I was inspired to write this post after a friend on Instagram told me that she was interested in picking up meditation so I wanted to share some tips on how I maintain my daily meditation practice. A few months ago, I wrote a post discussing my yoga and meditation journey so make sure to go read that post before (or after) 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 most people think that way. Well, I believe that if something is really important to you then you will 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 that time into your life. We all have the same 24 hours but how you use that time is up to you. You could spend hours on social media mindlessly scrolling or you could take a few minutes to take care of your mental health by closing your eyes and deep breathing (meditating) for a few breaths. The decision is up to you!
Incorporating meditation into my routine has helped me calm my anxiety, depression, and emotions. Yes! One of the benefits I’ve noticed is how well I can control my emotions or at least they don’t blow up as much as they used to. 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 being too emotional (there is no such thing) was ridiculous or I was being a ‘drama queen’. Because of this, I have always had a bad relationship with my emotions and fully expressing myself. 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 months where I felt no emotion at all. Anyways, this post isn’t about my depression (that’s for another day) but I just want to give some background information on the journey of my emotions to help you better understand where I’m coming from.
Since beginning 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 in between but I noticed that I’m not overwhelmed by these emotions anymore. Whenever I feel a toxic emotion instead of reacting right away, I’m calm and think before I react or sometimes I just let it roll off my shoulder. So if you are an emotional person you might consider implementing meditation into your life so that you can mange your emotional and improve your health.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDITATIONS
Visualization Meditation
My favorite way to meditate is to visualize my ideal life, this is a way that I manifest. Think about the dreams that you have and try your best to visualize yourself living out your dreams. Picture yourself in as much detail as you can, for example, visualize your dream home, job, city, body, car, friends, pets, etc. Imagine the scents, sounds, tastes, the more details you can picture the better! I was able to manifest my dream of going to Seoul so I have proof that it works!
Affirmations Meditation
Memorize a few of your favorite positive affirmations or mantras in your head and repeat them over and over in your mind until you truly believe in them. Sometimes, we sound silly saying a positive affirmation or even reading a mantra but the more you repeat them, the more you believe in them and the more you feel like saying more positive thoughts. I promise after your affirmation mediation you will feel so empowered afterward!
Just Breath
When I have a lot of thoughts running through my head, I’ll just sit in silence and breathe. Sometimes it’s best to just focus on your breath and give your brain a break.
MEDITATION TIPS
Guided meditation
If you’re completely new to meditation and get distracted easily, try some guided meditations. They’re easy to follow and the narrator will guide you throughout the breathing exercises.
Start off with 5 minutes
The most common reason people say they can’t meditate is that they don’t have enough time, I get it, but you don’t need to meditate for an hour, instead try 5 minutes! Set your phone timer for 5 minutes and just stop where you are and practice deep breathing. I highly recommend the Insight Timer app! You can adjust your timer to whatever time your want as well as add music and bells to your practice!I guarantee you will want to meditate even longer after 5 minutes!
Make it part of your routine
The best way to stick to a new habit is to make it a part of your routine! For me, meditation is the final step in my workout routine, I’ll lay on my yoga mat in corpse pose and begin meditating. Try to find a time in your day when 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 just lay on your back, in fact, I encourage it! I used to always sit cross-legged on the floor to meditate but now, I like to lay on my back on my yoga mat or bed.
Create An Ambiance
When I meditate, I turn on my essential diffuser, roll out my yoga mat, turn off all noises in my room, and turn on my timer,. 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! ♥