How to Meditate for Beginners

Since I'm a beginner with meditation myself, I'd like to share what I'm learning about how to meditate with other beginners. I've had the intention to begin a meditation practice for several years but after one or two minutes of sitting, I grew antsy and just gave up. Now I am on day 18 of my daily meditation practice and I look forward to this time of quiet and looking inward. What changed?

If you want to learn how to meditate and it's a struggle for you, then realize that it takes time to teach your monkey mind to settle down and let the thoughts go. I used to think I should be able to quiet my mind instantly and got discouraged when it didn't happen.  I now meditate for about 25 minutes and during the first part,I still have to work on quieting my mind.

I focus on my breath and let the thoughts jump around, trying to just let go of them and not get attached.. It's easy to get caught up by a thought like "What should I fix for dinner?" Then you chase the possibilities for a menu, then you end up making your shopping list for a stop at the store later. The trick is to catch your first thought and steer it back instead of chasing it down the path.

What I've found is that even though my mind is not automatically quiet from beginning to end of my meditation, at some point in my sitting, I can look forward to my mind being very quiet and thoughts receding to the background.

How I Meditate

This might not work for everyone but this is what I do. First I set aside 25 minutes each morning at about the same time of day. I set the timer on the kitchen stove which "beeps" before counting down the last 60 seconds. During that 60 seconds, I start moving around and stretching a bit to come back gradually. Knowing that the timer is taking care of how long I will be meditating, I can just relax and let the thoughts drift.

Before I attended the silent yoga retreat, I admit I was addicted to the computer. As soon as my husband left for work, my fingers were itching to go sign in to my email accounts (I have 3), look at all my blogging stats and earnings for the previous day, start my article writing, etc. I rationalized the unending hours on the computer by thinking that, after all, I am earning my living this way.

However, how much of my time was really spent productively and how much was wasted when I could have stepped back from it and done other things (like cleaning the house-lol) Spending hours and hours on the computer is a form of addiction and I couldn't seem to stop myself from sitting there and suddenly an hour or two had passed. And if I wasn't on the computer, I was thinking about it and I wanted to be on it.

When I went to the yoga retreat and spend 24 hours listening to my inner voice and realizing what was most important in my life, it was suddenly easier to allot to step away from the computer. Now I try and do my writing and whatever I need to do and then turn it off.

I think if you want to start a consistent meditation practice, you should consider what is stopping you. What else are you doing with the time? Is there a way you could be more productive in the time you spend on other tasks so you could take 20 minutes out of your day to meditate? Actually meditating regularly helps you get more done in less time and be more productive.

I'd like to hear from you about the challenges you face and how you've over come them-or if you have. I'm no expert on how to meditate but we can all learn together.