how to meditate daily

Learn To Meditate With 4 Powerful Methods

How badly do you really want to learn to meditate? If you’re reading this, then you know about the benefits of meditation for your health and mental well-being and now you are ready to give meditation a try, but you really don’t know exactly how to begin your practice.

The most important aspect of learning how to meditate successfully is knowing how to discover the right meditation method that works for you and your lifestyle. That’s where I come in, below are some guided meditations you can download and get started right away to learn to meditate and some tools you can try so you can develop a practice that is yours and makes you feel comfortable and motivated for a consistent daily meditation practice

Have you ever wondered how people who live to be 100 and yet still have a great quality of life? In his very popular book on aging, “Aging Well,” Harvard researcher, George Vaillant, M.D., found out just what these happy and healthy centurions live. They cultivate a deep sense of peace, well-being, and of course, they maintain a positive attitude in their daily affairs.

How? Here’s one of their biggest well-kept secrets: a daily and focused meditation practice. What’s ironic about meditation is, it has developed in the West as a healing technique modality, but it has been practiced for thousands of years in the East.

So in my quest to give you easy and sensible ways you can learn to meditate and increase your energy, I’ll begin by defining what the actual meaning of meditation is. Then I’ll show you just how easy it is to learn the right technique and how to apply these methods to your daily meditation routine along with some guided meditations so you can get started today on your meditation journey.

What Is The Actual Meaning Of Meditation?

Meditational exercises primarily use the experience of the body and thought so you can learn to meditate as a means to reconnect with your soul essence (your true meditation teacher) and its physical and mental healing power. Meditation, when practiced on a daily basis, has been proven to promote exceptional inner peace and wellness.

Self-Love Meditation: How To Truly Love Yourself HERE…

Meditation is also a mental practice in which the mind is directed to the main area of your existence, the breath. When you learn to meditate, you can draw your energy from the human connection to nature which then creates a sense of unity or one-ness with all beings. This unity will increase communication with your spirit essence within your body.

Meditation has also been known to develop positive thoughts for motivation and to stimulate positive physiological and psychological effects. Meditation techniques are easy to learn if you open yourself to the possibilities and can easily be incorporated into any lifestyle. If practiced daily, when you learn to meditate it will bring balance to your body and mind in ways that will astound you.

Proven Benefits Of Meditation and Breathing Exercises Include:

• Deep abiding inner peace and oneness with all beings
• Improved self-esteem and confidence
• Increased creativity in all areas of living
• Physiological health/psychological healing
• Reduced medical care from self-healing
• Slowing/reversal of aging effects in mind and body
• Reversing of heart disease through reduced stress levels
• Stimulation of the body’s immune system for powerful healing
• Reduced stress and anxiety through peace of mind

How can I learn to meditate on my own?

Meditation For Beginners: 20 Practical Tips To Quiet the Mind HERE…

I have found there is really not one perfect way we can learn to meditate that works for everyone. You can use a teacher or discover your own path. Below are four of my favorite meditational exercises plus information on guided meditation methods that will get you started. Remember, there is no wrong path here, it is impossible to meditate wrong.

Try these easy methods for your self, or simply set a timer and sit in silence for 20 minutes, each day and work up to twice a day when you are ready. This is the one thing in life you can count on to produce the most positive change for your life.

Guided Meditations For Beginners

Meditation is the key to a happy life for many people all over the world. Unlike watching television or reading a book after work, guided meditations allow you to completely relax and de-stress as you are clearing your mind and focusing on your own breathing. Meditation has been practiced all over the world for many centuries and is incorporated into a variety of different activities such as Yoga, Pilates, and more.

Powerful 5 Minute Guided Gratitude Meditation With Script HERE…

A guided meditation will allow you to completely learn to meditate and clear your mind to relax while listening to a soothing soundtrack and following the instructions of the person that is guiding you through the meditation. There are a variety of different types of guided meditations that are available on Meditation Life Skills in the Guided Meditation section.

If you are looking for others to take part in guided meditation with you, there are also a variety of different ways that you can find local places that offer guided meditation classes. Many of these are completely free and are a great addition to your daily life as you will not only be able to participate in guided meditation, but you will also meet a variety of other people that are looking to relax and better themselves as well.

Guided meditations are very easy to do, as you are completely instructed by the voice that you are listening to, and you will be led through your own mind and learn to meditate, even if you have never meditated before. Many people keep their meditation sessions around 10 to 15 minutes when they are beginning, as this allows you to begin to learn how to meditate.

5 Minute Meditation – Setting Intentions For Your Highest Good

With practice, meditation becomes easier and easier, and you will be able to control your mind at will, rather than having to actively try to focus on your breathing or any other object that you have set your focus on.

Guided meditations can last anywhere from 10 minutes all the way to hours on end. For people who are looking to meditate for a long time, these much longer sessions are available and go much more in-depth during the entirety of the session. This creates the perfect chance for you to completely relax and learn to meditate without ever having to spend money or wasting energy.

Theta Binaural Beats Download For A Deep Meditation Experience

This is perfect for absolutely anyone who wants to learn to meditate and is looking to get deep into meditation and truly concentrate on ways to better themselves, as well as the energy that they put out into the world.

How do I learn to meditate? 4 Powerful Methods…

1) Meditative Grounding Exercise

Sometimes you may find yourself lacking energy, experiencing anxiety, or feeling spacey with distracted energy. Using this guided grounding meditation can balance your life-force energy when needed.

You can use this meditation technique and increase your energy if it’s become low or even to release any excess energy you may have built up during the day. Be sure to check out all of The Mindful Movement’s grounding practices here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list… Headphones recommended for an optimal experience.

Here’s how you can do this on your own:

• Sit with your legs crossed in a comfortable (Indian-style) position with your hands relaxed on your lap. Now, just close your eyes, and in your mind’s eye visualize a beam of white light dropping down from the base of your spine all the way through to the center of the earth and connecting your energy to its center.

• Allow this beam of white light to expand in width until it envelopes your entire body. This is your personal space to connect with the wisdom of mother earth/Gaia.

This meditation method places you completely in your body’s energy and helps you to remember you that you are anchored to the earth and all it’s wisdom. Remember, the more grounded you are, the more aware you are. Since the presence of your higher self: listen to its voice.

2) Energy Cleaning Exercise

Now that you are grounded, it’s important that you cleanse this personal space. Throughout the day we can take on other people’s negative energies and may not even be aware of it. This happens in our daily interaction with others and just in the day in and day out the process of living in this third dimension.

10-minute Guided Energy Cleansing Meditation

Now Available for Download: http://greatmeditation.wixsite.com/

Learn how to do this on your own:

• To remove all foreign energies from your space, imagine holding a brush and sweeping away the debris.

• Allow the debris to fall to the ground and become washed away. Let the white light envelop your entire body and spread this special healing energy that you have created to surround you in your space where you are sitting, allow this energy to create a protective golden-white protective field around you. Just sit in this space and enjoy the feeling of what you have created in total peace and security.

By effectively clearing out the aura around your body will help keep your energy state properly grounded, it is important to define your personal energy boundaries, and allow you to declare your spiritual space to do your meditation work. This process will allow you to choose what energy can enter and stay in this protected space.

3) Breathing Exercise

5 Minute Deep Breathing Exercise | City of Hope

Deep Breathing exercises can help you to reduce anxiety and stress, difficulty sleeping, and any physical discomfort you may experience from time to time. For more resources, please visit: http://www.cityofhope.org

How you can learn this very important breath meditation:

• Follow your breath as you slowly inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Count with each exhales until you reach 10 then begin again at one.

• If you find yourself counting past the count of 10, just peacefully acknowledge that this happened and simply start the count from one and begin again. This is a very good exercise to learn how to keep your mind focused on your meditation session.

• Imagine for a moment, that the cells in your body are being replaced with pure oxygen and a positive golden-white healing energy from this inexhaustible and always available source of pure positive energy. Imagine yourself exhaling all the old worn-out cells in your body, the crazy stress from the day, any illness you may have along with any worries.

• Let your thoughts pass through your mind like drifting clouds. Let them enter your mind’s awareness, and then very gently allow those thoughts to just pass through and gently release them into either. If the mind should focus on a negative thought that you just can’t get rid of, simply refocus on your breath. Your mind can’t focus on two things at once.

• Just say thank you to any persistent negative thoughts for coming into your mind and helping with your perspective on that problem or fear and then gently let those thoughts simply go. Don’t resist in any way, just gently let go.

