Jade KomAeld – Meditation for Beginners
Salepage : Jade KomAeld – Meditation for Beginners
Meditation for Novices
So you’ve chosen to start taking care of your mental health by meditating. But where do you even begin? How do you get started? What are the fundamentals? What will it be like? What can we expect? All very reasonable questions, and luckily for you, we have the answers you need to get started.
Begin Your Free Trial
So you’d want to start meditating?
Most first-time meditators find it weird to sit in silence, with their innermost thoughts and sensations, and to do nothing — all of which, ironically, the mind tends to oppose. Meditation may appear strange, even intimidating, to a beginning, but this is normal. People have been meditating for around 3,000 years, and many have undoubtedly felt the same apprehension, dread, or astonishment that first-time meditators have.
Perhaps you wish to start meditating in order to be less reactive, less anxious, or more focused. Perhaps meditation is part of a larger personal development goal. Perhaps you want to strengthen your connections with people around you. Whatever the cause, training the mind via meditation is training in awareness, and training in awareness has the power to radically change your outlook on life.
Our whole existence is experienced via our brains, and once we begin meditating, our perspective on life may significantly change. Being motivated to begin meditating is not the same as really doing it, and you will only feel the advantages of meditation if you begin and sustain a regular practice. You must meditate in order to receive meditation. To begin calming your mind, you must first sit with its untamed nature.
Meditation is simple to learn and comprises a few simple practices. Before we begin, let’s address a few practical issues and answer some common queries.
Try a free introductory meditation.
0:00
11:27
Meditation as an experience
You can expect your mind to be active, easily distracted, and restless when you close your eyes and follow the directions of your first guided meditation (whether in-person or via a recording). Just because you’ve decided to sit and meditate doesn’t imply you’ll instantly feel unbroken serenity, just as you wouldn’t expect a wild horse to be tamed overnight.
Meditation is a simple and easy process: simply sit and practice. All you have to do is close your eyes, concentrate on your breathing, and allow your mind to work its magic. This is the one talent in which you don’t have to strive for anything – only a state of tranquility in which no effort is necessary.
There are no such things as excellent and terrible meditations. There are just two options: awareness or non-consciousness. When you become aware that you are lost in thinking, it is when you return to the object of attention (usually the breath). All you have to do now is return from your distracted thinking to the breath, while strengthening your awareness. With practice, the time between being alert and being distracted will get longer and longer.
Before you begin, it’s a good idea to become acquainted with how the mind operates and what to expect from it when you sit down to meditate. This short animation, which utilizes the experience of sitting by the road observing traffic to show how meditation may shift your perspective on your thoughts or feelings by training you to observe and let them go without becoming caught up in them, is an excellent starting point.
Perspective Shifting
Meditation does not promise to fix your issues, nor does it guarantee eternal bliss. Life, with all of its difficulties and uncertainties, will continue to unfold. Meditation may alter how you choose to relate to, react to, and perceive the events that occur around you. It provides a haven of calm in the midst of the craziness outside. With persistent practice — and a certain level of open mindedness and desire to examine — the transformation is slow, subtle, intangible, and deep. It entails increasing awareness and understanding, which can eventually affect how you feel about yourself and others.
Practicalities
Perfect position, right moment
The first stage is to commit to a regular practice, preferably a couple times each week. Make a plan for how much time you’ll set aside — 10 or 15 minutes at first — and where you’ll sit quietly (a little bit of background noise is not an issue). It takes dedication and effort to become a habit, so sticking to a schedule — same time, same place — will aid in the development of your meditation practice. To ensure that they remember meditation, many individuals mix it with a habitual habit they already have, such as brushing their teeth. It’s common to meditate first thing in the morning, but it’s OK to discover a time that works for you, whether it’s in the morning, afternoon, or evening.
What to Put On
Put on whatever you want. The most essential thing is that you be calm and comfortable. If you are wearing a tie, belt, or scarf, you should relax it beforehand and remove any unpleasant, tight-fitting shoes or heels. You could also choose to wear nothing at all (as long as you’re in the privacy and comfort of your own house).
