I was inspired to write this post after a friend on Instagram told me that she was interested in meditation but couldn’t keep up with it so I wanted to share some tips on how I made maintain my daily meditation practice. I did a post discussing my yoga and meditation journey in a previous post so make sure to go read that post before you read this one. Hopefully, this post will also help those who are also interested in starting meditation.
My interest in meditation started a few years ago but couldn’t keep up with it because I thought I don’t have enough time, I feel like a lot of people think that. Well, I believe that if something is really important to you you would make time for it. Whether this is a habit, quality self-care time, time with friends, family, or pets, whatever it is, if it’s important you need to find a way to squeeze it into your day. So I made time for meditation and I’m so thankful that I did because implementing meditation into my life has improved my overall health.
Incorporating daily meditation into my routine has helped me with my anxiety, depression, and my emotions. Yes! One of the benefits I’ve noticed is how well I can control my emotions. For some background, I’ve always been an emotional person (I am a Cancer after all, lol) but growing up I was told by countless family members that expressing a certain emotion was ridiculous or I was being a drama queen. Because of this, I have always had a bad relationship with my emotional side and expressing myself fully. When I say emotions, I mean all types, the good kind, and the not-so-good kind. When I was younger, I would cry a lot and it’s something that I carried into my adulthood. It wasn’t until I developed depression that I noticed a shift in my emotions. I went through phases where I would be incredibly emotional and then there were times where I felt emotional but my body couldn’t comprehend those emotions and I wouldn’t feel anything, numbness. Anyways, this post isn’t about my depression (that’s for another day) but I just want to give some information on the journey of my emotions to help you better understand where I’m coming from.
Since begging meditation I’ve noticed that I’ve become better at maintaining a calm exterior. Don’t get me wrong, I still get mad, happy, sad, and feel all the emotions but I noticed that I’m not overwhelmed by my emotions. I don’t dwell on my emotions anymore either. Whenever I feel a toxic emotion instead of reacting right away, I breathe and think about why I’m feeling that emotion. What is making me feel anger? Why am I feeling jealous? Then I tell myself, it’s alright to feel this emotion and just like that I don’t feel the repercussions of that feeling. Sounds cheesy, I know! However, all this happened internally in my subconscious. So if you’re an emotional one, I would highly recommend you give meditation a try to see if it can help you control your emotions better.
MY ROUTINE
I start my day with meditation every day. After I’ve finished my workout for the day I will end with a quick yoga routine and 10-20 minutes of meditation. I lay on my yoga mat and start by just deep breathing for 5 minutes. I use Insight Timer to track my meditation progress, I’ve meditated for 90 days in a row without skipping a single session! There are several types of Meditation techniques out there but here are some that I’ve done and would recommend.
Visualization Meditation
My favorite way to meditate is to visualize my ideal life, this is also how I manifest. Think about the dreams that you have and try your best to visualize yourself living out your dreams. For example, I visualize my dream home, job, city, body, car, friends, pets, etc. By doing this, I was able to manifest my dream of going to Seoul so I know it works!
Mantra Meditation
When I’m feeling down, I’ll meditate and repeat positive mantras like Everything you want, also wants you back, I love myself, You’re so strong, Trust your vision, You are exactly where you need to be, things like that. I repeat these mantras while in meditation and always feel better afterward.
Just Breath
When I have a lot of thought running through my head, I’ll just lay there and breathe. Sometimes it’s best to just focus on your breath and give the thinking mind a break.
MEDITATION TIPS
Guided meditation
If you’re completely new to meditation and get distracted easily, try a guided meditation. They’re easy to follow and the narrator will guide you through breathing exercises.
Start off with 5 minutes
What I did when I first started was I looked on Youtube for 5-min meditation music and picked one with music that I found relaxing. Eventually, I added another 5-minutes and then another 5-minutes because I craved more time. It sounds weird, I know, but if you regularly keep up with meditation you’ll feel this draw to meditation as well.
Make it part of your routine
The best way to add a new habit to your life is to make a routine out of it. For me, meditation is the last step of my workout routine. I do yoga as a part of my workout routine to stretch out my body and get in some good deep breathing. As the final step of my workout routine, I’ll lay in a corpse pose and begin meditating. Try to find a time in your day where you can squeeze in simple meditation practice, maybe before bed or first thing before you get out of bed in the morning.
Lay On Your Back
I think a lot of people assume that in order to meditate you need to sit on the ground cross-legged but you can use your back as well. In fact, I encourage it! I used to always sit cross-legged on the floor to meditate. But now, I like to just lay on my back on a yoga mat. It just feels better to me. I also have a window where I do yoga so I can hear the birds and see the sky when I open my eyes after my session is over and I just feel so blissful! haha
Create An Ambiance
When I meditate, I turn on my essential diffuser, roll out my yoga mat, turn off all noises in my room, turn on my timer, and just sit in silence. Your space really sets the mood so create a peaceful ambiance so that your space has a tranquil zen vibe.
Do you find it easy to meditate?
Meditation really helped me with my anxiety to, I haven’t really kept up with that or working out recently but it’s a habit I want to get back into because it’s so beneficial for my overall mental health which I’ve been having a lot of difficulties with recently so I might try some guided meditation to get myself back into it xoxo
Yes, it’s super beneficial for your overall health. Good luck Cate! ♥