Five Tips for Starting a Meditation Practice [VLOG #106]

Click above to watch my VLOG – Five Tips for Starting a Meditation Practice. Or, feel free to read the transcript below instead!

Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Hi Beauties,

Welcome back to our weekly vlog where our topic today is Five Tips for Starting a Meditation Practice. Meditation is something that we’ve all by now heard about, and maybe you’re curious about it. Maybe you dipped your toe in and it’s really intimidating to have to sit and empty your mind for hours. You can’t really imagine doing that. This is why I want to talk about practical ways to make meditation accessible for you in your life.

Why You Should Consider Meditation

The reason you should consider meditation is that it can potentially be life-changing. It definitely has been for me. Helping everything from my stress levels to improving my sleep, clarity, and creativity. There’s so much research about all the different benefits of meditation.

We know that it can help soothe your nervous system, which is connected to your immune system and your endocrine system. Also, meditation has very positive benefits for even our digestion, which is connected to our stress levels.

This practice has been around for thousands of years. It originally comes from India from the great yogis and the great sages. I actually practice an ancient method called Kriya Yoga, which if you’re interested in you could check out Paramahansa Yogananda. He was the one that brought yoga to the West. And it’s just been a very powerful practice in my own life to get centered and align all areas of my life. I can’t say enough about the benefits of meditation.

Let’s get right into five tips for making it more accessible for you so you can just start it.

Tip #1: Start Small

The first one is to start small. I think it can feel intimidating to think that you have to sit for an hour and not think at all and not do anything else. I’m a big fan of even mini meditations. I would do this a lot with my clients.

I say one minute or three minutes in the morning. Just sit with your feet flat on the ground and take some deep breaths in and out through your nose and just be. That can be a very powerful way to just start the idea of being, instead of doing.

If it’s just a minute or a couple minutes, it starts. It’s like a muscle, where it starts to grow stronger and stronger. Remember that you don’t have to dive in right away to a half hour meditation. It can be mini meditations, and that can be the way to start your practice.

Tip #2: Create a Meditation Environment

Number two is to create a meditation environment. I think it’s very important that we set ourselves up for success. Before you meditate, you definitely want to put your phone on airplane mode so you’re not getting texts, or alerts.

It’s a nice idea to light a candle, or incense to signal that you’re coming into the space now energetically. You could have a little cushion or chair that is special to you and your space. That way, your body, your brain, everything sort of drops right in as you get into your meditation.

Tip #3: Good Posture

Third is your posture. It’s very important that we have good posture when we meditate. A lot of Westerners aren’t really comfortable sitting cross-legged, which is fine, so you can sit on a chair or even on the edge of your couch with your feet nice and flat.

Yogananda used to say that meditating with your spine crooked is like trying to shoot a crooked arrow. We do believe the sushumna nadi, the central channel (your spine) is where all the energy comes in and up through the chakras.

It’s a really important practice to make sure that your chin is parallel to the mat, your shoulders are more or less over your hips, and your spine is nice and straight, but not rigid. You want to stay nice and relaxed but have a good posture when you meditate.

Tip #4: Focus on Your Breath

Our fourth tip is to focus on your breath. Meditation is a state of being, and there’s nothing more basic to our being than breathing and taking in life force. When we breathe, it helps to bring us into this moment. It helps to get us out of the monkey mind – all the doing and all the running around.

It’s nice to start with some simple breath practices. You could simply just listen to your breath, come in and out through your nose. And by watching your breath, it will naturally start to slow down as well.

Tip #5: Guided Meditations

And my fifth tip is to use guided meditations. It’s just like you’re learning how to cook or learn a new language. You definitely need a guide to take you through. There’s a technique that can be very helpful to you, something that’s going to guide you through.

We have a new seven-day absolutely free meditation course, a little set of meditations which I designed for you, which you can download below in the transcript. You can click to it right in the link. It’s my love, my offering to you as a way to help you get started.

Of course, there are many other guided meditations out there, but it’s nice to have someone with you and having that guidance. That will also help with consistency and keeping you on track.

In Closing

These are my five tips for starting your meditation practice. Happy meditating. If you have any more questions for me, if I can support you in any way, let me know below. Otherwise, just get started.

Again, it doesn’t have to be this big, crazy thing. It can be just a minute or two starting with your breath, giving yourself that time and the infinite benefits of connecting to your spirit, which is our fourth cornerstone.

Spiritual growth, knowing yourself, connecting with your unique true beauty is such a powerful practice. It will benefit everything, your wellness, energy, relationships, work, and even your beauty, health, and your weight. Everything affects everything else. Namaste, Beauty, and so much love.

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