How To Start A Meditation Practice For Beginners

blog meditation Aug 03, 2019

Meditation is one of the most powerful practices you can add to your life.

Your mind controls your thoughts, your emotions, every cell in your body, and controls how you respond to everything in your external environment.

When you learn to master your thoughts, your entire life turns around.

You can find endless amounts of studies on the physical benefits of meditation as well, like lowering blood pressure and healing depression. 

Meditation is simply a practice in focusing your attention.

It sounds simple, and it is. But the world we live in today with electronics and social media brings us addictive patterns of instant gratification and a short attention span. 

The #1 reason why most people only try meditating once or twice is that they don’t have the patience for it.

Since they’re not great at focusing their attention yet, they get frustrated and give up quickly. 

 Does this sound familiar?

My goal is to make this very simple and easy. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about how you approach the process. 

 But first, we’ll start with what meditation does for you.

 

The Power of Meditation

Meditation allows you to quiet the chatter in your mind.

It allows you to become present and find a sense of peace, inspiration, and intuitiveness that was hiding in the noise.

You think an average of 70,000 thoughts a day.

Most people are very connected to the thoughts in their minds. Often jumping from one thought to the next. 

We think about our life and what we’re going to have later for dinner. Or what happened yesterday and what may happen in the future.

You re-live frustrations about that person that cut you off on the freeway or how you can’t believe what you’re co-worker said the other day.

There are so many things running around in your mind, and most of those thoughts don’t serve you in a positive way.

It often causes you to hold onto un-needed tension, anger, frustration, annoyance, worry, and stress. 

All of those thoughts and emotions are controlling every cell in your body.

Negative thoughts can throw you out of balance and manifests as illness, disease, lowered immune system, chronic pain, bad relationships, and all of the things we don’t want in life.

One of the most wonderful things about meditation is that it allows you to quiet your mind.

It quiets all that internal dialogue and allows you to let go of some of that drama so you can actually relax, heal, and find peace in your life. 

Meditation creates awareness of your thought patterns.

Since you have a tendency to be very closely identified with that internal dialogue, by meditating it allows you to observe your thoughts. 

Thoughts will creep into your meditation practice. It’s normal. It gives you the chance to be aware of your thought patterns. 

You’ll notice certain repetitive thoughts or things that you have a tendency to focus on.

When you notice your thought patterns, it creates a deeper awareness of how you have been showing up in life. This gives you the opportunity to change it.

If you notice you have a lot of negative thoughts, you may have tendencies towards feeling depressed or angry.

If you have a lot of busy thoughts, you may have a tendency to feel overwhelmed or anxious. 

The emotions that you live in day after day, creates your reality.

Whether it’s stress and constantly running lists in your head of all the things you have to do or you experience blissfully positive thoughts, your thoughts are going to determine your quality of life. 

It’s the gaps between your thoughts that bring a state of calmness and clarity.

Many creative, inspired ideas can come from the quiet space between your thoughts. 

It’s those moments when you truly get quiet, that you tap into your own divine energy.

This is where your intuition grows stronger. You tap into the essence of your own higher self (your soul), which brings you back to your authenticity. 

It brings more peace into your life, more awareness, and it just makes life easier.

You end up stepping into the real you, instead of being bogged down by all that internal dialogue and the mindless chatter that comes from the ego.

This clarity allows you to create massive shifts in your life for the better. 

The highest level of meditators has mastered their state of energy to a level where their heart and brain go into coherence and their body releases energy and chemicals so strong that they are able to heal not only themselves but also other people.

 

How To Meditation 

First, get into a comfortable position. Whether it’s on a couch, sitting on your favorite chair, or laying down on the bed. Find a place that you’re comfortable with.

Choose a place where you’re not going to fall asleep as you start to meditate. This is important because you still want to be fully aware of your meditation. 

Next, close your eyes and get quiet.

Take a deep breath, start to quiet your mind, and quiet your thoughts.

Focus your attention on taking big, deep breaths.

 

Click Here To Watch My YouTube Video On Meditating For Beginners

 

Progressive Relaxation

You may want to start with a progressive relaxation where you imagine the relaxation starting from the top of your head, relaxing the muscles in your forehead, around your eyes, your cheekbones, and your jaw. 

Relax your neck, your shoulder, your chest, and relax all the way down your arms to your fingertips.

Continue working your way down your body.

Relax your torso, relax your hips, your thighs, and your lower legs all the way down to your toes.

Gently allow your body to relax and get into a deep zen state. 

 

Practice Focusing

Meditation is a practice in focusing. There are many things you can focus your attention on during your meditation, which can make it fun and give you a variety to play with overtime. There are many different ways to meditate. 

A common starter for many people is focusing on your breath, one of your senses (sound, internal sensations, external sensations, space, etc.), a specific emotion you want to master (peace, calmness, joy, abundance), or an image that triggers a positive emotional response are all great ways to start. 

Meditation can be done in silence, with relaxing meditation music or binaural beats, or even guided meditations that take you on a journey.

You can meditate in stillness or while going for a walk. A walking meditation is an active way to become present at the moment, mindful of what’s around you, and expand your awareness instead of being caught up in your mind chatter.  

 

 

Focusing on Space

Focusing on sensing space is an amazing way to detach from the mind and physical world. It allows you to completely connect to the divine spiritual realm, which brings healing and mastery of manifestation.