• Listen only for the positive, pronounced voice; the voice of your body.

4) Retrieve Your Energy Meditation Exercise

Guided Meditation to Boost Energy with Deepak Chopra

This guided meditation for energy with Deepak Chopra, which pivots on powerful breathing practices. For more guided meditations: http://www.sonima.com/

Since outside energy often resides in your space, sometimes you leave energy in other places. After completing the meditation exercises it can sometimes be necessary to re-energize your energy maybe even on a daily basis.

• Imagine in your mind and heart that you have an energy magnet that can be used to attract this energy back to you. Visualize this pure white energy flowing back to you, filling your mind, body, and spirit with light, health, and personal empowerment.

• Allow a few minutes for the process.

Meditation Journal Questions:

1. Record in your meditation journal any problem or trouble you may be having – emotional, physical, or otherwise. Let these difficult problems go for now and give them over to your meditation process as a way to free your self from these issues. You can always deal with them from a new perspective after your meditation.

2. Do you notice solutions and synchronicity coming to you throughout the day that allows you to effectively deal with the problems? Have you noticed that with regular meditation practice, that your body, mind, and spirit are becoming much calmer and that results in a clearer perspective on your problems?

Ideas To Consider:

1. Make time for your spirit daily. Exhibit behaviors and self-talk that show your reverence for yourself.
How to meditate? Breathe, and watch your breath.

2. Along with the many documented benefits of daily meditation, there are fewer anxiety issues, decreased depression, irritability and moodiness throughout your day, improved learning ability and overall better memory, and greater creativity at work and at home. And that’s just the beginning of the benefits you can experience!

3. Then there are slower aging benefits for you to enjoy (possibly due to higher DHEA levels), the increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation, less stress in the form of lowering cortisol and lactate levels in the body, a lower metabolic and heart rate, and lower blood pressure with higher blood oxygen levels throughout the body and mind.

How To Meditate Daily

Here’s a simple technique that will give you results in minutes. Sit comfortably in a chair, close your eyes when you are ready. Exhale deeply, then breathe in through your nose and release the tension from each muscle starting with your feet up to the top of your head. Just feel each body part relaxing, watching for the tension that you may be holding onto, like a tight jaw or stiff shoulders.

If you still have tension somewhere in your body, tense up that muscle again, then let it relax slowly and gently. You can also repeat silently “relax” as the tension slowly drains fro that area. This will train your body and mind to recognize what is called the relaxation response. Later in your meditation practice, you may be able to relax more just by repeating the word “relax” a few times until you feel the release.

Breath through your nose. This is important because it brings in more oxygen by involving your diaphragm more. You can test this. Breath in and out several times with just your mouth and you’ll notice that your breathing is much shallower as you are breathing. Then breathe through your nose and you’ll notice that your abdomen extends more. Air is being drawn deeper into your lungs.

Allow your breath to fall into a comfortable pattern, and then just notice the sensation and simply pay attention to it. Pay attention to your breath as it passes in and out of your nose. Your mind may wander at first, but all you have to do to refocus on your meditation is to gently bring attention back to your breath. The power is always in your breath!

If your find your mind is still too busy and you can’t focus on your meditation, try naming each of the distractions as a way of setting them aside for now so you can continue your session. For example, say in your mind, “my leg is very itchy or uncomfortable,” or “I’m very worried about work,” immediately return attention to the in and out sensations of your breath. Find away to learn how to identify and set aside distractions during your meditation.

That’s it. Continue to meditate for five to ten minutes using a timer if needed, or you can try a meditation method of just focusing on your breath for 100 breaths starting over at one if you lose track.

When you are done meditating, just open your eyes and sit for a few seconds basking in the peace and blissful feelings you have created. You’ll feel much more relaxed about your life, and your mind will feel relaxed and refreshed ready to take on the day. You’ll be better prepared for any mental challenges you may experience at work or at home. The benefits of daily meditation are truly never-ending, but you have to meditate! That’s how you can easily learn to meditate.

by Don Weyant/Meditation Life Skills

Daily Meditation: 7 Tips To Greatly Improve Your Practice

We often hear a lot of celebrities talk about how daily meditation changed their overall perspective in life. Hugh Jackman, Katy Perry, and Heather Graham are just some of the stars who credit regular meditation to their calm state of mind. But before you jump into the bandwagon, it’s important to know what you can expect in every session.

Read the tips below to find out how to get the most out of your daily meditation sessions:

1.) When meditating, most people find it relaxing when they play nature sounds or soft music and light candles while they sit with crossed legs on a pillow. None of that is actually required. If you don’t feel like doing that, then don’t do it! Learning different meditation techniques is all about creating a ritual that you enjoy. If you want to lie down throughout the session or if you want to meditate outside then go ahead and do so.

2.) Don’t stuff yourself before you meditate. Eating a full meal just before your session will only leave you with a grumbling stomach while sitting cross-legged on the floor. If you are hungry, eat a light meal (soup or salad) an hour before meditating. If you are too full during your session, this will get in the way of body positioning and breathing.

3.) Keep your back straight through the entire session. Maintaining proper posture will not only maximize your lung capacity but you are also following the natural curves of your spine. This will allow energy to move properly.

4.) Several meditation guides dictate you to focus on your breathing but thinking about something else can sometimes help too. Imagining a peaceful image can also help you enter a deep state of relaxation. Some people on the other hand like to recall happy and loving memories.

5.) Keep your eyes closed to avoid distractions. By doing so, you are directing your focus towards your internal environment. This will also help you to become more aware of your surroundings.

6.) Our minds are used to assessing, planning and worrying. And from time to time we inadvertently think about negative events that disrupt the flow of positive energy. If that happens during your daily meditation session, try not to judge it.

Immediately bring your attention back to your body. Imagine your breath filling your feet as you inhale and leaving as you exhale. Move to different parts of your body until you get to your head. Breathing through the different parts of your body will certainly keep your mind off things.

7.) It doesn’t matter if most people meditate with their legs crossed while sitting on the floor if you are not comfortable in this position then choose a different position. Daily meditation should not be physically painful. It’s very important for you to find a sitting position that you’ll be comfortable in for an extended period of time.

Best Daily Meditation Techniques for New Practitioners

Meditating is not easy. It’s not as simple as sitting on a pillow with your legs crossed and chanting “om”. It is a mental discipline that requires a great deal of concentration.

Meditation comes with a myriad of well-publicized benefits such as decreased levels of stress and anxiety, improved clarity of mind and creativity and reduced depression risks.

If you are a beginner and you find it extremely difficult to sit for a few minutes or hours with a clear mind, read the most common approaches below to help you get started.

FREE Online Meditation Course! – Your Meditation Journey. Find out more HERE…

1.) Mindfulness Meditation

This form of meditation is great for newbies because it is simple and completely feasible. The main goal of mindfulness meditation is to achieve a calm and stable mind. Calmness is actually a natural aspect of the mind and through daily meditation, we are just developing and strengthening it. With regular practice, you would be able to maintain a calm state of mind without struggling.

When doing mindfulness meditation, it’s important to find a space where you can have this feeling of sacredness. Don’t pick a space where there are too many distractions or you won’t be able to maximize your session. Your gaze should be downward, focusing a couple of inches in front of your nose. The eyes should be open but not staring. The key to this form of meditation is to ignore what is going on around you.

2.) Concentration Meditation

As the name implies, concentration meditation entails staying focused on a single point. You can focus on any specific thing such as breathing patterns, single word or mantra, sound or an image. This method is a little challenging for a beginner so you might be better off meditating for only a few minutes. Eventually, you’d be able to concentrate for longer durations.

In concentration meditation, you focus your awareness on your object of attention. Each time your mind wanders to something else, you have to redirect your attention to the object. By practicing this regularly, your ability to concentrate will significantly improve.

3.) Spiritual Meditation

If you like to pray then you will surely find spiritual daily meditation easy. This technique is based on communicating with your spiritual guide. To start, sit comfortably in a quiet place, close your eyes and focus on the way you breathe without changing it. This method moves you from a state of meditation to contemplation. Open yourself up in every way you know how and visualize something that can bring you closer to your guide.

Spiritual Affirmations Mp3 For A Life Of Divine Expression

Spiritual meditation requires you to surrender to your Maker and let him take over. Some people find it beneficial to listen to a recording or meditation tape such as “Peace Will Come and A Communication From God” when meditating.

The 5 Earth & Space Element Meditations to Help You with Your Practice

Staying centered during daily meditation can be a bit of a challenge considering the chaos that surrounds us in the world.

