Meditation Techniques for Beginners

personal growth and development Mar 16, 2022
meditation

Meditation Techniques for Beginners

Making meditation a part of your routine can help you improve your mental health and enhance self-awareness. The best thing about meditation is that it can be done anywhere, so whenever you feel stressed or anxious, meditate for a few minutes to calm down your mind and feel better instantly.

Meditation has plenty of positive effects on your mind and body. It can boost creativity, increase memory, and create emotional balance in your life. To benefit from meditation, choose meditation techniques that can help you fight stress and become more productive. 

Here are 7 meditation techniques for beginners, that you can try today: 

1.Breathing Meditation

Breathing meditation focuses on your breath as it becomes the center of your concentration. It is the easiest technique to meditate that most beginners use. 

Taking long and mindful breaths can help you stay calm and stress-free during the day. When we take long breaths, we release the tension building up in our bodies. Slowly you’ll begin to notice that you often have tensed shoulders and neck. Meditation can help you relieve the stress building in your body and mind. Small breathing meditation periods throughout the day can greatly improve your energy level.

An easy technique for breathing meditation is the 4-7-8 technique. To meditate, you inhale for 4 seconds, keep the air inside your body for 7 seconds then exhale from your mouth for 8 seconds. This is repeated 3-4 times. 

  1. Focused Meditation

Focused meditation helps you focus your mind on one object or thought while blurring everything in the background. It improves your concentration so you can learn to stop getting distracted from everything else that is happening around you and zero onto the object of focus.

As a beginner, you need to choose something that reminds you of something that is peaceful, calming, and relaxing such as a candle, smell of essential oil, rosary, crystal, or a buddha statue. Find an object that works for you and get acquainted with it.

Look at it from all sides and examine it thoroughly. Feel its texture, smell it, and if it’s a candle, light it. Now slowly start focusing on the object. Let’s say you chose a candle. To focus your senses on the candle, look at the shape and color of the candle. Feel its smooth and velvety texture, smell its fragrance, and feel the warmth of the burning candle. 

This object will become the focal point of your attention and you’ll be able to feel peace and serenity in your body. Keep your body relaxed and mediate by immersing yourself in the thought and care of this object. 

  1. Mantra Meditation

To do mantra meditation, you need to think of a short mantra, a phrase, or a word. It can be a quote that helps you feel positive, a word, or a prayer. For example, peace, gratification, or love. 

To meditate, find a comfortable spot, and sit with your body relaxed. Sitting on the floor can help you feel grounded and stable to effectively meditate. You can also go on a casual stroll or stand up while meditating. 

Repeat the mantra for a fixed number of times, ideally, you should repeat it at least 11 times if you are meditating for a minute or two. Increase the number of times you say your mantra depending on how long you want to meditate. Use a counter such as prayer beads, a mala, or a rosary to count as you repeat the mantra.

  1. Visualization Meditation

Visualization meditation is about forming mental images, scenarios and using your imagination to live inside the visualizations for a while as you meditate. Some people love to walk on the beach, walk barefoot on wet grass, fly above the clouds and imagine the sound of the guitar, sitar, or any other musical instrument playing.

As you have your thoughts and emotions connected to these scenes, visualizing them brings peace and calmness to your soul. There are numerous visualizations that can bring calmness to your soul. Find some that bring peace and calmness to your Spirit.

The sound of rain falling on the patio, the heat and sound of burning wood in a campfire, or even sitting in a clean and organized room can feel soothing to people. There is always something that makes your soul relaxed and calm. Shut down the distractions and sit in a quiet spot. Close your eyes and visualize this place or visualize yourself in the environment that makes you feel comfortable and gratified. 

  1. Mindful Walking

If you cannot sit while meditating or sitting is just too confining for you, a walking meditation can help you release stress effectively. Walking can be very calming for people who like to expend their bodily energy and enjoy exercising their bodies. 

To practice meditation while taking a walk, use your breath to create a rhythm or a pattern as you walk. As a beginner, walking meditation might be more suitable for you if you get distracted easily. 

  1. Mindful Eating 

Mindful eating practices can help you reflect and meditate while consuming food. It helps you enjoy food when you give more attention to what you are eating. Experts say that eating mindfully can also help you consume a healthy meal, and you feel fuller. 

Eating your food mindfully is an easy way to meditate as a beginner because eating is a very natural and non-complicated process. Staying mindful while eating is easier because you focus on your sense of taste and smell which helps you to enjoy the food.

  1. Mindfulness of Body

Mindfulness of the body is a type of meditation where you feel the sensations in your body and let them calm you. Mindfulness of the body is within the Buddha’s first ‘foundation of mindfulness’ principles. 

 

As you become more mindful, you begin to feel the sensations in your body that you were previously ignoring because they were meek, and you were absorbed in the world around you. 

It helps you disengage from the outer world and feel what is happening inside your body, the feelings of tension, heaviness, pain, tingling, warmth, body sounds, and much more. To practice mindfulness of the body through meditation, take a deep breath and start feeling your body, starting from the hair of your head and start moving your focus down your body till you reach your toes. 

Give each body part some time and concentration. This can work as a full-body scan and help you relieve pain, reduce restlessness, and get better sleep.