I don’t know how to meditate.
Sounds pretty weird for a post on meditation, right? Well, hear me out – I don’t know how to meditate on my own. I’ve been trying to meditate for ages. My mom would do yoga back when I was a kid, and always ended her yoga session with a calm seated lotus pose with meditation.
She always told me to imagine a calm beach with flowing waves, or some beautiful flowers. Looking back now, that seems like a pretty solid way to meditate.
As I grew older, I really wanted to harness the power of meditation. It just seemed like everyone was touting it for its amazing mental benefits.
At the start, I could barely control my thoughts. Honestly, I don’t know what was going on with me as a kid. I found it so hard to focus on a lot of things. I’d be measuring out sugar for my mom for a cake and it’d be so hard to remember how many spoons I’d already added!
Also Read from here: 8 Ways to Focus Better During Meditation
I tried so hard. I practiced a lot. Like, a lot. And I think I really did improve as time went by.
One of the reasons why I was so motivated to meditate as a kid was because of a book! Not just any book, though – I’m talking Fantasy Fiction. It was Eragon by Christopher Paolini. This book is about a boy (Eragon) from a village in the outskirts of an evil dictator (Galbatorix)’s land. A land of dragons! Or, at least there used to be before Galbatorix pretty much annihilated them.
Eragon finds a magical egg which hatches into a dragon (Sapphira). The book is pretty neat because it focuses on magic coming through some intense mindfulness and meditation.
I distinctly remember one of the characters in the book talking about how we can cope with trauma just by focusing on our breath. I mean, that’s amazing!
Yeah – a book inspired me to meditate!
Why I Meditate
I make it a habit to meditate every single day, just like I make it a habit to use a coffee-olive oil scrub when showering. (The two are not related. Haha.)
I really need to meditate every day. If I don’t, I start to get weak mentally. I start slacking. I indulge in my bad habits. I lose track of my commitment to positivity.
Also Read from here: What are The Benefits of Meditation?
Here are the reasons why I absolutely have to meditate every single day, even if it’s for just 2 minutes.
1 | Meditation helps me to listen to my intuition
I want to be able to hear that tiny voice that tells me what my inner being really wants. When I first started trying to eat intuitively, meditation really helped me to listen to my body. I could hear my intuition quite clearly. I didn’t actually know that it was because of meditating every night before bed. I managed to eat intuitively for a whole 2 weeks. Then I switched to listening to self-help audiobooks before bed.
Soon, it became hard for me to listen to my intuition. Part of the reason why is because I asked myself a certain question about my future. I listened to my intuition, and I absolutely hated the answer! I decided that I didn’t want to listen to my intuition anymore.
Now that I look back at it, I should have just gone with the flow. I shouldn’t have gotten angry with my intuition. If that’s what my intuition said, then it was alright. As long as nothing is set in stone – not even intuition, I’m good.
2 | Meditation helps to keep my addictions at bay
If I don’t meditate, I’m going to forget that I absolutely do not want to engage in some habits of mine. When I don’t meditate, I find it hard to have a clear distinction that I want to do only the good habits of mine.
It’s like when you are trying to lose some weight, and you don’t be conscious about it. You’re going to eat that sugar. But if you make the decision that day that you will be careful around sweet stuff, you’ll have higher chances of success.
Also Read from here: How to Develop Good Habits
3 | Meditation helps me to cope with trauma
This step goes hand in hand with number #2. Trauma and bad memories lead to addictions. To quote James Clear (Atomic Habits): there are no good and bad habits. Just habits to help us cope with trauma in our lives.
However, when that habit is not helping you, then it’s pretty much a bad habit. Every day, I have to remind myself that I am not what happened to me. I have to remind myself that I’m not going to act out the circumstances of my trauma memories. I have to remind myself that I’m going to cope in a healthy way through meditation. I get really deliberate about using meditation as a means to cope with trauma every single day.
3 | Meditation helps me to choose positivity
I have to remind myself to be positive every single day. That’s because I’m pretty new to the whole positivity movement. I only recently started trying to reduce the amount of negative thoughts that I think daily.
Meditation helps me to keep the focus on positivity. It makes total sense that meditation would give me that mind power to only think positive thoughts. When you meditate, your mental power really does increase. It’s pretty much like exercise – something good is bound to happen.