Reacting to the external chaos and other events that are beyond our control can lead you to have feelings of fear and anxiety.

Using the following five earth and space element meditation during your practice can help to relieve fatigue in both your mind and body and will assist you in connecting yourself to the universal flow of energy.

This daily meditation technique acts as a building block to the universal flow of energy and all material existence.

This may sound crazy, but just give it a try before you dismiss the concept.

Space Element Meditation

An expansive and empty element, space represents no resistance. It is the source of matter and allows growth and change to happen. In meditation, space signifies the space of your cells, breath, and thought. Space is the container for all the other elements and the source of intuition and wisdom from the universe.

Air Element Meditation

Air is a movable, dry, light, and dynamic element. It represents the potential of motion and empowers the ideas and goals with its flight. Air is viewed as the wind externally and as nervous impulses, circulation, and movement of breath internally. It represents a channel for clear communication and self-expression. It can influence your ability to act from a place of love and compassion, and when it is out of balance, jealousy can occur.

Fire Element Meditation

A hot, intense, powerful, and transformative element. Fire is viewed as fire or the sun externally, while internally it is viewed as the element that drives cognitive processes and digestion. In meditation, it brings confidence and courage, drive and creativity. In excess, it can manifest as hatred or anger.

Water Element Meditation

The element, water, is seen as flowing, movable, smooth, and cool. It can also be represented as a solid as it connects, nourishes, transports, and provides protection. It provides the ability to flow, adapt, avoid unhealthy attractions, and act selflessly. Water rules the blood, and other bodily fluids, as well as “cold” medical conditions like joint pain.

Earth Element Meditation

A heavy element, the earth is stable, rigid, solid, and constant. Earth represents all the solid matter and structure of the universe. It gives the human body its form including all the creation. It is grounding and calming and keeps the ego in check. It is the energy of bones, tissues, and muscles, and represents many illnesses like an infection.

When it comes to using the elements in your daily meditation practice, take your time and begin to observe the area around you. The more your attention shifts to explore these 5 element meditations the better you’ll start to understand and connect with the Universal Mind of Spirit and Matter.

Meditation Before Bed? Is This a Good Idea?

Contrary to what many people believe in, meditation is not praying. Praying is conversing with God and meditation is more about focusing on something to achieve a calm state of mind.

The latter is especially beneficial for people who have a hard time falling and staying asleep. How so? For starters, regular daily meditation (even if it’s just 30 minutes per day) can convert poor-quality sleep into a deeper, more refreshing sleep.

Many meditators say that they always wake up feeling more energized. Additionally, meditating before bedtime allows you to sleep through the night and spend a longer time in REM sleep. This stage of sleep is crucial to the mental capacity of the brain. If you are REM sleep deprived, you will retain less information.

Should You Learn How To Meditate In Bed? Is It OK? Find Out HERE…

Meditation can also help those who are suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Several studies show that CFS patients have a deficiency of slow-wave sleep. By engaging in deep daily meditation, you are getting a heightened Theta and Delta activity in your brain. This activity is said to compensate for the lost time in the Delta state while you sleep.

Because of the inner tranquility and improved creativity that meditation provides, the frequency of vivid dreams will increase especially if you practice lucid dreaming. Meditating before bed will definitely calm your nerves and help you overcome certain types of insomnia. You can try the 3 techniques below if you find yourself tossing and turning in bed at night:

1.) Breathe from your abdomen and focus on your breathing patterns. This technique sounds really simple but it works wonders for those who can’t get themselves to sleep. You can listen to soft music or nature sounds to create a more serene atmosphere.

2.) Another thing you can do to help you fall asleep is to look at or imagine vivid images that symbolize peace and stability. Clouds, mountains and the beach are very common choices for guided imagery. You can do this form of daily meditation alone or under the supervision of a specialist.

3.) Mindful meditation will also help you fall asleep. Start by looking at one thing at a time. The 3 aspects of this technique are body, breath, and thoughts. Some people like to dedicate a small part or corner of their home where they can sit without distractions. If it helps, think about the issues that are bugging you then let them go. This is easier said than done but if you practice regularly, you’d be able to achieve your goals.

Getting a Good Night’s Sleep with Guided Meditation

Getting adequate sleep is essential to good health. Sleep deprivation has been linked to medical problems such as hypertension, obesity, and heart attack.

It can also lead to psychiatric problems such as depression and other mood disorders. Many accidents have also been blamed on sleeplessness. The consequences of sleep deprivation are serious or even fatal.

Many turns to daily meditation to get a good night’s sleep. However, benzodiazepines and other hypnotics are potentially addictive. The risk of an overdose is high. Some people who use sleeping pills find that they need to increase their dose from time to time to get the effect they want until they become resistant to their drug of choice.

One tragic example of this is Michael Jackson, who used propofol, a powerful anesthetic, just to get some shuteye because sleeping pills were no longer doing it for him.

Fortunately, there is a safe alternative to hypnotics. Many people say that guided meditation is the best sleep aid there is. Most people find it difficult to sleep because, as they close their eyes at night, thoughts rush through their minds. Meditation helps you sleep by quieting and relaxing your mind.

When you meditate, you focus on the present, away from the worries of the future and from your painful experiences in the past. You are not bothered by negative emotions. You feel calm and a sense of well-being begins to grow in you.

Some of the wonderful effects of daily meditation on sleep have to do with the biochemical processes that occur in your body while you meditate. Daily meditation causes your body to release endorphins, which produces a feeling of well-being. It also increases the production of melatonin, a hormone responsible for giving you a restful sleep.

If anxiety attacks make you sleepless, meditation can also help you. It increases your body’s production of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) which helps stabilize mood and relieve anxiety.

Some people doze off during meditation. That is fine if you want to use meditation to be able to sleep. However, some people struggle to focus to get into a meditative state and because of this struggle, they end up not getting any sleep. If you want to sleep, you need to take the struggle off meditation.

The easiest way to meditate is by using a guided meditation mp3. Guided meditation is usually done with a recording. If someone is guiding you through the mediation process, there is no need for you to think about what to do next. It will be easier for you to focus if all you need to do is just listen to a voice.

One of the best things about guided meditation is that it is usually tailor-fitted to a certain goal you want to achieve. If you have trouble sleeping and you think guided meditation can help you, be sure to download a recording that is specifically designed to help people get a good night’s sleep.

Click the banner below to find a podcast for the area of meditation you need help in or just explore new daily meditation techniques. Enjoy!

Our Meditation Podcast features Guided Meditations, Instructions
For Meditation, and Music For Meditation

by Don Weyant/Meditation Life Skills

How To Meditate Daily: Find Happiness In A Daily Meditation Practice

By Kevin Schoeninger

There’s a Secret For Learning How To Meditate Daily

As a meditation teacher, I’ve heard countless students share their excuses for why they didn’t meditate in the past week. They wanted to. They know it would be good for them. They just didn’t do it. At least, not consistently.

Something always seems to get in the way: they need more sleep, the dog needs to be walked, the kids are up, they had to work late or had an early meeting, they felt too anxious, worried, or irritable… Learning how to meditate daily just didn’t seem as important as other things they had to do. Yet, all those things they did didn’t give them the peace of mind they desired.

Of course, daily meditation practice is about changing your relationship with all the events, worries, and anxieties in your life.

It’s daily ritual-like eating, sleeping, and brushing your teeth-that creates a more relaxed, healthy, meaningful, and intentional way of living. It’s a powerful practice to realize the deep peace of mind we all desire. So, what’s the secret to learning how to meditate daily and moving from excuses to practice?

How To Meditate Daily: The Secret to Getting Yourself to Meditate HERE…

The answer is: you’ve got to have a strong “Why?”

Where do you find your Why?

The answer may surprise you.

The Secret For How To Meditate Daily is Body Awareness

Your body is not just a mechanical vehicle for carrying out all the activities in your life. It is a highly-sensitive bio-feedback system.

When to meditate: Your body can tell you what is good for you to eat and how much, when you need to rest, when you need to relax and have fun when you need to get up and move, and when you need to be alone, have contact with others, be in nature, and spend time in meditation. It connects you to when, why, and how much to do anything. If you’re paying attention.

Learn How To Meditate For Beginners In 3 Minutes Or Less HERE…

In our context, it connects you to WHY and when to meditate, you might want to meditate in the first place. At least it has the potential to do this if you pay attention. Yet, how often do you pause and really pay attention to your body’s signals? How often do you stop to sense what it is telling you?

