Many people know about the benefits of meditation. Take a break from everyday worries, relax your soul and know yourself - all this sounds tempting. However, not everyone knows how to meditate. Of course, it is best to penetrate the secrets of Eastern practice under the guidance of an experienced instructor. But if you want to master this art, you can do it yourself. The article explains how to do this.
Where to start
First you need to understand what meditation is and how to meditate correctly. The word comes from the verb meditari, which is translated from Latin as “mentally contemplate”, “think”, “generate ideas”. This is the name of a kind of mental exercise, which is used as part of a he alth-improving or spiritual-religious practice. Also, the word "meditation" refers to a special mental state that a person acquires as a result of exercise or for other reasons.
With the help of this Eastern practice, a person achieves fullrelaxation of the body and mind, which allows him to relax and recharge his energy as much as possible. Meditation helps to get rid of financial and social problems, to concentrate on the spiritual state.
Benefit
How to learn to meditate? First you need to understand why this is done. What benefits does this Eastern practice give people?
- Happiness. It has long been proven that meditation helps to get rid of negative emotions and thoughts, to focus on positive ones. With its help, mechanisms of self-preservation and survival develop.
- Creativity. People who practice meditation do not suffer from a lack of inspiration. New ideas hit them one after another.
- Communication. It may seem that a person who is engaged in this Eastern practice is immersed in himself and rejects the world around him. In fact, the feeling of connection with other people only grows stronger.
- Forgiveness. Meditation helps to leave long-standing resentments and pain in the past.
- High pain threshold. People who have mastered this ancient art can bear pain more easily.
- Resilience. A he althy response to stress is one of the benefits. Oriental practice helps to get out of unpleasant situations faster and easier.
- Intuition. People who practice meditation trust themselves, listen to their inner voice. This allows them to make the right decisions intuitively.
- The meaning of life. Eastern practice helps to find the answer to the question of why a person lives. It helps you understand your purpose andimplement it.
Choosing a seat
How to learn to meditate? First you need to choose the right place to study. Peace and quiet are essential conditions for success. A person should concentrate on meditation, protect the mind from external stimuli. Only a place where no one and nothing will interfere with a beginner can be called suitable.
You won't need a lot of space. You can penetrate the secrets of ancient art even in the smallest room. Turn off your phone, TV and other potential sources of noise. You can also use earplugs, which are guaranteed to drown out all sounds. We must not forget that even the barking of a dog or the meow of a cat can interfere with a beginner.
The article mainly talks about how to meditate at home. However, many people prefer to dive into this state outdoors. The main thing is that the place is not near a busy road and other sources of noise.
Comfortable clothing
How to meditate at home? A beginner needs comfortable clothes. Physical discomfort due to the wrong outfit will interfere with calming the mind. Clothing should not restrict movement, be tight.
If the room is cool, it is better to put on a sweater or cardigan in advance. Otherwise, the sensation of cold will hold down the muscles. Shoes must be removed, and accessories must also be disposed of. If the collar of a blouse or shirt is in the way, it's best to unbutton it.
Duration
It's not just how to meditate that matters. The person must decide how long the session will last. On average, it is enough to devote twenty minutes a day to training. If this is difficult for a beginner, you can practice for five minutes for a while. The duration of meditation increases gradually.
When to do it? You can master the ancient art immediately after waking up or in free minutes. Ideally, you should do this every day, at the same time. Gradually, Eastern practice will become an integral part of life, it will become a habit.
In the process of training, you do not need to constantly monitor the time, this will only interfere with concentration. It is better to associate the end of a workout with a specific event. For example, it may be the achievement of a certain position in the sky by the sun.
About timing
How to learn to meditate at home? The result largely depends on whether the time for training is chosen correctly:
- The best option is early morning. The human mind has rested properly, has not yet had time to be filled with experiences.
- After eating, doing oriental practice is not recommended. There may be discomfort that interferes with concentration.
- After work, you should also not master the art of meditation. The person will feel tired, it will be difficult for him to relax.
Ventilate the room
How to meditate at home? Important for beginnersconsider every little thing. Before classes, be sure to ventilate the room. If the room is too stuffy, the discomfort will distract the person, hinder concentration. Fresh air will help you cool down, relax, and breathe easier.
