A step-by-step guide to meditation and mindfulness.

Hey there! You’ve clicked on the perfect blog to start your journey with meditation and mindfulness. Before you read the steps below, it would be helpful to know what is Meditation and Mindfulness.

Meditation is a concept that needs to be understood. Many of us think that we’re not supposed to think of anything and that we should block all of our thoughts when we meditate. Well, this is not the purpose of meditating. It would be impossible for us to just stop having thoughts, that’s just not how we’re built as human beings. The purpose of meditation is to focus and be aware and in this process, we let go of our thoughts. And the good thing is that you can focus on so many things!

Mindfulness is maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Mindfulness can be a practice that brings immense peace immediately when practised regularly in your daily life.

If you have anxiety, stress, fear or overthink just about anything, meditation and mindfulness can free you from those problems. 

It’s quite easy and anyone can do it – anywhere. You don’t need any equipment to start off and it takes very little time.

Let’s see how we can Meditate and be Mindful in our daily lives.

Steps to follow when you practice meditation:

1. Find the right place – Choose a place to practice that is quiet and peaceful. You do not want to be disturbed by loud noises during your practice. It’s best advised to practice your meditation in a room alone or out in nature where no one can disturb you. Make sure you tell the people around you to not disturb you and make sure to keep your phone on silent mode during your practice. You want to eliminate all possible disturbances to ensure a smooth and peaceful practice.
2. Get comfortable – It would be ideal to make yourself comfortable. Wear comfortable clothes. Remove your watch and other accessories if needed. Sit in a place where you are relaxed. Remember that you have to focus and be aware during the practice so you don’t want to make yourself too comfortable that you start to feel sleepy. So try not to wear a blanket or lay down on the bed.
3. Maintain good posture – You need to maintain good posture throughout the practice. This will help you stay aware and focused and improve your overall practice. Sit with your back and neck comfortably straight. You do not want to be slouching as this can hinder your experience.
4. Set a timer – It would be ideal to set a timer for the meditation practice. Set the timer to 2-3 minutes when you start off. You can increase this time once your start practising daily. But for now 2-3 minutes is enough for you to experience the essence of the practice. Do not try to do too many minutes at the start of your journey. You want to take it slow and start liking the process. The quantity of time during meditation is not as impactful as the quality of the meditation itself. So take it easy and make sure the quality of your practice is good at first.
5. Mudras – Mudras are a gesture usually made through the hands and fingers during the mediation process to intensify its effects and improve the flow of energy throughout the body and mind. There are many mudras that you can use for different purposes. You don’t have to stress about them for now. We recommend just keeping your palms facing up on your thighs while you meditate. This signifies that you’re willing and ready to receive grace and blessings.
6. Start the meditation – Close your eyes and gently breathe in and out. You do not have to put in any effort when you breathe. Just make sure that you’re breathing naturally and that it doesn’t feel forced. Do not analyze your breathing. Just focus on it. Focus on each breath that you take in and take out. The main objective of meditation is to direct our focus inward. Observe how each breath feels. In this process, your thoughts will slowly start to wither away. And you will feel more in tune with the present moment. You will start to feel more content with just being as you are and not doing anything. You are more likely not to feel this on the first day, but that’s okay. These feelings will start to set in after you practice meditation on a daily basis. Just keep at it!
7. Don’t stress on perfection – It is likely that you will find yourself having many thoughts during the practice and that is completely normal. You cannot erase your thoughts in a moment. It takes practice and time in practice. When you find yourself thinking, just bring yourself back to focusing on your breath. Do this whenever you find yourself thinking. Do not be discouraged or frustrated if it happens a lot during the first few sessions. With time, your thoughts will decrease and your focus will increase. So do not try to achieve perfection with your practice. Even the experienced ones have gone through the same problems and still do to a slight extent.
8. Complete the meditation practice – When the timer goes off, try to slowly come out of the meditation and not rush into stopping the timer. Go ahead and meditate for longer if you truly feel like it. Don’t pressure yourself to do more. After you complete the practice, you may want to focus on how you’re feeling or take some time to see your surroundings before you go back to your daily routine. It would also be helpful for you to practice positive thinking after your meditation practice. This is because an empty mind is a great vessel, and you will benefit more by filling that vessel with good thoughts.

Tips to follow before and while meditating

Before you start meditating, make sure you have a goal in mind as to how long you want to meditate for and what are some of the things you would like to improve in your meditation process. You could also keep a weekly and monthly goal.

Lighting an incense stick before you start meditating can help calm your body and mind.

Meditating in the morning is ideal because it will prepare you for a long day ahead where our constant thoughts may be inconvenient.

Meditating at night can be helpful to sleep quicker and more restfully, as we may find it hard to sleep with so many thoughts in our minds.

If you are not able to meditate for 2-3 minutes, that’s okay. Try to take 10 deep breaths while focusing on them. Start small.

Try not to meditate after a meal as you might end up feeling sleepy.

Only observe. Do not analyze. Analyzing anything in the meditation process will lead to more thoughts.

An Insight to Mindfulness:

Mindfulness is also an easy, yet effective way to eliminate your thoughts and live in the present moment. Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the experience of the present moment. This can be practised in our daily lives, no matter what we are doing. We just need to make sure that it doesn’t require much thinking. Mindfulness can be practised by maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.

Mindfulness can be practised throughout the day while doing various activities. And it not just helps you be aware, focused, and feel calmer, but also enhances your experience with doing the activity and you can find it to be enjoyable as well. And the good part is that there are so many things you can focus on. You can also switch from focusing on one thing to another. This also helps you eliminate the thoughts that you may be having as you are truly living in the present moment, focusing on it, being aware of it, and enjoying it.

For example. The next time you go for a walk, you can practice mindfulness by focusing on how each step that you take feels. After you’ve focused on your steps for a while, you can shift your focus to your surrounding environment. After that, you can focus on your breath too.

While cooking you can focus on the heat of the pan in front of you, the smell of the food while it’s cooking, and the taste of it when you’re eating it. Truly feel how each flavour tastes in your mouth. I challenge you to not use your phone or watch TV the next time you eat. Focus on how the food tastes. Try it. For the first time you do this, you can order something you really like. This would make it easier.

And the next time you shower, focus only on how the hot water feels when it touches your skin. And you would find yourself living each and every moment to the fullest; freed from the thoughts of your mind.

If you think about it, you can be mindful of almost everything that you do. Just remember to dive deep into it and truly experience each moment of it.

Wishing you the best of luck – The Destiny Pill.