The benefits of meditation are substantial and well-known, which is why many of us are striving to integrate the practice into our daily lives. My good friend and now business partner, Renee, and I set out on our learning-to-meditate-journey together. That shared resolution, made while on vacation, is one we’ve kept over the years because meditation has improved so many aspects of our individual and collective lives.
Our advice to new meditators is to be curious and kind to yourself while you explore a variety of meditation approaches with the goal of finding what resonates and what doesn’t. Recognizing it takes years of practice to become an experienced meditator, we didn’t pressure ourselves–or strive–but simply eased into it at first and then continued practicing, studying, changing.
So smile, stay present, and your meditation practice will emerge as you learn and grow. Here are 5 tips to help you do just that.
#1: Just Get Started and Do Something or Nothing
Picture the two of us on January 1st, standing in knee-deep water, our breath following the breeze, turning our heads into the wind to inhale love and turning them away to exhale judgment, inhaling joy and exhaling criticism, inhaling peace and exhaling stress, inhaling satisfaction and exhaling perfectionism.
When we first started our meditation practices, we really didn’t know what we were doing, but we did it anyway. If you’re not sure what to do, know that it’s perfectly okay just to sit (or lie) and do nothing. The time spent in silence will still provide benefits and help build your practice.
#2: Release Pressure and Expectation
Although we certainly can sit in a lotus position if we’d like, the truth is, no special position or equipment is required to become an effective meditator. It’s not necessary to have a cushion or bench or to hold our hands in a certain kind of way. It’s perfectly fine to lie in our beds or on our couches, to walk, or to sit at our kitchen tables or on a bench outside.
It’s important to go into meditation knowing that we really can’t clear our minds or stop the 40,000+ thoughts that go through it each day, so there’s no point in trying. We can simply watch thoughts arise and fall, coming and going like clouds in the sky. We can do our best to follow the breath, but, if that doesn’t work, sounds or other sensations we’re experiencing can also serve to anchor our practice.
#3: Take Free Classes and Try Free Podcasts or Apps
Many schools, workplaces, and community centers offer low- or no-cost meditation classes while many churches, colleges, and retreat centers offer labyrinths to use for walking meditation practices. The Worldwide Labyrinth Locator can help find one near you.
Coursera, Udemy, Mindful Schools, Class Central, and many other websites offer free meditation courses. At the beginning of our meditation journey, we benefitted from Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s free, 40-day online mindfulness meditation course and would strongly recommend it.
Online meditation videos abound as do countless free apps to help us develop, deepen, and sustain an effective meditation practice. Some of our favorites are Daily Breath by Deepak Chopra, Calm, Headspace, Plum Village, and Insight Timer.
#4: Try Different Types
As we expanded our practice, we learned more and more about the different types and styles of meditation, and we continue learning and growing, understanding that practice, not perfection, is our goal.
On that first day at the beach, we didn’t know we were actually doing a kind of practice known as Tonglen. Experienced Tonglen practitioners take in some of the suffering of the world, transmute it in their hearts, and breathe it back out in the form of healing thoughts and feelings for their fellow human beings. Even if we’re not there yet, we too can aspire to breathe in injustice and breathe out peace, breathe in judgment and breathe out acceptance, breathe in anger and breathe out love.
Sometimes we’ll simply sit in silence for meditation practice, and other times we’ll seek out the guidance of another teacher. Some of these guided meditations are specifically designed to help us deal with difficult feelings, such as acceptance, anger, anxiety, depression, fear, and letting go, while others help us develop and expand positive emotions such as connection, gratitude, flow, or patience.
There are countless meditation approaches to try: walking or movement, mindfulness, Loving-Kindness or Metta, mantras, Gathas, body scans, chanting, contemplation, healing, and many, many more. Try as many as possible, as it’s not necessary to lock into one style or type, especially as we’re learning and developing a practice that is meaningful to each individual.
#5: Value Consistency Over Quality
This final tip is the most important: Just show up. Do something, anything every single day, and before you know it, a regular meditation practice will emerge.
At first, our goal was to simply strive for five minutes a day. Those five minutes a day spent meditating in the water all those years ago have morphed into meaningful morning practices to set our daily intentions, Sharon Salzberg’s stealth meditations to maintain perspective at work, and important evening practices to help us reflect, accept, and appreciate the complexities that come with this human experience.
We hope these tips will help you develop and maintain a meditation practice that works for you. Feel free to leave a comment about where you are in your meditation journey or which tip resonated most with you.
Terry Shamblin Writes 