Why aren’t you doing this?

First off, we have a culture that encourages just the opposite. We are encouraged to focus outwardly rather than inwardly. We are encouraged to do as much as possible. We are encouraged to gather as many products and as much wealth, data, and sensory input from the external environment as we possibly can.

We are encouraged to react quickly and are discouraged from taking time for well-considered and deeply felt responses. We are conditioned to quick reactions and sound bites on news and social media. We are impatient with anything that takes time. We go, go, go until we are too exhausted to continue.

Do you feel this exhaustion?

Yet, are you worried about what might happen if you stop? Are you worried you’ll fall behind and be left out? At a certain point, you may decide you just don’t want to live this way anymore. When you reach this point-or preferably long before that-take a moment to pay attention inside. Notice what all this thinking, doing, worry, accumulation, and stimulation is doing to you.

Is there another option to learn how to meditate daily?

Daily Meditation Benefits: Create a New Way of Being You

Meditation interrupts nonstop thinking and doing and learning how to meditate daily gives your body a chance to relax deeply-something you may not even get to do in a restless sleep. Consciously relaxing, as you do in effectively a daily meditation practice, unwinds tension accumulated beneath your awareness in the past 24 hours as well as in the years of your life up to this point. It slowly dissolves the reactive mental-emotional patterns that drive you on the hamster wheel of nonstop activity. It quiets your mental chatter.

How To Establish A Daily Meditation Practice For Beginners HERE…

Now, when you first start a daily meditation practice, you may not notice this relaxing, quieting, and calming effect. You may become even more aware of how busy your mind is, how conflicting your emotions are, and how tense your body is. If you have mistreated your body t5 Minute Meditation & Script For Setting Intentions For Your Highest Goodhrough over-stress for a long period of time, initial moments of Body Awareness in meditation might not feel so great.

Explore This 5 Minute Meditation & Script For Setting Intentions For Your Highest Good HERE…

Or, you may feel little to nothing at all. All that thinking, doing, and pushing yourself to do things you feel you “have to” or “should” do may have cut you off from how you feel. You may have lost touch with your vital sensations and feelings. You may just feel bored without external stimulation keeping you distracted.

Yet, discomfort, boredom, or numbness, when you face them honestly, directly, gently, and without judgment, as you do in meditation, can alert you to just how much you need to activate another way of being.

If you heed this signal and take time to sit, breathe, and mindfully notice what’s happening inside the layers of stress will begin to unwind and your vital senses will reawaken. As you unwind, Body Awareness may tell you just how exhausted you are from the way you are going about your life.

As you pay close attention to what your body has to say, you might find that all those things you’ve been chasing after may not be as important as they seemed. You may discover you don’t want to live on the human hamster wheel of incessant activity, worry, and anxiety any longer. You may be inspired to make new choices that reflect your soul’s deeper desires in your daily meditation practice.

You can start off with a short 5 Minute Meditation each day to form the habit of meditating here…

Meditation beckons you to a more relaxed, healthy, meaningful, and intentional way of living and your body will tell you just how important this is if you pay attention.

Want to learn how to meditate daily? You’ll be gently guided into a daily meditation practice of deep relaxation and calm clarity with Clear Quiet Mind Meditations. Just click “Play” and follow along. Download on CD Baby or Download on iTunes

Kevin Schoeninger is a writer and teacher of Mind-Body training, including Mindfulness, Meditation, Qigong, and Reiki. He is the author of the book “Clear Quiet Mind” and numerous guided meditations and programs in the field of personal empowerment and spiritual growth.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kevin_Schoeninger/31493

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by Don Weyant/Meditation Life Skills

10 Reasons Why Your Meditation Practice Isn’t Effective…

Your daily meditation practice is simple, cheap, and highly effective, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. And to be honest, meditation techniques for beginners is pretty easy, it’s just not quite the experience you may expect it to be. But that’s ok, let me explain.

Beginners have all sorts of challenges when first learning how to meditate, but most of these challenges aren’t really problems. The complaints beginners have are simply part of learning the meditation process and understanding how to meditate effectively with a daily meditation practice.

How To Meditate: Understanding the Purpose of Meditation

Many religions and philosophies advocate meditation. Meditation is also used for self-help and personal development purposes. While all of these things might have slightly different methods, many of these meditation techniques are similar in practice and application.

Most of us feel we have a reasonable understanding of the meditation process, but many of us can’t really describe the importance of meditation and the actual purpose that it may serve in our personal lives.

Meditation Podcast: 3 Easy Steps To Start Your Daily Meditation Practice At Home

Meditation Facts: A daily meditation practice brings many benefits:

* It’s the one time your mind really gets a rest. Your mind is constantly active. It’s thinking about ten different things every 15 seconds. It’s telling you that you need a drink of water. It’s worrying about your date next Saturday and reminding you that you don’t have enough money in your bank account to pay your cable bill and the list goes on.

* Sleep isn’t any better. In your dreams, you’re largely acting and behaving the same way you do while awake. You’re still worrying about the same stuff during your dreams. Sleep is great for resting your body, but it’s not as useful for resting your mind.

In meditation, you create a space where your mind is essentially in a relaxed focus state of being. In many forms of meditation, you focus on one thing and concentrate all your thoughts on that single item or idea. It’s incredibly relaxing for your mind and body once you take the time to learn how to meditate each day.

Meditation For Beginners: 20 Practical Tips To Quiet the Mind HERE…

* You must learn how to focus. Learning how to focus using meditation is one of the main meditation techniques for beginners that will take you down the road to successful meditation practice. When you think of meditation, do you imagine someone sitting alone in a quiet room with subdued lighting?

This is the easiest way to meditate, with no distractions. It’s like meditation with training wheels. But you could actually learn to be meditating most of your day as well.

* It’s easiest to learn to start your meditation practice under ideal conditions. Then, try expanding your meditation skills to other activities. You know you can really meditate when you can stay calm, happy, and focused on a loud, hot, busy, smelly subway. Don’t live near the subway? Try a long day with the in-laws.

* Most of us focus very poorly. Imagine how much better you would feel and how much more you would accomplish if you could stay focused on the activity at hand. Plus, it’s hard to worry about every other aspect of your life when you’re controlling the content of your thoughts.

* You can find answers to almost any problem in life. When your mind is running a hundred miles an hour, it’s difficult to find elegant solutions to your challenges. Your brain needs a little space and relaxation to find effective solutions to tough challenges. Your meditation practice can provide that needed space for your mind to develop an effective solution.

Meditation Podcast: Beautiful Guided Meditation and Script For Relaxation and Healing Your Mind and Body

Have you ever noticed that many of your best ideas have come while doing something that occupies your mind in a rather mindless way? Activities like mowing the grass, taking a shower, or driving down the highway with little traffic are great for solving problems. Your mind is occupied but free to wander a little. Meditation is similar to this activity, but with meditation, you control the process of problem-solving.

* A daily meditation practice is healthy for the mind, body, and spirit. Stress is incredibly hard on the body both mentally and physically. Meditation reduces stress, lowers your pulse rate and blood pressure, and improves sleep on many levels.

Powerful 5 Minute Guided Gratitude Meditation With Script HERE…

* Meditation can be done quickly. You’d be surprised how much more you can accomplish and how much more enjoyable your day is when you meditate for a few minutes several times a day. Five minutes twice a day is a great place to start. Set a timer or find a five minute meditative mp3 to get started.

* Meditation isn’t just for a yogi in India sitting on top of a mountain in solitude. Anyone can use meditation to bring rest and peace into their life. It can also improve your performance in almost all areas of your life. Learn to meditate and enjoy a greater quality of life.

A daily meditation practice can work for anyone that puts in the time and effort. You just need to learn a few basic meditation techniques that appeal to you and your lifestyle. Then, you can expand your practice into a process that you can call your own.

Your Inner Self: 4 Easy Steps To Awaken With Meditation HERE…

Remember, you can’t do meditation wrong, any process that allows you to work meditation into your personal lifestyle is what you are striving for. Learn the basics and build on your success.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Your Meditation Practice Might Not Be Working For You

Are any of these challenges holding you back?

1. Your mind is too active. Of course, it’s active. It takes practice before the mind quiets down, and it’s rarely silent even after years of practice. It takes about 20 minutes for experienced meditators to notice a complete slowing down of the mind.

This isn’t really a problem. Part of the purpose of meditating is to learn how your mind operates. Daily practice is the key to learning how to relax your mind and create an effective meditation practice.

