How to Begin Meditating to Improve Your Health
How to begin meditating?
It’s not a complicated answer.
Meditation is how you (the observer) can observe what your analytical mind is thinking and your body is feeling.
You can learn how to slow down the analytical mind and calm down the emotion in the body to focus on the present moment.
Meditation has numerous positive effects on your health, including helping with stress management. Practicing meditation every day will change your life.
Below are five ways to help you begin meditating or improve if you are already practicing.
1. Meditation Position
You can begin meditating by lying down, sitting, standing, or walking.
Most people probably are familiar with seeing people sitting on a cushion with their legs crossed:
The least familiar position to most people is the walking meditation.
It doesn’t matter which position you take, just as long as you are comfortable and won’t become distracted.
2. Guided vs. Silent Meditation
Guided Meditation
Many beginners find silent meditation difficult because the analytical mind likes to get lost in thought. Having someone to guide you to focus on the present moment can be helpful.
There are numerous guided meditation videos on YouTube, but apps like Calm or Headspace are helpful and can track your progress.
Many people move on from guided meditation to silent meditation over time, which shows growth within the meditation practice.
Silent Meditation
As an observer, you will be better able to notice what is happening with your analytical mind and body with a silent meditation.
You should be able to guide your mind with a mantra and other tools like crystals, meditation bracelets, etc.
3. Create a Mantra
A mantra is a helpful tool in meditation. It’s a word or a simple phrase that you repeat over and over again to help you focus.
What you use as your mantra is up to you, but it should be helpful and not a distraction.
In meditation, you will observe that your analytical mind is very active and want to serve up lots of thoughts to get you lost in thinking.
Whenever this happens, it’s helpful to have a mantra to help pull you back to the purpose of meditating, which is to slow down the mind to no thinking at all.
I repeat in my head the following mantra whenever my analytical mind serves up a thought:
“Thanks, but no thanks. I am focusing on the present moment.”
Another idea for a mantra could be to repeat an affirmation that you want to manifest into your life, such as “I am a healthy human being.”
4. Using Crystals during Meditation
Some believe that crystals have a healing effect.
Certain crystals correspond to specific energy centers in the body called chakras.
For those who meditate regularly, holding a crystal with a particular meaning can help them focus on the present moment
You can use a crystal as a guide back to the present by holding it in the palm of your hands as you meditate. You can meditate lying down or sitting with a crystal to represent the seven chakra centers of the physical body.
5. Meditating with Malas
Mala beads are another aid that you can use when you begin meditating.
They are used in Japa meditation to count the number of times you repeat a mantra or take a breath.
They are helpful because they help you keep your mind focused on the present moment. There are 108 beads on a Mala.
Bottom Line
Meditation can have a positive impact on your health. It is a practice that doesn’t require a lot of time or money but can help to keep your mind and your true self in balance.
If you take time every day to meditate, you will notice a change from within. We can’t control what happens outside of us, but we can control our thoughts and our feelings about those events.
Imagine being able to decide not to have a negative thought about something that happens. Imagine just not thinking at all, for a little while 🙂