Meditation for Beginners: An Easy How-To Guide for Busy People
Clearing your mind and sitting for hours is not required.
I may upset some people with what I'm about to say, but I stand behind it 100%.
An effective meditation practice doesn't mean you have to clear your mind of all thoughts, sit for long periods, or have a profound spiritual experience. Yes, it can be all those things, but it doesn't have to be. I want to dispel the belief that if you don't experience that, you're not meditating or that it's not going to work for you. Especially if you’re busy and have limited time during the day.
So, if your knee-jerk response to why you can't meditate is:
I don't have time
I can't clear my head
My mind wanders
I can't sit still
I'm not spiritual
It won't work for me
Yadda, Yadda, Yadda
This is my invitation to you to pack up those excuses and send them on a nice long vacation out of your headspace. As a busy person and former skeptic myself, I can assure you it is possible, even for you.
What is an effective meditation practice?
Before we dive into the "how to meditate," let's start with understanding what makes a practice effective. First, you have to know, or at least have, an idea of what you are looking to get from it. What you want or need can change daily, but start with a primary goal.
Do you want to ease stress or manage anxiety? Deal with pain? Improve your focus and performance or manifest something into your life? Alleviate insomnia?
When I come to sit for meditation, my approach is to ask myself what I need that day or that moment. Then, I choose my meditation format accordingly. More on that later.
Knowing what your goal is will help you build a practice based on that goal. For example, sitting for an abundance manifestation meditation at 8 am is unlikely to help you sleep later that night if you struggle with insomnia.
An effective meditation practice helps you meet a goal defined by you. That's step one right there!
Some Benefits of Short Daily Meditations
As many already have, I could write a book on the myriad benefits of regular meditation practice. To focus on what busy people like yourself may be most interested in, I'm highlighting the following:
Allows for time to turn inward to recenter mind and body (i.e., to gather yourself)
Lower stress and anxiety
Increased Mind & Body Awareness - Start to understand and notice how your mind and body react in certain situations
Improved coping skills
Improved general sense of well-being
I'm not going to go into detail on each of these here. I recommend this article from PositivePsychology.com. It's an easy-to-digest summary of the wide-ranging benefits of meditation. What I hope you can take away is that these are all possible to achieve with your practice.
You've likely noticed that I use the word practice often. That is intentional because this is a practice. There is no finish line. There is always room to grow and learn. You may experience some of these benefits right away, but most come and get stronger with consistent practice.
In my personal experience, meditation helped me in the moment to calm anxiety and stress. It had an immediate impact in times of crisis. As I continued incorporating short daily meditations into my life, I found it changed me over time.
I am now more aware of how I can respond to stressful situations, and I can alter my response. I am a more observant and objective participant in my life.
For example, our refrigerator died in the summer during the pandemic. There was no hope of a quick replacement or fix. This would usually send me into a massive tizzy. No longer.
When this happened, I was able to see the tizzy coming, recenter myself and shift my perspective. I acknowledged the crappy situation and allowed some irritation. But, I knew that we would find a solution. We could live on take-out for a while. This was a problem, not a life-altering, tizzy-worthy one.
When to meditate and for how long
When you meditate is up to you, but your goal should drive it. Do you need help falling asleep? That may influence what time of day you meditate.
Many choose to sit in the morning. It's a good way of getting into the habit and studies suggest that it can help with stress throughout the day.
Researchers agree that people who start their work every morning after a brief meditation session felt more in-tune with themselves and could ward off stress easily -PositivePsychology.com
The bottom line, choose the time that makes the most sense for you. It will boost your chances of creating a habit.
What about how long?
It's true that meditating often and for more extended periods reaps great rewards. But, suppose you never meditated before or are starting up again. In that case, trying to start by sitting for 15, 20, 30 minutes, or more will only end in frustration.
If you planned to run a marathon and hadn't run a step in years, would you start by going out tomorrow and running a 5k? How do you think that would go? Not well, I imagine.
You need to train and work up to the marathon. The same goes for meditation.
This chart shows a nice breakdown of what a practice length can look like as you build proficiency.
Screenshot from PositivePsychology.com Benefits of Meditation.
Bear in mind that you don't have to become proficient to be a successful or "real" meditator. Find the length and time that works for you and stick to that! Start small and be consistent.
Your How-to Guide
Congratulations! You've made it to the section you were waiting for - a simple plan to start building your meditation practice.
Choose your spot: Pick a place where you can be the most at ease and relax. You can be in bed, in a chair, or on the floor. A fully decorated and designated meditation space is not required. Noise-canceling headphones can be of great help in blocking out distractions.
Release expectations: Don't come to your practice with expectations of how it's going to go. Come to it with an open mind to experience it as it happens.
Ask yourself what you need: What do you need today? Stress relief? Focus? Silence? Your answer will guide your choice of meditation.
Use an app: There are many great meditation apps (InsightTimer, Calm, Headspace). Try a few to see which one you like best. Don't give up if it takes you a few tries to find a good fit. Most will allow you to search meditations based on time and type of meditation.
Start with 2-5 minutes a day: That's it. You can do that in the bathroom if you have to, or in your parked car before you go into work!
Come back to your breath: The simplest meditation—no need for an app or a guide. Sit or lay down, set a timer, and focus on your inhale and exhale. Simply breathing and noting what comes up is meditating.
Give it one week: Commit to practicing 2-5 minutes a day for one week.
Re-evaluate: After that first week, keep exploring. Stick with the 2-5 minutes, or begin adding on a few more minutes if you like.
Take your time: After a while, see if you can fit in a couple of 10-15 minute meditations during the week.
Finally, the best piece of advice I can give you as you build your practice is this:
"Smile, breathe, and go slowly." - Thich Nhat Hanh.
That's it. Simple and straight-forward. Busy people, you can do this! Remember, you're not going to run that marathon on day one. But if you keep at it, stay curious, and be kind to yourself, you may be amazed at what you achieve.
If you’re low on time, but high on stress, I’ve recorded a soothing visualization meditation to help. Take a mini-vacation in under 10 minutes! You can grab the link here:
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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
