How to Start a Meditation Practice
Building a meditation practice can take time, and I don’t want to lie to you and say that it is always easy to find the time or feel comfortable sitting in stillness and silence. As I recommended in my How to Start a Yoga Practice post, starting small and building a strong foundation are essential for a consistent meditation practice.
Like anything in life, building a new habit takes time. But having a meditation practice is something so intimate and special that once you build the habit, consistency will come easily.
Below are five tips for building a comfortable and consistent meditation practice.
Pick a space for your practice. This can be a room in your home, a chair on your front porch, or, if you are a mom like me, maybe it is in your parked car. Wherever you choose, make sure it is free from clutter and distractions. I like to practice in my daughter’s nursery in the morning before my husband leaves for work and in the evening after he returns home. He will watch our daughter, and I will sit in her room (filled with crystals and magical paraphernalia), close the door, and turn on her noise machine. This allows me to let go of anything happening outside this space and truly be with myself in the practice.
Make sure you are in comfortable clothes. You don’t want to wear something that restricts your stomach from relaxing or inhibits your hips from releasing. When I practice in the morning, I typically sit in my yoga pants or pajamas. The same goes for my evening practice. It is safe to say that I never practice in tight jeans.
Make sure you have somewhere comfortable to sit. You don’t need perfect posture to practice meditation, and finding stillness doesn't mean forcing yourself into uncomfortable positions or preventing yourself from moving. A comfortable chair is a great place to find your practice. It will enable you to sit up straight with support. A comfy couch or a meditation cushion are also great options. Any comfortable, upright position in which you are unlikely to fall asleep is perfect for meditating.
Turn off all notifications (from your cell phone, your kids asking for a snack, and your cat licking himself while sitting beside you). If I am using a guided meditation on my phone, I make sure that my text, email, and social media notifications are turned off (pro tip: I never have them turned on in the first place).
Commit to 5 minutes a day for five days. Again, results come from consistency. You cannot try meditation once and expect to reap the benefits, just as you cannot go to a workout class once and expect to lose weight. Pick a time of day that you can sit (distraction-free), and set an alarm on your phone to remind yourself to sit.
There are many different meditation techniques, and in a longer post, I share six. However, sitting in silence for 5 minutes, simply observing your breath, thoughts, and feelings, is a great way to start. I like to think about how much time we spend observing the lives of others (through social media and television) and how little time we spend observing our own life force: our breath. Start finding the same intrigue you see in others’ lives in your own.
Sit with your breath.
Without any distractions.
For five minutes a day.
For five days.
What is the worst that can happen?
What is the best?
If you decide to commit, please let me know how it goes in the comments. You can also email me at alleejudee@gmail.com if you want to talk privately.
More soon,
AJ
