MEDITATION PILLOW meditation for beginners part 1

when starting anything new I like a guide to help me get started, this blog series is to help you start your meditation journey with tips and techniques I have picked up over the years. Here are a few rules I use when meditating.

As I said in my last post meditation is a skill and like every skill it needs to be practiced so my first rule is

PRACTICE : Practicing every day has amazing effects on your life and you only have to do it for 5-10 mins a day. Once you start making it part of your daily routine it will become as important to you as cleaning your teeth.

Meditation is not a easy thing to do, How hard can sitting quietly listening to you breath be ? Very hard and can be a very frustrating pass time when you start as your mind is a hard thing to learn to contol.

RULE 2

PATIENCE : The first few times you go to meditate will probably not be relaxing and you will think you are having more thoughts than normal that's because as soon as you go to shut of your mind it switches on. Don't feel discouraged if you have friends who sit in a yoga or meditation class and zone out straight away everybody's ability to control their mind is different just like peoples stamina for different exercises ,different meditation techniques work for different people as well this is why it's a good idea to try different methods like breath work ,guided , using a mantra or chant .

RULE 3

START SMALL: No one expects you to be able to sit for 1hour listening to your own breath in complete silence. Start of by just acknowledging your breath for 1 minute feel the breath go in and out, your chest rising and falling, taking a couple of moments a day focusing on your breathing is meditation.Even if it’s sat in traffic or while washing up the more you get used to listening to your breath the more it will become second nature to you ,so when you do sit to meditate for a length of time it want feel so strange.

Start with 1 minute then 5,10,15 before long you will find yourself meditating for half an hour and that's when you will stop doing other things in your life so you can fit in your meditation practice.

RULE 4

COMFORT: Being comfortable is the key, the more comfortable you are the less your mind will wonder. Find a comfortable position siting in a chair, on your bed, a cushion or a mat on the floor or laying down if its a meditation for sleep or full body relaxation. Once you have found a comfortable position then you have to relax your body by removing the tension in your neck relaxing your jaw and lowering your shoulders away from your ears. your now ready to focus on your breathing

RULE 5

ACKNOWLEDGING YOUR BREATH

In your comfortable state take a big deep breath in, the biggest one you've take all day then breath all the air out of your body, do this a couple of times then return to your normal breath and take in the rises and fall of your chest , try to watch your thoughts come and go. If one of those thoughts grabs your attention just acknowledge it and let it pass, your not trying to not have any thoughts you are just not giving them to much attention. If a thought does distract you then go back to focusing on your breath.

There is no time like the present to start your meditation practice, You now have my basic rules to help you get started, so set a timer for 1 minute and follow rule 4 and find a comfortable spot and relax your body now its time to follow rule 5 and start that timer. Try to practice for 1mintue a day for a week and build it up from there .

In my next post I will talk about the tools I use to make my meditation easier and give you a link to a guided meditation to follow to help with your practice.

your now on your way to find zen in your house of hormones.