Hey,
This is Ish and today I want to give you some meditation advice for all the teenagers out there that are listening to my content So I actually started meditating when I was 15.
I was a angsty teenager Listening to a lot of rock music and didn't get along with my parents.
So pretty difficult and Here are some pieces of advice.
I wish I had known back then.
So the first thing would be Meditate before school or before your classes.
So I find this was pretty helpful,
Especially when I started college Just doing 15 minutes before your classes can help Make the day go a lot easier and more manageable and you have a really calm energy Throughout the day because there are a lot of boring classes that you don't like and people you want to avoid,
Right?
So I find that meditating before school or your classes can give you a nice relaxed feeling and can help those,
You know Boring moments or unmanageable moments more manageable and It's also helpful to do this during breaks.
You know,
You're doing lunchtime.
I typically might get an hour for lunch That could be a perfect time to just find a quiet place and just do 15 minutes Or just walk and watching your breath that can also help as well so you can play around with you know,
Doing it before school or In between your classes whenever you get the time,
You should definitely try to meditate during the day So the second tip would be don't compare yourselves to others a lot of times when you first started meditating you have this idea of perfectly calm monk in your mind and and try to aspire to be like that person and That's typically not the case when you're a teenager because you do get emotional and angry and you'll find that your prefrontal cortex Doesn't actually develop that's responsible for making clear-headed decisions and making rational choices Doesn't develop until 25.
So you should expect to at least be a bit emotional and lose your temper here and there And that's totally fine and normal.
Well,
You will still experience a lot of the benefits of meditation though The next thing would be to practice loving-kindness exercises to your family members or parents that you want getting along with So you'll find that this is the period in your life where you actually get along with your parents least And this is where you actually need more loving-kindness practices and the way to do that is just to first start with yourself So you repeat yourself may be happy may be well and may be peaceful And then you repeat that to yourself and then extend it out to different family members And you'll actually find when you do do this exercise that your relationships actually improve and you do conversely get More of what you want by actually extending a love out first So if you think about it,
You don't actually get the things you want in life by being very angsty and not get along with them Right,
So it's better to at least extend the love out first and you'll get that Get good treatment back at you when you practice the loving-kindness exercises So Eckhart Tolle,
A spiritual teacher actually once said the true test of spirituality is actually just spending a weekend with your parents And I found this is true because first when you start meditating until you're a little bit younger You'll find that you lose that meditation meditative calm in about say an hour of talking to your parents And then you'll find that as your practice develops and you become more centered You find that that gap kind of extends a bit more So if you lost your cool after one day now it'll extend to two days and then maybe a week and then a month and then Then all of a sudden you're not affected by people around you,
Right?
So you'll find that as time goes on and your spiritual practice deepens That you start to become more self-reliant and you don't tend to lose your cool as as easily and the meditation actually helps a lot So definitely stick to it.
Stick to the practice You can start off small by just doing 15 minutes a day and then gradually work your way up to 30 minutes and then one hour And then if you really want you can start doing two hours and then extending that over So that's what I personally did when I was about 16,
15.
I started with just 20 minutes a day before school Then I did 20 minutes before school and then I did 20 minutes before bed And then I started to extend my practice on and on and I actually experienced a lot of cool benefits from it And my practice has definitely deepened and developed over time.
So I hope this helps.
Thank you
