Meditation I - Meditation for beginners

Meditation for beginners is written for absolute newbies to the idea of meditation. I think the main priority is to clear the misconceptions a lot of people have about meditating. Nobody expects you to sit still in the Lotus position for hours just focussing on your breath, emptying your mind or get „enlightened“ after a few hours.

If you see some gurus sitting or standing in complicated positions for hours and hours without end, it´s not where you need to start to harvest the powers of meditaiton. Beginning is far simpler.

The following is a „How to guide“, one about how to start a very basic meditation routine you can instandly implement in your life. Meditation for beginners uses no sprititualistic shenanigans, no overly complicated breathing techniques, no reciting of mantras. I´ll show you some quick and easy to apply tips that will help you start your meditation practises.

It doesn´t matter of you intend to meditate to release stress, fight a depression or just want to feel more balance and calmness in your life. This is for everyone.

What´s most important is that you start and develop a routine. A habit is easy to continue than a randomly scheduled task you do just for the sake it and get rid of the guild afterwards if you again postponed it.

That said, the only thing I ask you is to give it a try and see it for yourself. Meditation has helped so many people already to live a far more relaxed mind. You can be one of them to but it´s your choice.

Never feel forced to meditate! Certainly, to establish a routine it´s necessary to be pushy with oneself at the beginnig, but you shouldn´t try to meditate when you absolutely not feeling it.

The truth about what meditation really is!

Meditation is an ancient tradition like practising mindfullness to release strong feelings and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. It started as a religious thing but over the milleniums, it has become more and more a non-spiritual practise.

Here are some of the benefits of meditation:

Meditation for beginnes can help with:

Calm the mind to make better decisions
Lower blood pressure
Reduce anxiety
Decrease pain
Ease symptoms of depression
Improve sleep

The point is that altering consciousness, finding awareness, and achieving peace has become more mainstream. The new-age movement, mainly triggered by the first „The Secret“ movie help gaining momentum in the western world as well. Certainly, it was there before, but it celebrated a revival and got implemented in far more areas than before.

In our current times of constant stress, people asking for instand gratification and a crises looming over us all, a relaxed mind is almost luxury. In opposite to real tangible luxurious goods, meditation doesn´t cost a thing.

There are plenty of different ways for a meditation for beginners journey but most of them focus either on breathing or mindfullness and awareness. For a starter I would recommend a guided meditation that includes both.

Within time you´ll what feels and resonates better with you. Since there is no right or wrong and no ultimate way to meditate, it´s up to everybody him/herself to figure out the subjectively perfect approach to meditation.

It depends on so many things like your upbringing, your current work related situation or your social environement. The following methods maybe sound a little generic because it needs to be appealing to a broad community. I´m sure you´ll find your own way of meditating soon.

Life-changing meditation for beginners guide

I want to introduce you to 2 of the most uncomplicated and undemanding forms of meditation, perfectly fine for a beginner. Both techniques could be used, or maybe even should be used, with the support of a guide. There are plenty of guided meditation videos on youtube for free. Check out this one for example:

Taken from Honest Guys Meditations and Relaxations

Meditation for beginners doesn´t has to need an hour daily. As said earlier, you can start with just a few minutes each day. The best times are right after you woke up and right before you go to sleep. Again, just 5 minutes meditating could be enough to trigger visible differences in your daily life within a few days.

It´s crucial that you obverse yourself and acknowledge change and in case there is none, adjust your meditation technique.

Mindfullness Meditaton

Step 1 – Clear the room of any distractions

Turn off your phone completely and put it away in a different room. TV, radio or whatever else is in your room should be turned off as well. Silence is necessary to get started.

Step 2 – Take a seat in a comfortable position

Importat here is that you do not lean against a wall, cupboard or bed. You nedd to sit freely without anything attached to you. A pillow for a more comfortable sitting is OK though. If you lean against something, chances are you´ll fall asleep.

Step 3 – Focus on your breath

Start with consciously inhaling and exhaling 10 times You can say the words „Here and now“ when you do that to keep you focussed in the present moment.

Your main goal is to pay attention to your breath and leave your thoughts be as they pass through your mind. Think of them as clouds passing by. They are just there floating in the sky. You don’t judge the thoughts or become emotionally involved. You simply observe and remind yourself to stay calm.

If you thoughts start to go wild, take a deep breath and gently remind yourself to stay focussed on the moment. That helps to keep your your awareness on the present moment and not get distracted by bodily sensations, thoughts, or feelings.

Step 4 – Relax your body

I know, how can you actively stay calm? You just let loose of your body tension as much as you can. You should´t fall over while doing that but just let your muscle relax and „breath out“ the stress inside them.

Do this for a while and see if you can handle doing that for 5-10 minutes and how you feel afterwards.

Focussed Meditation

2 different methods of focussed meditation are most prominent. They work in a similar way though because the goal is to either focus on an object or parts of your body. The first could be a candle or a Buddha statue, while the latter uses slowly tightening and relaxing each one of your muscle groups at a time throughout the body. You might heard about it somewhere else where it was called „progressive muscle relaxation“.

To keep yourself focussed on an object outside of your body could be hard for a beginner, so I´ll put the emphasis on the inner body meditation here.

Step 1 is the same as above, step 2 is already different.

Step 2 – Lay down on your back

In this meditation technique you lay on the floor, so a blanked or a second pillow should be used in case your floor is cold. You need to feel comfortable, that´s important.

Step 3 – Start by focussing on your breath and then your body parts

For to start, use the same inhale/exhale routine as transcribed above. When you did that, start to focus on your left foot, then your left ankle, your left shin, and so one. Use every body part as an anchor to the next.

Have a rest at your forehead and feel the energy flowing all together at this spot. If you do it right you should feel a tingling sensation in the body part you just focus on and you feel the mind and the energy flow through it.

This technique is best with a guide but you can do it alone without one as well.

Conclusion

No matter if you start your meditation for beginners journey with 5,10,15 or 20 minutes of meditating, the fact that you start is important. Take your time to find the right method that works best for you. Try to install a daily routine and observe your mindset over the coming days and weeks.

t often takes a little trial and error until you find the one that fits. Open yourself up to the possibilities. There are so many different forms of meditation that if one isn’t working or isn’t comfortable, just try a new one.

Whatever you do, just don´t give up and dismiss it when it´s not working out. Your body and your mind will be grateful to you practising meditation.

Namaste