Learn About Mindfulness Activities For Better Productivity HERE…

Key meditation concept: Always return your focus on your breath. This will calm your mind, if your thoughts drift off your breath, just return to your breathing. You may have to do this a lot at the beginning, that’s ok. Some days will be better than others, that’s ok too. Keep it simple and keep meditating each day.

Meditation Podcast: Guided Breathing Meditation for Anxiety, Worry, Stress

2. Your mind wanders off like a kitten in a yarn factory. It’s not uncommon to suddenly realize that you’ve been daydreaming for the last five minutes. The solution is the same as the previous issue. Just return your attention to your breath and continue meditating for as long as you can.

3. A lack of consistency. Meditation needs to be done daily to see the greatest benefits. It also needs to be done every day to gain a high level of proficiency. You can’t become skilled at what you don’t practice. Get as much practice as you can, if you miss a day, just get back to meditating the next day. Look at meditation as a gift to yourself each day. You deserve the best life possible!

4. You fall asleep while trying to meditate. This is a very common problem! It’s not easy to fall asleep if you have the proper meditation position. It should be impossible to stay asleep if you have the proper posture, as you’re sure to lose your balance and fall over.

The best position for meditating is to sit up with your spine as straight as possible. If you lie down, you may struggle to stay awake. You will find that over time you may be able to lie down and still meditate effectively. If you have physical problems sitting, by all means, lay down or try a walking meditation method. Any meditation teacher can assist you in learning different meditation methods to help you along.

5. Body aches and pains. Your body will need to get used to this new activity. Holding one position for a long time can be painful, especially when you’re just starting out with meditation. Start with five to ten minutes a day and work up to twenty minutes if possible. Over time, your aches and pains will largely go away during your meditation session.

Meditation, or what some doctors call mindfulness meditation, is a practice that involves focusing on breathing while blocking out the surrounding environment. A study from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health asked patients to engage in meditation while also getting a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Then, the researchers gave participants the medication naloxone (Narcan). This medicine blocks opioid receptors in the brain. Participants then engaged in meditation while they underwent another MRI.

At the end of the study, researchers found that people reported pain relief from meditation, even when they had taken naloxone to block opioid receptors. The researchers concluded that there are many other pathways in the body, other than opioid receptors, that could help relieve pain. This is promising for those who want to relieve pain using other approaches besides opioid pain relievers.

Click on this link from Asana Recovery to find out more information about how you can use Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Meditation to Treat Pain Without Opioids and Why You Should Consider an Alternative to Opioids.

It’s best to try to remain as still as possible, completely relaxing into your preferred position. Shifting your position will only give temporary relief, and the process starts all over again. No matter how much it hurts, you’ll find the pain fades away if you stay still.

This, like learning to focus is part of the meditation learning curve. Tens of millions of people all over the world have learned how to meditate, you can too if you just keep practicing each day, it gets easier each time you meditate.

Itches fall into the same category. Just leave them alone and observe them. It’s interesting and amusing how the itching just disappears just by observing the itching. Meditation is about the exploration of your mind, body, and spirit, It’s an amazing learning life process, and you will never be the same.

You can learn how to use these distractions as your meditation object, just like you use your breath as a meditation object. The meditation object can be a word, or a physical object such as a candle, any consistent external noise or body sensation (including pain) that you focus on can become your meditation object.

It could be a mental picture that you can hold in your mind while your eyes are closed. It could also be a meditation mantra that holds special meaning to you. This is a great area of exploration to determine what works for you.

6. Boredom is part of the learning process as well. Yes, meditation can be boring, especially if you’re used to significantly more stimulation. Learn to sit still with your boredom and just observe it. Boredom can be more fascinating than you might think. I know that sounds crazy, I get it, give it a try and find out for yourself. This is your personal meditation process that you will develop over time. I consider meditation to be the ultimate personal development program!

7. Rationalizing that quitting is a bad idea. You have much more to lose than you can possibly know at this time. You are reading about meditation right now for a reason. Listen to your inner self and trust yourself completely. Common thoughts include things like, “This is a waste of time.” “Why am I doing this?” “Is this all there is?” Again, just sit with your thoughts and notice them. Every thought is as meaningless as the next.

Just realize that it’s your discomfort with the stillness that’s bothering you. You’ll come to understand that many of the things you do in your life are to avoid this feeling. This includes things like staring at the TV and overeating. Change can be a good thing here, listen to your inner spirit.

8. Finding time to meditate. This excuse is hardly a valid excuse. Go to bed 20 minutes early and sit in a chair and meditate. Or get up 20 minutes early and do the same. The truth is, after a little practice, you can meditate at your desk or on a bus. Either way, you win!

Meditation Podcast: Simple Ways You Can Start Meditating Today!

If you have time to watch TV, surf the internet, or play games on your phone, you had time to meditate. Put yourself first in line for your daily activities, the payoff is a much better, happier and more productive life.

9. Desiring perfection in your meditation practice. Perfection in meditation isn’t achievable, but you don’t need to be perfect. Put in the time with your best effort. That’s all that’s required. This is a process that will expand over time with accruing benefits for the rest of your life. It’s hard to explain with words but isn’t a few minutes each day worth a truly balanced, awakened, and productive life worth it to you?

10. Expecting more from your daily meditation practice. A daily meditation practice rarely involves earth-shattering insights. It’s a gradual process that brings understanding over time. Your enlightenment is a process like anything worth doing in life, this is a lifestyle that will serve you in ways you can’t even imagine in your wildest dreams. Like all truly good things in life, it takes desire and dedication to produce the desired results.

Look at it this way, the days, weeks, months and years of your life will pass no matter how you choose to live them. Why not add the gift of meditation to your life so that in the future you can look back over your life and say, wow that was a great way to live, I’m so grateful I learned to meditate and achieved the life I truly desired.

These problems above aren’t really problems per se. They’re simply misunderstandings of what normally occurs during a meditation session. Just keep at it and have faith that everything is as it should be.

Start simple, learn and explore the different methods of meditation, listen and trust your inner self to develop a meditation practice that works for you and you alone. That, my friend, is truly living the life you desire.

by Don Weyant/Meditation Life Skills

7 Simple and Efficient Daily Meditation Practice Strategies

With any daily meditation practice, it is very important to note that with any new undertaking, there will be questions and adjustments, and your mind will probably want to talk you out of it as well. If you persist and experiment, you will get to where you need to be with your daily meditation practice.

Beginner’s Floating Visualization Guided Meditation – Free Mp3 Download!

Understand that meditation is not something that will happen overnight or something that will be automatic from the onset. It takes time and it takes practice.

Take the time to read through some books or get some audio/visual mp3s to acclimate yourself with the art and practice of meditation for beginners. In this way, you will know what to expect.

Set Up a Daily Meditation Habit for a Fulfilling Life

Daily meditation is an outstanding habit to add to your daily routine. Not only does it relax you, but it helps with nearly every other part of your life as well. Your focus will improve. Your appreciation for all the positive things in your life will increase. You’ll get more done. You’ll sleep better. The list of beneficial effects is practically endless.

There are many forms of meditation. Rather than tracking down the perfect method, we’re going to focus on simply making meditation a daily habit. In a month your life could be vastly different!

Follow these 7 strategies to make it easy to incorporate daily meditation into your life:

1. Keep it short, at first. The perfect way to fail is to start trying to meditate for 60 minutes. Meditation is a lot of exercise for your mind. Start with 5 minutes or less.

2. Have a schedule. The schedule doesn’t have to be set in stone. Something more general like during lunch, or in bed after you wake up is fine. Pick a time and stick to it.

3. Find a good spot. You’ll need to find a time and place that are conducive to being able to concentrate. Quietness and solitude help but aren’t required.

4. Sit down. You don’t need a special position, clothes, pillow, or anything else. What’s important is that you can sit comfortably without having to move throughout the meditation. A chair or bench is fine. You might even find it helpful to sit on the floor with your back against the wall.

5. Progress slowly. Three minutes a day is great. You can do five minutes next week. You’re not trying to prove to yourself that you can do it for 30 minutes; you’re trying to introduce meditation into your life in a way that will result in it becoming a daily habit. Take a month to six weeks to work up to 30 minutes.

6. Focus on your breathing. While you’re sitting, simply focus on your breath and your breathing. Your eyes can be open or closed; it’s entirely up to you. Count your breaths and when you reach 10, start over again. See how long you can go before your mind wanders (and it will).

