If you are a beginner, you would prefer some form of mind-focused practice to achieve a calm and stable state.
How about getting into basic meditation techniques for beginners? It is also one of the recommended forms of exercise at home.
That’s what we are going to dig in further.
What Is The Goal Of Meditation At Home?
First of all, meditation is a form of mental exercise, which of course can be done in the comfort of your own home. It involves awareness, relaxation and focus.
While physical exercise is to the body, meditation is focusing more on your mind, practicing in a still seated position. It is a habitual process of training your mind to redirect your thoughts and focus.
We need to know that meditation is to train our mind to be calm and relaxed, even though our mind is full of thoughts, never stop thinking.
That’s the goal of meditation, to train the mind to not stop thinking. If you think that meditation is all about getting all thoughts out of your mind, to be quiet and peaceful for a moment, then you are wrong here.
So, please do not tell your mind to stop thinking when you are starting to meditate, just allow its nature to take its own course. Take note of this.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Doing Meditation?
Absolutely tons of benefits here, especially for health, mental and spiritual.
Meditation is getting widely accepted and more popular because people already discovered the many health benefits that it can bring to them.
Some people even practice home meditation for the development of feelings and habits like self-discipline, improving sleep patterns, or positive mood.
Below are just some handfuls of meditation benefits:
1. Reduce stress level – Experts can’t agree more that meditation practice is the most natural way to manage stress levels. This is also why more and more people are turning to meditation for stress reduction.
2. Improving sleep – Meditation help those who suffer from insomnia.
A study has shown that meditators experience (#Ad)better sleep and improved insomnia severity compared to those who don’t. It also helps to relax your body and give you a more peaceful state in which you can easily fall asleep.
3. Controlling pain – As pain is connected to your state of mind, some researchers also suggested that meditation can be useful in controlling pain.
For example, chronic pain can be excruciating, but with practicing meditation, the tolerance towards the pain can increase, thus the pain is reduced.
4. Emotional health – Some forms of meditation help to improve symptoms of depression.
The study also found that meditators will experience lesser negative thoughts than those who don’t, thus creating a more positive outlook in their life. Depression will be reduced by decreasing the levels of inflammatory chemicals in the body.
5. Self-awareness – Meditators will learn how to recognize thoughts that can be harmful.
This is by having to create a bigger awareness of thoughts habits, thus enabling you to easily channel these thoughts to a more constructive mindset. Meditation leads to higher states of consciousness.
6. Age-related memory loss – A study found that meditation in different styles helps to increase memory and attention in elderly people. While for those in the normal age range with memory loss problems like dementia, meditation can partially help to (#Ad)improve attention and clarity of thinking.
That’s amazing benefits from meditation exercise, isn’t it?
Basic Meditation Techniques For Beginners
Personally, I think as a beginner, it is absolutely fine to combine all types of meditation as we want to find different approaches until the right one that suits us the most is found.
So don’t worry too much as to which types of meditation best suit you.
The following are the most common widely accepted forms of meditation which can be easily executed at home.
1. Mindfulness meditation – This form of meditation is already been well studied, and teaches you to be more aware of your surroundings such as sights, sounds, or even smells.
It can help to improve memory and focus. For example, study(1) has shown how mindfulness meditation can help healthcare professionals to stay focused and fight anxiety and depression during the Covid-19 crisis.
2. Breathing meditation – This practice enables you to focus back on this present moment, trying to understand how you can influence your own mental & physical overall.
It focuses on encouraging your mind to breathe and ignore other thoughts that go into your mind, and also helps to improve your mind concentration and decrease the level of anxiety.
3. Loving-kindness meditation – While taking a deep breath, meditators will open up their mind and receive a loving and kind attitude. You will send these messages to your loved ones, the world, or even your enemies.
The goal is to indulge this feeling of love and compassion toward everything in the universe, by repeating the messages many times, until you can feel that feeling inside your mind.
Good for those who have frustration, anger, hatred, or personal conflicts.
4. Body scan meditation – Helps to reduce tension and enhance relaxation for your mind and body.
The main goal is to find the tension part of your body (normally starting from the feet and slowly to the whole) and then to release it. It works by slowly tightening and then relaxing one muscle group at one time and then throughout the entire body.
5. Spiritual meditation – One of the best methods to meditate from your home.
Works well for silence and spiritual seekers. Try and reflect on the silent moment with the universe around you. For a more spiritual experience, get some essential oils like lavender, rose, or cedar.
6. Mantra meditation – If you dislike silence and adore repetition, then this meditation is for you.
This form of practice is more structured and uses repetitive sounds, words, or phrases to clear your mind. It helps the mind to keep focus and achieve higher states of consciousness.
