This post is all about meditation 101: a beginners guide.

Have you ever felt stressed, anxious, or just like your mind is racing at the speed of light? 

When was the last time you ever sat down and relaxed, just cleared your mind, and took a moment to live in the present, to breathe without thinking about the past, the future, your to-do list, etc?

We live in a world that goes at a frantic speed, and we have adopted the bad habit of never taking even a couple of minutes out of our day to clear our mind and regain our focus, a couple of minutes to just breathe and… exist.

And while this may work for a while, in the end, our minds will reach a state where we feel overcharged, we feel overwhelmed emotionally, we suffer from stress and anxiety, we start making bad decisions in all areas of our life or even losing sight of our direction and our purpose.

So, is there anything we could do in our daily life that could help us slow down, relax, unwind, and even help us become better people? 

The answer is that this solution actually exists and it´s called meditation. So if you have ever wondered what meditation is and how to practice it, you´ve come to the right place because you are going to learn all about meditation, its benefits, how can you practice it, how should practice it if you are a beginner and couple of meditation uses I am sure will surprise you!

Let´s begin…

What is meditation?

Let´s start with the basics which is what is meditation?

Unlike what you might have heard, meditation is not about sitting in funky positions, or a religious practice (even though it´s an ancient practice of numerous religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam)

Meditation is a simple, effective, and scientifically proven exercise for your brain, which has a lot of benefits both short-term and long-term.

One of the biggest misconceptions about meditation is that this practice consists of sitting down crosslegged on the floor and keeping your mind blank for a couple of minutes a day. But that couldn’t be farther from being the truth.

Meditation is not about keeping your mind blank or pushing your thoughts away, but about engaging with the present moment, becoming more aware of your thoughts and emotions, and finally an incredibly powerful exercise to relax your body and your mind.

As a beginner, this may be difficult to do at first so strive to calm your mind and tap into the present moment, but as your experience with this practice grows try taking a step back from your mind and let your thoughts come in and flow. Don´t judge or engage with them, simply observe them with kindness and an open mind and you will find that when you don´t get caught up on them they simply flow.

Aside from becoming more aware of your thoughts and tapping into the present moment meditation can also be used first of all as mentioned earlier, as a relaxation exercise to help us unwind and disconnect from the thoughts and events of the day. And second of all as a tool to help us change our inner dialogue for the same reason that it will help us become more aware of our thoughts.

How is that? Well, even though thinking is an indispensable action in our lives the sad truth is that these thoughts create a kind of filter that distorts our reality, and sometimes it even prevents us from enjoying the present moment.

And another fact we have to admit is that most of the time, these thoughts are not even positive. We, more often than we would like to admit, are constantly judging ourselves, those of our environment, feeding negative feelings such as hatred, anger, greed…

But when you take a step back from your thoughts and become an observer, something we will talk about more in-depth soon, you´ll be able to identify these negative self-talk to then be able to change it into something empowering, useful, and positive.

How much time should you be meditating and how often?

Regarding the question of how often you should be meditating the choice is entirely yours, however, many experts recommend that it is done at least once a day to truly see any results and impacts in your life.

For starts you could try blocking a couple of sessions a week and start increasing that number as your level of experience grows to a longer session once a day, or even two smaller sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoons.

It is recommended that if you practice meditation you do sessions of at least 10 to 20 minutes, however, this may be changed and adapted. Just know that this time set is not rigid and to go with makes you feel good and works for you!

Now as a beginner it is far more important that you meditate consistently instead of the actual duration of your practice. So to start you could try meditating for 5 minutes and start increasing the duration as you become more comfortable and confident with the exercise.

Benefits of meditation

So what are the effects of meditation? Why should I spend 10 to 15 minutes of my time in this practice?

One of the many benefits of meditating is becoming aware of the tendencies of your mind like wandering, as well as increasing your awareness not only of your thoughts but of your emotions as well, by, as we said earlier, becoming an observer of your thoughts.

Now I am not going to lie to you or promise you that you´ll feel this way or that way once your start meditating, because first of all that is different for everyone, but something that I can assure you will happen, is that once you get comfortable with this practice, you start taping in the present moment, relaxing your mind and most importantly becoming an observer of your thoughts, you´ll discover and become aware of many toxic and negative thought patterns and emotions, like greed and aversion.

By meditating you allude and release these negative thoughts and emotions, and you know what will happen next?… You get to decide, you are the one writing the script, but once you start getting rid of your fear and your mental blockades, you will see yourself, fully embodied.

