So we all know the benefits of meditation,
Right?
Increased concentration,
Better sleep quality,
Better mood.
So you're interested but you don't really know how to get started.
In this video we're going to talk about what meditation is and we're going to get started.
By the end of this video you'll have already started your meditation practice.
So I used to think that I had to learn the proper way to meditate and that involved meditating for like two hours a day and doing it perfectly.
I just set myself up for failure basically and I didn't meditate for a number of years and then I came across this idea of consistent underachievement and it really worked particularly for meditation for me.
So rather than trying to do two hours a day,
Which was impossible for me,
I did two minutes a day,
Built that habit and then built on the habit.
So now I count any time that I'm not on my phone,
I'm in the present moment,
I'm not reviewing conversations that I had yesterday or planning things for the future.
I'm just here,
I'm hearing the sounds around me.
That to me is meditation.
There are a whole lot of different schools of thought,
A whole lot of different flavors,
If you like,
Of meditation and they're all awesome and we're going to dig into these in future videos.
For the purposes of this video,
Being a beginner,
I'm just going to talk about two,
Three different types that are helpful groupings to think about.
So first up is body or breath awareness.
That can be things like counting your breath or doing body scans.
Second,
We have visualization.
Now that tends to be often,
But not always,
A guided meditation.
Someone is suggesting a mental image for you to draw in your mind.
For me personally,
I'm not very good at visualizing.
I have a blind mind's eye,
So I tend to stick with the first one,
Which is body and breath awareness.
And kind of through both of those,
Through all types of meditation really,
You can work on the practice of metta or loving kindness.
So that's kind of growing some love feelings and then sending them out to people that you love or strangers on a train.
That's what I do when I commute.
I send people in the carriage some good vibes.
It's also really useful to be aware that you need to give yourself loving kindness,
Especially while you're learning meditation,
Because it's a new skill and you're not going to be awesome at it straight away.
These things take time.
Another couple of groupings when we're thinking about meditation is whether it is self-directed or guided meditations.
So self-directed being it's just you and you are using a meditation technique or something to guide yourself through meditation.
Guided meditations are where you have somebody like me who's talking you through,
Giving you instructions,
Telling you kind of what to do.
I'm a teacher on Insight Timer.
I create guided meditations over there.
It's a free app that you can download.
There's tons of free meditations that you can listen to and awesome music and so on.
There's a paid version as well,
But you don't have to do that.
You can just use the free version.
I love it.
It's great.
Apps and things are really convenient for this.
You know,
There's lots of really good ones.
There's loads of great resources here on YouTube as well.
Or you can go to a group in real life.
That's how I started meditation.
That was before there were phones and apps.
And yeah,
I don't know.
I think if I was doing it again now,
I would be much more comfortable just using an app.
But it is really amazing actually to meditate in a group,
In a room full of people who are meditating.
And there's just this really interesting energy or quality to the meditation.
But you know,
Just you do you.
Figure out what works for you.
And I think certainly when you're starting out,
It's really easy to get caught up in,
I must have all these things to do it.
I must go to a group.
I must do this.
I do that.
Meditation is easy.
You can just start.
You don't need fancy clothes.
Comfy clothes are good,
Especially if you're sitting on the floor,
But you can meditate in your work gear or whatever.
You don't need any special equipment.
If you have a chair and a backside,
You can meditate.
You can sit on the floor.
There's meditation cushions that you can use.
I made this one.
I just got a pattern off the internet and it was easily done.
You can buy them.
You can just use couch cushions.
You can sit on your couch.
Just sit forward so your back is nice and straight.
Really,
That's it.
Like wherever you're comfortable sitting,
Just don't be twisted around.
I think just try and keep yourself straight.
Straight up and down.
Nice tall back.
Feet on the floor.
And breathe.
That's pretty much it.
Obviously,
As you get more into meditation,
There's loads of different methods and things that you can use.
But to get started,
That's really all you need is just sit down and start.
You can sit or you can lie down.
I think for beginners,
It's good to sit rather than lie down.
I don't know about you,
But I fall asleep quite quickly if I'm lying down.
So I prefer to meditate sitting with my back straight.
As with most things,
It's the practice,
The ongoing practice,
The habit.
That's the thing that is really important.
Especially when you're starting,
It doesn't really matter if you're meditating at the same time every day or in the same position.
You don't have to create a separate area of your house or do anything,
Just as long as you're not going to be disturbed for a minute,
Two minutes,
However long you're planning to meditate for.
That's great.
So we're going to do a little meditation now just for one minute.
Close your eyes if you're comfortable closing your eyes.
It's okay if you're not.
I'm going to count breaths for us.
We're going to do cycles of five breaths and repeat.
We'll probably only do one cycle and a little bit in a minute.
So I'll set my timer for a minute.
Let's begin.
So close your eyes if you want.
Sit up straight and breathe in for one and breathe out one.
Breathe in two.
Breathe out two.
Breathe in three.
Breathe out three.
Breathe in four.
Breathe out four.
Breathe in five.
Breathe out five.
Okay,
We'll start again.
Breathe in one.
Breathe out one.
Breathe in two.
Breathe out two.
And that's us done.
Yay!
If that was your first time ever meditating,
Congratulations.
That's awesome.
I'm so pleased that I was here to experience that with you.
I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you here next week.