Do not worry if you chant the mantras loudly or quietly, you will experience a deeper level of awareness plus reduces stress.
How Can You Start Meditating As A Beginner?
Anyone including you and me can take advantage of meditation at home, as long you have the desire to follow the simple step by step adhere.
First, you need to find a quiet and comfortable place somewhere in your home to meditate – an extra room, corner of your bedroom, or living room will do, just as to get some silent moment and be alone.
Be sure that you are also wearing comfy cloth, not too tight to a better position in a meditative space. Get a soft pillow or yoga mat for sitting. If you like, get ready some burning incense or essential oils, candles and dim the light.
Choose a comfortable meditating position. Some may like to sit crossed-legged or sit upright with feet on the ground.
Whichever way is ok, just as long you are absolutely comfortable with the position. One of my friends even laid down on her back to meditating, which is just fine too. It is all about personal experience, so choose a position that you are really comfy with. Don’t listen to others, ok?
Find a consistent right time for your meditation session. Morning, afternoon, evening, or before bedtime is fine, just as long you are doing it consistently. For example, if you planning to start your five minutes session in the early morning like 7.00 am, do it at the same time for every session.
Try out different forms of meditation for a start. Don’t worry, no right or wrong way to meditate.
Experiment with them until you find at least one that works well for you. You can always check out some of these meditation forms on YouTube too.
Kick away as many of the distractions when you are meditating. Phone in mute mode, TV off, telling your partner to stay quiet or any sounds that may distract you.
That is why you need a really comfortable and quiet space, somewhere inside your home to serve that purpose.
As long you are following the above simple guide, plus a little bit of patience, believe me, you’ll progress gradually through frequent practice.
What To Avoid For Beginners When Starting Meditate?
Good that you have read this far about meditation at home.
However, it is also good to know that you may endure some meditation mistakes during practice and need to fix them.
Find out what is the mistake and correct it the sooner the better.
Some of the common mistakes that you should be aware of and to avoid are:
1. Expecting fast results – Meditation takes time before you can achieve your desired results.
You’ll need to understand the overall well-being it gives to your mind and body as you begin to meditate. Once you begin to enjoy the whole process of meditation, you will want to get involved more in it.
2. Not well prepared enough – You need to decide your pure intention before beginning the session, calming down your mind by taking a deep breath.
Not being mentally and physically prepared to settle in your zone, you may not achieve the desired benefits from the practice.
3. Criticize yourself – As said before, it does take time to follow the practice and progress, some take months, even years to master the art of meditating.
So, just be gentle to yourself when practicing if you get distracted on your journey. If you realize that somewhere is wrong on the path, then fix it to get back to your attention.
4. Too many props – Many meditators get so used to having props like candles, pillows, beads, essential oils to start. It is ok though but tries not to rely too much on them as it may just distract you easily from focusing.
My advice is to try to minimize the use of this item. Meditate with more mindfulness.
5. Shortcuts – You may be busy with your work but try to set a formal and specific time in a week (such as an hour for a start) to do your meditation. If you don’t, it may affect your confidence and lack of motivation over time.
No shortcuts, please!
6. Trying different styles – When you first started, it is good to try different styles of meditation to see which one is the best suit for you. I think it is also best to stick to one form once you have made your decision for maximizing its long-term benefits.
My Honest Thoughts On Basic Meditation Techniques For Beginners At Home
Meditation is about trying to stay focused from all the many distractions in your mind. This will ensure that you always have a satisfying meditation practice.
There is no right or wrong on how often you should meditate.
For a start, you may consider like 1 – 2 sessions per week, each lasting for five minutes. Eventually, you can evolve slowly to one session per day last around 10 – 30 minutes.
“Meditation provides a way of learning how to let go. As we sit, the self we’ve been trying to construct and make into a nice, neat package continues to unravel.” – John Welwood
Regardless of your personality or lifestyle, before you start, do a self quick assessment.
ASK yourself these questions:
*Any parts of my body are feeling heavy or dense.
*Do I have a lot of thoughts in my mind?
*Am I feeling accomplished or lacking something in my life?
*Can I focus well or need any help to focus?
*What kind of feeling that I want? Calmness, energized, reconnecting, etc.
Even though in the beginning, you may find it quite challenging and intimidating, in the end, through practice, you will find a more relaxed attitude and clearer mind.
Learn about yourself, be patient and find your inner peace by starting to practice home meditation, you will start to grow within it once you mastered it all. It is the same as other forms of home exercise.
Considering also Yoga or Pilates exercise at home?
Find out the differences here Yoga vs. Pilates difference
Are you ready to give yourself a chance to try to meditate?
Leave me a comment below and I’ll be happy to reply within 24 hours.
Have an awesome exercise at home!
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