The Simple-How, When, Where and Why of Meditation
Meditation is a timeless practice that brings clarity, calm, and awareness to everyday life. Understanding the how, when, where, and why of meditation makes it easier to begin and sustain your practice. With just a few minutes each day, you can create space for stillness, reduce stress, and reconnect with your inner self.
How
Decide to meditate and set an intention for your meditation. Decide how long you will meditate and choose an anchor, which can be a word, a mantra, or your breath. Meditate with your spine straight from the tailbone to the top of the head. Close your eyes while seated comfortably. Yes, you can lie down on a flat surface, but set an alarm in case you fall asleep. Close and open your eyes a few times and get comfortable with your surroundings, then close your eyes and begin. Open your meditation by suggesting to yourself to go within and prefer your word, mantra, or breath over all your other thoughts, plans, and schemes. You cannot control your thoughts. Thoughts will always be there, but when you notice you are thinking, go back to “prefer,” your word/mantra or breath. In meditation, you will experience thoughts, a mantra/words/breath, nothing, and even a feeling of bliss. Return to your mantra whenever you notice anything else. You may have a rush of thoughts, and that is okay, too. Know that even that is releasing stress in your body and mind.
When
Research suggests that exercising twice a day for 20 minutes is recommended for optimal health benefits. It is best to meditate twice a day, preferably in the early morning and evening. But practising meditation is better than being rigid about the time you practice. Sometime in the morning, you may practice on the subway or train going to work, or by closing your door as soon as you arrive at the office, and you may practice later in the day than you intended. Just know meditation will make you smarter, and if you practice late in the day, you will either give up your to-do list and go to bed or have lots of energy and stay up a bit too long. Set the time you will meditate and check your watch/phone for the start and end time. You will not know what time it is when you are meditating, so you will have to “peek” at your watch or phone to determine the end time or set an alarm.
Where
You can meditate anywhere. No equipment is needed. No special chairs. You will hear everything, but when you don’t have to respond, continue meditating. If you need to respond for any reason, complete your task and then return to finish your meditation by meditating for a few minutes. It is rewarding to shut off your phone and other possible disturbances and give yourself the gift of silence for 20 minutes twice a day.
Why
Meditation changes you as you get to know yourself. You can even become friends with yourself as you generate amazing insights, creativity, and inner joy and peace. It reduces stress because you realise a lot of it you made up. Research has proven what meditators know: more frontal cortex brain cells develop in 8 weeks and you make better decisions, the amygdala (the flight or flight part of the brain) goes back to standard size as during stress it expands, you lower your blood pressure, the telomeres on the ends of your genes stop shrinking as you age, so it is definitely is an anti-aging benefit.
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