How To Get Started With Meditation

Meditation is an amazing tool to calm the busy mind and has the added benefit of helping you connect with your mind, body and spirit. Meditation teaches you to become an observer of your thoughts and emotions, rather than being overwhelmed by them.

This brings the gift of awareness in everyday life, the ability to take a step back and pay attention to how you are feeling, and what you are thinking, in any given moment. Practicing daily has many benefits and will allow you to feel calmer, clearer and more energized!

These are just a few of the proven benefits of a regular meditation practice:

• Alleviates stress & anxiety

• Boosts the immune system

• Improves self-awareness

• Enhances focus & memory

Getting Started

Please find a few tips below to start your meditation journey:

1. Make sure you are wearing comfortable clothing

2. Sit in a comfortable, upright position (lying down may tempt you to fall asleep which is relaxing, but not the purpose of this meditation practice). Sitting with good posture will also keep the energy flowing smoothly (enhances connection with source energy via the crown chakra). Where you sit is up to you, you can sit choose to sit cross-legged on the floor or on a meditation cushion, or even in a chair.

3. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Pay attention to your breath, how it feels when the air enters your nostrils/mouth and then leaves your nostrils/mouth. Practice being aware of your body, allowing each muscle to soften, and your breath to deepen.

4. Identify a mantra (optional) – a positive intention for today’s meditation i.e. peace, calm, love, self-acceptance, forgiveness. You can either choose a guided meditation (see below for tips on how to find one) or repeat your mantra to yourself throughout the meditation and try to feel yourself being completely enveloped with this feeling (i.e. peace).

5. Allow thoughts to come, and allow yourself to accept them completely. This is a place of self-love and self-compassion. Meditation does not need to be a battle between your thoughts and your will, the more you practice, the easier it will be to let thoughts and emotions go naturally. Try to act as an observer, observing each thought without judgement – you may even like to imagine each thought inside a bright pink balloon, and then watch as it floats away.

6. When you are finished, bring your awareness back to your body. Feel yourself firmly grounded to the Earth, wiggle your fingers and toes and gradually open your eyes

7. Congratulations you have just finished your first meditation! I highly recommend at least 5-10 minutes daily to get the most out of your meditation practice.

Tips to find a guided meditation:

Phone Apps:

There are many apps that offer free meditations (and some with paid upgrades). Here are my favourite:

• ‘Aura’ App: encourages daily meditation by asking how you are feeling today (i.e. sad, anxious, good, great) and then chooses an appropriate 3-minute meditation for you, taking out the effort of finding one each day. It also has a gratitude journal inbuilt.

• ‘Insight App’: put on a timer and some nice background meditation music and you’re ready to meditate. They also have thousands of free guided meditations to choose from.

• ‘‘Stop, Breathe, & Think’ App: provides an introduction to mindfulness.

YouTube: 

• If you do a quick search for ‘guided meditation’, ‘chakra meditation’ or ‘acceptance meditation’ etc., you will find lots of free meditations to choose from.

Other:

• There are many guided meditations on offer online (CD's, MP3's, even on Spotify & YouTube).

I hope you enjoy your new meditation practice!

Much love,

Dani xx