Meditation for Beginners There are two key elements to mastering meditation for beginners. The first is being able to tune out the thoughts that are constantly running through your mind. The second is the little voice in your head that seems to comment on everything! I cover dealing with these two little issues in the opening posts you?ll get in our newsletter but for now let me just explain a simple technique you can start to use for both while learning meditation. First of all, most people have called this meditation technique mindfulness meditation. Now, mindfulness simply means right now, this second. Not thinking of things that are going to happen or that you have to do later and not thinking of things that have already happened. Basically not thinking of the past or present, but right now. What is going on right this second. The mindfulness meditation uses focusing on your breath to learn to meditate. What I mean by that is your attention is soley on your breathing in and out. Constant focus on it all the way through the inhale and then the exhale. Now, to me, thoughts used to seem to swirl around in the ole head and kind of instantly stick to the screen in my head were the attention instantly grabs it and starts analyzing it. Once this happens, the little voice in the head takes over. Kind of like BAM ?Oh yea, payday tomorrow, gotta make sure I pull money for kids baseball registration Saturday. Hmm, I wonder how this season is gonna go?? Next thing you know, it steamrolls into a flow of thoughts occupying your attention. Sound familiar? The best help here is to notice the thought in your head and forget about it. Don?t dwell on it or focus any attention on it. Just notice that it interrupted you and bring your attention back to your breathing. You see, the real key to learning to meditate is in controlling your attention. Now I am going to give you the basic outline of meditations for beginners that you can start and practice on right away. You can start with about 10 minutes at first and build up to around 20 minutes. I recommend doing this before you eat dinner every afternoon. The body is more active in it?s process to digest food after you eat and you wont be able to really relax. When you do relax after eating it almost always results in falling asleep. I know everybody has a busy schedule these days but try to schedule this into the same time every afternoon so you are in a routine. Ok here we go. ? Find a comfortable position. I recommend setting upright in a chair. You don?t have to be all twisted up in the form you are used to seeing when meditation is mentioned. It will actually work lying down but you may be to prone to falling asleep so find a comfortable sitting position. I find my home office a good quiet place to do this. Also you don?t want to cross your arms or legs. This causes pressure on points that will start to draw your attention after just a minute or two. ? Next, focus your attention on your breathing. Slowly breathe in and out. I like to envision the air going into my lungs slowly as they fill up and then leaving slowly as I exhale. ? Now some meditations use what is called a mantra or sound that you make as you breathe. If this would help that is fine by all means but its not required here. It does help focus your attention on the breathe and I always tell people to just mentally say I am as they breathe if they want. Say ?IIIIII? while you are breathing in and ?AAAAAAAAAAMMMM? as you exhale. ? Don?t forget, as a thought pops into your head you want to be aware that it is there and bring your attention back to your breathing. By doing this every time a thought creeps up, eventually they will just fade away depending on how focused your attention is on your breathing. That is the goal here, to keep your attention focused on your breathing which keeps your attention in the moment. ? Practice this for about 10 minutes a day at first and you will quickly find yourself up to about 20 minutes before you know it as the thought have less and less traction to stick as they pop up. So there you have it. A simple mindfulness meditation to practice. Before long you will begin to notice the benefits from better focus on things throughout the day to less things actually being allowed to bother you which builds up over time as stress. Keep practicing and Good luck.