How to Meditate

 

10.08.2021 HOW TO MEDITATE In Lion’s Roar’s 2006 interview with Thich Nhat Hanh, the famed teacher of mindfulness lauded the benefits of meditation. “The practice of meditation helps us to release the tension — within the body, within the mind, within the emotions — so that healing can take place,” he said. And yet we can still find it difficult to prioritize meditation. Perhaps we think we don’t have the time, even though a simple meditation practice can be done in as little as one minute. Maybe we feel we don’t have the necessary “props,” even though all we need is our breath and a place to sit. We might also worry that our mind is so busy the practice simply won’t work, but the truth is you can’t fail at meditation. Whether you’re an experienced meditator struggling to keep up with your practice, a beginner finding it hard to stay on track, or you’ve never meditated before, our new “How to Meditate” page should give you just the inspiration you need. There you can learn how to meditate, practice along with guided audio, understand the benefits of meditation, and have your questions about cultivating a consistent practice answered. You’ll find our page below, along with two great teachings about starting (or restarting) a meditation practice. We hope this page will help you on your journey. —Lilly Greenblatt, Digital Editor, Lion’s Roar

How to Meditate Beginner meditation techniques are simple; if you can breathe, you can meditate. In this step-by-step guide on how to meditate, we answer your questions. Before you learn how to meditate, it’s helpful to know what meditation is. The most common form of meditation is breath meditation, or mindfulness meditation, in which you bring your attention to your breathing. While breathing in and out, observe when and how your mind wanders to thoughts — for example, everyday stresses of relationships and work — and then return your focus to your breath. By learning to continually bring your attention to your breath and releasing your thoughts without judgment, you are training your consciousness to remain in the present moment. Making this a habit can lead to an emotionally stable state of mental clarity. “The practice of meditation helps us to release the tension — within the body, within the mind, within the emotions — so that healing can take place,” says Thich Nhat Hanh, the famed teacher of mindfulness and meditation.

5 Reasons to Meditate Yes, it’s a strange thing to do — just sit there and do basically nothing. Yet the simple act of stopping, says Pema Chödrön, is the best way to cultivate our good qualities. Here are five ways meditation makes us better people. The fourth quality we develop in meditation is something I’ve been touching on all along, and that is the ability to become awake to our lives, to each and every moment, just as it is. This is the absolute essence of meditation. We develop attention to this very moment; we learn to just be here. And we have a lot of resistance to just being here! When I first started practicing, I thought I wasn’t good at it. It took me a while to realize that I had a lot of resistance to just being here now. Just being here—attention to this very moment—does not provide us with any kind of certainty or predictability. But when we learn how to relax into the present moment, we learn how to relax with the unknown.

How to Start a Home Meditation Practice Zen teacher Norman Fischer proposes a two-week trial run to get your meditation practice started and looks at how to deal with some of the obstacles you may encounter. When people ask me how to get a home meditation practice started, here is what I tell them: the practice begins the night before. Before you go to sleep, set the alarm for half an hour earlier than usual, and say to yourself: “Tomorrow morning I am going to get up to sit. I want to do this, and it is going to be pleasant and helpful.” Hold that thought in your mind. Then, as you are falling asleep, say this: “Am I actually going to wake up early and meditate?” And answer yourself: “Yes, I am.” And then question yourself again: “Really?” Take this seriously. Think a little more and answer yourself honestly. If the answer is, “Yes, really,” then you will get up. You are serious about it. But if the answer is, “No, I have to admit that I am probably going to reset the alarm and turn over to get that delicious extra half hour of sleep,” then save yourself the trouble. Reset the alarm now and don’t even try to get up.

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