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Do you want to live a healthier, peaceful, more balanced life? If so, you might consider starting a daily meditation practice.
Meditation is the practice of being fully aware of the present moment. You tune in to how you feel physically, emotionally, and possibly even spiritually. To do so, you use your breath to focus and redirect negative thoughts.
There are numerous health benefits to practicing meditation. A daily practice can reduce stress and health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, and anxiety. This means people often report sleeping better after starting their practice, as well as seeing a reduction in chronic pain.
But meditation doesn’t just improve physical health. A consistent practice can also improve your self-image and encourage optimism and positivity. In turn, people who practice meditation also notice an improvement in conditions like depression.
For those looking to increase their spirituality, meditation also offers many advantages. Mediation may increase a sense of interconnectedness, well-being, and inner peace.
And the benefits increase as you age. Meditation is also linked with longer attention spans and reduced memory loss.
But many of these benefits don’t happen after a single session. It takes consistency to really feel those benefits. And a daily practice may be just what you need.
Preparing for Daily Meditation
Before you start, there are a few steps you should take to prepare your space. Once you set up your space once, you’ll find it’s easier to keep a daily practice going.
Begin by choosing a good spot for your meditation practice. It often helps to choose one or (at most) two places you’ll use consistently. When you’re considering where to practice, take into account the temperature, lighting, and traffic of a certain location. The temperature should be comfortable, not too hot or cold. The lighting is up to preference, but make sure you choose a spot with little to no traffic.
Once you find a good spot, make sure to fill this space with everything you may need ahead of time. Some useful tools include a timer, but also consider if you’ll want pillows, blankets, soft music, or aromatherapy. Test the space beforehand by sitting there for a while. Are you comfortable? Does your back have enough support?
Then identify a good time(s) of day for your practice. While you may need to meditate at different times, it’s helpful to have a relatively consistent time. This should be a time when you know your home will be quiet with few distractions.
Make sure you’re comfortable. This means wearing loose-fitting clothing and checking your thermostat.
All done? Now we’re ready to get started.
6-Step Meditation Session
Set Your Timer. Identify how long you plan to meditate. If you’re new, take it slow. Try to sit for 10 minutes and work your way up from there.
Check Your Position. In order to relax into a meditation session, it’s important that the way you sit or lie is comfortable. You should not feel pain anywhere or experience discomfort.
While there are different positions, experts recommend the sitting position. If you lie down, you may fall asleep, and standing or walking may require too much attention to properly meditate.
You may sit on the floor or in a chair, but make sure your back is straight. If sitting on a chair, make sure your feet are flat on the floor to provide back support. If seated on the floor, cross your legs in a way that feels comfortable and natural. Use a pillow under your backside if you feel any discomfort.
Keep your head straight and chin tilted slightly down.
Choose your focus. It helps to think of a focal point to keep your mind from wandering. This could be an image, a word, a mantra, or a physical item in front of you. To make it more impactful, choose something that has meaning to you.
Take slow, consistent breaths. Breathe in 4 counts through your nose. Hold your breath for 4 seconds, then slowly exhale through your mouth for 4 counts. Repeat.
Gently refocus. Your mind will probably wander, but that’s ok. Gently bring your attention back to your focal point if you find your mind is drafting.
End each session slowly. When the timer goes off, hold off the instinct to get up and move around immediately. Slowly open your eyes if they were closed, and let your vision readjust to the world. Move your body slowly to wake it up. Once you feel fully aware of your body and surroundings, then it’s time to get up and resume your day.
Final Tips
Building any practice takes time. In fact, it takes about three months to develop a new habit. So make sure to give yourself some grace.
To make it easier to remember your sessions, set your meditation practice at a consistent time each day or use a calendar reminder. For example, you might choose to meditate for 10 minutes when you first wake up or before bed.
Keep it simple. There are many ways to expand your practice, including using different hand positions and poses. But to begin with, simply sitting and being present in the moment is enough.
Jocelyn Farrar, LCSW
