Starting Your Meditation Journey
As we all know, we live in a demanding, consuming and fast-paced society. Every day our brains tick away from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, leaving little to no space to quiet your thoughts and check-in. We focus on future to-do lists, events in the past, scenarios that may never happen and reflections on how we are recieved or percieved. It can be mentally exhausting and cause health effects if not managed correctly. Meditation can be one of the of best ways to combat anxiety, stress or frustration and result in a more mindful and clear headspace, thus gaining a greater understanding of life and purpose.
Meditation has been around for thousands of years and has proven psychological, physiological and spiritual benefits. It can be a difficult task to master, but if you can introduce a regular meditative practice into your daily life, positive changes will follow.
This is one of our favourite insights from Steve Jobs; a creative pioneer who absolutely experienced a fast-paced and dynamic lifestyle.
"If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things--that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before."
I mean, who’s not up for seeing some tremendous expansion change? So, what are the basics for beginning a regular meditation practice?
Get comfortable
Sit in a comfortable position, as comfortable as you can get. Sit up straight and really start to relax your shoulders and muscles.
Deep breath in
Take a deep breath in through your nose. Count “one, two”.
Slow breath out
Breathe out through your mouth, pucker your lips (as though you are about to whistle) and breathe out for twice as long as you breathe in. Count “one, two, three, four”. Don’t hold your breath between breathing in and out, aim to keep your breath flowing smoothly.
Deep breathing
Check you are using your diaphragm by placing your hand on your stomach. If you are using your diaphragm you should feel your stomach move out as you breathe in and move in as you breathe out. This helps to ensure you aren’t taking shallow breaths. Remember to keep your breaths deep, not shallow or big.
Eyes Closed
Now close your eyes and keep breathing until you feel completely relaxed. When your thoughts begin to wander, notice the thoughts, and then bring your awareness back to the breathe.
Need a little guidance from the pros? We recommend trying the following to get you started -
Youtube videos like this Six Phase Meditation
Apps like Smiling Mind – a completely free set of guided meditations developed by a fellow Australian charity.
Yoga Studios that offer group meditation classes
It can be difficult at first, and you may begin to feel impatient, but our best advice when it comes to carving out time to tend to your mind is to trust the process. It has your back.