So you wish to learn how to meditate huh?

Well I'm happy to tell you that you have come to the right place! You may have heard many stories about meditation like being able to be in zen mode continually, opening the third eye and many more!

But before we go through how you can meditate we will first dive into what is meditation.

Meditation has a history that goes back thousands of years, and many meditative techniques began in Eastern traditions. The term “meditation” refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body integration and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being. Some types of meditation involve maintaining mental focus on a particular sensation, such as breathing, a sound, a visual image, or a mantra, which is a repeated word or phrase. Other forms of meditation include the practice of mindfulness, which involves maintaining attention or awareness on the present moment without making judgments.

Programs that teach meditation or mindfulness may combine the practices with other activities. For example, mindfulness-based stress reduction is a program that teaches mindful meditation, but it also includes discussion sessions and other strategies to help people apply what they have learned to stressful experiences. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy integrates mindfulness practices with aspects of cognitive behavioural therapy.

And opening the third eye is indeed a thing!

but we will cover that in another blog article.

Continue reading to learn how to meditate.

1. Pick a place that feels calm for you

Some people may think of the typical sitting crossed legged with each foot resting on your legs, huh how? but no that is not the case.

You may like to sit crossed legged, or on your knees, maybe you have a gaming chair that you would prefer to sit on or maybe you even feel as if you would rather meditate under a tree.

The fact of the matter is that you just need to find somewhere you can sit for 10, 15, 20 minutes without any aches or pains.

2. Set a time limit for how long you wish to meditate

So for if you are just beginning to meditate then I recommend you set a time limit for 10 minutes, you may think 10 minutes is not enough but trying to calm your mind and have no thoughts for 10 minutes will be hard.

Then after you feel like your making progress with 10 minutes add another 5 minutes on to it so you meditate for 15 minutes then another 5 20 and so on.

When I first started meditating I would meditate 10 minutes every morning before I went off to work, then on month later I would meditate for 20 minutes on the buss before I arrived at work.

3. Feel your breath

Just focus on your breath.

Now what do I mean by this? well when I first started learning about meditation all the resources I had read said the same thing to just focus on nothing or just focus on a candle, but I had realised none of that was not working for me so I tried just noticing my breath.

I would focus on inhaling and exhaling and in time I got the hang of it and felt like this worked for me.

However some people like to count but I found this difficult for me to focus on.

4. Notice when your mind has wandered

Now when we are trying to get in the zone and focus, our mind will indeed wonder and we would end up thinking of our family, our housework, homework or even that we forgot to water the plants.

The best thing to do in this situation I found was to realise your mind has wondered but no not stress about it just simply let that thought come and go and return to your focus.

In time this will get easier and this will also help in meditating in noisy environments.

5. Do not stress

Now this is really important that you do not stress.

When I first started meditating I would try to meditate for 10 minutes and my mind would constantly be wondering and I would stress myself thinking I am never going to get the hang of this meditation thing! And course I was wrong. And this is the reason so many people are like meditation urgh! it doesn't work. And that is because they do not practice and they quit soon as they get to the first road block.

So again do not stress just tell yourself that this is the most important place for you to be as there is nothing as more important then your mental heath.

6. Track your progress

It is important to track your progress, so I recommend after every meditation session write down on either a journal or something that you can use to document, and write for example you meditated for 10 minutes and in that 10 minutes how many times did you get distracted? how many times was you able to get yourself back in the zone?

And track weekly progress such as how many times have you meditated in a week? How are you feeling after a week's meditation? and 2 weeks, 3 weeks and so on.

7. Practice And Stay Consistent

No this goes without saying, every great person who has ever achieved anything knows that practice does indeed makes perfect and you have to stay consistent to see any changes in anything you are trying to achieve.

The way to simplify this is think back to when you was at school and learning to read, did you just wake up one day and knew how to read? No you had to stay consistent and practice daily before you got better at that skill.

Another example would be working out we all know that in order to get a banging body we have to stay consistent and have to be working out our body on a daily basis.

So there you have it

How to meditate it is really simple once you get through the mental barrier blocks.

Remember you have to take action, you can do this!