Sitting Positions
You can meditate inside or outside, sitting on the floor, a cushion, a bench, a chair, or whatever works for you. You may safely disregard clichéd ideas of sitting cross-legged beside a tree unless you want to. As they get more acquainted with the exercise, beginners may find it simpler to utilize an upright chair. Sitting at the back of the chair can help you maintain proper posture: back straight, neck relaxed, chin slightly tucked in. Place your hands on your lap or knees.
Duration
The length of time you meditate depends on your tastes, living circumstances, and available time. The crucial thing to remember is that frequency takes precedence over duration. It is advised that you begin with a 10-minute session when initially starting out. You may always increase the time to 15 or 20 minutes as you feel more comfortable with mind training. If sitting in silence for 10 minutes seems daunting when you’re just starting out, there’s no harm in starting with three- or five-minute guided meditations. You might as well give it a try and see how it feels, then gradually increase as your confidence builds.
Determine your motivation.
The reasons to meditation are many, subjective, and unique to each individual. However, it is good to begin with a clear reason – to understand why you want to meditate. If you merely have a hazy sense of why you’re doing it, you’ll find it difficult to persist with the exercise. Being clear about what you want to achieve out of your sessions — whether it’s to feel happier, calmer, more focused, or less stressed, for example — can help you create the correct mindset coming in as well as keep the promise to yourself.
Take it one day at a time.
Meditation is a lifelong process, not a race to quick success. Take it one session at a time, day by day, understanding that this is a skill that demands dedication, patience, and practice, with the rewards becoming apparent gradually over time. There is no “good” or “bad” meditation, no “success” or “failure,” simply awareness and non-awareness, distraction and non-distraction. The more we practice becoming less distracted, the more our consciousness stabilizes.
Maintaining mindfulness after meditation
We meditate in order to improve our awareness of the current moment. This technique is intended to make us more aware and less distracted during the day. At the end of your meditation, it’s crucial to acknowledge your state of mind at that moment and then make the goal to carry that state of mind throughout the remainder of your day. Make a plan for what you’ll do next, whether it’s cleaning your teeth, taking a shower, or preparing breakfast. It’s all too easy to get up and lose the quiet, expansive quality you established when meditating, so be mindful of bringing this awareness with you into your next activity.
Body scan is an excellent starting approach.
The “body scan” approach is a wonderful beginning to meditation for novices since it cultivates the mild curiosity required for meditation. What exactly is a body scan? Consider a photocopier-style scanner slowly moving over you, detecting any physical sensations within your body without analyzing or attempting to change what you feel.
Close your eyes and mentally scan along your body from head to toe, beginning at the top of your head. As you scan, take note of which areas feel relaxed or tense, comfortable or uncomfortable, light or heavy, and so on. You are merely constructing a mental image of how the body feels right now. Each scan should take around 20 seconds. Thoughts may arise and divert your attention. If this is the case, simply return to where you left off on the body. Making the body scan a part of your meditation practice will help you become more acquainted with bringing awareness to your thoughts and feelings.
Common difficulties for newcomers
When you first start meditating, it’s natural to experience obstacles, such as feelings of restlessness, boredom, fear, anxiety, overwhelm, or general resistance. All obstacles will fade with time and practice, and the process will feel easier. It’s important to remember that everyone comes to meditation with a lifetime of conditioning. The mind is accustomed to being preoccupied. It is not accustomed to silence. As a result, it will naturally buck and kick until it becomes acquainted with the strange concept of letting go and doing nothing.
The first challenge is finding the time.
The most common barrier is finding the time to meditate, but it doesn’t matter if you miss one or three days. A consistent practice is the most effective, but what really matters is that you pick up where you left off and give yourself that 10 or 15 minutes — or whatever duration you choose — to care for your mental health. If you haven’t meditated in a while, say a month, it may be beneficial to go over some of the fundamentals again.
