Meditation for Beginners: These techniques will get you started

Meditation is a technique with which you can observe, direct and focus your thoughts and feelings. With meditation you can strengthen the awareness of yourself and your surroundings. It is all about attention, concentration and imagination. In this article you will find out how you, as a beginner, can find access to meditation and which techniques you can try out.

Many people use the technology because, for example, they want to reduce stress and theirs Increase concentration want or as a sleep aid. However, meditation can also help to develop other habits and feelings that are good for you, such as a positive mood and attitude, but also self-discipline and even increased pain tolerance. With meditation it is possible that you find a completely different approach to yourself and get to know yourself better.

Meditation for Beginners: The Positive Effects

There are many positive effects that meditation can bring you. Meditation can help you reduce stress, improve your health and solve problems. How is that supposed to work?

Stress has a huge impact on the body. For example, you are more susceptible to infectious diseases - if you also have a weak immune system and sleep poorly, it ultimately harms your health.

With the help of meditation you learn to switch off, relax and deal with stressful situations. Furthermore, relaxation techniques will help you To see a little more clearly again and to concentrate on the important things, so that you can also think in a more solution-oriented manner. Meditation is also in good hands for people who think a lot. Don't be frustrated if your first few attempts don't work out. Meditating is a matter of practice and can also help you when you may not know what to do next. The solution is not presented to you on a silver serving tray. But you can go deep within yourself and find answers and draw new strength.

Meditation for Beginners: How Long Do I Meditate?

You don't have to meditate for hours. Time is not particularly important. It is sufficient if you meditate for 15 minutes or even 5 minutes. Short meditations in particular are perfect for stressful everyday life, in order to slow it down and collect new energy. But even before an important presentation or exam, you can shut down your mind with meditations and, for example, calm your fear and calm yourself if you are very excited. Simply increase yourself from time to time or make it dependent on your time.

Meditation is not tied to any given circumstances. Depending on the type of meditation, it all depends. For beginners, however, a quiet environment in which nobody will disturb you, a place or a posture that you find comfortable, and a place where you feel comfortable - this will help you to relax and let go better can. Take as much time as you want and can. If you notice after a few attempts that such a quiet meditation is not for you, you can also try a movement meditation.

Getting started: Meditation for beginners

Every beginning is difficult. When you meditate for the first time, you may feel strange and you may think that all of this is spiritual nonsense. Still, you've read this far and want to try it out! A good first step! It is important that you simply get involved. Perhaps your first attempt will not be so successful either and you will worry a lot while meditating. But don't give up so quickly and keep trying.

After all, there are many different types of meditations. Here you just have to try a few different techniques to find the right meditation for you. Here we give you some suggestions and tips on which meditation is suitable for beginners to get started.

When you meditate, the main thing is that you calm your mind and don't think about anything in particular other than the acts of meditation. Movement can also be meditative because at a certain point you only think about the exercise. It often happens to beginners that they find it difficult to concentrate during meditation and that they keep being distracted by thoughts. The trick here is not to banish these thoughts, but that you allow the thoughts - they are there - but you do not immerse yourself in them and let them move on.

Don't get discouraged if it doesn't work out the first few times and you suddenly notice how you are thinking about what you could cook for dinner. Over time you will find that your thoughts wander less and less. It helps many people when they listen to music, for example binaural beats.

Techniques: This is how meditation works for beginners

Here we give you three relaxation techniques that are suitable as meditation for beginners to get started with the practice.

Mindfulness meditation

In mindfulness meditation you pay attention to your thoughts and do not actively control them. You don't judge them. You just observe them and notice all the patterns. This technique combines concentration and awareness. It can help if you focus on an object or your breath while observing your physical sensations, thoughts or feelings. When a thought occurs to you, be aware of it, but do not judge it.

Start small and try every day for 5-10 minutes to breathe mindfully. Concentrate on the present moment. In the next step, you can try a body scan, where you focus on different parts of the body. Another possibility is that you focus on your surroundings and pay attention to the noises.

Studies have even shown that mindfulness can help relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression, and improve emotional positive experiences such as joy and happiness.¹

When meditating while seated, make sure that you are sit upright and your spine straight is. Let your Muscles loose, put your hands relaxed in front of you and try not to be tense.

This may sound banal to you at first - in fact, it can actually be difficult for beginners at the beginning to keep the focus here for longer than a few minutes. It is not bad, if you digress Just try to get back to meditation and focus again on your object or activity, like your breath.

Guided meditation

Guided meditation is also suitable for beginners. There is a meditation leader who accompanies you through the exercise with his voice. The advantage of this meditation for beginners is that you are less likely to wander with your thoughts because you are here focused on the voice of the meditation leader and followed the exercisesfor example by focusing on certain areas of your body. Guided meditations also contain a story that you follow or a dream trip. Guided meditation is usually accompanied pleasant music in the background.

This technique can also help you if you have trouble falling asleep and find it difficult to switch off, because you have many things on your mind. Try it out tonight! There are many free guided meditations available online.

Moving meditation

If you'd rather try more active meditation, you can do walking meditation. It doesn't matter whether you move around your home, at work or outside on a walk.

Moving meditation is about not concentrating on your breath, but - as the name suggests - on it Focus on your movement lies, for example on walking your steps. But gardening can also be seen as a meditative practice. This type of meditation is suitable for people who find their calm and peace in action and who like to let their thoughts wander.

Meditation for Beginners: What After?

When you are finished with your meditation, open your eyes again after the time and slowly come back to your everyday life. Take a moment to understand your Reflect on emotions and get inside how you feel after meditation. Are you more relaxed than before?

Summary

Meditation can be learned by everyone. At first it may feel strange to one or the other. After a short time you will notice the positive relaxing effects of meditation. You just have to be able to get involved. Meditation practice can strengthen the connection between body and mind, reduce stress, and relieve anxiety.

How much time you have for meditation doesn't matter. Your meditation can last an hour, half an hour, 10 minutes, or even a few minutes. Even if you only have a minute, these 60 seconds can help you, for example, to calm your mind with breathing exercises and to relieve your excitement and to give you a little energy kick.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23541163