You might be asking yourself what sitting down and counting your breaths will do for you. If you can learn to focus completely on your breathing, you can learn to focus on anything else, too.

Start to focus on your breathing throughout the day. When you are hurried and rushed, do you notice that your breath is shorter and more labored? If so, begin by focusing on each breath, taking deep breaths in through the nostrils and releasing through the mouth. You should also notice the rise and fall of your stomach as you focus on your breathing.

When you catch yourself thinking about anything except your breath, simply return your attention back to your breath. It will be a struggle to maintain your focus at first, but your ability to do so will improve with time.

7. Do it every day. The key to establishing positive habits is to do them daily. It won’t take long before your meditation habit is as much a part of your life as brushing your teeth.

Eventually, you’ll reach the point that when you’re working, you think about nothing but work; you’ll be much more effective and efficient at work. When you’re spending time with your family, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the joy of being together. During dinner, you’ll think only about the dinner experience.

How To Establish A Daily Meditation Practice For Beginners HERE…

You essentially eliminate all stress from your life, because you’ll always be thinking about your present experience. You can only be stressed when thinking about the past or projecting into the future. Daily meditation allows you to live your life fully.

Start your daily meditation practice today. You don’t need anything except a place to sit down and a few minutes of your time. But the benefits can last a lifetime!

Beginner Daily Meditation Techniques

Learn How To Meditate Daily: The Secret to Getting Yourself to Meditate HERE…

Be intentional about your daily meditation. Meditation is a practice and a learned skill. It needs to be practiced intentionally in order for it to work. It does not just happen to you.

Dress appropriately for meditation. If you are trying to sneak in ten minutes of meditation in your lunch hour, dressed in your business skirt and heels, chances are you will be rushed and harried. Set aside a time that is appropriate where you can wear loose-fitting clothing and where you can concentrate.

Begin with the practice of releasing tension in all your body parts. Focus on the feet first and release tension in that area; move up to your ankles, etc. Do this until you have reached the top of your head. For some practitioners, tightening and releasing muscles as they go along makes for greater awareness of the release.

Practice your breathing techniques together with the release of tension in your body parts. At first, this will seem difficult; however, it will become easier as time goes on. You will be able to tighten and release your muscles and breathe in and out to release that tension.

Stretching your muscles a bit before sitting to meditate is a great way to get blood circulating and get in the moment. Choose a focal point, if you wish. For some, meditation is only done with their eyes closed, while others need a focal point. Yours could be a picture on the wall of a serene setting.

Let others in on your new-found desire to learn meditation. If those around you know you need quiet time, they will respect your solitude – especially if it will give them a happier and healthier you.

Let everyone in your household know that you will be taking on the practice of daily meditation and when, how, and where you will begin this process of transformation. Let everyone know that you are committed and disciplined in maintaining this goal and that your health and his or her happiness depend on it, as well.

Let your family in on a little secret. Tell them that meditating will be good for you and create a happier more relaxed and healthier you. This will have a trickle-down effect on all of your family members and it is in their best interest to support you as you go on this newfound journey.

Be consistent with your daily meditation practice. Do not let circumstances take over control of your meditation practice. Before you know it, you will become a pro – just stay consistent.

Tips for Successful Daily Meditation

Many individuals think of sitting on top of a mountaintop with legs folded and fingers poised when thinking about successful meditation.

A Daily meditation practice does not, however, have to be that extreme. As a matter of fact, meditation can be quite simple if you follow a few tried and true tips for successful meditation.

Set Aside an Allotted Time – When it comes to making your daily meditation practice successful, make sure that you have an allotted time set aside each week for this purpose. If you choose to start meditating, it is best, to begin with, a once per week practice until you are more comfortable with the art of meditating.

Even if you have to put it in a red pen on your calendar, put it on your calendar. Use your smartphone to schedule a reminder or even send yourself an email reminding you of your date with rest and relaxation. The rewards of being intentional about meditating are worth their weight in gold.

Pick a Location

Find a soothing, relaxing, and out of the way area for your daily meditation practice. Set up the area with a few comforting photos, some scented candles, a comfy pillow, and a nice throw rug. Even if it is just a corner of your bedroom where you can go and lock yourself in and not be disturbed, it is very important to claim your private space for your meditation retreat.

Educate Yourself

Educate yourself as you get started on your meditation journey so that you will have a base knowledge before you begin. Get some educational materials to view, listen to the Meditation Life Skills Podcast as a learning resource, and gather some reading material on the subject.

Arming yourself with knowledge before you begin will allow you to have a more peaceful and results-oriented experience.

By educating yourself, setting aside a quiet location, letting your family know of your intentions, and securing a quiet spot to meditate in, you can float into a daily meditation experience that is successful and peaceful all rolled into one.

3 Tips to Quiet Your Mind

Meditation For Beginners Guide – Harness The Power Of Your Mind HERE…

If you are not overachieving and extremely busy in today’s society, you are the exception and not the norm. We are all guilty of this; we overextend, overachieve, and overstress ourselves to the point of breaking. Little do we realize, however, that we are hurting our body by hurting our minds.

1) The Art of Gratitude

It is so easy to be upset when things do not go our way. From the moment we spill our coffee, lock our keys in the car, and forget our lunch, a spiral of circumstances can set us off into a tailspin of negativity. However, we can choose to stay in a state of discontent and let that dictate our day, or we can be grateful for the other things in our lives even if they are not present in front of us right now.

Powerful 5 Minute Guided Gratitude Meditation With Script HERE…

Did you ever notice that when something nice happens, we tend to smile for a moment and then move on? However, when something goes wrong, we feel the need to tell everyone and anyone that will listen. It is in those exact moments of discontent that we need to focus on what we are grateful for, and it is then and only then that we will pull ourselves up from discontent.

Keeping the focus on gratitude offers your mind something to smile about, regardless of outside circumstances. Focusing on people, places, and even things that make you grateful gives your mind the quiet respite that it needs to stay active and healthy in the future.

2) A Time for Nothingness

Everyone has a busy schedule; that is a known fact. We all set our schedules to overflowing and then complain that we do not have time for ourselves. Take a good hard look at your schedule and see what you can delete and what you can delegate. If you are going to have a healthy mind, you need to take care of it just as you would your body. One cannot function healthily without the other.

The best tip for quieting your mind is to put that on your schedule. Put it in big red pen on your calendar, text yourself a reminder, and place it on your list of things to do this week.

3) Take a Moment and Focus on Your Task at Hand

Being in the moment has become a cliché; however, if you really take the time and trouble to learn what that means, you will learn how to quiet your mind. Focus on what you are doing at the exact moment you are doing it.

In this way, you are focused on the moment at hand and not two days from now when something big is arising. These are just three helpful tips for quieting your mind.

Easy Breathing Practices For Daily Meditation

While a part of meditation is getting in touch with your awareness, another part has to do with relaxing and clearing your mind. Breathing is an important tool to get to both those places. Breathing may seem as simple as breathing in and out; however, this is not entirely the case.

For mediation to be successful, you will need to read up a little, listen to some mp3’s, and most of all practice a bit of breathing properly. Here are a few easy breathing practices to make your beginning mediation experience an enlightened one.

Proper Sitting for Proper Breathing

First and foremost, make sure that you are comfortable. Sitting upright with a straight spine will help the energy flow and prepare you for proper breathing exercises. Do not sit too rigidly, or you will be uncomfortable and unresponsive to the proper breathing format.

Relaxation of the Body

Once you have gotten into a comfortable seated position, it is important to relax your body to prepare it for breathing techniques and meditation. No matter how well you practice your breathing, if your body is tense, you will not have success. Begin by relaxing the muscles in your toes, moving to your ankles, and work your way all the way up to the top of your head. Once your body is in its relaxed position, then it will be time to begin your proper breathing techniques.

Pay Attention to Your Breaths

In the beginning, simply pay attention to your breaths. Be attuned to the rhythm of the breaths, focusing on the in and out of those breaths. Do not try to control those breaths; just be aware of them. It is very important to be aware of how you are breathing in the beginning before trying to learn any new technique on how to breathe. Being aware is an important part of the process.

Guided Breathing Meditation Course For Anxiety, Worry, and Stress HERE…

Pay Attention to Your Body

Once you are acutely aware of how you breathe, it is important to pay attention to your body. If you are not experiencing your stomach rising and falling with each breath, you may be tense at the moment. It is important to have your breath enter into the nostrils and leave through mouth naturally.

