How to Establish a Meditation practice
We make time to wash the clothes we wear, the sheets we sleep in, the towels we dry with, and the dishes we eat with. We clean our teeth, wash our hair, we clean out our and our inbox. All this cleaning but how often do we pause to clean the mind?
How often do we overlook the importance of wiping clear the lens we filter every moment of our lives through?
Meditation the key ingredient too feeling clear, vital and stable - it is the founding step to self care.
Cultivating a daily meditation practise is the most potent way to increase conscious awareness, release thought patterns and habits that are no longer serving us and has proven to be so effective it re-wires the stress responses in the brain, toning the whole nervous system.
For the first decade of my meditation practice I struggled, I thought my mind was too busy, I thought it was hard work and I could never seem to find the time to sit (sound familiar?)
It's well known that humans are creatures of habit. Good or bad, productive or destructive we tend to practice and repeat the same actions day in and day out wether we are conscious of it or not. the most effective way to cultivate a meditation practice is to make it a ritual - Rituals are simply habits forged with meaning and intention and awareness.
Rituals infuse our daily lifestyles, actions, speech, and thoughts with our intention and here are the key steps to establishing your own.
Consistency is Key
Be clear about what your personal practice, choose a method that works for you and stay consistent so you have a set map of where to go and the path becomes familiar.
We are all busy, and ‘not finding the time’ is probably the biggest killer of all meditation practices so the key is to plan ahead & start small, 10-15 minutes a great place to start, then look at your schedule and create time in your day (the same time each day helps). It might mean waking up 15 minutes earlier but you will notice a world of difference.
Starting with a 40 day commitment is the best way to build a habit so set yourself a challenge!
Include Pranayama
Pranayama is the practise of harnessing and expanding the breath to calm the mind. By directing our attention to the breath it helps us to untangle ourselves from all of our thoughts and ties to the external world and begins to settle the busyness of the brain so we can draw our awareness inwards. The breath is the gateway to the nervous system and the bridge between the body and the mind so starting your ritual with a few minutes of Pranayama will help curb the ‘my mind is too busy’ experience.
Sama Vritti Panayama - Counting the breath 6 in and 6 out or Nadi Shodhana - alternate nostril breath are both great foundational practices to add to the beginning of your meditation.
Here is guided meditation that teaches you alternate nostril breathing.
https://soundcloud.com/elizaann/pranayama-for-balance-1
Create a Calm Space
Having a designated space to sit for your meditation/ritual will help generate consistency and devotion in your practice. One of the biggest shifts for me was creating a space I love coming to so it doesn’t feel like a chore but a treat.
To create a sacred space find somewhere in your house that you can dedicate to your practice and carry out your rituals in peace. You might create an altar here - an area you decorate with meaningful objects, it could be a cabinet a shelf or a table that you practice in front of to hold your, incense, any nature, photos, statues or crystals, or it could be as simple as a particular cushion that you use. The most important thing is it is somewhere you enjoy being so get creative and set your vibe.
If creating or keeping a permanent space doesn't work for you, you can invoke a sacred space by using an essential oils or lighting an inscent or candle to set the mood.
Drop the Judgment
Let go of the need to judge your practice. We live in an age and culture where we are conditioned to be constantly stimulated so it can take some time for the mind to down-regulate. One of the most helpful things I ever learnt about meditation was understanding that the mind will naturally move in cycles when we sit to practice and it is its own innately intelligent process of letting points of tension surface to be reviewed and understood so they can be released. Once I understood that it's natural for the mind to move through cycles of releasing and reviewing + rehearsing the future (this helps the nervous system imprint the calm state of being so when we are actually acting out the grocery shopping or conversation in real life our we feel calmer) it became easier to allow the mind to flow while my awareness anchored into my meditation technique.
Embrace the apps
There are so many amazing apps out there designed specifically to support your meditation practice. My favourite is Insight Timer - its free and you can set how long you want to meditate for and add interval bells (great for carving out a few minutes of Pranayama at the start) plus it means you don’t need to have the stress of hearing your phone alarm!
Guided meditations are also a wonderful tool to kick start your practice - here is a 10 minute morning clarity meditation I made for you!