Meditation do’s and don’ts
Meditation is a safe and effective way to combat toxic stress and anxiety, as well as improve your own mental health. While it’s impossible to do meditation ‘wrong’, we’ve compiled a few dos and don’ts for your meditative practice.
What are the dos of meditation?
Do find your own space
Especially at the beginning of your meditative journey it’s important to choose a space in which you can be undisturbed. Whether that’s your own personal area or sitting room, where you can focus on your thoughts, or in the shower! After practice, you’ll be able to take distractions and incorporate them into your meditation. Using sounds and the sensations of our body can be powerful meditative tools for learning how to deal with our mind.
Do carve out the time
Life is hectic. People are unpredictable (including ourselves). Make sure that this time is sacred for you. Develop the habit. Wake up early, go to bed a little later. Meditate while you shower. It’s important that you do whatever it takes to secure this time for yourself, because ultimately it will make you a kinder, happier, healthier person. Those 10 minutes of meditation a day could save you hours of suffering down the road.
Do enjoy your practice
Meditation makes you a kinder, happier person. It’s hard to do things that take time and maybe aren’t the most fun in the entire world. Spend time thinking about the reasons you enjoy your practice. Think about the benefits that you’ve already gained from it, or that you hope to gain. Meditation can be immensely enjoyable and allows you to learn so much about the thoughts and feelings that power our every move.
What are the don’ts of meditation?
Don’t take yourself too seriously
Meditation isn’t easy. It isn’t the simplest thing in the world to sit down and focus on your thoughts. If you feel frustration at your mind wandering, make sure you notice that, too. Remember to give yourself some grace. All you need is one moment of focus, there’s no succeeding or failing at meditation. The practice of meditation, is simply continuously realizing that you’re being swept away by your thoughts. There’s no success or failure condition.
Don’t see meditation as a punishment
It’s not a punishment! Get comfortable! Find a nice comfortable position. Oftentimes if we’re finding ourselves uncomfortable in our practice you can just move. Eventually, you can work towards sitting with those feelings of discomfort and observing them. But at the beginning of your journey it’s important to remember that adherence to the habit of meditation is more important than the ‘quality’ of your meditation itself. Just make sure you sit. That’s all. Even if you show up for 10 seconds for a good breath. That’s good enough.
Don’t get obsessed with one method or technique
Meditation comes in many different forms, and the ultimate goal is to allow the feelings we get during meditation spill over into our daily waking lives. It’s important that you experience many different techniques, guided, unguided, metta, walking– anything that will allow you to experiment and understand the thoughts that are bouncing around in your skull. Take the time to experiment with different techniques and try them out. If you find one that works, great, if you don’t, explore more. It’s endless!
Conclusion
Meditation reduces stress and anxiety. It can make you kinder, and help you laugh more. If you’re just beginning on your journey, make sure to use some of the dos and don’ts above to get a feel for the direction your meditative practice should go. Each time you sit down for your own personal practice remember that the practice itself is the purpose, and you can’t get it wrong. Taking the time to improve your own mental health, is a success in itself. Give yourself some grace!
