Meditation is for everyone and this is a simple guide to get started.
Posture The best posture to adopt for your practice is the one where you feel your body the least, which really means just being comfortable. There is no need for a “yogic” or “Buddha-like posture unless that is your most comfortable posture. A posture that also prevents you from falling asleep is beneficial.
When? Meditating yourself to sleep ensures a deeper and more restful nights sleep making the morning the best time for your meditation. This is because your thought process slows down and even stops when you sleep allowing you to enter more easily into the zone.
Where? Anywhere will do but for your first meditation for the day, finding a place that is relatively quiet or the sounds around do not distract or disturb you too much. It will be impossible to get rid of all sounds but the objective is to avoid those that you can avoid while using the rest as a part of your practice by simply giving them permission or allowing them to be a part of your experience and not resist them. Finding a place where you can also safely and comfortably close your eyes to lessen distractions through the sense of sight, yet staying awake and alert will be helpful.
How long? Set aside as little or as much time as you can afford for your meditation practice. Even a minute, or even a few seconds of awareness is better than none. The benefits of setting aside more time for your meditation is that you you will feel under less pressure to enter into that zone where thoughts stop and things begin to quieten down and when you are not in a hurry – that’s really when you stop “doing” the meditation and enter into that state of just “Being”.
How? Some people close their eyes because this lessens the distractions that may activate thoughts. Then slow down your breathing because this also slows down your thinking process. This means breathing in as deeply as is comfortable and then exhaling as slowly as you can, also noticing the pause and gaps in between the in and out breaths. Heighten and awaken your sense of touch within and around your nose area so that you begin to experience the temperature, direction and humidity levels of the air flowing both in and out.
Returning to the Breath You will find yourself thinking and drifting away with thoughts about this and that. This is and was always meant to happen so don’t get upset and chastise yourself. Instead, when you become aware that you are thinking, you are now able to choose to return back to the awareness of your breath.
Done And that’s it – your meditating