Establish a Rhythm

It is very important to establish a breathing rhythm. Once you become aware of your breathing, you will notice that it is easier to establish a rhythm. Once that rhythm is established, you will find your meditation to flow easily and you will get the most benefit out of your daily meditation.

When and How to Meditate Daily Tips

Once you have decided to invest your time and effort into learning how to meditate, it is also important to decide on the when and the how of meditation.

Meditation will offer many benefits in the areas of health, concentration, stress, anxiety, and joy.

Setting aside a committed time is a very important component of meditation. Making sure that everyone respects your commitment is also vital to the success of your meditation experience.

Make a Strong Commitment To Meditate

The first and probably the most important aspect of beginning meditation is to commit wholeheartedly from the outset. When you speak of meditation, let everyone know that you are going to meditate as part of your routine. Do not say that you are going to “try” meditation; that will only set you up for an easy escape from the beginning.

Make sure that your words and actions are aligned with the commitment to meditate.

Pick a Time For Meditating

Pick a time of day or night and make a commitment to stick to that time and date. Make sure that you choose a time that will always be convenient for you without any disruptions. If that means locking yourself in your room for a period of time before bedtime, get a sign that says that meditation is in practice and do not disturb.

If you choose to practice meditation in the morning, get up a few minutes earlier every day to begin meditation.

Discover 7 Tips To Get the Most Out of Your Daily Meditation Practice HERE…

How Often To Mediate

When you first begin to meditate, keep your expectations in check. Start off slowly and increase the time gradually. In this manner, you will not start off on too high a level with too many expectations and then you will not be disappointed. Give it some time.

Start off with 15-minute intervals each morning. Morning is best because your body has not fully awakened to the stressors of the day. Thereafter, when you begin to see the rewards of meditation, you will be able to increase and adjust your schedule accordingly.

Meditation Posture

Another important aspect of meditation is your posture. A pose that is too rigid or too loose will diminish the meditation experience. Sit with your spine upright, but not too stiff. Sit on the floor on a comfortable blanket or mat.

Make sure that your neck is straight and your shoulders are not slouched, but remember to relax your arms and legs.

It may take some time to adjust your position, but over time, you will realize what the right position is once you have experimented.

Do not expect to be miraculously transformed in the beginning. Meditation – just like anything else – takes time, patience, and practice.

by Don Weyant/Meditation Life Skills

How To Meditate Daily – Just Do These Five Easy Steps…

Want to learn how to meditate daily? It’s not difficult to develop a daily meditation practice, you just need some tools to get started so you can start to feel the benefits of daily meditation in your life.

The Only 5 Things You Need to Know to Begin a Daily Meditation Practice

Always wanted to meditate, but don’t know how? There’s a lot of confusing information about how to
meditate for beginners out there about all the different types of mediation.

If you want to learn how to meditate daily, do something basic to see how it positively impacts your life, you really only need to do these five things to learn how to meditate daily:

Find a quiet place–It’s easiest to meditate when you can find a time and place where you won’t be interrupted. This is a time just for you. You might go into your bedroom and shut the door, for example, signaling to family or roommates that you want to be alone. You might also want to choose a time of day when the environment is less busy. Some people find getting up 15 minutes early to meditate before everyone in the house is up is a great time to practice meditation.
Close your eyes and focus inward–Sit comfortably and close your eyes, focusing on this present moment. You don’t need to sit cross-legged if that isn’t comfortable. You can sit in a chair, on the floor, or even lie down if you can stay alert. Once settled, notice how you feel in your surroundings. Focus only on the moment right now.
Focus on your Breath--An easy way to focus on your breath is to bring your attention to your abdomen. Feel it rise and fall with each breath. Or, you can focus instead on your nostrils, feeling the warm air coming out of your nose and the cool breath going in. If you are having trouble focusing, you can even think to yourself on the inhalations, “breathing in” and, “breathing out” on the exhalations.
Connect with your body–Once settled and focused inward, take notice of your body. How does each part feel? You may want to scan your body, starting with your toes and going all the way up to the top of your head. Just notice and really feel the sensations in your body. Notice tight spots, warm places, and places that feel comfortable. Remember, there’s no need to change anything about how your body feels. You are just noticing.
Notice thinking–When your mind wanders, and it will, that’s okay. That’s what our brain is meant to do. When you notice you are thinking instead of focusing on your breath, simply bring your mind gently back to the breath. This is meditation–bringing your mind back, over and over and over. After practicing meditation for a while, you will notice that your mind wanders less and less.

5 Minute Meditation – Daily Morning Reawakening Session

VIDEO: Guided Breathing Meditation for Anxiety, Worry, Stress

Beginning meditators find it soothing and relaxing to just take a few minutes once or twice a day to stop the busyness of life and check-in with themselves. It’s an easy way to take a break, clear your mind, and be able to go back to your normal activities refreshed. You only need 5 or 10 minutes to start enjoying the benefits of learning how to meditate daily.

Video – How to Practice Daily Meditation

To practice daily meditation is to make a commitment. A commitment to your practice, and a commitment to yourself. When you practice daily, you will find out more about yourself than in any other practice that you do. It is important to find a time that works for you.

For some of us, that is the first thing in the morning when we wake up. For some, it is evening time at the end of a long day, but before the evening activities begin. For others, it is right before bedtime. Any time of the day that you choose, though, set that as your daily time.

Then the next step is to find a place to meditate. Find a comfortable area that can house your meditation tools. Your timer, your cushion, your altar. Photographs that you want to have around you. This way you have a place to go that all the energy from your meditation feeds into.

Then you make your commitment to sit. Start with five minutes every day. When you sit down, close your eyes, and feel a calmness come over you. Start to focus on your breath. As the breath moves in, you can silently say ‘inhale,’ and as the breath moves out, you can say ‘exhale.’ Do this as you continue your meditation practice until your timer goes off.

Now you have a solid foundation to learn how to meditate daily. Practice daily meditation, and you will find deep changes in your life, and in your relationships.

But I Don’t Have Time to Meditate

For most of us, the thought of stuffing one more thing into our daily routine is enough to make us scream! There’s always rushing around to do, always somewhere to be and something to do. We often feel we work non-stop from dawn till dusk until we finally collapse in our beds at night in preparation to get a few hours of sleep so that we can get up and do it all again tomorrow.

But is that really living? Or just existing? What about finding joy in our lives and really living each moment to the fullest. Do you think those are ideas that only work for other people? Perhaps, suddenly finding a few minutes in learning how to meditate daily doesn’t sound like such a monumental task!

Consistent daily meditation practice has been proven to improve overall mood and feelings of well-being, reduce stress and anxiety, reduce depression, and more tolerance for situations that used to cause stress. Sign me up, right?

But the question still remains – when can you find the time to learn the techniques on how to meditate for beginners?

The good news is that you don’t have to commit to hours of meditation a day to see these emotional benefits. In as little as 10-15 minutes a day of consistent meditation is enough to start enjoying life more. Medical studies show that these changes can occur in as little as 8 weeks of daily meditation practice.

Another piece of good news is that mediation is easy to do. Yes, there are many different types of how to meditate daily instruction available, but the basic instruction in each form of meditation is the same. Sit quietly, follow your breath, and notice when your mind wanders. There’s no need to spend months in classes learning how to do it…you can start right now.

5 Minute Meditation – Daily Morning Reawakening Session

While it’s good to set a time each day to meditate formally in a place where you won’t be distracted, you can also take your meditation on the fly! Try going inside and focusing on your breath while:

Standing inline
Taking a coffee break at work
Stopped at a red light
Waiting in traffic
Sitting in meetings
Stopped for a train
Sitting at your desk

Taking just 3 focused deep breaths can relax your sympathetic nervous system, which is the center for our fight or flight response.

When the sympathetic nervous system is “turned off,” the parasympathetic nervous system is able to help calm down and regain a balanced mindset.

Since we breathe all the time, surely we can take a few chances each day to stop, close our eyes (if possible), and focus on 3 nice, deep breaths.

Many people find that they can understand how to meditate daily very easily by just finding 10-15 minutes each day to meditate, especially after they experience the calming influence it has on them.

