How to learn
to meditate, in 7 easy steps
7. Add it to your daily routine
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.
Psychology and meditation: Mindfulness exercises
Basic tips to benefit
from meditation
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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
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.
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