Navigating Meditation: A Beginner’s Guide
Meditation is the cornerstone of any yoga practice; before we address the body, we must first quieten the mind; only then can we tap into our true potential. Bold statements, I know. Hear me out! I’ll first dispel some of the myths about the practice, outline some of the benefits of meditation and some resources I recommend using to start your journey. A regular meditation practice requires a certain degree of self discipline and commitment but trust me, it’s worth it.
Sounds intimidating? I’ve been there. Particularly as someone who deals with anxiety, the thought of sitting down in silence with nothing but my own thoughts seemed like the last thing I wanted to do. Part of the reason I was so apprehensive about meditation was due to my own misunderstanding of the purpose and practice of meditation.
Myth 1: meditation means not thinking.
This idea haunted me for so long when I started meditating. I remember thinking “I can’t not think!” and it’s true, we all have an internal monologue in our heads continuously commenting on anything and everything, and we can’t just switch that off. Rather than trying to shut that inner voice up, try just being aware of it, noticing that it’s there but recognising that that voice is not you, you are the observer of your thoughts, not your thoughts themselves. Don’t beat yourself up every time you find yourself lost in thought, instead commend yourself for realising that you are thinking, maybe ask yourself why that thought in particular has arisen, and then gently draw your attention back towards your breath or a point of concentration, and you’ll find that for moments of time, that voice in your head will be quiet. Inevitably, it will chime back in at some point with thoughts like ‘HEY LOOK, I’M DOING IT’ or ‘am I doing this right?’ or ‘what should I have for dinner?’, at which point you draw your attention back to your point of concentration. Over time, the gaps between the thoughts will grow longer, and you’ll find more stillness between the chatter.
Myth 2: meditation will change your life.
Okay sort of a myth, but this made my eyes roll before I actually started meditating. Sure, it might change your life, but maybe not straight away. This is a practice, and just like asana progress will not necessarily feel linear, some days will be better than others, and it’s about meeting yourself where you are in each moment rather than striving towards some imagined ideal. It takes time to see the benefits, so be patient with it. One trap I fell into for a while was using meditation as a treatment for my anxiety when it cropped up, rather than maintaining a regular practice that might prevent the anxiety showing up in the first place. My point is; don’t expect instantaneous change in your life after a few meditation sessions, particularly when those sessions are sporadic. A strong practice is a consistent one and you’ll begin to see the positive effects of maintaining a regular commitment to your practice over time, even if there are some days where you find yourself entirely stuck in chatter mode.
So why should I meditate? You say it could change my life, but how? In what tangible, concrete ways will my life improve? Good question, inner voice. Let’s ask science. Meditation has a regenerative effect on the brain for several reasons;
Individuals with a regular meditation practice experience a higher proportion of slow-wave sleep (the deeper level of sleep, beyond the dream state, where you get proper rest and all the consolidation of learning happens). This, in turn enhances cognition; executive functioning, attention regulation and information processing are enhanced during the waking state following meditation. Meditation can also ameliorate the effects of poor sleep; by improving the attention deficit following sleep loss.
Essentially, science says you’ll sleep better, think better, be more attentive (which should enrich your personal relationships) and potentially more productive as a result of regularly sitting down to close your eyes and do nothing but be still. Starting to sound a little more appealing now, but still not sure where to start?
Good news: there are numerous resources out there designed to help you through this process; an abundance of apps have popped up over the last few years including Headspace, Calm and Insight Timer (free apps with optional in-app purchases) and Sanctuary (subscription based) all offering guided meditation.
Explore what these apps have to offer, and use them for as long or as often as you need. Apps can introduce you to a variety of techniques, such as breathing practices, body scans, visualisation or mantra as tools to calm the mind. These tools work by providing something for you to focus your attention on; concentration in this way is the precursor to meditation, as it stops the mind wandering elsewhere and getting lost in mindless thought. When you inevitably find your mind has wandered, simply come back to that point of concentration without judgement. When you’ve become familiar with these techniques, you might find that they are more of a distraction or an interruption; in which case try guiding yourself through your own meditation instead of having the app do it for you.
A key thing to remember is not to overcomplicate things; you don’t need to sit in full lotus with incense burning in a candlelit room. Just make sure you’re in a comfortable upright sitting position; either on the floor or a chair, but making sure the back of your head isn’t resting on anything (it’s like your body’s off-switch, once we rest the back of our heads on something our brain decides it’s bedtime). I sometimes use music to help sink into my practice; Moby’s Long Ambients was one of my first discoveries; it’s just soft ambient noise which you can use to regulate your breath or aid visualisations of the air travelling through your body. You can also access my meditation playlist on Spotify, which I keep updated regularly. You don’t even need that, silence is perfect too; and you can draw your attention to the sounds around you as part of your practice; noticing far off sounds at first and slowly drawing your attention inwards to the sound of your breath.
Last thing — and maybe the most important — choose a manageable amount of time to designate to the practice, maybe thats 10, 15 or 20 minutes, and commit to it every day. That might seem like a steep task; we all have busy lives, and sure, we all need to eat and shower and sleep (though you can borrow your meditation time from the time you normally sleep and feel just as rested if not more!), but when you think about all the other things we easily spend 20 minutes on, it seems like a much more logical use of time. Next time you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media, maybe think about how you could better use that time to sit down in silence and find some mindful stillness. Equally, make use of moments in time where you have nowhere else to be, maybe on your commute to work; instead of using your train or bus journey worrying about being late or thinking about what you need to do when you get there, why not use that time to just be where you are in that moment?
If you’re new to this, be kind to yourself; be curious and explore but don’t hold your expectations too high or you’ll end up feeling disappointed! If you have any further questions or would like to share your own experiences and advice, please feel free to leave those thoughts in the comments below!
Top 5 Tips:
01 :Don’t beat yourself up every time you find yourself lost in thought.
02 : This is a practice, and just like asana, it takes time to see the benefits from it.
03 : A strong practice is a consistent one. Try 20 mins a day.
04 : Choose something for you to focus your attention on; concentration is the precursor to meditation.
05 : Do not overcomplicate things.