What You’ll Do: Sitting is the best position for beginning meditation. If you lie down, especially in the beginning, you risk falling asleep. Sitting in an alert position keeps you awake and focused, but frees your mind from having to process information (like where to put your feet). While you are sitting, you will focus on something. It could be an image, a word or your breath.
How It Works: Meditation is about making the mind still. In order for mental stillness to happen, you must first make your body still. To do that, you will sit. While you are sitting, your mind will want to roam to your to-do lists, your worries and where you want to go on vacation. To help make the mind still, you will focus on a single thing. This gives your mind something to do, but does not generate new thoughts. Like a cat twitching its tail, repeating a word or counting your breaths helps you release mental energy that would otherwise be used to create new thoughts.
Get Motivated: Meditation is not about making your brain stop thinking -- that is impossible. Meditation is really about not nurturing the thoughts that come. By developing your skill of “letting go” of thoughts, feelings and ideas that spontaneously occur, you’ll be able to experience the calming benefits of meditation, which include: relaxation, stress reduction, more accurate perspective on your problems, enhanced creativity and increased energy.
The Steps
- Schedule: You are going to need to schedule five minutes each day this week to sit and focus. This should be the same time every day. Make sure that you will not be interrupted by anything during this time (no phones and no knocks on the door).
- Sit: Sit comfortably in an alert position. You can sit in a chair or on a cushion placed on the floor -– it does not matter. Make your back as straight as possible. Keep your head level, and look slightly downward. Pick one spot on the wall and stare at it. Your intention is only to sit – so, no looking around the room. If you want, you can close your eyes, but don’t fall asleep. Put your hands anywhere that are comfortable.
- Focus: Choose one of the following to focus on:
- Pick a word that has some meaning to you like “peace,” “quiet” or “calm.” Repeat that word slowly to yourself as you sit.
- Count your breaths. Every time you exhale, count. When you get to ten, return to one.
Tips to Help You Along the Way
- If you are repeating a word or counting and lose track, don’t worry. Just go back to what you are doing. You can expect to lose track sometimes during meditation. It is normal.
- Pick a time of day when you can easily remember to meditate. Choose right after you get dressed for the day, or right after you eat breakfast. If you have trouble finding a time or place to meditate, consider meditating in your car (while parked). You can meditate before starting your car in the morning or when you arrive at the parking lot at work. In your car, you are guaranteed time to yourself and freedom from most interruptions.
- Focus on your posture. Try to sit up straight through the whole meditation session.
- Use a timer. A timer can help prevent you from wondering how long you have been meditating. Just set the timer and forget about it.
- Don’t worry about meditation poses, hand positions or anything else you may have read or seen about meditation. You can explore those things after you have established a habit of daily meditation.
- Keep in mind that the most important thing is sitting and focusing every day. You are building a meditation habit. Don’t worry about “not doing it right” or whether or not it is “working.” Just sit and focus. The rest will come with time and practice.
Ready for More?
If you are feeling ambitious, add a second practice session to your day. A session in the morning and one at the end of the day can be very interesting. Notice how your mind behaves differently at different times of day. Perhaps in the morning it is easier to sit calmly, or perhaps you are revved up and thinking about the day. By experimenting at different times of day, you’ll be strengthening your meditation habit.Here is the whole program. Give each one a solid one-week try, and then come back and do the next one. If you want a reminder, sign up for the How To Meditate E-Course. It is free, and you'll get short e-mail reminders each day to help keep you on track.