Also Read: 7 Ways to be More Positive in Life
4 | Meditation helps me to manage my anger
I’m a pretty short fuse. It surprisingly manages to burst out over the layers of people-pleasing and caring more about others than myself. I mean, if I care about not hurting others, why would I get mad at them and make them sad? Anyway, that’s me.
I’m glad I meditated for about 2 minutes today. It really came in handy because I was talking to a friend on the phone and they managed to completely disregard my personal opinion on something we were talking about. I got furious because I always listen to their strong opinions and respond with something like, “I appreciate that that’s your opinion.” It felt really unfair.
Also Read from here: How to Stop Being Angry and Resentful All the Time
How I Meditate
When I was still trying to meditate on my own, this is how I would do it:
- Sit or lie down in a quiet place
- Focus on my breathing
- Try not to think of anything
That’s it, really. I wasn’t actively searching for guidance and revelation. However, I was a pretty smart and wise kid! I guess they really worked!
How I Meditate Now
I already mentioned that I don’t know how to meditate on my own. So, what helps me meditate? Here is the answer that works for everyone:
GUIDED MEDITATION VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE
Guided meditation videos have helped TREMENDOUSLY. I happened to stumble upon a meditation video some time a year ago, and decided to give it a shot. Honestly, I only tried it because it seemed fun. It was something about hypnotizing yourself to sleep. I mean, I was a bit spooked by the whole thing, but it was Halloween and who doesn’t love a good spook?
How Guided Meditation Videos Work
The best part about guided meditation videos is breath work. It’s nice enough to try to breathe deep and stuff, but when there’s a prompt to help you keep track, and guide you, it just works so much better. If I want to fall asleep fast, I put on a guided meditation video. I just know that I’ll fall asleep within a few deep breaths.
Guided meditation videos are so good for falling asleep. There are so many videos for sleep out there. Guided meditations usually have some calming music in the background, and the people doing the voice overs are usually careful to remain calm when speaking throughout the video.
Some of my favorite guided meditations are the ones that have prompts like: meeting your higher self, past life regression, meeting your spirit guides. They put you into that mood that helps you to dive deeper into your soul. I find it incredible fun, and one time I went into a past life where I lived in a cottage! It was awesome.
8 Best Guided Meditation Videos
Jason Stephenson has a pretty calming voice and his accent is quite soothing. He makes some really cool guided meditation videos and so many people love them. This is a meditation to clear the mind of negativity, and to relieve stress before sleep. Some pretty cool stuff.
This channel is really cool. I really love listening to this calming female voice. In fact, I tend to lean towards New Horizon’s videos. They just get the job done. This is a hypnosis for meeting your higher self. Your higher self is basically you, but a more successful, spiritually fulfilled version of you. Don’t get spooked by the hypnosis part, because it’s pretty chill. There’s no creepy mind stuff.
Yay! This is my current FAAAVE guided meditation. I don’t know, something about it just keeps me coming back over and over again. I know it says it’s a past life regression meditation, but it’s my go-to for falling asleep. I don’t even mind if I don’t go back into a past life! Hah!
Who doesn’t love a good chakra meditation? This is for activating and cleansing the chakras. If you don’t know much about chakras, this video will really educate you. It’s always good o send energy to your chakras, shake them up a bit.
This is a pretty chill guided meditation for falling asleep. It’s 3 hours long, so if you have trouble sleeping, you’ll be knocked out before long.
This guy has a calming voice, it’s great. This is a meditation for mind body spirit cleansing. The prompts and the guidance are pretty spot-on. It brings comfort and release.
There’s a meditation for pretty much anything out there. Since I’m currently obsessed with Louise Hay’s work, this video deserves a mention. I love her voice, but I really appreciate and trust in her words.
This guided meditation is for releasing negative emotions. It’s pretty suited to me, and since it’s only 10 minutes long, it’s perfect for on-the-go. I use this short meditation a lot.
Guided Meditation Works Pretty Well
There are guided meditations for loads of mental and mind health relief out there. This list has my favorites. Meditation has so many benefits, and guided meditation can guide you through meditation.
Scroll down below and comment about your experience with meditation!
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- How Meditation Helps You
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- 6 Foods to Increase Your Spiritual Health
- How to Feel Better On a Bad Day
- How to Develop Good Habits
- How I’m Dealing with My People Pleasing Behavior
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