How to meditate?

Do you meditate? This meditation exercise is an excellent introduction to give you an insight into meditation.

  1. Sit on a chair or lay down to make yourself comfortable. If you are sitting on a chair, sit with your back straight and with head straight up. Sit whit your legs slightly apart. Place hands on your lap. If you lie down, lie with your back straight and if you feel a little discomfort in your lower back, you can put a pillow under your knees.
  2. Close your eyes. Take three deep breaths. Blow up your stomach like a big balloon, hold for a second or two, and release your breath.
  3. Feel that your body is relaxing. Place your attention to your breath. Inhale through your nose and feel that your breath is little bit colder compared to your exhale. Let your breath find your own natural rhythm. Feel that your stomach and chest are moving calmly as you inhale and exhale.
  4. Just focus your attention to your breath without controlling the pace or intensity. If your mind wanders, return kindly your focus to your breath.
  5. If you think it’s difficult to just focus on your breath because your thoughts are wandering then you can count quietly in your head 1 on inhale and 2 on exhale. 3 at your next inhale, etc. Count to ten and then start on 1 again.
  6. If you want, you can also visualize a round white light while focusing on your breath.
  7. Do this for a few minutes or for how long you feel comfortable. When done, ask yourself how you feel now.

Be kind to yourself. Even if it don’t feels like you’re meditating, it’s like other areas in life, you should practice. You may not notice the milliseconds or seconds you were in mindfulness mode, but you were there, albeit for a little while. It’s just practice. Either way, it’s delicious with a few minutes where you just calm down and release stress in your mind and body.

Meditate with an open mind!