Meditation is a practice that goes a long way in the life of the meditator on the long term. There is a wide range of benefits it comes with including peace, reduction of stress, anxiety and depression and emotional mastery, to name a few.
Getting started with meditation at home can be quite a daunting task if you have never done it before. However, if you understand the basics of what is needed and what you should do to make it go smoothly for you, you will not have many problems doing the practice.
We explain here how to do meditation at home the fairly easy and smooth way.
Understanding the Basics of Meditation
If you know what meditation really is, then the next natural step is to find your preffered type of meditation. There are numerous styles that people use to meditate and they are all done differently. It is important that you acquaint yourself with a good deal of them to know what they are and they offer when you work with them.
Understanding the type of meditation you want to get into, how it works and what beliefs and traditions it is based on is essential as that helps you know if it is your right fit going by what you also believe in and your personality as a whole.
As you choose the meditation style you feel can fulfill your needs, be sure you take time to understand what you desire to get out of meditation and for the style that offers that as well as one that blends in with the things that you believe in.
If you are a spiritual person and wish to improve your spiritual life, you should go with spiritual meditation. That is the criteria of getting a practice that you will not have trouble doing and which won’t require you to change your beliefs and personal inclinations.
Please check the various types of meditation here.
Working With Guided Meditation
After picking the right meditation style for yourself, you should now focus on learning how to do the practice correctly. Most people often fail to get the kind of benefits they look forward to in meditation because of failing to do it right.
It is critical that you teach yourself how you should prepare for meditation, understand what you will be experiencing and what it means as well as how you handle the experiences, and how to conclude the session successfully.
These are the main aspects of meditation you should seek to understand before doing the practice.
As many beginners start out, they tend to sleep during the practice and this can be very disappointing if you don’t know about it. But learning why it happens and how to avoid sleeping during your meditation session saves you a lot of hassles.
Guided meditation is the best place to start when doing meditation. It gives you the foundation you need for the style you are doing and also allows you to enjoy its benefits even when you have not mastered the actual style you are working with.
Guided meditation is pretty much a guide for the style you are doing. It allows you to learn how to do it while still meditating and getting the real experience of meditation.
This meditation comes in the form of audios, videos, meditation apps or scripts. It can also be a physically present meditation trainer.
At home, it is better to work with apps, audios and videos of the meditation type you are doing as they are far cheaper than hiring a meditation trainer.
However, there are other types of this exercise like transcendental meditation that require one-on-one training and a lot of customizations that can only be done with the help of a meditation expert. Here, you need to be guided by a physical trainer to be successful and have a valuable experience.
As you get guided meditation resources, it helps to do your research well and ensure you get resources that have been made by real experts in the area, that offer the full version of the practice and are from credible sources.
Tips to Make Home Meditation Effective
* Add meditation to your schedule – Meditation is a long term project and you should take it as such immediately you begin. This means you have to plan for it and add it to your daily schedule so that it becomes a habit. Identify the time you feel is best for you to meditate and make sure you follow the plan on a daily basis. This helps you establish that frequency of meditation that is required to enjoy the benefits.
* Start small in terms of meditation sessions – Meditation might be a little difficult when you begin. But this is normal just like you have a hard time making a new skill work for you. That is why it is recommended that you take your time before you start doing the “hardcore” stuff. Just start small by meditating for 1 to 5 minutes a day, and as you get comfortable with it, you can keep increasing the time and length of your sessions.
* Your mind will wander away, focus – One of the “hardcore” areas of meditation is mind wandering. During your session, you are supposed to focus on what the type of meditation you are doing recommends. It can be breath, sensations, feelings or thoughts. And despite the meditation type you are doing, your mind will often drift off to other things. You will lose focus on the practice and find yourself thinking about other things.
But you should always reduce these moments of distraction so as to allow the mind to be quiet. Just as Jiddu Krishnamurti, the Indian philosopher, writer, speaker and meditation expert says, “To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
When you get distracted, what you should do is to become aware of the drift and slowly and gently direct the focus back to the practice. You will have to do this a lot of times until you are able to focus completely on the practice.
* Remember why you are doing (your source of motivation) – Your “why” in Meditation is another key aspect that helps you remain committed to the practice and be serious about it. As you start out, be very clear about why you feel you want to get involved in meditation. Define your reasons properly and make them stick in your mind. If possible, write them down somewhere to remind you always as you go to meditate. This will help you remain disciplined and focused not to mention giving you the attitude and energy you need to work harder and overcome the obstacles on your way.
Doing meditation at home is perhaps one of the best decisions you can make. It helps you master your mind and body amidst all the troubles and sufferings that life throws at you so that have a more peaceful, calm and fulfilled life.
It doesn’t take away the intensity of the problems you face daily. It strengthens you to handle them well while you keep your harmony and serenity intact.
Meditation is not the easiest practice but it is also not as hard as many people perceive. If you get the basics right and work with them consistently, you will get in the flow and find the practice fairly easier to do.
Get started right away and start reaping the benefits.
This is such an interesting topic that I would love to learn more about… thanks for sharing all this valuable info! Improving brain power is so important especially as we get older and there are so many things we can do like you have covered here in your site. I especially enjoyed reading the 15 tips on how to live in the present moment. This list should help everyone nowadays!!
Hallo there Alyse,
Thanks for stopping by and for your encouraging words.
We desire to help every willing person have enough information to improve the power and performance of their brains.
Cheers,
The IYBP Team
Well then…….Such helpful information. Had it in my mind for a while try meditating. Guess I’ll have to do a bit more reading before starting meditation. Had no clue people sleep during the meditation process. Thanks for the home meditation tips as well. Now I know what preparation needs to be done before jumping into it.
Hallo there Anna,
We are happy to have you here.
Meditation comes with a lot of experiences which vary with the individual.
That is why we always encourage beginners to take time and understand what they are up for.
It helps you be prepared to handle it.
Feel free to look around our other posts on meditation, there is lots of value there too. 🙂
We wish you the best as you get started with meditation.
Cheers,
The IYBP Team
Thanks for this amazing article, I actually engage one or two of this to build up my emotional health when my supposed fiance disappointed me,I engaged in yoga, listening to music more and reading books like “Emotional Agility by Susan David, PhD” during my quiet time, it really help me during my down time.
Thanks once again.
Hallo there Edah,
It is nice to have you here.
We are sorry to hear about your issue with your fiancée.
We wish you the best in your relationship.
It is nice that you took the time to work on your emotional health otherwise the sad event would have really affected you.
Emotional Agility is a really great read and we are sure it came in handy for you. 🙂
We wish you all the luck in your self improvement journey and life as a whole.
Cheers,
The IYBP Team
Great article on how to go about with meditation. It’s somehow funny, how people tend to fall asleep while meditating as a beginner. Most do not know or forget that when you are beginning something for the first time, you have to start in small sessions for you to gain understand and then progress into have longer sessions. Great tips too 😉 and thanks for sharing.
Hallo there Volkert,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the topic.
We appreciate active contribution. 🙂
About starting small, we think some people get into meditation with the wrong notion and when they have not done their research well.
They think when they sit to meditate, they are going to get into another world as they imagine with the buddhist monks shown on TV.
But we cannot blame them as we have all been misled in one way or another.
The most important thing is to do research well before getting into anything.
It is the only way to be sure.
Have a nice day!
Cheers,
The IYBP Team
Very well explained I liked it. Thanks for home meditation tips.
You are welcome, Amit.
We are happy that you liked our post.
Feel free to check our other posts.
There is lots of value there too.
Cheers,
The IYBP Team