Meditation for beginners [Guide to meditation]

Meditation is a technique that has a long history traced back to thousands of years. Even very basic Meditation still has endless benefits which are true and great for anybody who lives in our present times. Meditation is highly acknowledged worldwide as the highest skill that a human being can acquire for achieving everlasting peace and happiness. 

However, just like anything else, this skill comes to those meditators who take efforts to understand the deep complexities of the mind and spirit. This is a spiritual journey that has an endless path of discovering your inner self.

Yes, meditation is maybe a great chance for some people to spend a couple of minutes per day in complete silence. But this is also a process that implies the ability to control your mind and guide the body to complete relaxation. Here is a quick chart that will be helpful to make meditation a habit:

• Consistency
• Firm determination
• Ability to detach from thoughts and perceptions
• Stillness
• Understanding the nature of the mind

There are different ways available to get a person initiated into meditation. The most popular way to learn how to meditate is to sign up for meditation classes or to take a class online. A proper meditation training guided by the experienced instructor can contribute tremendously to the understanding of the mind, intellect, and body.

Read this article, if you want to get more info on how to approach meditation and also look into some of the most useful courses online created for you by mediation pros.

Meditation for beginners

The following steps should set up a discipline for guiding the mind to the meditation routine. These techniques are effective and can easily become a starting point for mediation training for beginners.

Sit down and embrace the silence around you. This silence is not just an absence of noise in a  room that you set up for meditation. As you drop deep inside you, there is a silence that absorbs every other sound. Even the sound of your own thoughts and concerns. You could say, it is about calming down your thoughts as you exhale and every time you inhale. So, your goal here is to find that silence within you and allow it to engulf you.

Picture yourself as a pure being. Sit calmly, make no sound, and let yourself just be in the moment. As you spend enough time in that silence – beyond thoughts, worries, judgments, and ambitions, you’ll literally feel yourself as a pure being. After all, once you become well-acquainted with this pure silence and the pure awareness (which means awareness of “nothing”) that live there – you will be at the best meditation “experience” available.

Be comfortable in your body. Meditation is often done sitting, but you can also do meditation while walking or working. Whichever you choose, allow your body to be as “let go” and as comfortable as possible.

If you chose to do sitting meditation, place yourself on a comfortable cushion, keep your back straight. Then scan through your body and see if there are any spots that feel tight, resistive, or painful. Mentally ask them to “let go” and fully relax. Breathe deeply through those spots until they loosen up and relax further.

Allow everything just to be just the way it is. Treat the process of meditation exactly just the way it is – perfect and complete. If during the meditation you suddenly catch yourself almost forcing yourself to feel calm, peaceful, “enlightened,” simply to stop all your thoughts. This is a sign that you’re moving away from consciousness, not towards it.  

How to sit for meditation

First, find a nice cozy spot for yourself.  Since you can meditate pretty much anywhere, it doesn’t really matter what particular place you pick for meditation. If you’re very new to this, place yourself in a calm environment with minimum distractions. This is very important because a tiny sound can make you drop the focus. Then, sit down and start breathing. Sounds simple right? Yes, it is. But, in fact, of all the things, breathing is one of the most important things in meditation. If not done correctly, mediation will not yield any benefits.

Meditate with eyes closed. As you breathe in and breathe out, gradually focus your mind on the air coming from your nostrils. Sit upright in a crossed-legged posture with your head slightly tilted above.

Keep your hands facing upwards. Sitting with hands facing upwards and legs crossed is a typical meditation posture. But don’t think that you’re obligated to follow it. Meditate in any posture that is comfortable for you in particular. Meditating while sitting on the sofa, your bed, or in a chair is perfectly fine. Don’t forget about keeping a focus on the breath because this is very important!

There are also other things like centering attention on the spot placed between the eyes and chanting a mantra.  This is something that you can pick up through online courses for beginner meditators. As you move along during the process,  eventually you’ll become deviated from having all these thoughts running across your mind. While this is happening, maintain your posture and bring back your focus on breathing.

