3 Meditation Tools to Help Start Your Meditation Practice

Meditation can be intimidating. 

You might think that you’re supposed to sit and empty your mind and hum into bliss. That’s not meditation. If you think that an empty mind is the only way to meditate, you’ll never be able to establish a regular routine. Here are three simple meditation practices that will enable you to feel comfortable sitting down to meditate.

Count your breath

On the inhale count 1, exhale 2, inhale 3, exhale 4, and so on. Go up to 50 and then count back down. As you do this, notice that you can barely maintain a count to two before you start to flutter your thoughts. That’s ok and to be expected. Just keep coming back to the breath.

Yoga Nidra

Yoga nidra captures that half-awake-half-asleep state that we find sometimes by accident when we’re napping on the couch or sunbathing at the lake. If you can find a yoga nidra at a local yoga studio, do it. Being guided through a yoga nidra practice was revolatory for me. You can also find some on Youtube that are pretty good. 

Guided Meditation

Meditation apps have exploded in the last five years. I’ll soon be writing a post to review my favorites. For now, Sam Harris’s Waking Up Meditation app is not only a great guided meditation, but it is also filled with lessons on mindfulness and the importance of practice through the lens of neuroscience. One of the drawbacks of an app is the cost. Most apps out there offer 10 day trials that you have to follow-up with a purchase of the program. If that’s a deterrent, check Youtube. If you get tired of those, search and test others. I find that after listening to the same meditation a couple of times, I get a bit bored of what the teacher is guiding me through 

Bonus tip: Meditate after you exercise. Yoga’s original purpose was to get the body ready to sit in meditation. Get your ya yas out with a run, lifting, or yoga and then sit down to meditate. 

Reach out for more tips.