Meditation is a way to reset our mind by observing it through conscious presence. It is a conscious participation with reality rather than usual habitual subconscious repetition of thoughts, emotions we experience. We become conscious co creators of our reality when we practice self awareness. That is why meditation is essential for health, reaching life goals. Meditation can benefit our concentration, intuition, immune system, energy levels, relationships etc..
Top 10 Tips to Calm Your Mind – Meditation Tips for Beginner
1. Sit in proper position
Sit in proper position to achieve desired outcome in meditation. People can choose to meditate in any posture although some postures are considered to be more advantageous in certain traditions. Laying down while meditating may put one to sleep but some people can enjoy it if able to maintain full awakened state. Lotus position involves crossing legs and resting palms on top of knees while meditating. It is a practical position because when your legs cross you have communication between both brain hemispheres. Many asanas – positions in Hatha yoga are focused on crossing arms or legs to opposite side of a body to get us in to awakened state of mind. Also in lotus position palms can rest effortlessly on your knees facing up or held together either way. In order to avoid back pain meditating one should put a towel or cover under buttocks for your back to be slightly higher so it tilts forward not backward eventually. That will reduce you pain while meditating for half an hour or more extended time. Keep your back straight but not stiff while meditating. It will naturally bend forward a bit which is fine but straight posture is more ideal for best energy flow.
2. Start focusing on Breath
Breathing in meditation is most essential. I suggest you focus on 5 seconds slow in and 5 seconds slow out breathing while holding a breath a bit in between those 2 phases. It will not take counting as it should be done naturally for it to merge with meditation process. As our lungs get filled with oxygen we can feel energy more and direct it to different parts of our body as meditation gets deeper. Since our physical body is partly ruled by autonomous nervous system it sees breath as a language we use to communicate with it. Breathing deeply shifts us from sympathetic nervous system – outside threat to parasympathetic nervous system- rest, digestion. Also deep breathing creates coherence between our heart, brain what in process attunes us to magnetosphere of our planet earth. Since we are being of this planet we can connect to it though electric pulse of our brain waves or magnetic fields of our bodies.
Also Read: Basic Meditation Tips for Beginners
3. Count your breath & check in how you are feeling
It is not recommended to count anything in meditation as it involves analytical part of our brains that can prevent us from going in to slower brain waves. If you feel anxious or some emotions float up in meditation you may be getting deeper in to your subconscious mind and those emotions need to float up in order to be expressed. Anything suppressed may come to surface as you reach deeper states of meditation which is normal.
4. Open the Eyes, Close or Almost Close?
In order to gain some focus, concentration one may want to keep eyes opened for few minutes in the beginning of a meditation. It is not necessary but may be useful for people that have problems dealing with running mind. Keeping eyes close helps better with visualization therefore it is considered to be ideal. Visualizing a quite place, natural setting, or something peaceful that can draw your attention and keep it there usually works well. It could be a tree, a field, surface of water, peaceful place you had visited. In Tibetan traditions yantras – set of geometrical patterns are used to couple ones energy to shape of self spin. Mantras- set of sound frequencies are also used to couple our energy to shape of self spin. Shape of self spin can be observed with atoms, electrons for example. Therefore yantras can be useful in meditations if doing it with open eyes.
5. Time to deal with the Monkey mind and thoughts
Monkey mind is a term invented in the East that implies our mind constantly jumps resembling a monkey. Our mind running during meditation is a normal part of our every day survival process. One can not eliminate running mind by fighting it it only reinforces it through counter ego. If thoughts arise during meditation do not fight just observe and try to bring back attention consciously to palms, spine or other parts your body where you can feel it. Through conscious observation ego naturally weakens and thoughts wear out giving away to consciousness in the process. Again fighting thoughts or feeling guilty about them only reinforces them, so stay focused on process of breathing, bringing attention to body, places you try to visualize instead for a smooth transition.
6. Create a meditation routine (Best time to meditate)
Best time to meditate are in the morning and before sleep. Main reasons are brainwave patterns. When we function in logical, analytical brains we are in beta brain wave mode. Being creative, reading, taking mind off routine puts us in alpha brain wave mode where frequency of brain waves slow. When we just wake up or about to fall asleep we can drift in to even deeper theta waves where imagination becomes more active. It is therefore more logical to meditate when these waves can be easier accessed. Also early morning and evening tend to be slower times for most people in their schedules.
7. Meditate with empty stomach
Empty stomach works better than a full stomach for meditation. There are many reasons people fasten but most are health benefits connected to not eating for certain period of time. In meditation not eating makes us more pure, clean to receive energy. Eating can make one lazy and divert energy toward food processing. So eating a snack before meditation might be wise rather than a full meal. Our body can be compared to an empty temple, church or pyramid as a receiver of sacred energy though out a process of meditation. In fact when sitting in a lotus position we resemble a shape of a pyramid. One of the reasons while people are fascinated with pyramids around the world is its ability to generate, store energy. Some spirituality movements claim that pyramids are here to align us to states of higher consciousness. Try becoming a pyramid and see for yourself!
8. Use special meditation tools
There are number of tools that can help with relaxation in meditation. Just as described in section 4 above yantras, mantras are some of those. Music or sound used in meditation can be a game changer as our bodies physically respond to sounds. Science already proved that DNA main functions include bio acoustic, bio electric signaling. Bio acoustic is receiving/sending sounds. What you listen and say has profound effects on your physicality and even shapes of our water molecules as proved by science. Sounds may also shift our emotions, thoughts to according states. Electro magnetic tools, crystals, many other healing tools can help us to go in to deeper states of relaxation, visualization. I suggest shambhalahealingtools.com for their selection of meditation music, mantras, energy healing tools to quicken your meditation mastery, relaxation process.
9. Take some professional sessions before DIY or guided meditation
It is recommended that you watch a meditation guide or at least get some tips before trying to meditate. Much of human meditation experience is compound and can be researched on the internet but there many free or paid meditation classes a person can find. Failure in reaching deeper meditation states should not be a discouragement for a person to quit practices. Therefore communicating to others in meditation community for guidance can be of great help.
10. Don’t rush and smile when you are done
Being in a rush is something opposite to meditating. Since we live by illusion of time, we tend to look in to the future or in the past without appreciating this present moment. Process of meditating is precisely to align us with present moment. Fear, anxiety tend to be caused by people looking in to future, past. Those negative thoughts can be stored from past events or triggered by anxiety of future possible outcomes. In meditation we slow down and leave matrix of time, space that keeps us trapped in an illusion of sometimes, somewhere. By coming in to present moment without rushing and focusing on meditation process, we realize that now is a key to change.
These are some Meditation Tips you could find useful in your practice. Or if you want you can join our Free Meditation Sessions, which will help you a lot.