Learn How To Meditate Anywhere in Three Easy Steps!
Written by Meena Niazi, LPCA
What do you first think of when you think of meditating? Is it sitting cross-legged and humming “ohmmm”? There are a few misconceptions about the practice of meditating. First one being that you need to clear your mind. The practice of meditating is meant to assist people to become present in the moment. You might ask, what does that mean? Think of how many times you have been cleaning your room, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, and your mind is racing thinking about your to-do list, and what to make for lunch. These thoughts take us away from the moment and can create feelings of anxiety. A loose scientific definition of anxiety is that it’s future oriented concerns, things that may or may not happen that we do not have control over.
The benefits of meditating especially for more anxiety prone folk is that it gives permission for you to live in the moment. We are not living in the moment if we are placing our minds and bodies in the future. The future that is unpredictable, no matter our best efforts to think of every scenario.
Apart of the art of meditating is grounding yourself and giving permission to pay attention to the details of the moment. To ground yourself you are removing yourself from the thoughts that are focusing on the future! See where you are, notice your surroundings. Take in the aroma, feel where you are sitting, notice what you are tasting, and listen to what is around you.
You may notice this technique involves the 5 senses. This is one technique on how to practice grounding.
Meditating is focusing on the breath and being present in the moment. Meditating is not meant to be a distraction from your worries but a practice to help you notice and connect with your mind, body, and spirit. Becoming aware of your senses. Are you feeling anxiety? Is your jaw clenched? Are your shoulders tense? Ask yourself this and give yourself permission to unclench your jaw, loosen your shoulders, check-in with yourself. This is the first step of meditating is acknowledging where your mind and body is and trying to center yourself in the now.
Begin to take deep breaths in through your nose and hold them for a few seconds, then exhale, allowing your stomach to expand. This is important. The way we breath is important. Ever notice a baby and the way they breathe? You see their tummy expand with each exhale. We may not notice that we take shallower breaths the older we become. (Just some science for ya, breathing the correct way can activate the parasympathetic system that controls our resting state and shut off our flight or fight system, A.K.A. the sympathetic nervous system). Once you get your breathing down, you may think you need to shut off your mind in order to meditate. WRONG. Notice your thoughts, notice where your body feels tense, and where your mind is taking you. The key here is acknowledging the thoughts and practicing bring yourself back in the moment. We can never completely shut off our mind and it is perfecting normal to have thoughts pop in and out. The art of meditating is beginning to practice and learn how to redirect yourself back to the present.
Notice each thought as if they are clouds in the sky passing through. We see them, we acknowledge them, and we let them go. Focusing again on the moment and our breathing.
3 Steps: Try anywhere!
1. Check in with your mind and body. Where do you feel tense is there anywhere where you’re holding energy that needs to be loosened? Hands, shoulders, jaw? Are there any thoughts that you can take shake off? Acknowledge them now.
2. Begin to focus on your breath, regulating your breathing to deep breaths through the nostril and exhale expanding the stomach
3. Ground yourself in the moment. Activate your senses, sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste. You can try this anywhere for however long you want. In the line at the grocery store, sitting in the waiting room, or in your car. And don’t be hard on yourself if you get distracted! But thank yourself for taking a moment to be here in the now.
If you find yourself struggling with anxiety and want to learn more or if you need more support, schedule a call with us today! Everyone’s path to healing looks different, we look forward to meeting you.