Top 10 Meditation Tips!!

1. Remember why you’re doing it

The ultimate purpose of meditation is to learn to train your attention. If you think of your attention like a new puppy which needs to be house-trained then this will help you with what comes next.

Our monkey-minds are like little puppies who get excited and skittish and chase after every shiny new thought or old familiar thought. They’re random and a bit out-of-control. Our minds are like this most of the time when we are on auto-pilot.

2. Mindfulness versus Meditation

Think of meditation as a tool to help you become mindful in everyday life.

The ultimate aim of meditation is to help you become mindful. To be mindful is to be the opposite of “mindless”. It means to be fully present rather than operating on auto-pilot.

3. Your attitude / Mindset

The mindset you bring to the exercise is absolutely critical. In order for you to get the most out of it you need to bring an attitude of patience, compassion and curiosity.

Anything in life worth having takes time, practice and patience. It is the same with meditation. You do not expect to have a 6-pack after a few visits to the gym and yet people expect quick results with meditation.

Patience, kindness (towards yourself) and consistency are crucial.

4. What is the point of it?

The point of it is to NOTICE when your mind has wandered and to gently and patiently guide your attention back to what you were focusing on (breath, body part, mantra etc).

Every time you guide your attention back you are strengthening that "attention" muscle.

Think of it as a bicep curl for your mind. The point of it is NOT to clear your mind.

The “noticing that your mind has wandered” is the equivalent of the bicep curl.

It is NOT the absence of wandering which is the exercise.

5. What to expect

It is entirely normal at the start for you to feel that it’s just too hard. Some people say that their minds just “can’t do it”. Sometimes people think that other people just find it easier and they believe that they’re just wired differently.

It is also entirely normal to have some days where your mind settles fairly easily and on other days for it to feel really difficult to detach from thoughts.

THIS IS NORMAL! PLEASE BE PATIENT!

6. Be comfortable / Make it easy

There is no need to be sitting cross-legged or feeling uncomfortable. Find a comfortable posture and try to ensure you wont be disturbed. If you have an itch, then itch it if you feel like it’s going to be bugging you and then let it go.

7. But what if I find it really difficult?

Remember the body doesn’t like being told to just “sit” and take instructions and you will feel yourself thinking it’s a waste of time and you’ve more important things to do.

Again this is normal. YOU are taking control of your unconscious mind. And it wont like it.

But remember why you are doing it. You want to be back in the driving seat of your life and no longer at the mercy of old habits, patterns and beliefs.

8. Why is the breath often used as a focus point?

The reason the breath is used as a “home-base”/ anchor/ focus point for your attention is because the breath you are breathing now is always in the present.

You cannot put your attention on a breath that you breathed 5 minutes ago or on a breath you will breathe in 5 minutes time. The breath you focus on is always right here in the present so once you notice that your attention has wandered from the breath you can gently bring it back to the present.

9. What will begin to happen?

Before long, you will begin to see habitual thinking patterns. Because you will be familiar with observing them from a different perspective in the meditation you will begin to notice them when they pop up in everyday life.

This will then give you an opportunity to respond in a different way.

This is where you start to take back control of the reigns of your life from the unconscious mind which had been running the show.

And gradually you will become calmer, more patient and a driver instead of a passenger.

10. What will happen after a while?

You will start feeling like there are more hours in the day. You will feel less “clogged up” or like there’s more space in your head. Who wouldn’t want that?