First, before we start, let’s go through “why” you should meditate in the first place. One of the best things that happened to me, is the fact that meditation made me more productive! It should sound strange that sitting still and doing absolutely nothing with your eyes closed for a period of time will make you more productive, but it does!
Meditation has an immense calming effect:
- Researchers all over the world claim that when we meditate we “calm” our mind/brain. With my own observations of almost 3 years of daily meditation practice, I can truly say that this is very accurate.
- It makes it much easier to focus and achieve ” the flow” when the mind is calm and rested. You can immerse yourself into what task is there to be
accomplished much more easily, and be a lot less tempted to procrastinate. - When the mind is “mindful”, it has the tendency to increase the awareness of random thoughts flowing through, and naturally, redirects your attention to the present moment.
When we meditate, we calm our minds and become much more “in the zone”, and therefore we have less tendency to procrastinate and being absent minded, therefore we become more productive.
Meditation is a practice that people tend to over complicate
It can be described as a training of the mental attention that awakens us from our daily and habitual sort of thinking. With regular and repeated practice, it will make a person “mindful”, meaning that we maintain an awareness of our thoughts at all time.
So with all of this in mind, these are the basic things I recommend to start meditating:
- A place to sit comfortably. When you first start, I recommend sitting in a comfortable chair. Keep you back erect, and both feet on the floor with the palm of your hands on your knees, either facing up or down. I recommend you use a chair for the first several times you meditate. Keeping you back erect will increase the energy flow and also keep you from falling asleep. If you sit in a slouching position, your body will tend to take over and you will most likely fall asleep.
- When you become more comfortable with your meditations, you can switch to a meditation cushion (zafu). It will keep you alert throughout your meditation but it takes a while for the body to adapt to sitting throughout your whole meditation session, so only switch when you are ready for this
new experience. - Some soothing music for meditation. This is a personal choice. We all have our tastes for music, but I recommend something very comforting, that will bring peace and joy.
- Headphones. Again this is a personal choice and we all have our tastes. As long as you are comfortable wearing them and it cancels any noise around you, I recommend headphones to keep all noises out!
- A peaceful and quiet place where you will not be disturbed. You can choose a place in your home where you know that you will not be disturbed when you are meditating. You can even create an altar or a shrine that you face when you meditate. If you have to, make certain that other people in your home are aware that you are meditating, that these few minutes are yours and let them know not to disturb you.
- Don’t think! This is the hardest part! Try and concentrate on your breathing, and don’t analyze it. When your mind wanders, bring it backto your breathing and be easy on yourself. It’s easy to become frustrated with yourself when your mind wanders, but don’t get mad at yourself, your meditation will be much more productive when you bring yourself back gently. Do this until your meditation is over.
- Start with short, 10 to 12 minutes meditation sessions. It is a lot better to do a 10-minute session every day, than a 70-minute session once a week.
Most of all, it’s very important to ENJOY your meditation.
You might want to try and smile a little bit while meditating and try and get to a state of pure joy for the moment being!