Even though this is easier said than done and there may be thought patterns and emotions that are more difficult to release than others, I want you to remember and most important to use meditation as a technique of self-improvement and personal development, not just as an exercise to relax your mind.

Because meditation has the power to change your mindset, to change your inner dialogue, and consequently to change your life.

You will still go through challenges, you won’t feel a divine energy around you or feel magically enlightened, everything will probably remain the same, only it won’t be the same because now you are different, because meditation will have given you the tools and the skills to overcome these things. 

What does meditation actually consist of? Types and practices.

Okay now I know what meditation is, its incredible benefits, and how it affects my body both physically and mentally, but how can I actually meditate? What do I have to do?

Well, meditation is, in fact, an extremely simple practice and although there are several types of meditation (transcendental meditation, zen meditation ) today we will be focusing on 2 of them which are concentrative meditation and mindfulness meditation.

Concentrative meditation

Concentrative meditation is the type that involves focusing all of your attention on a specific thing, an anchor while tuning out everything else around you.  

An anchor is basically a thought or a “point” to focus your attention on and to help you reenter that state of mental peace every time your mind starts wondering. 

This anchor could be something like a mantra, an empowering affirmation, counting to up to ten, or focusing on your breath.

Little tip: to help you maintain focus on your breathing and enter that state of calmness try to focus on one of the key points of breathing respiration: the nose, your chest, or your stomach. Choose one of these parts of your body and feel how the air enters and exits your body, how you inhale and exhale

When you first try meditation you might feel frustrated because of the flood of thoughts entering your mind making you lose that state of calm that you want to achieve, like what will I have for dinner tonight, where did I leave my keys, or you start to remember that incredibly embarrassing moment you would rather forget.

But the reality is that this is a pretty normal thing to happen and in fact, every time you lose your focus and regain it feels like a bicep curl for your brain, which forces your brain to exercise and break the bad habit of wandering.

So remember losing your focus is pretty normal, especially when you are a beginner, and in these moments I just want you to focus on your anchor, and regain that state of peacefulness.

Mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness meditation is the type that encourages being in touch with the present moment, being aware of yourself and your surrounding, instead of dwelling on the past and the future, a bad habit we often practice.

One of the best things about this practice is that you can do it anywhere: while waiting in line at the grocery store, in traffic, etc., by simply noticing your surroundings including the sounds, smells, sights you experience.

Meditation is about allowing the present moment to be as it

Eckhart Tolle

If you want to learn more about mindfulness, make sure to check out What is mindfulness? Learn the art of living life consciously!

How to practice meditation

So how is it exactly that you can practice meditation? Well there are in fact many different ways to practice it, but today I want to show you a pretty basic and beginner-friendly technique you can try today: 

• First of all, choose a quiet spot that is free of distractions. Turn off your phone, television, and other possible distractions. If you choose to play quiet music, choose something that is calm and relaxing.

• Set a time limit. As a beginner, you might want to stick to shorter sessions of about 5 in length, and you can always gradually increase the length of the sessions as you become familiar with the practice.

Little tip: If you are meditating on your own, I highly suggest you set an alarm before you start meditating, that way you can fully immerse in a state of peacefulness and be in the present moment rather than wondering how much time has passed or checking your phone for the time.

• Pay attention to your body and get comfortable. You can sit cross-legged on the floor or in a chair, or lay in bed as long as you feel that you can sit comfortably for several minutes at a time.

• Focus on your breathing. Try taking deep breaths that expand your belly and then slowly exhale. Pay attention to how each breath feels.

• Notice your thoughts. The purpose of meditation is not to clear your mind— as we learned earlier your mind is inevitably going to wander and trying to keep it blank is unachievable as well as pointless. So instead, focus on gently bringing your attention back to your anchor whenever you notice your thoughts drifting. Don’t judge your thoughts, get caught up on them, or try to analyze them; simply observe them and their nature.

For the actual practice, you could try the method explained earlier, or you could simply search on youtube for a guided meditation. There are thousands of guided meditations so make sure you try a couple to see which one you like and which works best for you.

Thank you so much for investing your time in this article. I hope the tools, tips, and exercises found here will help you start your meditation journey on the right foot and that you are now able to understand the incredibly powerful tool that you have in hand. 

How was your experience the first time you meditated? I´d love to hear it in the comments!