A Daily Meditation Guide
Step One: Find Your Why
Before jumping right in, it may be worth taking a moment to determine WHY you want to give a daily meditation practice a go. Do you ever experience…
Stress?
Anxiety?
Grumpiness?
A short attention span?
If you said yes to any of those, you may be pleased to know meditation has been scientifically proven to help! Whether you are an experienced meditator or starting at square one, it’s helpful to ask yourself, why? Knowing our why can be a powerful tool to help preserve and maintain diligent practice. This can be as simple as giving meditation the good ole college try or as complicated as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - you do you!
With that, no pressure, your why may change after a week, totally fine.
Step Two: Use a Timer
If you’re new to this or resurfacing a practice, we recommend starting with five minutes. Pro-tip, the first five minutes may feel like five years, but after a few days, you just might find yourself craving a longer practice. Funny how the mind works.
Any traditional timer or phone timer will do. There is a free app called InsightTimer that helps ‘gamify’ meditation by rewarding the user with stars for hitting milestones as well as hosting a social aspect with a ‘friending’ function.
Step Three: Make Your Practice a Ritual
Make this practice YOURS. If you need to first make tea, hold a yoga pose, or even step outside, do those things, this is your practice.
Step Four: How To Meditate
Meditation is simple. You can meditate whenever works best with your schedule. We recommend morning time as your mind is fresh and it’s a great way to set the cadence of the day.
Find a comfortable seat with a straight spine. This can be criss-cross apple sauce or in a chair with the feet resting on the floor.
Set a timer and close your eyes.
Practice navigating awareness. While you sit with your eyes closed, you will notice thought after thought bubble up. The meditation part is when you recognize the bubbling thought, redirect awareness to the breath, and let go of the thought. This will likely happen multiple times, which is why it’s a practice. The goal is to practice redirecting our attention to the present moment over and over and over again - every time we do this, it’s like a bicep curl for our brains!
You don’t have to wear any particular outfit, do handstands, or have levitation abilities, this practice is for everyone.
Here is one of our favorite videos that explain meditation in just two minutes.
Step Five: Give Yourself Grace
Let’s be real, you might not last five minutes off the bat or accidentally skip a day. We’re not striving for perfection, but for micro-improvements. How does a mouse eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Give yourself grace, you are trying and that’s awesome!
