The Mindfulness Habit
Mindfulness is a habit that must be cultivated. Just like flossing everyday, mindfulness is most beneficial when practiced regularly.
If you’ve never tried meditating before, you’re in for a treat. Fortunately, it doesn’t require as big a commitment as you might think. With the proper discipline, you might be able to squeeze in your daily mindfulness with a 10 minute morning meditation to start the day.
Meditation is a mental exercise that aims to build your attention and awareness of the present moment. If we only do it once, we may notice benefits right away, but these fade away without regularity.
Just as regular exercise is vital for the body’s health, mental health improves more over the long-term with consistent mindfulness.
Even though some of the benefits will be instant, meditation yields the greatest benefit when practiced over a longer period. That’s why we recommend keeping up the habit, even after you notice an improvement in your quality of life.
How to Start Meditating
Mindfulness meditation is your starting point for becoming less reactive, feeling less stressed and being more focused throughout the day.
This guide is most beneficial for beginners looking to start meditating without having a teacher from the comfort of their own home. However, even regular meditators may learn some new tips to improve their practice.
5 Steps to Start Meditating
1. Sit comfortably in a quiet place
Because the goal of meditation is to distance yourself from your thoughts, it helps to make yourself comfortable somewhere you know you won’t be disturbed.
As you should be distancing yourself from your thoughts, external stimulus may instead carry you along with the flow of automatic though patterns. Over time, you may learn to block out distractions from your focus, but let’s keep it simple to start.
I find the best position to be seated, cross-legged. You can try sitting in a chair to meditate, but I find myself very aware when I’m sitting in a chair. I’ve also tried lying down, but I just tend to fall asleep. Learn more about meditation sitting positions.
When you start meditating regularly, it could be a good idea to get a meditation cushion and mat. These may be more comfortable and ergonomic than sitting on the floor.
If seated meditation isn’t your thing, yoga offers a more active form of meditation.
2. Close your eyes and focus on your breath
When you’ve found a comfortable position, close your eyes and focus on your breath. Make sure you’re breathing enough, without going overboard.
You should feel relaxed. Breathing naturally reinforces this feeling, as it signals to the body that you are relaxed.
Now that you’re breathing naturally, you have something to focus on. To stop your mind from wandering, you’ll focus the entire session on your breathing – in and out.
Inhaling and exhaling, notice how your body feels when breathing. Pay attention to the sensation of breath as it goes in through your nostril.
3. Focus on Your Breath & Avoid Other Thoughts
Other thoughts will come up as you meditate. That’s totally normal, especially for beginners. Don’t worry about it. Just recognise that your mind has wandered, and return your focus to your breath.
That’s it! That’s how you meditate! Easy enough, right?
Of course there are different types of meditation, but this is the crux of the matter. Try out body scan meditation to use mindfulness to relieve physical symptoms of stress.
It’s certainly enough to get started today. Our post on Stoic mindfulness also offers examples of meditation exercises.
4. Set a timer
Now that you know how to meditate, all you need to know is how long you should meditate for. This is where a good timer comes in handy, because you want to focus all your energy in the moment. You don’t want to be thinking about how much time you have left.
The timer will give you this confidence, so the meditation has your full attention. Until the timer goes off, you should not think about anything except your breathing.
It helps to have a timer with a soothing alarm. Otherwise you might get anxious during the meditation, especially if your alarm gives off an abrupt noise.
If your phone doesn’t come with one pre-built, I highly recommend downloading an app with a soothing alarm. I can’t fully stress the importance of having a soothing alarm, because this will make all the difference in your practice.
Apps like Focus Plant have soothing tones. This app in particular also allows you to collect points to grow a garden as you meditate. I think that’s pretty cool!
5. Readjust to your environment slowly
Once your timer has gone off, keep your eyes closed for a few minutes, while you reflect on the experience. Think about what thoughts came up during your meditation. What is the significance of these thoughts?
Real insights can be made by understanding what our minds do without our conscious mental efforts. Many of our habits are hidden deep under the surface. This moment after meditation is the perfect time to notice our automatic mental patterns.
The Don’ts of Meditation
Equally important is what to avoid during meditation. The next pointers are common pitfalls to avoid.
6. Don’t judge or avoid your thoughts
It is important to avoid judging yourself or your thoughts for anything that might come up during your meditation session.