Easy tips for how to meditate daily that work for many people include:

Getting up 15 minutes earlier before the rest of the house is up
Turning off the TV or stopping other evening routines 15 minutes earlier
Right after putting the children to bed
During a part of their lunch hour
During a “coffee break”

Benefits Of Daily Meditation

Ah, meditation. The art and practice of calming the mind and reducing stress. Yes, meditation does, in fact, help you become calmer and less stressed. The beauty of how to meditate daily; however, is that it does so much more. It can make you happier and healthier mentally, emotionally, and physically. But it doesn’t stop there! Keep reading to find out what other great benefits can be gained from meditation:

Develops the ability to let go of worry and regrets

Meditation actually helps the mind recognize, acknowledge, and redirect what neuroscientists call the “Default Mode Network.” It’s the network that commands common traits like worry, self-doubt, self-reproach, negativity, and regret.

Stimulates feelings of well-being, happiness, and equanimity

Doesn’t it feel good too, well, feel good? Meditation gives us the pleasure of enjoying life better. We learn to appreciate the world and people around us more, and the little irritations in life don’t seem to bother us as much.

Enhancements focus and concentration

Our brains learn how to focus like a laser during meditation. This concentration and focus we have during formal meditation flows over into our regular day so that we get more done in less time.

Meditation For Beginners: 20 Practical Tips To Quiet the Mind HERE…

Encourages compassion towards self and others

Have you ever noticed that when you’re stressed, you tend to lash out at people? You’re not alone. Fortunately, learning how to meditate daily can take care of that too. It encourages us to pursue life with a benevolent and curious awareness that leads to more fruitful and healthier relationships, including with ourselves.

Decreases stress, anxiety and depression

There’s more stress in our lives than ever, and more people are being treated for depression and anxiety than ever before. Stress occurs depending on how we respond to a challenging situation, while anxiety results from frequently thinking about the future and depression come from focusing too much on the past. All three of these can be greatly reduced by practicing meditation, where we learn to live in the present moment.

Diminishes negative self-talk

Learning how to meditate daily makes us keenly aware of the negative self-talk that is constantly chattering in the back of our minds. That awareness allows us to recognize self-reproach and self-doubt for what they are—just thoughts. Once we are aware of them and see them for what they are, we can choose not to buy into them. We can stop them before they really get a hold on our peace of mind.

Nurtures acceptance of change

It’s fair to say that most of us hate change. But through learning how to meditate daily, we come to accept change easier. We come to accept that life progresses and changes, and that we must progress and change with it. By cultivating our curious awareness, we can more fully appreciate the transformations that life naturally brings.

Learning how to meditate daily and reduces perfectionistic and rigid thinking

Meditation helps us fully understand that perfection does not exist. As meditators, we are better able to contend with our crazy, imperfect, and mostly out of our control world.

Decreases the need for attaching to outcomes

Lastly, meditation frees us from preconceived notions regarding the world around us. We then create fewer expectations. When we have fewer expectations, we can let our lives flow, which increases our happiness and peace of mind.

Learning How To Meditate Daily: An Introduction

There are many types of meditation instruction, and with our access to information in our modern world, it’s easy to find out about them so that you can choose the one or ones that feel right for you.

Depending on what you want to focus on, you might choose a different type of meditation instruction.

Below is just a shortlist to get you started thinking about what types are available and which ones might be right for you.

Guided Meditation

Guided meditations are great for every practitioner, especially beginners who might be finding it challenging to calm their minds. Many beginners start with these and then find they can branch out to other forms. You can find many different guided meditations online, in the form of MP3 audio downloads, meditation podcast, and even videos.

They are exactly what the name states–a person guides the meditator through meditation, often through the use of visualizing or using affirmations. Some focus on whole-body relaxations, such as body scans. They come in many different lengths, which is nice. You might choose some shorter ones to use when you don’t have much time and then longer ones when you do.

Transcendental Meditation

This type of mediation is making a comeback after it’s popularity in the ’60s and early 70’s. It was very popular with celebrities of the time, including The Beatles, John Denver, and The Beach Boys. Transcendental Meditation is a mantra-based meditation in which a word or phrase is repeated over and over during meditation.

Mantras are used in many traditions in learning how to meditate daily to help focus the mind. Practitioners meditate for 15-20 minutes twice a day while reciting their mantra. Mantras are giving to individuals by their Transcendental Meditation teacher. This type of mediation requires you to find a licensed instructor, and there is a fee involved.

Transcendental Meditation – A Great Starting Point For You

Moving Meditations

Rather than sit with eyes closed, moving meditations focus on the sensations felt in the body while in motion. Many people who like the idea of meditation but not the sitting gravitate to this form of instruction. Some types of moving meditations include Yoga and Qigong. To try these, you can find free and low-cost sources online or take a class in your area.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation has its roots in Vipassana meditation, one form of Buddhist meditation. One of its leaders, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, is well-known in the West. Mindfulness meditation is known in the West mostly due to Jon Kabat-Zinn, a doctor who created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. This form included sitting and focusing on the present moment and on the breath, attempting not to change anything.

Binaural Beats Meditation

Brainwave synchronization has been used for centuries, but the modern world is just beginning to realize the positive benefits. Studies now report that the use of binaural beats can hasten the process of meditation and let you reach meditative states that you’ve never before been able to achieve.

Binaural beats for meditation selects certain brainwaves to stimulate the brain and cause deeply relaxed meditation or mental alertness, depending on the mental state you desire. All different types of binaural beats meditations can be found online. You can even try some of them out for free to see if they are a good fit for you.

Spending time and focused effort in learning how to meditate daily will be one of the most rewarding and important activities you can engage in. Daily meditation produces benefits over your entire lifetime. The long term and short term benefits will be with you until you die. Very few activities in life will pay off like a daily meditation practice. Don’t take my word for it, put these meditation techniques to work for you, and never look back!

how to meditate daily

What Is The Actual Meaning Of Meditation?

Proven Benefits Of Meditation and Breathing Exercises Include:

How can I learn to meditate on my own?

Guided Meditations For Beginners

5 Minute Meditation – Setting Intentions For Your Highest Good

Theta Binaural Beats Download For A Deep Meditation Experience

How do I learn to meditate? 4 Powerful Methods…

1) Meditative Grounding Exercise

Here’s how you can do this on your own:

2) Energy Cleaning Exercise

10-minute Guided Energy Cleansing Meditation

Learn how to do this on your own:

3) Breathing Exercise

How you can learn this very important breath meditation:

4) Retrieve Your Energy Meditation Exercise

Guided Meditation to Boost Energy with Deepak Chopra

Meditation Journal Questions:

Ideas To Consider:

How To Meditate Daily

Best Daily Meditation Techniques for New Practitioners

The 5 Earth & Space Element Meditations to Help You with Your Practice

Meditation Before Bed? Is This a Good Idea?

Getting a Good Night’s Sleep with Guided Meditation

The Secret For How To Meditate Daily is Body Awareness

Daily Meditation Benefits: Create a New Way of Being You

How To Meditate: Understanding the Purpose of Meditation

Meditation Podcast: 3 Easy Steps To Start Your Daily Meditation Practice At Home

Meditation Facts: A daily meditation practice brings many benefits:

Meditation Podcast: Beautiful Guided Meditation and Script For Relaxation and Healing Your Mind and Body

The Top 10 Reasons Why Your Meditation Practice Might Not Be Working For You

Meditation Podcast: Guided Breathing Meditation for Anxiety, Worry, Stress

Click on this link from Asana Recovery to find out more information about how you can use Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Meditation to Treat Pain Without Opioids and Why You Should Consider an Alternative to Opioids.

Meditation Podcast: Simple Ways You Can Start Meditating Today!

Beginner’s Floating Visualization Guided Meditation – Free Mp3 Download!

Set Up a Daily Meditation Habit for a Fulfilling Life

Beginner Daily Meditation Techniques

Tips for Successful Daily Meditation

3 Tips to Quiet Your Mind

1) The Art of Gratitude

2) A Time for Nothingness

3) Take a Moment and Focus on Your Task at Hand

Easy Breathing Practices For Daily Meditation

When and How to Meditate Daily Tips

Make a Strong Commitment To Meditate

Pick a Time For Meditating

How Often To Mediate

Meditation Posture

5 Minute Meditation – Daily Morning Reawakening Session

VIDEO: Guided Breathing Meditation for Anxiety, Worry, Stress

But I Don’t Have Time to Meditate

5 Minute Meditation – Daily Morning Reawakening Session

Taking just 3 focused deep breaths can relax your sympathetic nervous system, which is the center for our fight or flight response.

Easy tips for how to meditate daily that work for many people include:

Benefits Of Daily Meditation

Learning How To Meditate Daily: An Introduction

Transcendental Meditation – A Great Starting Point For You

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