Finding Ease in Meditation: 5 Tips for Beginning a Meditation Practice
One of the most common responses I get when I speak about meditation and relaxation practices is ‘I tried meditation, it was too hard!’
I get it, meditation is a challenge. It requires learning, patience, and regular practice. But often that’s not the challenge that keeps people from meditating regularly. The challenge is what we expect meditation to be vs what it is.
Meditation feels hard because we have this idea that our minds should be empty. Complete stillness. When, in reality, meditation is the practice of following the meditation guidance, getting distracted, seeing that we are distracted, and returning to meditation. With practice, you get distracted less, and return with more ease. That’s it. That’s the secret to meditation.
After 25 years of practice, here’s what my meditation practice looks like:
- Sit/lie down, begin a relaxation technique
- Get distracted
- Oh no! I’m distracted
- Come back to the technique
- Repeat.
It might not look pretty, but it works. Celebrate every moment of stillness and ease, rather than fighting against your own brain.
Meditation isn’t about emptying your mind. It’s about:
- Focusing on your breath, your body, or a guided practice.
- Noticing when your mind wanders.
- Gently returning your focus.
With consistent practice, distractions will decrease, and returning to focus becomes second nature. That’s the real meditation practice!
Below I share a few tips for beginning, maintaining, or returning to your meditation practice. I hope you find them helpful.
5 tips for making meditation more accessible and easeful
1) Let go of perfect.
There’s no perfect time, space, technique, or way to practice. If you are able to carve out a regular practice time and space, that’s great, there’s benefit in regular, routine practice.
But if you are not able to make a regular practice time, take the moments as they come. Perhaps that’s a few moments in bed before you rise or before sleep to move your awareness around your body with kindness. Perhaps that’s a few minutes after your yoga practice or workout to rest in awareness of your breath. Perhaps it’s on a walk, opening your awareness to the sights, smells, sounds, and being present with the movements of your body. All meditation, awareness, and relaxation is good practice.
2) Distractions happen. Keep coming back.
It’s okay to think, wriggle, sleep, or get distracted when you are meditating. The key is to come back when you see that you’ve been distracted. Avoid chastising yourself for being distracted or falling asleep. Acknowledge that this is part of the process, and you can return to focus anytime.
3) Experiment with techniques.
We don’t all respond the same way to different meditation, relaxation, or visualization techniques. Try a variety of techniques, try guided or unguided practices, try different teachers. You’ll soon learn through experience what works best for you, right now.
4) Be patient.
Imagine your ability to meditate requires you to strengthen your ‘meditation muscles’. You can’t do 100 push ups the first time out or run a 10k the first time you strap on some shoes. The same goes for meditation. It takes time to strengthen your ability to sit or lie down without restlessness. It takes practice to stay focused on the technique and not be distracted by outer or inner disturbances. It takes repetition to be able to concentrate for periods of time. Stay open and curious, keep trying, and allow your practice to unfold without needing to hurry it along.
5) Keep track.
It can be useful, whether you schedule your meditations or you enjoy spontaneous meditations, to log your practice and take a few notes on your experiences. It can help you to see how your practice is developing, identify obstacles and challenges to be addressed, and after a few weeks you will be able to look back and see a pattern of meditation emerging, which can be really motivating to continue your meditation practice.
I hope you find this useful, and perhaps inspires you to try a meditation or relaxation technique today. You can find some free guided practices on YouTube or download free from the SHOP
Yours in Yoga,
Heather Agnew, ERYT-500, Senior Trainer
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