Meditator If this sounds familiar to your morning routine, congratulations. You have effectively integrated mind-calming exercise into your schedule and may already be reaping its rewards.
Meditation’s many scientifically proven advantages are plentiful and include lower high blood pressure, reduced anxiety and pain relief, relieving stress and better restful sleep. Are mornings often chaotic for you – where shoes don’t match one another and mismatched socks take over – do meditation can offer relief!
Your health and wellbeing benefits may still be achievable by creating a daily mind-calming exercise practice into your routine, and following the instructions outlined here on how to achieve it.
So here I present the Top Five Tips for Meditators.
Step 1: Determine Your Technique
Are You Thinking About Meditation? First and foremost, before beginning any form of reflection (there are numerous types), you must decide the type that fits best for you.
“The best meditation strategy is the one you do,” asserts Cortland Dahl, Postgraduate Degree holder and chief contemplative police officer for Healthy and Balanced Minds Innovations as well as an investigator at the Center for Healthy Thoughts of University of Wisconsin-Madison.
There are various schools of thought available today. What distinguishes each from one another is where they focus their energies.
The goal is to focus on today and clear your head of all distracting thoughts. One strategy used by mindfulness reflection practitioners is paying attention to breath and paying it attention during meditation practice.
With others, you might recite a mantra or combine action. Find your perfect strategy by trying some free mind-calming exercise programs or apps.
Once you have settled on your type of meditation, all that remains is to find an undisrupted space with minimal distractions, an inviting posture, and open minds.
Step 2: Implement Your Method Into Existing Habits
No single time of day is best suited to meditation practice; however, morning is usually an optimal opportunity to find peace and relax the mind.
Early risers will find that making time for themselves in the morning to complete mind-calming exercises will go much smoother when life’s distractions are reduced.
Neda Gould, Ph.D., director of Johns Hopkins College’s Mindfulness System in Baltimore notes that if you aren’t an early riser, chances of making time each morning to incorporate mind-calming exercise treatments may be slim, although Neda can provide tips.
And if you manage to drag yourself away from bed, meditation could become part of your bedtime ritual. Certain types of meditation are better suited to specific times and activities of the day; one form is body system scan meditation which involves mindfully scanning from feet to head for signs of tension – Kimberly Quinn, Postgraduate Degree Psychological Science Professor & Well Being/Success System Coordinator at Champlain College Burlington Vermont has suggested this practice as part of her bedtime regimen.
“This is an effective way to self-soothe and relax before sleeping, which you could incorporate into a nightly ritual,” according to her advice.
To do so, Quinn suggests turning off all devices. Start with your shoes and work your way upward.
One mindfulness technique that may assist you in falling asleep faster is meditation; she suggests attaching your plan to something you do regularly and easily as an anchoring strategy.
Routine stacking refers to creating new habits. Say, for instance, you get up at 8 am every morning to brush your teeth, drink coffee and meditate – these could all become happy habits over time.
If meditation is your thing after dinner, incorporate it into your post-dinner practice by clearing away the dining table before beginning a Netflix marathon, followed by 10-20 minutes of mediation practice before doing so.
“It’s less about setting aside specific periods for meditation, and more about finding ways to incorporate your new routines into an existing schedule that works,” according to Dahl.
Step 3: Define Objectives
Do not set unrealistic, massive goals at the beginning – set short and attainable objectives to help keep yourself accountable, such as when and for how long.
“Start small and set yourself achievable goals,” suggests Dahl. For instance, you could pledge that every morning after your morning coffee you will meditate for 10 minutes for one week.
“Don’t focus on next month or next year – just focus on today.” He suggests taking 10 seconds out of each moment. While that might sound short, professionals argue that longer doesn’t always equate to better.
Meditation should be practiced daily rather than only occasionally. The length of your practice matters less than its frequency.
Step 4: Determine What Doesn’t Work
After one week of self-reflection, take stock. Have you achieved your smudge? Why or why not?
If something has not been working as intended, try fine-tuning and performing the same exercise for two weeks. For instance, Dahl recommends shifting any methods used after drinking caffeine into pre-caffeinated coffee time instead.
Step 5: Practice Patience
It takes time and practice for one’s mind-calming exercises to have their desired impact; usually 30-60 days may be enough time for success, according to Dahl.
Even so, even just one meditation session can quickly help you feel much better and encourage long-term adherence.
Quinn suggests that all habits contain three elements in common: a cue, an appropriate schedule and an incentive. With mindfulness mind-calming exercises, your cue may be racing thoughts and anxiety-inducing sensations; your schedule would involve taking deeper breathing sessions.
“This breathing session serves as a psychological reset and brings your attention back into your body system,” according to she says. Ultimately, your stress is relieved instantly with just this one breathing spell.
Quinn states that building habits through repetition is the key to creating long-term change. Once this routine kicks in, you will become much more attuned to racing thoughts and take an instinctive mindfulness rest when they arise – as she points out.
Each one of these helps make creating new habits much simpler, and once your have put practice into effect for several months, you will begin noticing positive differences in your life.
Conclusion
Here were the Top Five Tips for Meditation Practice.
Yes, developing a behavior is the ideal way to experience all of the advantages of meditation; however, beware not to fall into common traps; life can often seem overwhelming with never-ending to-do lists and obligations to fulfill.
Mind-calming exercise shouldn’t become another daily chore, according to Quinn. Stressful situations that arise as a result of meditation mistakes only defeat its purpose in doing so.
“Your method doesn’t need to involve much planning,” she asserts. “Just decide that ‘I will perform this mindfully’ and be present in each moment.
“Once you understand the benefits of regular meditation exercises, here are a few Olympian-worthy techniques and behaviors for problem management that you should implement immediately.
