Meditation is a simple practice, but can be a very confusing subject to learn about, especially for beginners.
I’m going to boil it down to a very simple yet powerful meditation that you can do to help you become more aware and present in your life, right now.
How to Do Meditation For Beginners: 5-Minute Mindfulness Meditation
1) Find a quiet place where you will be undisturbed. Turn off your phone. Set a timer for 5 minutes.
2) Sit in a chair in a comfortable position.
Have your feet flat on the floor, and gently rest your hands our your lap or knees.
Don’t worry about any fancy meditation pillows or sitting cross legged. Do not lie down.
3) Close your eyes and breath into your belly.
4) Notice any tension in your body and in what areas.
Don’t try to fix it or change it, just gently take note and let it be there.
5) Notice your breathing. Close your mouth and breathe in and out of your nose.
Begin to breathe into your belly in a natural and smooth way, deepen your breaths slowly.
Focus your attention on your belly moving in and out with each inhale and exhale.
You can count to 6 for inhale and count to 6 for the exhale if you are having trouble deepening your breaths.
6) Now notice your thoughts. Notice what your mind is saying.
Bring yourself back to your breath each time you notice a thought.
You can focus on any point of breath in your body – your belly, your chest or the breath moving in and out of your nose.
7) Gently notice the gaps between thoughts where you are present.
Optional: As thoughts come and go you can label them “thinking” and bring yourself back to your breath, if just bringing your attention back to your breath, isn’t enough to unattach from your thoughts.
Continue steps 5-7 until the 5 minutes is up or you can continue longer.
Remember, the idea is never to try to “stop thinking” but to allow the thoughts to appear and by not attaching to them, they naturally disappear.
It is when we get lost in thought that we get caught up in a mind story, usually a negative one, that suffering ensues and life becomes a miserable struggle i.e. I’m not good enough, why am I so depressed, why did he do that to me?
Tuning into our breath is one of the most powerful ways to build awareness, detach from thought and bring vitality and relaxation back into our lives.
By shifting our relationship with our thoughts and feelings, not trying to find ways how to control your emotions and thoughts, the content of them doesn’t matter nearly as much, and we can learn to be present and live the lives we want to, by choice, in spite of what we are thinking or feeling. It allows us to live more deeply and intuitively, from a place of deeper knowing and well-being.
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