It’s not a big deal to learn to meditate. You don’t need to go out and buy a fancy mat, gong, timer, or app. All you need is willingness!
- Start with a 3-5 minute meditation. Anyone can carve out that amount of time in their day, right?
- Sit somewhere comfy: A chair, a meditation cushion, or a yoga mat will do – just make sure that you can sit with your sit bones firmly grounded so that you can extend your spine upward.
- Make sure you will be undisturbed. Turn off your phone, shut your pets out of the room, and tell your friends, family and co-workers to leave you alone for 5 minutes. People have a way of getting deathly quiet when you tell them you are meditating.
- Become aware of what is going on in the present moment: what do you hear, smell, feel? Is your breathing shallow or deep? Do you have any pain in your body? Meditation is largely about just allowing yourself to become very present and very aware.
- Instead of trying to stop your thoughts (you never will!), just observe them as if you were watching a movie. What’s going on in your mind? What are you obsessing over, angry about, afraid of, stuck on? Just inquire and try not to judge.
- Draw your mind to your breath. Gently lengthen and deepen each breath. I find it helpful to mentally count 3 slow beats for my inhale and 3 slow beats for my exhale.
And then you are done – that’s all it takes. Give it a go and LMK how you get on.
