Beginner’s Guide to Meditation

Glen / 28 Comments / August 6th, 2008 / Subscribe via RSS

In all honesty, I used to think Meditation was a bit of a joke and something only ‘strange’ people do when they are bored. If you are reading this, you might be thinking the same as that is actually how most people feel about meditation.

I only started to take an interest when I read the benefits of it in Do You! (great book) so I decided to give it a try. Since then I’ve been able to gain clarity, peace and a better understanding of the world. I’m going to share how you can do the same and hope you enjoy this Beginners Guide to Meditation.

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Why Meditate?

Whilst there are a few beginner guides to meditation out there already, one big factor that many of them miss is to explain why people should meditate in the first place or why others do it. Although I haven’t been meditating for very long, there are some clear benefits that meditation brings:

• Helps you relax and really clear your mind
• It is great for ridding yourself of anxiety or stress
• You can achieve a higher state of consciousness (Atman)
• Meditation is also said to help in controlling the bodies processes

On a general level, meditation helps you slow down, accept the moment you are in and achieve a higher sense of presence. If you use meditation as a form of relaxation, it really doesn’t take long for you to start feeling the positive effects. However, there is another form of meditation that isn’t going to be covered here, but you should be aware of, and that is depth.

Being able to accept the present and be in the moment is an excellent benefit, but people who practice meditation on a more meaningful level do it for two reasons. The first is to allow you to connect with the heart of reality and see things as they are supposed to be seen, the second is to allow you to see the spiritual depths of reality. Achieving this through meditation is a life-time process and not something that comes quickly.

How to Meditate

Now that you understand the benefits of Meditation, I’m sure you want to dive right in and get started. I’m going to go through the steps of meditation as a logical process so that you can understand each aspect.

There are many ways to meditate so you don’t have to take the steps here as the exact truth, just like there are many ways to throw a tennis ball. If you want to get into the more advanced aspects of meditation then look-up ‘Mantras’, ‘Switchwords’ and ‘Meditation Positions’.

1. Your Environment

First of all, you want to make sure that you are in a calm and comfortable environment. If there is a lot of activity or noise in the area you wish to meditate then it is going to make things very difficult and be very distracting. If there are no quiet rooms in your house, you can even try using the bathroom if you have too.

Otherwise, seek environments outdoors where you can relax, and where there is minimal noise or activity.

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2. Your Position

The best way to start learning meditation is to do it whilst you are sitting. As you progress, you can use the techniques while standing up or at your office desk but to start it’s best to sit. The most common position is the half-lotus position, used because it allows you to sit in one spot for a long period of time with minimal aches or pains.

To achieve this position, sit right your right leg on top of your left one and your left leg on top of your right one, then rest your palms on your lap, facing upwards. The tip of your index fingers should be touching your thumbs. Make sure that your back is erect; if you struggle with the lotus position, you can simply cross your legs but be sure that your back is straight.

If you want to sit at a desk, a good posture to have is to sit with your back straight, chin parallel to the floor with your palms up on your thighs. Although you really can sit in any position, the two main characteristics of a good position are that it is comfortable and it is stable. If you feel the urge to move whilst meditating such as scratching your nose, resist it and continue, the itch will soon disappear.

3. Your Breathing

Breathing is at the heart of all meditation and it is our lifeline to the world, without breathing we will simply starve our brains of oxygen and die. Breathing is at the heart of our source and therefore is a critical key to connecting with our core and thus being able to relax, thanks to meditation. There are two main breathing methods you can try:

1. Observe your breathing – The first method is to simply watch and focus on your breath. Don’t force it, close your eyes and let your body relax. You will notice that random thoughts creep into your mind, the best way to remove your thought of them is to simply go back to focus on your breathing. Observe how your lungs rise and fall and how the breath feels as it goes through your body.

2. Two sharp breaths - Another breathing style which I observed in a video from a popular Los Angeles Yoga centre is to use a sharp breathing technique. To be more precise, you inhale two short, sharp breaths and tense your body. Then, you exhale twice, throwing the breath out of your body.

I prefer to use the first method as it feels a lot more natural to me. I can imagine the second one leaves less room for random thoughts entering your mind as you are focusing on actions all the time. However, this may limit you in fully connecting with your source as you are forcing your breathing.

4. Your Perseverance

I’m not sure if I was lucky, but the first time I tried to meditate (for around 5 minutes), I opened my eyes and felt the most tranquil, peaceful feeling I’ve had in a very long time. That being said, I’ve experienced that everytime so I assume that your first or second time trying to meditate will result in the same experience. Make sure that you are actually giving this a try, if your head is full of thoughts, don’t get annoyed, just be the watcher of your mind activity. As soon as you can fully shift your mind back to your breathing things you will start to relax much more, this does get easier each time so don’t stress if it is difficult at first.

After you’ve spent a lot of time and felt the benefits of meditation in terms of stress removal and relaxation, you may look into the practice deeper (alongside Yoga) so that you can start to really experience the depth of reality and the beauty we have here on earth. I’m not at that stage yet but have witnessed such emotions through videos and further research online.

The main thing to remember is to relax, close your eyes and concentrate on the experience. At first you might want to meditate for 5 minutes, then gradually move up till you are comfortable meditating for 30 minutes. Most of all, enjoy the experience and your new-found practice of meditation.