“By sensing the vastness of space around you and becoming nobody, no one, nothing, nowhere, in no time—your body, other people, things in your environment, and past and future events no longer become the object of your attention.” - Joe Dispenza

Focus on the feeling, seeing, and experiencing the space within you and around you.

On a quantum level, you are over 99.9% space vs. physical matter.

Focus your attention on the space within your body. Feel as being more space and energy than matter. 

Then, notice the space between you and the table in front of you.

Notice the space within you and the space to the ends of the couch.

Notice the space to the ends of the room you are in and then go beyond the room or building you’re in. 

As you focus your attention on the space, also notice the “no space.”

It’s more of a feeling and an experience than a logical sense. 

Your main goal is to notice and to be one with the present moment versus labeling things as “oh I can feel the energy of the coffee table. That’s this, and this is that.”

We want to avoid the labeling because then we’re back in the ego and the mind chatter. 

When you have no thoughts in your mind and you’re just sensing, that’s when you’re in the present moment.

You’re pure awareness.

The moment a thought comes up, your energy is somewhere else. Your energy is on that thought.

Meditation is really about coming into a place of presence.

Coming into a place of “I am here. Right now. I am fully present, fully alert, and fully at this moment.” 

The beauty of the meditative practice is that when you’re consistent with it, it starts to flow into your everyday life.

That energy blends into your life not only during your meditation, but also when you’re at work when you’re with your family, or with your friends. 

Instead of being in your internal dialogue, with your energy somewhere else in the mix of all your thoughts, you shift to being present in the world with the people around you.

This is the healing beauty of meditation practice.

 

Approaching Your Practice

How you approach your meditation practice is one of the most important components, especially as a beginner. 

You are the awareness behind your thoughts, and you have the ability to focus your mind.

You have the ability to control your thoughts and quiet your mind.

Meditation is simple, but for some, it is not easy in the beginning (and that’s okay, it doesn’t mean you should give up).

Most people get frustrated because they feel like they can’t quiet their minds or they don’t like what their mind is saying.

That means you need meditation more.

Although quieting the mind is one of the goals, having mind chatter doesn’t mean you’re doing it incorrectly or “can’t” do it.

It takes practice like any other type of training.

If you’ve never exercised before, you don’t start by doing pull-ups.

If you’ve never meditated before, you shouldn’t expect to be able to keep your mind completely quiet for 5 minutes straight.

Think of the gaps between your thoughts as a repetition.

When you’re working out and lifting weights, you’ll do anywhere from 8-25 repetitions.

You typically start with a lighter weight and higher repetitions and work your way down to heavier weights and lower repetitions to build strength. It’s the same with meditation.

In the beginning, thoughts will come up more frequently (higher repetitions), but over time you will have long pauses in your thoughts (fewer repetitions). 

Even though the goal is to quiet your mind and to be present, it’s also extremely important that you’re not hard on yourself when thoughts do come up.

Thoughts are going to come up. Emotions are going to come up. There will be some barriers that you have to work through. 

But the key to approaching your meditation is not to be hard on yourself or judge yourself if it’s difficult to focus or get quiet.

Aim to just notice it, and then let it go quickly. Just be aware of it. Be the awareness without judgment. 

My meditation practice is different every day. Some days are easy, and I can get “in the zone” quickly.

Other days it’s a struggle, and it takes me 30 minutes or more to feel zen. 

Just like your workouts vary at the gym. Some days you feel rested, fueled, and ready to hit it hard. Other days you feel weak, tight, tired, and you’re just doing the best you can.

It’s not about perfection. It’s about showing up for yourself.

If you start to run a list in your mind during meditation, don’t be hard on yourself for it. It isn’t a good thing or a bad thing. It just is what it is. There’s no need to overthink it. 

Your meditation is not the time to analyze. You can analyze later after your meditation is over.

Meditation is the time to let go of all judgment. Simply be in the moment, and be in awareness. 

Your practice will evolve over time.

The more you practice, the better you’re going to get at it. You’ll experience more healing and have more clarity in your life. 

 

Having A Consistent Practice

Just like working out, meditation is a practice you want to be consistent with, otherwise, you lose it.

A short consistent practice will train your mind faster than a couple of times a month in longer sessions.

I recommend starting out with 5-15 minutes every day or every other day, and then work your way up to longer meditation sessions of 30-60 minutes or more.  

Every little bit you do adds up over time.

In the beginning, it may just be a second or two where you have those quiet gaps between your thoughts.

But over time, you’ll have five seconds of quiet, then ten, then you’ll just notice the bliss. 

In order to be consistent, it helps to attach a new habit to an old habit.

You can choose to meditate first thing in the morning after you’ve had your coffee or before.

Or perhaps you prefer meditating on your lunch break.

Meditation slowly becomes a way of being that brings you clarity, joy, and peace.

The ultimate goal of meditation is to experience more moments of blissful presence throughout the rest of your day so that the quality of your entire life and what you manifest improves. 

You’ll hit a point where you love it so much that you want to spend more and more time in meditation because it feels so good.

This is when you’ll really start seeing effects in other areas of your life, like how you respond to conflict and stress.

Use meditation as your time to re-connect. It’s your time to tap into the divine energy that brings wisdom and peace.

Honor and master that sense of connecting during your meditation.

I hope this blog gave you some insights into starting your own meditation practice.

Hopefully, you’re inspired to start your own meditation practice. 

Remember, every little bit counts, so start today.

You’re going to feel amazing if you continue with this practice and master your connection to the present moment. 

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