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So you’ve heard all the buzz around meditation and now you are ready to give it a shot and get started.
The concept seems simple enough: sit on the floor, legs crossed, perfectly still and breathe.
Yet somehow every time you sit down and close your eyes it feels like an epic fail and you convince yourself you are simply not a meditator.
You start to beat yourself up about how terrible you are at doing something so simple.
You pictured monks in beautiful long robes with an enchanted glow on their faces and you imagined that is what it would look and feel like.
Instead there’s a cackle of wild monkeys inside your head that won’t stop distracting you.
Is this all part of the process you wonder?
Is meditation supposed to be this uncomfortable?
The resounding answer to your question is, YES!
This is exactly what it feels like in the early stages of meditation.
If it feels like one of the most unnatural and uncomfortable things you’ve ever done in your life, then yes you are doing it right!
If it makes you want to do anything humanly possible to run away from your thoughts and avoid it altogether, then congratulations you’ve officially meditated!
Let’s take a look at a few things you should expect with meditation as a beginner and why it’s worth all the effort.
ITS CALLED A PRACTICE FOR A REASON
So often we have this premise of what meditation is supposed to look and feel like.
Like anything else in life we want to get it right.
We want to experience the glory and peacefulness that so many people speak of, but the voice in our heads just won’t shut-up.
If meditation is such a calming experience, why do I feel like pulling my hair out every time I sit down to do it?
The reality is meditation does not feel like pure bliss in the beginning.
It requires consistency and practice to reach that state.
Wandering thoughts, fidgeting, and dying to do anything you can to avoid your racing thoughts is perfectly normal, especially as a beginner.
Like most things, meditation takes time to get the hang of it.
Imagine a baby just learning to walk. There’s nothing graceful or easy about that process.
Meditation is similar in that it requires consistency and practice to experience its benefits.
CONSISTENCY
If you truly want to experience the incredible benefits of meditation it must become a part of your weekly routine.
It is only through repeatedly settling the mind and witnessing our thoughts that we can eventually find peace in the stillness.
In the beginning, the stillness feels incredibly uncomfortable.
Without distractions we are forced to bring awareness to the endless chatter of our minds.
We have been conditioned to avoid slowing down and use various distractions to run from our thoughts.
The feelings associated with deep breathing, tuning-in to the inner workings of the mind and sitting perfectly still are completely foreign to most of us.
Through daily practice those feelings become more natural.
“Just as the pure crystal takes color from the object which is nearest to it, so the mind, when it is cleared of thought-waves, achieves sameness or identity with the object of its concentration.”
FOCUS ON YOUR BREATH
Now that we know racing thoughts are completely normal, what can we do to gently guide our minds into the meditative state?
We must remember the importance of bringing our attention back to the breath.
As we focus on the rhythm of a deep inhalation and exhalation the mind gradually slows down.
The mind chatter is still present, but the more we continuously bring our attention back to the breath the less distracting those thoughts become.
Eventually, we will experience what Wayne Dyer calls the gap between our thoughts. Through daily meditation practice that gap will become longer and more frequent.
The gap is a magical place where stress, unrest and anxiety melts away.
“What awaits you in the gap is the experience of activating the higher human dimensions of insight, intuition, creativity, and peak performance; as well as coming to know relaxation, enchantment, bliss, and the peace of making conscious contact with God.”
inner peace & creativity
It is estimated that the human mind has approximately 60,000 thoughts per day.
As you might imagine, this incessant thinking makes it incredibly difficult to connect with our source and tap into our creative genius.
As we meditate, we allow more stillness into our lives and ignite the incredible power that resides within us.
Without meditation we often fail to experience the power that waits inside the void between our thoughts.
Meditation guides us through the valley of relentless thoughts and brings us to the place where we are one with source.
To reach this state is unlike anything else.
As Wayne Dyer has said, “The place of no thing is where all that is some thing comes from.”
It is very difficult to articulate this feeling into words and it can only be experienced through the deliberate cultivation of stillness.
ease into it
As a beginner you want to ease into a meditation practice to avoid getting too frustrated and giving up.
When I began meditating consistently a couple years ago, I would only sit for five to ten minutes at a time.
Pick a time of day that works for you where you can practice everyday and set your alarm for seven minutes.
Make the commitment to continually practice and finish out the seven minutes regardless of how it feels in the moment.
Keep in mind it will get easier over time.
In the beginning, I used sounds of nature, white noise, or guided meditations from YouTube.
They are all very helpful when starting out.
Some of the benefits of frequent meditation include reduced stress, inner peace, more energy, better memory, clarity and purpose, and even healing from past trauma.
I can’t possibly say enough good things about meditation.
It has been the catalyst for so many amazing things in my life.
Remember to be kind and patient with yourself during the process because it does take time to get used to.
What has your experience been with mediation? Share in the comments!