Stretching
How to meditate correctly? Be sure to prepare for classes. This Eastern practice involves sitting in one place for a long time. Stretching will help prevent possible tension in the muscles. Exercises should be performed immediately before meditation.
Before exercising, it is important to stretch your shoulders and neck. First of all, this is true for people who spend a lot of time in front of a computer. It is also necessary to pay attention to the lower back, stretch the muscles of the legs.
Comfortable posture
How to meditate at home? For beginners, the correct choice of posture plays an important role. A person should feel as comfortable as possible, which largely depends on the position of his body. The most popular position is the lotus position. However, this position is not suitable for those who have not very flexible legs and lower back. The posture should allow the person to sit upright and upright, with easy balance.
How to meditate? To do this, you can simply sit on a bench, chair or pillow. In order for the hips to take the correct position, you need to sit on the front of a thin pillow. You can also sit on a chair, after placing something under the hind legs, whose thickness does not exceed ten centimeters. You can give preference to specialbench for meditation, which has an inclined seat. Follow these steps:
- Hips push forward.
- The spine is carefully straightened.
- When tension arises, it is necessary to relax the part in which it has arisen. The hands are placed one on top of the other, while the right hand covers the left hand.
- Palms facing up. If desired, hands can be lowered to the sides or placed on the knees.
Close your eyes
How to learn to meditate at home for beginners? For beginners, it is best to practice with your eyes closed. This will allow you not to be distracted by external stimuli, focus on relaxing your mind.
You can meditate with your eyes open. However, it is better to postpone this until you gain experience. If a person with closed eyes cannot get rid of visual images or falls asleep, you can open them. At the same time, you cannot focus on something specific, this will not allow you to concentrate.
How to meditate correctly: concentration on the breath
It's no secret that there are several types of Eastern practices. How to meditate for beginners? For beginners, a technique that involves concentration on the breath is great:
- You need to mentally imagine a point above the navel and focus your mind on it.
- You should pay attention to how the chest rises and falls in the process of breathing. It is impossible to change its pace, it is important to breathe freely.
- Next, focus on the breath, but don't think about it, don't try to evaluate it. Tofor example, one should not think that the previous breath was shorter. Breathing needs to be “realized.”
- Visual images can come to the rescue. For example, you can imagine a coin located above the navel. As you breathe, it goes up and down. Or you can imagine a lotus flower opening its petals with every breath.
Mind Cleansing
How to meditate? The following technique is also suitable for beginners. During classes, you need to focus on a maximum of one thing. These can be visual objects, mantras, and so on. With experience comes the possibility of complete liberation of the mind, the rejection of any thoughts.
Mantra repetition
How to meditate at home? Repetition of the mantra also helps to calm your mind and plunge into a trance. In Sanskrit, this word means "instrument of the mind." The repetition of the mantra provides an opportunity to plunge into a state of awareness, to detach from thoughts. You can choose it yourself, as it does not significantly affect the result. The only important thing is that the words are easy to remember.
What are the variations of mantras? For example, you can repeat the word "Om", this symbolizes the omnipresence of consciousness. Also welcome are mantras that contain the following words: "relaxation", "calm", "peace", "silence".
You need to repeat them over and over again, this will help the phrase or word to penetrate the mind. In the first days of classes, it will be difficult to concentrate on this. If the mind is distracted, there is no need to despair. Need only anewconcentrate and start repeating the mantra.
Concentration on the visual object
What other technique is relevant for beginners? How to meditate at home to quickly achieve the desired result? A beginner might try focusing on a simple visual object. The goal should fill the mind, which will help to achieve deeper awareness. It is obvious that the exercise is performed with open eyes.
Which visual object do you prefer? For example, it could be a candle flame. You can also stop at the image of a sublime being (say, Buddha), flowers, crystals. The image should please the eye, and not cause negative emotions. The object must be at eye level. Having to tilt your head and neck will make it difficult to concentrate.
How to start meditating in this case? You need to focus on the chosen object, not allowing other stimuli to disturb the mind. The achievement of the goal will be told by the deep calm that a person will feel.
