoulders, etc. I relax as much as I can.

2. I put my phone and computer on silent to not be disturbed.

3. I set the countdown timer for the number of minutes I want to go for.

4. Hit the start button and close my eyes.

5. All I focus on is my breath – “breathing iiiiinnnnn – “breathing ouuutttt. Try not to focus or think about anything other than your breath.

6. Your mind WILL wander. That’s normal; don’t judge yourself or feel bad about it. Once you catch your mind thinking about something else, allow yourself to come back to focusing on your breath again. Remember, no judgment!

In the beginning, I got bored easily and found it very hard to stay focused. I was trying to run before I could walk by trying to do 20 minutes right away when I should have started with 5 minutes and gone from there.

Here’s the best way to learn meditation: Day 1 – 7: 5 minutes Day 8 – 14: 7 minutes Day 15 – 30: 10 minutes Day 30 +: 15 – 20 minutes

For this to be effective, it has to be a daily thing. Figure a way to fit it into your routine. It could be when you first wake up, the last thing before you sleep, or during your lunch break. For best results, try all three times. When I meditate before I sleep, it helps me fall asleep quicker. When I meditate after lunch, I don’t get as lethargic. And meditating in the morning puts me in a good mood and sets me up for a good day.

If you miss a day or two, it’s okay, no judgment. Just get back on it as soon as you can. When you feel like skipping a day, just think about all the rewards that come with meditation: less stress, less anxiety, increased focus, and just generally feeling better.

Here a additional video on How To Do Meditation for Beginners.