You may have heard that meditation has a number of excellent benefits, including stress relief and helping with anxiety. It centres you and keeps your head clear, helping you when it comes to making decisions and generally being more organised. 

 Yet, if you want to start meditating, it’s important to be prepared and to understand the process in a little more depth. With that in mind, read on to find out more about what you should be thinking about when you start meditation. 

Photo by Prasanth Inturi

Know What Meditation Is

In order to get the most out of meditating, you really should have a good idea of exactly what meditation is – as well as what it is not. A lot of people think that meditation is just sitting still (perhaps with your legs crossed) with your eyes closed and having a blank mind. This is a view that comes from TV and films, and although it might be part of the way there, there is a lot more to meditation than just looking as though you’re doing it right. 

 In some cases, for example, you’ll need a mantra to chant when you’re meditating (this can be done internally if you prefer). This is meant to help clear your mind, which is harder than you realise if you’ve never done it before. 

Know What Meditation Can Do

Meditation has a number of superb benefits, including inner peace, less stress, a calmer mind, and so on. All of these things will lead to better general health. After all, if you’re stressed, you can develop high blood pressure and heart problems. Meditating to reduce stress means you reduce your chances of this happening. 

Meditation cannot, however, make you well if you are suffering from a physical ailment – unless that ailment is directly linked to having tense muscles, for example. If you want to use meditation to cure yourself of a disease, you need to know that this is not likely to work, and it’s better to see a doctor. If you have a bad back, getting help from experts who know the Schroth scoliosis treatment should be a priority; meditation can be used as well, but it’s not a replacement for specific medical assistance. 

You Need To Be Consistent

It’s a fact that meditation can, if you do it right, work from the first time you try it. You can feel calm and relaxed and perhaps be on your way to achieving that inner peace that is so important to a happy life. 

However, meditating just once or doing it fairly intermittently, is not the best thing to do. You might feel great afterwards, but unless you are consistent and keep meditating regularly, that good feeling is going to disappear. Try to make time for meditation every day. You only need ten minutes, and if you get up ten minutes earlier and meditate, you can improve the outlook of your entire day. Or perhaps you’ll prefer to meditate just before bed, so you can truly unwind at the end of the day. Or maybe you’ll do both. Whatever is best for you, just make sure you do it regularly, and you’ll certainly notice the difference. 

Meditation has changed my life and I’m so happy to produce free guided meditations to facilitate such transformation in others too here on Insight Timer. A great one for beginners is this one. 

Lots of love,

Jenna