Meditation Mondays
Meditation is often a polarizing topic. Some may have developed their practice and can't live without it. However, many people may have tried to get into it and feel like this is just not for them. I hear time and time again how beginner meditators feel like the process is agonizing and many feel like they just can't do it or they are doing it wrong.
The number one reason I hear that it’s not working for them is that they just can't turn off their thoughts and sit there.
The first myth about meditation that I want to bust is this: Meditation is not about turning your thoughts “off”. If this is your goal when meditating and you feel like you are doing it “wrong”, don’t worry, you are not!
Secondly: if you notice feeling uncomfortable or resistant during your meditation, you may be better at meditating than you think!
Meditation involves getting in tune and observing how we feel in the present moment through noting and scanning the body, two things I will touch on later. If you are noticing that you are really not liking the meditation practice, you are in fact already doing part of your meditation practice “right”!
Meditation is called a practice for a reason- practicing a skill, like anything at the beginning is tough and gets easier with time and you guessed it, gets easier with more practice.
So if you really want to get into meditation but the first few times made you feel discouraged, you are definitely not the only one!
Approach meditation as you would trying out any other new skill. If you don’t expect yourself to be able to run a 5k after a long winter of watching Netflix- let’s not put the pressure on us to be experts or comfortable meditating after a few tries.
From the outside looking in it may seem like you are just supposed to sit there, with no thoughts and feel refreshed at the end of your meditation. But to be honest, that is not the point of meditation at all.
Now that we've busted these myths- let’s talk about what we are actually going to do during meditation because even though it looks like we are just chilling, there’s actually a lot going on.
Setting Up Your Grounding Practice
Noting
Body Scan
Setting Intention
Over the next few weeks I will be diving into these foundational meditation skills on the blog. Check out the next post where I cover Setting Up Your Grounding Practice. Additionally, be sure to tune into my 4 week beginner meditation series “Meditation Mondays” starting February 8th at 6 PM, where me and my incredible colleague Erica will be helping you to put all of this into practice and explore so much more.
If you are willing to give it a shot, give yourself room to learn and grow into your meditation practice. It is one powerful way to care for yourself, treat yourself and hang out with yourself.