The Three Best Meditation Practices for Beginners.
Meditation has a whole bunch of benefits, it increases immune function, decreases anxiety, boosts social connection and emotional intelligence. But figuring out where to begin if you've never done it before can be intimidating. A lot of people think you have to sit for hours until you can see the results and benefits, but that is absolutely not true, if you can sit for at least five minutes a day this can be enough, what does matter is that you're consistent. I'll be completely honest, I am not very consistent, but what I am sure of is that when I don't practice, I am missing something great. Studies have shown that meditation can rewire neural pathways in the brain, and 7 short days of practice at 5-10 minutes really does give you results. What I notice is more space between thinking and reacting, like I get this insight to pause and think about whats going on before weighing in, and I also find that things that would usually bother me don't have that power over me like they used to.
I've thought about my journey through meditation and I've come up with the 3 best practices that can work for anyone, you can sit for 2 minutes, you can sit for an hour, but find out what time frame works for your current lifestyle, allow yourself to sit and just be.
The three forms of practice ill be covering are, Mantra, Body Scan, and Following the breath. Let me just say I am in no way a "Meditation Teacher" but these practices are easy enough that I can explain them and you'll understand.
I LOVE this practice because you can focus on any phrase that correlates with what is going on with you at the moment, reinforce positive phrases and mindfulness.
Sit however you are comfortable and close your eyes, you can set a timer for the allotted time you feel that you have. You can use any phrase or mantra that is relevant to whats going on in your life at the moment, for me, I like to use the phrase "I am patient, I am kind." Once you have found a quiet sitting position start by saying your Mantra in your mind with a breath in( four counts), when finishing your mantra breath out for 7 counts, repeat this till your timer goes off or when you have decided your practice has finished. This practice helps reinforce positive statements and you kind of begin to see it come to fruition in your everyday life.
This is a great time to tell you that If your mind wanders, that is a good thing, it means you are normal and everyone experiences the same thing. All you need to worry about at this point is GENTLY bringing your mind back to your mantra, breath, or body scan, whatever practice you're using. Even if your brain jumps to a different topic each time you focus ON your mantra, as long as you are refocusing then you're doing a job well done. Only consistancy lessens the monkey mind(hops from limb to limb) and even then you're bound to still deal with drifting.
"I am patient, I am Kind."
this is pretty much just as it sounds. Sit quietly as before and tune your focus to the breath, some have said to focus on the area around your nostrils or upper lip where you can actually feel the breath changing. I have found that this is the most peaceful practice to me but maybe the most difficult because your mind has more freedom to wander, at least when you're focusing on a mantra your mind is fixated on that, but as I said before a wandering mind is normal and inevitable.
I actually prefer laying down when meditating. When you're comfortable starting at your toes or lowest part of your body and notice what sensations are happening, what are you feeling there? Slowly work your way up the body moving from the ankles, to the shins, around the calves to the knees, and so on till you reach the head, neck, and face. Once you've scanned the entire body, hold your entire body in your awareness and notice what you feel happening in your body as a whole. It's crazy and a little freaky because you can feel your entire body, it's weight and presence as one unit and it just reminds you that you are really "here".
Take your time and move slowly. It might seem a little hard to understand, so you can look here for more guidance.
Remember, the Purpose of meditating is to slow the mind and strengthen the focus on one task at a time in your daily life. In this day of the Social Media age it's becoming increasingly harder to stay present, and meditation has the power to change that but it is up to us to devote time to ourselves to unplug and log out, Don't we deserve to devote the few mintues of self reflection and solace to ourselves compaired to the hours we can potentially spend in front of a screen?
I hope this helps you as much it has helped me, please enjoy this video from Lavendaire on Meditation Hacks for beginners.
Thank You So much for Reading!
