Why do you want to meditate?
Numerous studies show links between meditation and neuroplasticity.
Researchers from the University of Montreal found that the grey matter thickness of Zen meditators was significantly thicker than non-meditators. Another study found that meditation helps increase focus. A UCLA study shows that meditators might process information more quickly. Long-term meditators have more significant amounts of gyrification than people who do not meditate. The gyrification (“folding” of the cortex) might allow us to process information more quickly.
Then, in his book 10% happier, Dan Harris says that “a successful dotcom friend of mine said that once he started meditating, he noticed he was always the calmest person in the room during heated meetings. He called it a superpower.”
First, ask yourself why do you want to meditate. Is it for awareness and self-regulation? De-stress or better handling of anxiety, rage, emotions in general? Self-development, improved focus, increased creativity, better learning and memory, brain rewiring? Spiritual connections? Altered states of consciousness?
It is vital to have clear and solid reasons to meditate.
When to meditate?
Usually, to set up a new habit, it is good to find another habit you already practice daily, an anchor habit. Why? If you practice the new habit after the anchor habit, you are sure that you will repeat the new habit at the same time every day, reinforcing the new habit.
Then, you might also need triggers to remind you about the new habit: phone alarms, sticky notes on your desktop or your mirror. You will need these triggers only for the first few weeks.
You can have multiple meditation sessions throughout the day so think of when you want to practice meditation:
- In the morning, when you feel rested. The anchor habit can be brushing your teeth, taking a shower, drinking water in the morning.
- At noon, in your lunch break.
- After you exercise, as you will feel more alert.
- In the evening, as you are winding down.
How long should you meditate?
In his Get Some Headspace book, Andy Puddicombe recommends 10 minutes of daily meditation. And, if you do not want to practice meditation on a particular day, Andy notes how he told a student to write the reasons why would she miss a session:
“I also asked her to write down each time she was going to miss a session – just a short sentence to say why she was not going to do it. This is not a retrospective to be done at the end of the day; it is about writing down, there and then, what it is you are about to do that cannot wait ten minutes. Clare found this second exercise particularly useful. In fact, she said that any time she went to write an excuse in the book, it just looked so feeble that she did her ten minutes anyway.”
Some authors and meditators recommend 20-minute daily sessions as we progress in our journey and then 40 minutes for more significant transformation effects.
However, even five minutes of meditation are enough for beginners. As weeks go by, if you enjoy the process, you can gradually increase the session’s length.
Where should I meditate?
Preferably somewhere quiet, where you feel safe to close your eyes. A corner of a room offers enough space for meditation. To better establish the meditation habit, it helps if you practice meditation in the same place every day. In this way, this place becomes a trigger to relax as you prepare to meditate.
Then, after some practice, you can integrate meditation practices into your daily activities: on your commute, waiting in line, walking, etc.
How should I meditate?
This is a chapter that you need to write. You will need to find which practices work best for you: zazen, vipassana, yoga nidra, yoga asanas, visualization, loving-kindness, mantras, etc.
A few meditations mobile applications are available: Headspace, Calm, Insight Timer, Buddhify, Waking Up, The Plum Village, etc.
I prefer secular meditations, and I use the Insight Timer, Waking Up, and The Plum Village mobile applications (all offer free guided meditations).
Insight Timer has 95,000 free guided meditations, and because of this overwhelming content, it can be daunting to start. I started with Sarah Blondin’s free course Learn how to meditate in seven days. Then, I meditated with teachers such as Sarah Blondin, Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Andy Hobson, Mathieu Ricard, etc.
After some time, I started to meditate on my own, with the timer option from the Insight Timer mobile application.
I prefer loving-kindness, mantras (my personal mantra is “I am here. I am now. I am home.”), RAIN meditations (here is a 5-minute RAIN meditation and a session from Tara Brach herself, who coined this term).
Plum Village is a new addition to my meditations, as I like Thich Nhat Hanh’s style of meditation.
These are some meditation books I enjoyed: 10% Happier, Get Some Headspace, The Wisdom of No Escape, The Art of Living.
Too often we listen to those hungry thoughts that keep us small, never quite learning to grow those thoughts that make us whole. Meditation is not the answer. Meditation is an answer that might work for some of us.
“if
the ocean
can calm itself,
so can you.
we
are both
salt water
mixed with
air.”
― Nayyirah Waheed