How to start meditating

by Sarah (March 5, 2008)

I started meditating daily about two years ago. For me, it’s part of a spiritual practice, but a lot of people ask me how to get started just for relaxation purposes. The idea is appealing, but the image of a perfectly calm and serene Buddhist monk on a mountain top just seems so unattainable that many people feel they shouldn’t even try.

A friend gave me some really good, practical tips for beginners to meditation that helped me to overcome that daunting initial period of learning.

First and foremost, recognize that it takes practice. There is the assumption among many people that meditation “should” come naturally, and they don’t realize that it actually has to be learned. This means they tend to give up very quickly or dismiss the idea out of hand on the assumption that they won’t be any good at it. Just do it, and you’ll find yourself getting better at it.

Second, pick a time of day and a position that works for you. People often get hung up on that image of meditation that they have, including the cross-legged pose on the floor. You should make sure that your back is straight (this is to keep your breathing as clear as possible) and that you are comfortable, but if you have bad knees or don’t like sitting on the floor, don’t push yourself. It’s also not something that has to be done first thing in the morning or right before bed, either. Initially, I started by trying to do it right after I woke up, but quickly realized that before my standard two cups of coffee, my brain is too fuzzy not to make meditation an awful lot like hitting the snooze button. The best time for me has turned out to be right after I get home from work, which has seriously increased my productivity in the evenings. If you have kids or work shifts, you have to take all of that into consideration as well.

Set a timer. If you start trying to meditate and then say you’ll just be done when you feel like it, your mind will be constantly going back to whether you’ve done it for long enough. At first, you may find that happening anyway, but knowing that the buzzer is going to go off when it’s time will make it easier to let those thoughts go. Start very small and build up to longer periods of time. I started with two minutes, which is definitely not enough to get any sense of peace established, but that helped me overcome that initial mental block to trying (even I can stay silent for two minutes) and forced me to make it a part of my regular routine. Increase the time in gradual increments later.

Use your breathing. There are many different kinds of meditation and schools of practice. Breathing is the easiest. Others can be introduced once you figure out whether it’s working for you, and how, and you can do some further research or formal training. But at first, especially if you just need to relax, just keep bringing your thoughts back to the feeling of your breath. The idea is to clear your mind, and when you first get started, you will become all too aware of just how busy your mind actually is. Even in the space of two minutes, you may have to say “Back to breathing” 40 times at the beginning. But as soon as you realize it’s happening, do that, no matter how many times you have to. As you learn to do it and as you increase your amount of time, you won’t have to do it nearly as often.

Learning to meditate and incorporating it into my daily routine has improved my attitude, my sleep and my energy levels…but before I started, I was absolutely terrified of the idea, too.

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