How to Meditate When You Have No Idea Where to Start | Learn How to Meditate Properly
If you're wondering how to meditate, it's likely because you've heard a lot about how beneficial it can be to your health. People frequently recommend meditation for a number of reasons, including stress and anxiety reduction, depression relief, sleep aid, feeling more present, and miraculously transforming you into a better, more grounded human being. The claims keep coming. And, while the advantages of meditation have been vastly overstated in many areas, we believe that it is a good practice for many individuals. With everything going on in the world, now is a perfect moment to investigate meditation and whether it can benefit you.
Meditation may appear simple—and in many respects, it is—but many people are unclear about where to begin or if they are doing it right. SELF asked meditation experts some of your most frequent meditation questions in order to assist you to understand how to meditate and integrate it into your life.
1. What precisely is meditation?
First and foremost, there are several types of meditation. "Meditation is generally used as a broad umbrella term that covers a wide array of contemplative practices, many of which are drawn from Buddhist traditions but have frequently been adapted and secularized for application in Western society," SELF previously quoted neuroscientist Wendy Hasenkamp, Ph.D., science director at the Mind & Life Institute and visiting professor of contemplative sciences at the University of Virginia.
With this in mind, the questions of what meditation is and how to meditate are not easily answered. Diana Winston, the director of mindfulness education at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and author of The Little Book of Being, tells SELF that it's similar to wondering how to play sports. "There are different varieties of meditation, just as there are many sorts of sports," she continues. And, just as various sports have key features in common (such as competition and physical exertion), so does meditation. Winston defines meditation as "any discipline that cultivates introspective investigation."
This post will mostly focus on mindfulness meditation. Why? Several causes. For starters, awareness is central to many different styles of meditation. Furthermore, it is simple to learn and has the most solid body of research addressing its mental health advantages (more on that later). It is also a popular kind of meditation, particularly in recent years. If you're thinking about starting a meditation practice to improve your mental health, you're probably thinking about mindfulness meditation.
There is no single global definition of mindfulness, as there is for meditation, but experts usually agree on the gist: concentrating on the present moment with openness and without judgment. "If you check in on your thoughts at any point during the day, you'll probably see you're planning, ruminating, fretting, and catastrophizing," Winston adds. "Mindfulness is the discipline of drawing our attention away from these locations in order to return to the present moment." Mindfulness meditation is therefore the formal practice of fostering mindfulness.
If all of that seems a little abstract to you, remember that you've most likely meditated—or at least felt meditative—at some time in your life. "In my sessions, I always advise my cautious beginners to share their favorite interests," Laurasia Mattingly, a Los Angeles-based meditation and mindfulness instructor, tells SELF. "I then inform them that they've previously meditated. Any activity that helps you to be totally present at the moment, without thinking about the future or the past, is a gateway to meditation."
2. What are the advantages of meditating?
This is when things get a bit complicated. The scientific advantages of mindfulness meditation are difficult to summarize (so much so that SELF has a whole separate explainer on it). The TL;DR is that meditation has a substantial and persuasive body of data to support its efficacy in three conditions: depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. In other words, a considerable number of meta-reviews and meta-analyses have discovered that mindfulness meditation can help with symptoms linked with these illnesses (or in the case of chronic pain, how people cope with symptoms, at least).
Aside from research, it doesn't harm to explore anecdotal evidence, as long as you don't believe meditation is a miraculous cure-all. Meditation is highly valued by people for a variety of reasons. "When people practice mindfulness, they express increased connectedness, gratitude, and appreciation for life," says Winston, who has taught mindfulness for health and well-being in a variety of contexts since 1993.
3. Why should I give meditation a try?
So why not? No, I'm joking. Aside from the broad potential advantages, having a way for your meditation practice can help drive you to continue practicing, so it's a smart topic to ponder. Some meditations achieve this for you because they have a specific objective (for example, sleep meditations to help you fall asleep), but there are a number of reasons why you might want to try meditating. Some of them may be practical, while others may be personal.