Visualization
How to learn to meditate properly? A person with a developed imagination will find it easiest to master the visualization method. It is best to fantasize about a pleasant place. It should not be a complete repetition of what exists in reality. It is preferable to come up with a unique place:
- A flower meadow, a warm sandy beach, a quiet forest can become a refuge for a person. A comfortable house with a fireplace will do.
- Mentally you need to enter your secret place and start exploring it. “Creating” a setting or environment should not bethey already exist, you just need to see them.
- Sounds, lights, smells - it is important to note every little thing that will make the picture more real. For example, you can feel the fresh breeze on your face, enjoy the warmth of the fire.
- The duration of stay in the secret shelter is not limited by anything. You can stay in your place for as long as your soul asks. With every second, the space will expand, take on real forms.
- Before you leave the shelter, you need to take a few deep breaths. Only then can you open your eyes.
The visualization method is ideal for beginners. How to meditate so that this activity does not get bored? It is not necessary to return to the same place every time. On the contrary, it is better to invent new shelters for yourself from time to time, experience adventures and experience emotions.
Review your body
How to meditate at home yourself? One of the main goals is complete relaxation. This goal is easy to achieve by analyzing your body. You need to pay attention to each part, relaxing it. When the body becomes light and weightless, the mind will also be freed from unnecessary burdens.
- Where to start? You need to lower your eyelids and focus on a specific part of the body. For example, you can concentrate on the tips of your toes. You should fix all your sensations, try to relax tense muscles, get rid of pressure.
- Once your toes are completely relaxed, repeat this with your feet. Next, you can move to the calves, then move on to the knees, hips, buttocks. Then comes the turn of the abdomen, back, chest, arms. As a result, you can get to the top of the head.
- Assume that all parts of the body are relaxed. The tension was gone, there was a feeling of lightness, weightlessness. Next, you need to switch attention to the state of the body as a whole. It is necessary to be imbued with a feeling of relaxation and calmness, which was achieved. The exercise ends only after that.
Heart chakra
Concentration on the heart chakra is another option that is suitable for beginners. How to meditate correctly if this technique is preferred? To begin with, it is worth mentioning that the heart chakra is one of the energy centers located in the body. It is located in the center of the chest, evokes associations with peace, compassion, acceptance and love. Meditation allows you to immerse yourself in these feelings and then share them with the outside world. Step by step instructions:
- You need to lower your eyelids and rub your palms together. This will help fill you with a feeling of energy and warmth.
- The right hand is placed on the center of the chest, covered with the left hand.
- Next you need to take a deep breath. On the exhale, the word “yam” is clearly pronounced, its vibration will help to “connect” with the heart chakra. In the process, you need to imagine a bright green energy that pulsates in the chest and passes through the fingers. It symbolizes positive emotions, life, love.
- Then you can remove your hands from your chest and share energy with the outside world, family and friends.
- Next, you need to focus onenergy that fills the body. This will help to realize oneself not only in the present, but also to look into the future, which is hidden by a veil of secrecy.
With the help of runes
The above is about how to learn to meditate for beginners. For those who have been practicing for several months, it's time to set more difficult tasks. Rune meditation is one of the options. Once they were used by shamans for witchcraft rites. Runes are complex magical attributes that take the form of unique signs. They can be applied to stone or wood.
Meditating with runes is best in your own home, but another quiet and peaceful place is also suitable. It is important that nothing distracts a person in the process of training. It is recommended to sit on a chair with a back, you need to sit straight. During such meditation, traditions say to light a candle. This attribute will help the person enter the trance state more quickly. You also need to stock up on the rune of good Fehu, a pen and a piece of paper.
Rune Meditation Sequence
- Where to start? It is necessary to choose the right place and light a candle. For some time you need to look at the flame, try to focus all your attention on it. Then lower your eyelids and imagine an idyllic place in your mind.
- The actions described above will cause the mind to calm down and clear. Extraneous thoughts will disappear from the head. Only after that, you can begin to visualize the rune, say its name aloud and ask to open it.
- With the image of a magic stone, you can notmix your own thoughts and emotions. It is necessary to ensure that the sensations come only from the rune. Achieving this goal is not easy, but the result is worth it.
- A person will understand when he manages to feel the magic stone. Immediately after that, you can open your eyes and return to the real world. Then you need to write down on a piece of paper all the thoughts that came during meditation.
