Launching straight back into work in the New Year can be challenging, but learning how to meditate can help you stay focused. Feel free to roll your eyes right about now, but numerous studies have shown that meditation can boost creativity, improve sleep quality, and manage stress.
“Meditation is a practice to calm the brain by recentering our attention, most often on our breath,” says Mel Mah, an instructor at the meditation app Calm. ”It gives us a chance to check in with ourselves and pause in our busy, overstimulated lives. In those few minutes, you’re giving your nervous system permission to settle and reset.”
If your workspace doesn’t already have a dedicated chill-out area to decompress and reset, it’s probably only a matter of time. This ancient practice is becoming firmly rooted in our modern lives, with both celebs and top business execs making meditation an important part of their daily routine. For example, Oprah champions the power of transcendental meditation for grounding and finding her “silent voice of awareness,” while Jeff Weiner, the executive chairman of LinkedIn, recommends mindfulness meditation to his team for increased productivity and focus.
While there are no fast and hard rules for meditation, we asked the experts for advice on how to get started on the path to pure zen—or at least to feel a little relaxed for a few moments per day. Don’t forget to check out the rest of our wellness resources at Recovery Mode, which includes the Best Workout Apps and the Best Red Light Therapy Masks.
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- What Can You Expect From Meditation?
- Where to Start
- Does It Matter How Long You Meditate?
- Are You Sitting Comfortably?
- How Do You Quiet the Mind?
- How Can I Tell if I’m Meditating Correctly?
What Can You Expect From Meditation?
You can meditate anywhere–whether you’re in an empty boardroom or at home in bed–and it’s free.
“Learning to meditate is a powerful tool as it can help you sleep better and reduce stress in the body,” says Michael James Wong, meditation teacher and founder of Just Breathe. “Studies show up to 30 percent reduction in cortisol levels after consistent meditation practice, for example. It can also strengthen the brain’s attention networks, and research using fMRI has shown that just eight weeks of mindfulness training increases activity and density in the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for focus and decisionmaking.”
There are many different types of meditations that you can try, including movement-based meditation, or sessions guided by sound or mantra. Each practice can use a number of techniques. You may have heard of body scanning, visualization, or loving kindness.
“With our meditation and breath work training methods, we look at the practice in three distinct categories,” says Wong. These include focused attention meditation, present moment and here-and-now practices, and mantra-based practices to help expand consciousness.
Where to Start
There isn’t one single right way to meditate! While there are numerous types of meditation, a breath-based practice is simple. Guided sessions using an app such as Just Breathe or Calm that walk you through the meditation can be helpful but aren’t essential. Many traditional forms of meditation are done in silence, but if you feel particularly restless or anxious, gentle instrumental music can help.
“Meditation can feel intimidating for beginners, but at its core it’s a tool to bring your awareness into the present moment,” says Clare Walters, a mind and body trainer at the London health club Third Space. ”There’s no perfect way to do it … but like any training, it takes practice.’
Walters recommends just starting with a few minutes of sitting and focusing on your breath.
- Try closing your eyes or softening your gaze on a single point.
- Bring your attention to your breath. Notice where you feel it in your body, its pace, and its rhythm. Are you breathing through your nose or your mouth? Could you try breathing only through your nose? Can you even out your breath so the inhale and exhale are roughly the same length?
- You could also try counting your breaths. Inhale slowly for a count of four, then exhale for a count of four.
- Whenever your mind wanders, gently return your focus to the breath and the count. Continue this practice for five to 10 minutes, observing your breath and letting your awareness rest in the present moment.’
Does It Matter How Long You Meditate?
A consistent daily practice, regardless for how long, adds up. “If you can commit to 10 minutes a day, that’s great, but if you can only commit to two minutes a day, that’s awesome too,” says Mah.
“I also love weaving meditation into moments throughout the day,” she continues. “Focus on your breath during your commute, while waiting for your coffee to brew, or try a walking meditation during lunch. When I first started practicing, I’d wake up, set my alarm for two minutes and sit in bed. That was over a decade ago, so I’ve now learned many other meditative practices that I use in the morning, but it all started with just two minutes.”
Are You Sitting Comfortably?
How you choose to sit or lay depends on the type of meditation you’re practicing and, of course, where you are.
“In most cases, the best positions to practice are either seated, reclined, or lying down,” says Wong. “If I go deeper, there are different techniques that are best practiced seated versus laying down, but when you’re starting, the best approach is any way that allows you to commit to the practice and be comfortable.”
It bears remembering that the practice of quietening your mind doesn’t always feel comfortable as you’re practicing it. Your body might feel sore or itchy as you accustom yourself to stillness. “The myth with a meditation practice is that you need to feel ‘good’ or ