Meditation made easy

How do I shut off my crazily busy mind? How do I tune into the real me? How can I sit still for that long? For anyone who would love to meditate but has no idea how or where to start, or feels frustrated with trying to meditate... this post is for you. 

Discovering Meditation 

Many years ago watching daytime telly, Oprah Winfrey sat with a man on a couch and I was lucky enough to discover the world of meditation through this incredible human. Thanks Deepak Chopra! 

The 'I am' meditation was my first experience with meditation and for someone who at times has an overactive mind I appreciate this style of mantra meditation so much!

How do you perform it:

1. Sit comfortable on a chair or cross legged on the floor. 

2. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and listen or feel your heart beat.

3. Begin to say silently or aloud 'I am', repeat this phrase to the beat of your heart, if you are repeating out loud you can begin to do this silently when you feel comfortable. (I am is a phrase that allows us to enter into the space between mind chatter).

4. You can let go of the let go of the mantra after a few minutes if you feel you want to try mediating with out it. To do so, listen to your heart beat as an anchor, if thoughts restart, try not to get angry or stop them (this can have the opposite effect), instead just return to the phrase 'I am'. 

5. When you are finished meditating for whatever time you choose gently wiggle your fingers, toes, get some slight movement back into your body, open your eyes. 

6. Enjoy the peaceful, reenergising feeling! 

Congratulations you just meditated.

Why meditate? 

• Helps you to reduce stress and anxiety levels 
• Improves sleep
• Creates space for creativity; especially great when you have some sort of mental block!
• Helps to work through emotions in a healthy way 
• Makes for being a calmer and happier you
• Helps tune into intuition and connect spiritually. 

Meditation Hacks

• Insight Timer app (free): Includes a timer with background music, chimes to tell you when your set meditation time is up and connects you to other spiritual people meditating all over the world! It has reminder notifications, free guided meditations, healing music, talks and even courses to sign up to (paid) if you so wish and is just generally awesome. 
• Guided hypnosis/ meditation on YouTube: so many fun guided meditations you can try out for free. It is a great way to get started on your meditation journey. 
• Smiling minds (free): great for parents, educators or even adults; a whole range of guided age levelled mindfulness/meditation exercises.

What next

• Try meditating with a crystal that speaks to you.
• Try the 'Tuning in' meditation (see Fostering Inner Strength post)
• Go for a meditative walk when you tune in to your surrounds. 
• Try visualising a nature scene use all your senses!

Thanks for reading! Happy meditating,

The Spiritual Novice