"If you feel like you're living your life on autopilot and want to be more connected to yourself and life, you might want to try mindfulness meditation," Winston suggests. "It's also highly useful for managing bad emotions and nurturing positive emotions such as love and compassion."
Your why doesn't have to be as profound; it might just be what draws you to meditation. Why did you choose to read this article today? That might be your solution.
4. Okay, go through the fundamentals with me. What does it look like to meditate?
Good news: While many people believe there are many guidelines to successfully meditating, meditation is designed to be flexible and customized. "A lot of people assume you have to sit in a specific posture, like cross-legged on the floor, which is completely false," Winston explains. "You can take a seat. You are welcome to sit on the sofa. You are free to lie down. Whatever makes you happy." Winston points out that individuals typically believe they must do it for an extended period of time, yet this is another myth. A few minutes is sufficient.
Consider the following basic example to get an understanding of what mindfulness meditation looks like in practice: "A really basic technique to meditate is to sit in a comfortable spot where you won't be bothered and focus your attention on your body," Winston adds. "Notice how your body is breathing. Perhaps you can feel your breath moving in your stomach. Perhaps you've seen your chest moving up and down. Some people perceive the movement of air via their nostrils. Then, just choose a point to focus your attention on and stay with it, feeling your breath rise and fall in and out. When you sense your thoughts drifting, bring them back to your breathing and the location you're noticing.
Then repeat that process several times. If you simply did that for five minutes a day, you'd be OK." It may sound too simple, but five minutes a day may be all you need to adopt a rewarding meditation program into your life.
5. How can I get started meditating?
Despite how straightforward the above example appears, many people naturally find it difficult to complete on their own without becoming bored or restless. This is when guided meditations come into play. "Having instruction is incredibly useful because many feel frustrated when they sit down to meditate," Winston explains. "So many people try and then say, 'OK, what do I do now?'" ’”
In addition to gently introducing you to meditation, guided meditations will teach you to a range of particular meditations other than focusing on your breath, such as loving-kindness meditations (which entail sending nice thoughts to others) or body scan meditations (which involve tuning into the sensations of your body head to toe).
6. How can I know if I'm doing it correctly?
Meditation isn't about being "right" or "wrong." Okay, technically, there are methods to meditate "incorrectly," but they all boil down to not trying at all. All you have to do is put in some effort. "If you sit down and completely disregard the guided meditation and instead utilize the time to think about your to-do list for a day, you're not truly meditating," Winston adds. "However, if you take a minute while thinking about all the things you have to do to bring your focus back to your breathing and attempt to be present, you're doing well."
However, Winston advises against lingering in this thinking for too long. "The most important thing is to be gentle to yourself so that meditation doesn't become another thing that's wrong with you," she explains. "Try not to pass judgment. It's not like you'll do it correctly the first time. It's a procedure."
7. What if I don't have enough time?
That's the nice thing about meditation: it doesn't have to take long. Many guided meditations are only five minutes long. "Everyone has five minutes," Winston says. "Meditation is adjustable, and it should not seem like a tremendous commitment."
You may incorporate mindfulness into your life by being open to finding little pockets of time throughout your day to meditate. When it comes to mindfulness meditation, there's formal practice (like everything else we've discussed) and informal practice, which is when you put the skills you've gained in formal practice to use. "You may use it throughout the day," Winston explains. "You may clean your teeth consciously, remember to take a mindful breath when something bothers you, or be aware while taking your regular stroll." There are several ways we may make place for mindfulness even when it appears that we don't."
Mattingly also suggests the S.T.O.P. meditation as a brief meditation that you may do on the fly. It means to pause, take a breath, observe without judgment, and then proceed. "This exercise helps us to check in with ourselves without judgment," she explains. "The most important phrase is 'without judgment.' For example, if we complete this exercise and detect anger, grief, or any other tough feeling, can we allow ourselves to acknowledge how we feel without attempting to "fix" or "alter" anything?" A comparable goal is served by the R.A.I.N. meditation (Recognize, Allow, investigate, and Nurture).