Step by Step Guide: How to Meditate

Meditation is both easier and more difficult than most people believe. Read through these procedures, make sure you're in a relaxing environment, set a timer, and give it a shot:

1) Take a seat

Look for a relaxing and quiet spot to sit in.

2) Set a time limit

If you're just getting started, setting aside a modest amount of time, such as five or ten minutes, can be beneficial.

3) Notice your body

You can sit in a chair with your feet on the floor, cross-legged, or kneel—any of these positions is OK. Simply ensure that you are steady and in a position that you can maintain for an extended period of time.

4) Feel your breath

Pay attention to the sensations of your breath as it enters and exits your body.

5) Notice when your mind has wandered

Your attention will inevitably leave the breath and stray to other things. Simply return your focus to the breath when you notice your mind has wandered—in a few seconds, a minute, or five minutes.

6) Be kind to your wandering mind

Don't pass judgement on yourself or concentrate about the nature of the ideas you're having. Simply return.

7) Close with kindness

Lift your gaze gently when you're ready (if your eyes are closed, open them). Take a moment to listen to the sounds around you. Take note of how your body is currently feeling. Take note of your feelings and thoughts.

That concludes our discussion. That is standard procedure. You concentrate, your mind wanders, you bring it back, and you do it as gently as possible (as many times as you need to).

How Much Should I Meditate?

Meditation isn't any more difficult than what we've just stated. It's that easy... and that difficult. It's also effective and worthwhile. The goal is to make a daily commitment to sit, even if it's only for five minutes. "One of my meditation teachers remarked that the most crucial moment in your meditation practise is the time you sit down to do it," says Sharon Salzberg, a meditation teacher. Because you're telling yourself that you believe in change, that you believe in self-care, and you're putting it into action. You're not only holding a value like mindfulness or compassion in your head, but putting it into practise."

Rumo Britt, a neuroscientist, recently revealed that doing 12 minutes of meditation five times a week helps safeguard and increase your capacity to pay attention.

Meditation Tips and Techniques

We've covered simple breath meditation so far, but there are other mindfulness techniques that use external objects like a sound in the room or something bigger, like observing spontaneous things that come into your awareness during an aimless wandering exercise, to anchor our attention. But there is one thing that all of these techniques have in common: we realise that our minds are in charge a lot of the time. That is correct. Typically, we have thoughts and then act. However, here are some helpful techniques to help you switch things up:

How to Make Mindfulness a Habit

It's estimated that 95% of our actions are pre-programmed. That's because neural networks are at the heart of all of our habits, converting millions of sensory inputs every second into manageable shortcuts that allow us to function in this chaotic world. These automatic brain signals are so effective that they frequently cause us to revert to old habits before we recall what we intended to do instead.

These default processes are the polar opposite of mindfulness. It's more like executive control than autopilot, and it allows for deliberate acts, willpower, and decisions. However, this requires time and practise. The more we use the intentional brain, the more powerful it becomes. We boost neuroplasticity by doing something intentional and novel, which activates our grey matter, which is full of newly sprung neurons that haven't yet been groomed for "autopilot" brain.

But there's a catch. Our purposeful brain knows what is best for us, but our autopilot brain causes us to take shortcuts in life. So, how can we remind ourselves to remain mindful when it's most needed? This is when "behaviour design" comes into play. It's a technique for putting your conscious mind in control. There are two ways to accomplish this: first, by slowing down the autopilot brain by placing impediments in its path, and second, by eliminating obstacles from the deliberate brain's path, allowing it to regain control.

It takes some effort to shift the balance to give your deliberate brain more power. Here are a few ideas for getting started.

Place reminders for meditation all around you. If you want to practise yoga or meditate, place your yoga mat or meditation cushion in the middle of your floor so it's easy to see as you walk by.

Renew your reminders on a regular basis. Let's pretend you've decided to utilise sticky notes to remind yourself of a new goal. That may work for a week, then your autopilot brain and old patterns will take over. Try making new notes to yourself; vary them or make them humorous. That way, they'll stay with you for a longer period of time.

Make your own patterns. To provide easy reminders to move into the purposeful brain, consider a succession of "If this, then that" messages. As an example, you may come up with the phrase "If office door, then deep breath" as a technique to enter mindfulness as you prepare to begin your workday. "Take a breath before answering the phone," for example. Your purposeful brain will be strengthened with each deliberate activity to transition into mindfulness.