How to learn to meditate, in 7 easy steps

How to learn to meditate, in 7 easy steps

Basic tips to benefit from meditation

Tips to Meditate

Meditation is a thousand-year-old practice that has been experiencing great popularity in the West in the last decade, because it has many benefits for mental and emotional well-being and it is very useful in these times.

But meditating is not always easy, especially at the beginning, since it requires discipline and practice for its perfection. And although it may not seem physically very demanding, it also requires effort. Nothing is free in this life, but if you know everything that meditation can bring to your life, it is quite likely that you feel the need to begin to familiarize yourself with its techniques.

The benefits of meditation

In recent years, research on this practice has shown that meditating is effective in improving people's mental health. What are these benefits? What is the use of meditating? Meditation benefits us for different reasons:

• Mitigates the effects of stress
• Positively affects the immune system
• Improves attention span and concentration
• It is useful to empathize with others
• Increased pain tolerance
• Improves memory and cognitive functions
• Enhances the appearance of positive thoughts

Read: FACTORS TO REMAIN YOUNG AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!

The 7 steps to learn to meditate

The key to developing the habit of meditation is finding the perfect time for you and the type of meditation and posture that fits you. At first you can experiment with the different types of meditation and the correct posture to find the necessary comfort and the ideal mental state to carry out this practice.

But you must know that to overcome the resistance that you can sometimes find during the meditative process, continuing with the practice is what really makes you improve. If you want to know how to meditate correctly, follow these steps that I indicate below.

1. Wear comfortable clothes

The first thing you should do to meditate and be in the here and now is to wear comfortable clothes. Taking off your shoes and choosing a wide garment is the best alternative to feel ready to meditate. Forget tight clothing and take off your watch or other accessories that can be annoying.

2. Find a quiet place

You need to find a place that allows you to be relaxed and without interruption or interference. It can be the room in your house, the seashore or your garden ... Any place is good if it allows you to be comfortable and focused, fully immersed in the activity you are about to start.

3. Sit correctly

To meditate you must sit correctly, that is, on the floor with your back straight, but without tension, taking a deep breath and keeping your shoulders and arms relaxed. Some people prefer to sit in a chair or on their knees instead of the classic posture, and there is also lying meditation. Whatever position you adopt, your back should always be straight and your body, especially your shoulders and arms, relaxed.

4. Focus on an object

Focus on an object or your breath (with your eyes closed) when you start meditative practice. Later, you can do other types of meditation, such as the "body scanner" or sound-centered meditation.

5. Accept the thoughts that arise and move on

It is common that, during the practice of meditation, different thoughts arise: our personal problems, the discomfort of the moment or the insecurity of doing the meditation well or not (something that usually happens when we start in this practice). But this is normal and therefore we must accept it.

Meditation anchors on the concept that psychological well-being is a condition that emerges from the acceptance of thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations without trying to eliminate or modify them; you simply have to observe them in a non-judgmental way. Therefore, when these thoughts appear, you simply have to accept them, and then refocus your attention on the object, the breath, the sound, or the bodily sensation.

6. Increase your meditation time progressively

When you start meditation, you must start little by little and then increase the time. It is ideal to start with the one-minute meditation, to progressively reach the 20 or 30 minutes a day that will help you improve your well-being. Take a look at this video to find out what one-minute meditation is:

7. Add it to your daily routine

These steps will help you make meditation a healthy habit. With practice you will become a great meditator, which will help you achieve the benefits of this ancient practice.

Summary

The practice of meditation is something very easy to incorporate into our life habits as a way to gain in well-being and ability to manage stress.

Besides, this generation has many ways that make this activity even more accessible. The Aware application, for example, is the perfect pocket personal trainer to learn how to meditate and progress day by day. It is a program available for smartphones and tablets that provides all the instructions and guidelines necessary to perform Mindfulness meditation whenever and wherever you want.

It is a very interesting proposal in which the thousand-year-old practice of guided meditation meets the potential of new technologies to learn quickly, efficiently and without time limitations.

Psychology and meditation: Mindfulness exercises

In recent decades, meditation has become part of psychological therapy (for example, thanks to Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy or MBCT), but it has also begun to be implanted in organizations, schools or sports.

And it is that, from psychology, many professionals have realized the benefits of meditation, and specifically mindfulness, for mental health, interpersonal relationships, creativity or optimal performance, both in sports, school or the job.