3 Tips for Starting a Meditation Practice

Now that you have your alter set up, you can use it regularly!

Over the last several decades, scientific research has shown a wealth of profound benefits from incorporating meditation into your life. Meditation is a form of mindfulness that positively impacts your mind, body, emotions, relationships and spirit.

However, like many, you may get overwhelmed at the thought of starting. Afterall, some of the visions of how it looks for “the pros” can make it feel unrealistic for us new-bies to even fathom getting started.

Well I’m here to let you know, it doesn’t have to look perfect for it to be beneficial. Even the few minutes, the few days a week I give it help me stay grounded, connected and centered. It’s really about focusing on an intention of what you want to feel and giving yourself time to center into that. If you can give this to yourself, you’re more likely to maintain that vibration throughout the day.

When starting a mediation practice there are several foundational recommendations that will set you up for success. Here is what’s been helpful for me;

1. Start Small, But Be Consistent

It is better to dedicate 2-5 minutes in the morning, every morning rather than 10-20 minutes once a week or even less. Not that 10-20 minutes is not great – but in building the habit to receive the long term benefits, it’s better to start small and consistent.

Human Beings are creatures of habit. With self discipline, we have the power to create new habits. It’s about your commitment – so make it easy on yourself by keeping the commitment small in the beginning. Once you feel like you’re showing up for yourself regularly, you can gradually increase the time.

Just keep showing up for yourself no matter how it looks. If you like to give yourself 5 minutes of meditation a day, but one morning you have a hectic start, keep the commitment, just shorten the time.

2. Protect Your Practice

When you are choosing to commit to yourself, it is your job to protect your new commitment. Here’s how you can make it easy for yourself to do that.

Determine a regular time and location for your practice
Create a space that is free from disturbances- silence your phone, close the door, let others know not to disturb you while you’re in this space
Sit comfortably
Let go of expectations. You’re not supposed to have a specific experience. It will unfold and evolve as you do
Treat disturbances without resistance. Deal with them as you may need to and come back to your practice
Use a timer as it may help you to let go of being concerned about the time and will allow you to fully let go.

3. Be Easy with Yourself

One of the benefits of meditation is lightness of being. Don’t take your practice too seriously. Allow this to be a space where you are more flexible with how it looks and how you show up. Enjoy the practice of self care and time with you, and let go of a fixed outcome. One of the things that stops people from continuing the practice is discouragement, that it doesn’t look like they think it’s supposed to right a way. I’m here to tell you, it won’t look how you think it’s supposed to right away because it’s not supposed to look any specific way. What shows up for you is in alignment to where you’re at. So as you stay committed to your practice, just allow the process to unfold naturally and enjoy yourself.

Bonus: Document How You Feel Before and Afterwards

Keep track in a journal how you’re feeling before you start. Afterwards, write down how long you were in mediation for and what came up for you. Lastly, write how you feel afterwards. This addition to your practice doesn’t need to take more than 2 minutes. Overtime it will give you in writing how you’re progressing. It will let you see the unfolding before your eyes.