The first time is unlikely to succeed. Rune meditation is quite difficult, so a beginner will need to be patient. Only a combination of perseverance and calmness can lead to success. It is important to consider that not all runes represent goodness and light. Therefore, the magic stone for meditation must be chosen correctly. For example, you can use the stone of Destiny, the Dagas rune.
How to get things done
The above is about the benefits of meditation. How to meditate in order to feel it as soon as possible? It is not recommended to practice a new technique if the previous practice has not been mastered properly. For example, first you need to learn to concentrate on breathing and only then move on to analyzing the body, concentrating on the mantra, visualization. This approach will allow a person to better understand and understand the process.
What else can you do to get the most out of meditation?
- The duration of classes should be gradually increased. If a beginner starts with five minutes a day, he will soon need to increase his practice time.
- The number of repetitions during the day can also be increased. Tofor example, do oriental practice not only in the morning, but also before going to bed.
- The place for meditation can and even needs to be changed periodically. This will help the person experience new emotions.
- It is best to practice at the same time. This will make it easy to turn meditation into a he althy habit.
Read spiritual books
How to meditate at home? Reading spiritual books and scriptures will help improve results. For many people, this helps them understand meditation more deeply, gaining peace of mind faster.
Which literature do you prefer? The Nature of Individual Reality, One Minute Mindfulness, Deep Mind: Cultivating Wisdom in Everyday Life are books that any beginner will need. Also, grains of wisdom can be gleaned from sacred or spiritual scriptures.
Keep a he althy lifestyle
A person can read many books on how to meditate. However, he will not be able to achieve his goals if he forgets about the importance of maintaining a he althy lifestyle.
What should be done? A beginner needs proper nutrition, rejection of harmful foods, proper sleep and exercise. You should not spend a lot of time watching TV, chatting on social networks. Be sure to give up bad habits, if any. Alcohol, cigarettes - all this will prevent you from achieving the desired results.
Practice mindfulness
How to meditate at home? There is no need to limit yourself to the time specially allotted for classes. Only those who practice mindfulness throughout the day will achieve the highest results.
- When you're stressed, it's good to take your mind off your problems and focus solely on your breathing. Negative emotions and thoughts will go away, peace will come. In this state, it will be much easier to deal with troubles.
- Meditation can be combined even with meals. To do this, you need to pay attention to every piece eaten. You can enjoy the sensations of delicious food.
- Attention to the movements of your body, your well-being can be shown at any time. A person can combine practice with cleaning the apartment, sitting in front of a computer. Having learned to live consciously, he will always do it.
Long journey
How to meditate with maximum benefit and not be disappointed in this activity? An important role is played by the initial mood. The beginner must realize that meditation is a lifelong journey. Eastern practice can also be compared to climbing a high mountain, when each step brings you closer to the goal.
Helpful tips
What else can I tell you about how to meditate to the maximum benefit? To achieve this, following the tips below will help:
- All people are different. Each person should do what is comfortable and pleasant for him. One technique may come easily, another won't work. It's better to focus on what you're good at.
- How not to lose track of time in the process of studying? This question worries many beginners. No needconstantly thinking about time in the process of meditation, this will negatively affect the result. It is better to set a timer that will count down the minutes spent in a trance state. It is important that the sound is quiet, otherwise the person will be involuntarily distracted by waiting for the signal.
- He who feels tired or exhausted is unlikely to achieve his goal. If there is no strength for meditation, it is better to first take care of rest and relaxation. You can soak in a hot bath, do simple physical exercises, eat your favorite treat, and so on. It is worth returning to practice only after the tension has gone.
- The longer a person meditates, the more obvious the positive results become. The level of mindfulness and awareness increases, the feeling of tension disappears, the mood becomes better, memory is restored. The main thing is not to quit training at the initial stage, when the results have not yet had time to make themselves felt.
- Do you need music? Each person answers this question independently. Some people prefer to practice in complete silence. Others include suitable music. During meditation, preference should be given to classical compositions. Calm motives, lack of words are important. With the greatest probability, such music will help a person to concentrate, and not prevent him from doing so. It will also get rid of street noises that make it difficult for beginners to concentrate.
