How to Meditate Like a Pro

Meditation has many health benefits. It helps you slow down and take a moment to ground yourself in the world. Because of this grounding nature, it releases stress and helps you relax. But meditating can be hard to do, especially if you’re new to it. Here are some tips to help you meditate like a pro.

Find a Good Spot

One of the trickiest parts of meditating is the environment where you try to relax and focus your thoughts. For example, a deck is a great place to relax in your own, secluded backyard. But if you don’t have a deck, or if you live in a busy neighborhood or apartment that constantly has people coming and going, you may need to go to a local park during less busy hours. You can also meditate inside if it is quieter. Depending on the surface you meditate on, you can use your yoga mat to make it more comfortable.

Focus on Your Breathing

When you meditate, focusing on your breathing allows you to let go of your thoughts, like leaves on a stream washing away. It may seem daunting at first to not think about anything, especially if you always have a million thoughts going through your mind. Something that helps is to count your breaths. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts and then exhale for four counts. Focusing on your breathing lets your thoughts just flow and helps you sink into your meditation. Even advanced meditators sometimes need to be reminded to bring their attention back to their breath.

Try Different Types of Meditation

There are many kinds of meditation. For example, six common meditations include visualization, focused meditation, mindfulness, movement meditation, transcendental meditation, and mantra meditation. Visualization meditation is where you focus on an image, whether a beautiful mountain lake, a growing forest, or the ocean. While you visualize the image, you focus on just the image and let the image wash over you. Focused meditation is where you bring your focus to one of your senses, such as staring at a candle flame while your focus is entirely on the candle.

Focused meditation is good for those who have a hard time focusing on tasks and want to improve their focus, and it may take a while to master because your mind will likely wander as you try to solidly focus on one of your senses. Mindfulness is a common type of meditation where you focus entirely on the moment and just observe your thoughts while you focus on your breath. Mindfulness is the idea of being purely in the moment, focusing on the sensation as you drink a cup of tea and not allowing yourself to think about anything else. Movement meditation is where you let your mind wander as you do easy movements, from yoga to walking in the woods.

Transcendental and mantra meditations are meditations where you repeat a mantra, a word, sound or phrase for a set period of time. Transcendental tends to be more customizable than mantra meditations, although both help you tune into your environment better. While you are just starting at meditation, try a few different types of meditation as one might speak to you louder than another.

Try Doing Yoga First

Because yoga and meditation have a long history together, even if you don’t do yoga for your meditation, yoga can help your body relax and get your mind ready for meditation. During the final closing posture of the yoga flow (called savasana or Corpse Pose) you can practice meditation by letting yourself let go of your thoughts, worries and stress. Practicing meditation during savasana is a simple way to begin meditation if you are brand new at it. You can also continue your meditation practice after yoga by sitting in a half-lotus position and practice one of the different types of meditation. Yoga is a great way to introduce yourself to meditation as the two go hand-in-hand, with yoga being a form of movement meditation.

Try Relaxing Music

If you’re having a hard time relaxing during meditation, try putting on some quiet relaxing music. There are hundreds of playlists you can find online that have hours-worth of relaxing music. Relaxing music fills the quiet space, which can be helpful if you’re not used to complete silence and if you’re new to meditation. Listening to relaxing music also allows you to practice mindfulness by just listening to the music, letting it fill you as you breathe. If your mind starts to wander during the meditation, which happens to everyone, you can bring it back to the music. But relaxing music is not the only thing that you can listen to that can ground you during your meditation. You can also try listening to a recorded guided meditation. You can find many for free online. These guided meditations help you focus on your breathing or a visualized image and are usually pretty short, which make them a great option for people new to meditation. If you have a hard time relaxing during mediation, try listening to relaxing music or a recorded guided meditation to ground you during your meditation.

Try Different Meditation Postures

As you’re starting out with meditation, you may think that the only way to meditate is to cross your legs in the half-lotus position and sit there with your back straight and focus on your breathing. That’s only one posture you can utilize to meditate. You can meditate in savasana as mentioned earlier, or you can just sit on the couch or a chair with your legs in any comfortable position you want. If one position isn’t comfortable for you, try another one until you find a position that works best for your meditation practice.

Meditation will help you focus on your environment and your breath, helping you feel more relaxed and at ease with the world, but it takes practice and persistence to perfect your technique. Be patient with yourself and be consistent as you practice meditation.

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