What to wear for meditation

When it comes down to an outfit to wear for meditation, it doesn’t really matter what to wear. Anything would be perfect as long as this clothing is comfortable and breezy. Yes, our outfits can impact the way we behave and affect our mood. So, avoid wearing tight clothes for your meditation, even if this outfit is very stylish. 

Go with a simple one-colored cloth instead which just will cover your body and make you feel comfortable.  

The minimum duration of a meditation session

There is no stipulated duration for an ideal meditation. For beginners, however, it would be good to start with something as short as 5 minutes per day. Keep a timer on, close your eyes, focus on your breath. When the timer beeps, set it off and you’re all done!

Increase the duration later little by little. For example, start at 2 min per day, if you wish to. Many people find that when they’re meditating early in the mornings, this has a distinct impact on them. Morning meditations help to organize thoughts, trigger an ability to communicate with a positive attitude, and lower exhaustion down.  

So, go ahead and make your first step towards practicing meditation daily! If you’ll be able to manage at least 5 minutes a day for a whole week, you’ll easily increase your meditation time up to 10 minutes next week. And so on. After a while, you’ll increase the duration of sessions according to your needs. This should get even easier with time. There definitely will be ups and downs, but stick with it because it’s definitely worth the effort!

Meditation for self-motivation

Meditation is all about setting your mind up for relaxation. Since the human mind is in a way a storehouse of all experiences that we accumulate over many years, we have to take good care of it and use it for self-motivation.

Most importantly, you need to realize that any meditation needs to be approached with a positive attitude. If you are in a negative state of mind during the meditation, this just won’t work. So, have a belief in the process and try to maintain a positive outlook during the session. This will motivate you throughout the whole day to be in a good mood and good things will start happening because of your positivity.

Another essential thing to remember is that you need to make the process of meditation absolutely effortless. Beginners usually tend to forget this and start forcing themselves to meditate. This can end up in some muscle pain and with all the body being tight up. All this messes up the relaxation and leads to a negative impact.

Wait patiently for all thoughts to fade away of their own accord while remaining alert and passively aware. Be patient, be relaxed, and witness what happens next – leave everything in autopilot mode but be an active witness. At the end of your meditation, take a moment to appreciate how well you’ve done, regardless of whether it was a difficult meditation for you or not. 

Just sit there and dedicate the time to improving your mind with positive self-motivation. Maybe even take a step back and try to take a calmer approach with the situations you encounter until your next meditation.

The biggest obstacles for beginner meditators

Here is a quick list of the most common obstacles that most beginners face while setting up their meditation routine:

Detachment from thoughts and perceptions. The nature of the human mind is to create a perception of personal identity. Then, the process of meditation provides a deeper understanding of your own mind in which these thoughts and perceptions are arising. However, all thoughts, and perceptions are usually not stable and are subject to change.  Sometimes it’s hard to take them for granted because they are just like passing clouds and can make a sudden switch to the exact opposite in an instance.

So, the biggest obstacle, in this case, is to develop an ability to detach from any ideas about what meditation is. Or not focusing too much on particular outcomes that are expected or what they should be. These attachments to outcomes in meditation will only make it more difficult to settle into the right state of mind.

Patience. Of all the important things in meditation, this one is needed the most for a successful mediation. As a beginner, we almost forget that we have put our focus inward and we get discouraged when all the thoughts won’t go away. So, be patient because it takes time. But rest assured – it will happen!

Focus. Initially, no matter how much you try, your mind will wander and sneak out before you even know it. Eventually, you’d realize that you got lost in a long trail of thoughts. The point here is not being frustrated or even agitated. Try to focus on mediation without feeling annoyed or angry.

Ritual. Practice meditation from time to time? This is great! However, try to get in a habit of it. Yes, setting it up as a daily ritual is a challenging task. Coming up with a ritual and following it through every day can be a problem. So, lots of people find that the best way to do it is to meditate right after a bath in the morning. After a while taking a bath can simply become a trigger for getting on with your meditation routine.