Don’t try to block out thoughts either. When you notice your thoughts flowing, you can simply acknowledge that your mind has wandered and focus again on your breath.
The aim of mindfulness is to become aware of the present moment. You can’t do that when you’re focused on judging or avoiding your own thoughts.
7. Don’t expect to become an expert over night
It’s also important to avoid any large expectations when you begin meditating. It may have benefits immediately, but it is still important to build a regular habit.
It’s also important to remember that you will not start off as an expert and you will not become one overnight. Discipline trumps natural talent.
How to know you’re “doing it right”
The most important thing to focus on while meditating is your breath. You should not try to do anything. Distance yourself from your thoughts, and you can observe them with a calm and rational mind.
You may soon realise that you and your mind have been living separate lives with different functions your whole life. Meditation will help your body unify with your mind. This is what you may refer to as “inner peace”.
Staying mindful after your meditation
8. Notice your state of mind
Take a second after finishing meditating to notice your state of mind. You will likely feel more calm, less anxious and maybe even happier. Associate this feeling with your meditation practice.
Remember this feeling and aim to bring this attitude into the rest of your day.
9. Reflect on your experience
After you’ve finished meditating ask yourself:
- What thoughts came up and what do they mean?
- Are you distracted in ways that you didn’t realise before?
- Are there thoughts in your mind that you have been brushing aside and that are worth revisiting?
Meditation offers a gold mine of thoughts that are worth reflecting on after you’ve finished meditating.
Oftentimes during meditation I will stumble across a memory from several years ago, or even my childhood, that I may not have remembered without this practice. I like to take a moment to acknowledge such thoughts and consider whether they mean anything special to me.
Just as the purpose of meditation is to clear your mind of thoughts, reflection is a separate activity with the purpose to dive deeper into the significance of each of these new thoughts.
How to Keep up the Habit
After you’ve started meditating and felt the benefits it can be tempting to get lazy and give up after a few sessions. It’s vital that you keep up the habit.
The tips below will help you keep up your meditation and make it a regular part of your day-to-day life.
10. Set a regular time and make it a routine
The easiest way to keep a new habit is 2 to set a specific time you expect to meditate everyday. The simplest times to remember and fit into your day are first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
Of course if you meditate both in the morning and in the evening you will experience much greater benefits than if you only do either or.
11. Consistency trumps intensity
Another truth about meditation is that how often you practice is more important than the intensity. For example, 10 minutes every day is more beneficial (and manageable) than a one-hour weekly session.
Of course once you get into the habit it will be good for your development to consistently meditate at length. At some point, you might even find yourself meditating an hour a day!
Other meditation tips
12. Be clear on your motivation to meditate
Whether it’s to feel happier, calmer, more focused, or less stressed, it’s good to have an idea why you’re meditating before you start. That way, each meditation can bring you one step closer.
For example, someone who is meditating to be more focused will likely follow a different path from someone aiming to be less stressed. Both of these can be goals of meditation but it is up to the individual to find their path to a mindful life.
It’s also important to be reasonable with your expectations. Over time, as you become accustomed to meditation, you’ll have a better idea of its benefits. As you develop your routine, remember to focus on your motivation.
13. Set up a meditation corner
Another helpful tip is to set up a “meditation corner”. This will be separate from your working area and your bed, which likely have cognitive associations you don’t want to bring into meditation.
After about a month of meditating on the floor I decided to invest in a cushion and mat to build out my meditation corner.
14. Dress comfortably
Another tip for meditating is to just wear something comfortable. Wearing loose-fitting joggers or shorts would work perfectly with a t-shirt. As long as what you’re wearing isn’t distracting you from the practice, you’re all set to start meditating.
Meditation in a nutshell
Hopefully this post has been useful for you. We discussed the practice of meditation from a beginner’s perspective. We also ran through tips to get the most out of the practice and keep up the habit.
Meditation has been around for millennia and offer a clear range of benefits. If you haven’t tried it yet, you may not know how it can help. After all, meditation is a sort of mental exercise. It’s also free – and nothing is stopping you from trying it today!
Meditation can even help us be happier, break bad habits and treat others more kindly.
Try meditating today and leave any comments or questions below. We’re here to help!
We learn to meditate so we can bring mindful awareness into our daily lives. Start meditating with Mind & Practice today.