Om, Om, Om I Done Yet?
If that’s what you have going around your head when you try to relax and meditate, you’re not alone. You could read 10 books on meditation for dummies, and it would still take you years to get the hang of it.
We can’t make it less of a long-learning practice, but we can give you a couple of tips to get started meditating (with less frustration) below.
1. Set Reasonable Expectations
Meditation isn’t something you master. That’s why people call it a practice, it’s something you work on your whole life.
For the first year, you do it, you’ll probably feel distracted and like you’re not making a lot of progress. That’s totally normal. Within your practice, even if you’re a master, you’ll have off days.
Sometimes your mind isn’t ready to quiet down, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Set the expectation that you’re trying to reduce thoughts while you meditate, not get rid of them altogether. If you set your expectations too high, you’re going to get frustrated and not want to continue.
2. Start with Guided Meditations
One of the best ways to start your meditation practice is to do guided meditations. Someone gently helps you with your breathing and gives you prompts on how to clear your mind.
You can find a guided meditation for about any mood or goal on Youtube. Just make sure it’s one that’s not monetized (no ad at the beginning) or a loud mid-video and may start and knock you out of the zone.
You’ll learn pretty quickly which videos and voices you like and which you don’t.
When you’re starting out, don’t try to meditate any longer than five minutes.
That’s a marathon for not thinking, even a year or so into your practice.
3. Learn Why You Should Practice
Meditation has about as many health benefits as getting enough sleep and drinking the right amount of water. It can lower your blood pressure, help treat mental illness, basically all it can’t do is pick your mom up from the airport.
If you’re every feeling frustrated with your practice and need some motivation to continue, read meditation benefit studies. There are plenty on the internet. You can read articles about them or get access to the full study.
Hopefully, that will be enough to remind you to follow through, for the good of your future self.
You can also read books like the Chakra Bible, or pre-order this book to get more in-depth information.
4. Set a Time Everyday
During your workday, when do you feel like your brain is dead and you can’t get anything else done? It may happen at noon, or at 3 pm.
Whenever your time is, take five minutes and do a guided meditation in your headphones. Tell your boss about the benefits of employee meditation – or lock yourself in the bathroom with your headphones.
Meditation for Dummies
Every technological advance makes it a little harder to zen-out. You want to relax, but there’s something buzzing telling you something, on a screen.
That’s only going to get worse. Follow this meditation for dummies guide now, so you have a leg up when there’s more chaos, later.
For more ways to chill out, click here.