Obstacle 2: drowsiness
It’s normal to feel sleepy — and even nod off — when starting a meditation practice. This is due to the mind’s confusion of “doing nothing” with relaxation. It will eventually distinguish between relaxed focus (what you’re attempting to achieve) and total relaxation.
Three suggestions to help you stay alert and awake:
Do your meditation sitting up, not lying down.
Try meditating first thing in the morning, when your mind is clearer.
Allow some fresh air in by opening a window.
3rd impediment: too many distractions
Many beginners believe that every meditation session should begin with a library-like silence, making them hypersensitive to any distraction or sound. It’s important to understand that you’re not supposed to sit in complete silence; rather, you’re supposed to settle into your environment with all of its accompanying sounds, whether they’re from a noisy neighbor, screaming kids in the street, or a reversing truck. Allow those sounds to come and go without resistance rather than dwelling on them or trying to tune them out and becoming frustrated when you can’t. Of course, if you’re having trouble with this at first, you can always try earplugs or noise-cancelling earphones.
Meditation misconceptions
Meditation is one of those practices and traditions that has a lot of misconceptions and stigmas attached to it, built on stereotypes that have been built on rumor, myth, and media portrayals. Many people associate meditation with labels and images ranging from “New Age” to “woo-woo,” from “granola” to “tree huggers.” However, there is no “certain type of person” who meditates; people of all ages and walks of life who want to better understand the mind have been meditating for hundreds of years.
One of the most common misconceptions is that meditation is inherently religious. Meditation is a skill, not a set of beliefs. Some people use meditation in religious settings, but doing so does not make meditation inherently religious.
Another myth is that meditation is taken too seriously, with meditators sitting cross-legged, arms extended, and repeatedly saying “ohhhmmm” out loud. While some people prefer to sit cross-legged — perhaps in nature or by the beach — many meditators prefer to sit in a chair with their hands on their laps. You’re just sitting with your mind, becoming aware of your emotions and feelings. Everyone has a mind, and everyone struggles with it from time to time. NBA basketball players, Team Great Britain Olympians, NFL Scouting Combine prospects, the US swim team, and English Premier League soccer players, to name a few, have increasingly turned to meditation as part of their mental training. They’re not hugging trees or burning incense (though neither is wrong); they’re simply getting their heads in the game, realizing that their mental health is just as important as their physical health.
I’m sticking with it.
It’s always simple to begin something new — a new diet, a new exercise regimen, a new hobby — but the difficult part is maintaining it. The initial zeal fades. The novelty fades. This is a common problem with meditation, especially because the exercises can be monotonous at times. So keep in mind that we are training the mind to change how we relate to our thoughts and feelings…which takes time, perseverance, and discipline.
One reason people give up is frustration — frustration that their minds will not “empty” or “clear.” Going in, it’s important to understand that the mind will always think because that’s what it’s programmed to do. Meditation will not magically stop thoughts, but it will teach you to take a step back and observe them objectively. The goal is to let thoughts come and go. It is a skill that must be learned, honed, and mastered. We can only master this skill by making it a habit.
The more consistent your meditation practice, the more benefits you will experience. The more benefits you experience, the better you’ll understand how your mind thinks and feels — and the better you’ll be able to take steps toward a healthier and happier life with increased clarity, calm, contentment, and compassion.
Starting a meditation practice with Headspace
Meditation is a lifelong journey, and every journey begins with a first step. That first step in the Headspace app takes you to Basics, a three-part course designed to serve as the foundation of your practice. Basics 1, 2, and 3 — where you’ll learn techniques to use in the series of exercises across all courses — are made up of 10 sessions each, and while it’s not required that you complete all three levels, it is recommended that you do so to become acquainted with meditation and Headspace’s teaching style.
Once you’ve gained some confidence in what you’re doing, there’s a whole library of content to explore, with different courses applicable to various areas and emotions in life.