Time. For those who have meditated for years, this is easy to get into a peaceful mind instantly. But for someone who is starting out, two trails of unnoticed thoughts and boom – the session is over! But this has no real advantage. So, find at least 10 minutes per day or up to 20 minutes for each session. Yes, it might sound like too much. But after a while, you will think that practicing meditation was one of the best decisions!

Learn Meditation for beginners online on Grinfer

Parking Lot Meditation – Meditate anytime, anywhere: Even if you have just five minutes in a parking lot

Learn how to meditate anywhere and anytime if you’ve got a couple of minutes of spare time during the day. In this course, you will learn how to use a great meditation technique first developed by a famous spiritual healer, Serge Kalihi King. 

This course was created by a certified Tai Chi & Qigong instructor, David Burch, who is also a founder of Energy Center recommended by the National Council on Aging (NCOA). After taking this course, you’ll know how to use breathing techniques based on Huna tradition and will be able to meditate anytime you feel emotional or tense. 

This course provides a wealth of tips and hints on how to calm the emotions and how to meditate even while sitting in the car in the parking lot. Take David’s course and learn how to set your mind for feeling safe, secure, and in a place where you can handle anything and everything!

Beyond Meditation: NLP, Hypnosis & Mindfulness Meditation

Learn hypnosis and mindfulness meditation methods that will help you to dive deeper into a meditative state. In this course, you will learn how to use mindfulness and have positive results with your meditation instantly! 

After taking this course, you will know how to improve your mood, stay longer in the meditative state, explore your conscious limits, and go beyond them. Take this course today and learn how to enter meditation states whenever you desire!

Mindfulness Power Blueprint – Mindfulness Through Meditation Learn Simple but Powerful Meditation Tips to Align Your Conscious Mind with Your Unconscious Mind to Achieve Mindfulness

Learn how to stop struggling with life, get back your self-confidence, and obtain your inner peace with powerful meditation tips from the certified instructor, Peeratchaya Sunthonkamchanphanit! In this course, you will learn how to deal with the conscious mind and unconscious unaligned, understand what “mindfulness” and “mental state” are, and more! 

Also, you’ll learn effective techniques that will help you to cope with chronic pains, stress, problems, and create a new happy life! This course would be awesome for anybody who wants to build a good relationship with the inner self and make a positive change in life.

1 Week to a Calmer You

Learn how to conquer your anxiety with this awesome online course “1 Week to a Calmer You” created by a highly experienced and skilled Autism/Asperger’s and Yoga/Meditation coach, Katrina Zawawi! 

In this course, you will learn how to make positive lifestyle adaptations, practice mindfulness meditation, effective yoga stances, Chi Kung energy healing, and more! This course is super awesome for anybody who suffers from anxiety, wants to get back in shape, has trouble sleeping, wants to get lots of tips on great eating habits! Take this course today and be in control of your life with lots of positive changes!

21-Day Mindset Detox Challenge

Learn how to get through a 21-day mindset detox challenge successfully with an awesome online masterclass created by a certified life and business coach, as well as a professional ballet dancer, Lindsey Dinneen. In this course, you will learn how to energize yourself with the guided stretching and mindset routines. 

You’ll learn how to improve your health with a different detoxing and empower focus each day. This course provides a wealth of information, tips, and hints on how to keep you motivated and gain the next-level confidence it takes to become even more fiercely You! 

Summing-Up

Whatever may be the motive behind the need to meditate, use it for healing, well being, and spiritual upliftment. Lots of people even use it in the corporate world as a problem-solving technique and as a tool for self-gratification. In all cases, it is important to acknowledge that meditating is an act of simply allowing meditation to happen! 

Find online courses on different meditation techniques on the Grinfer eLearning platform and set them up as your daily routine. Get a positive upgrade with meditation masterclasses available on Grinfer!

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