Hey there,
Inside Timer.
Thank you for joining me today.
In this quick audio,
I want to share with you 20 of some of my favorite beginner meditation tips.
I have been meditating practically daily for the past five years,
And meditation changed my life,
Truly.
And my goal here is to curate a list of tips I learned along my journey that can hopefully help you deepen your practice and maybe change your relationship with meditation.
Maybe you are learning meditation now and trying to establish your practice.
Maybe you are taking other courses here on Inside Timer and learning meditation and mindfulness and all the different techniques.
Or maybe you've been meditating for quite some time and you want some quick insight and tips,
Perhaps,
On deepening your practice.
You can think of this as a practical resource to enhance your practice when you are not actually practicing meditation.
I firmly believe that sometimes the best tweak we can make to something that unlocks incredible benefits is by simply changing part of our perception about it.
I hope these tips can aid you in this way.
So let's get started.
Number one,
Experiment with different postures to see how they feel.
There is no quote-unquote right way to position your body.
But you can sit in a chair,
Lie down,
Stand up,
Or balance on your head if you like.
Choose a posture that feels good while keeping you relaxed and aware.
It also really depends on what your body needs on that particular day.
Position yourself in whatever way works for you.
Number two,
Smile.
Smile while you're meditating.
It will tell your brain you are happy even if you are not.
And smile when your session is finished.
It will then tell your brain that what you just did was something enjoyable,
Pleasant,
Fun,
Which means your brain will want you to do it again.
Sometimes we smile because we're happy and other times we're happy because we smile.
Number three,
Thoughts are not the enemy.
Instead,
Thoughts are what you practice with.
Our brains are thought factories and asking it to stop thinking is like asking your heart to stop beating.
Accept the fact that you're gonna get distracted,
That you're gonna have thoughts,
So you can change your relationship with those distractions.
Number four,
Don't try,
Just allow.
Meditation is the exact opposite of how we are conditioned to operate in our lives.
It's not about constant doing,
Adding more effort or hard work.
Instead,
It's about letting go and allowing whatever arises to just arise.
Your body already knows how to relax and pay attention.
Allow it to do so.
Number five,
Do your meditation practice first thing in the morning before life begins.
This will help you establish the habit of meditating every day while setting up your day for success and clarity and purpose.
Think of it like this,
Would you leave the house without brushing your teeth or showering?
Just like brushing your teeth or showering is non-negotiable,
Meditation is your inner cleansing that we do to cleanse our minds,
Our bodies,
Our spirits,
Our emotions.
Make it just as non-negotiable.
Number six,
Meditate for short periods of time at first.
The duration of your practice doesn't matter.
Start with baby steps to the point where it feels like you're almost doing nothing.
It could be five minutes,
It could be three minutes,
It could be one minute.
You can build up the duration of your sessions over time.
Number seven,
Make it enjoyable.
Have fun and don't take yourself so seriously.
Choose a style and technique that feels good and that you like.
If it feels like a tooth extraction or a chore,
You are unlikely to stay with it.
Create conditions in your environment and in your life that make meditation something enjoyable.
Number eight,
Go deep and not wide.
Expanding on the previous point,
Once you pick a style you enjoy,
Commit to it for at least a few months.
Regularly changing styles and techniques prevent you from ever having a deepening practice.
Number nine,
Before you start each session,
Go through the motions of a great big yawn and take a giant deep belly breath and belt out a great sigh of relief.
This will send the message to your body and brain that it is now time to relax.
Number ten,
Shake your body.
When you're starting your practice and you feel restless,
Shake your whole body or even just your hands and feet.
This helps return the blood flow back to them and relaxes your muscles.
Better yet,
Dance,
Run in place or do a one minute burst of high intensity cardio.
Movement helps dissolve tension.
Number eleven,
Rub your hands together.
Feel the sensations of tingling and heat build in your hands to ground yourself into the present moment and dissolve any mental chatter.
As a bonus,
Take that ball of energy you just created in your hands and place them over your eyes,
Your heart or your forehead.
Number twelve,
Gratitude is the magic elixir practice.
Focusing on gratitude is the easiest and highest upside practice for beginners.
Asking the question,
What am I grateful for,
Is enough to change the chemistry of your brain.
Do what I call the three things gratitude practice.
Focus on three things you are grateful for in your life,
Three things you love about yourself and three things you are excited for in the future.
Number thirteen,
Focus on the journey.
Meditation is one of the only places in your life where success and failure don't exist.
Remember,
You don't meditate to get good at meditation.
Instead,
You meditate to get good at being a human,
To develop freedom and because you want to choose how you use your mind.
Number fourteen,
Pay attention to your body.
Any sensation you are having is your body's way of trying to communicate something to you.
Welcome these sensations with compassion and allow them to speak to you.
Sometimes we hide past difficulties in our bodies.
Scan your body and investigate.
Number fifteen,
Focus on your senses.
If you are not a fan of observing your breath,
Do a five senses meditation.
Notice light,
Sound,
Smells and energy.
Go through each one of your five senses and notice what you experience.
The five senses are a gateway to intuition and your higher self.
If you're interested,
You can check out my profile page here on Inside Timer.
I have a five senses meditation you can check out.
Number sixteen,
Release expectation to become blissed out.
This is a common misconception about meditation.
Avoid trying to get caught up in needing to experience a certain feeling in your practice.
Meditation is not about having a mental trip that renders you unconscious.
It's just the opposite.
We are trying to wake up.
Number seventeen,
Embrace unpleasant emotions during your practice.
Emotions like anger,
Anxiety and irritability that arise during your practice are a hundred percent okay.
Like body sensations,
See emotions as signposts to get curious and learn something new about yourself.
Stay with whatever arises and use it as a vehicle for insight.
Number eighteen,
Your intention is what matters.
Just the mere intention of showing up for yourself and then following through is alone powerful.
The act of keeping an appointment with yourself because you love and respect yourself will change your life.
Zero in on your intention to meditate and the rest will take care of itself.
Number nineteen,
Keep a journal.
After every session,
Document your experience and observations.
What insights came to you?
How did you feel during your practice?
What was your experience?
After some time,
Go back and review your past entries.
It will be interesting for you to see what patterns and themes start to emerge.
And finally,
Number twenty,
Be kind to yourself.
Leave the judgmental and analytical parts of your mind at the door.
See meditation as the journey of becoming friends with yourself.
Embark on it with a friendly attitude instead of one of criticism.
Meditation is essentially compassion training.
And see it like that.
Compassion for your mind,
Which turns into compassion for yourself and eventually others.
So if I can give one piece of advice to anyone who's new to meditation and just started a practice or is struggling trying to get deeper in their practice,
Remember this.
Meditation isn't always easy or even graceful.
Just like relationships with the people in your life,
Attending to your job or business,
Or exercising your body,
Some days will be harder than others.
What matters is you keep showing up and keep things in perspective.
Life and what matters is what happens outside of the cushion.
And I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes that beautifully sums up the purpose of meditation.
And it comes from a well-known meditation teacher when he was asked why he practiced meditation.
And his answer?
So I will notice the tiny purple flowers by the side of the road as I walk to town each day.
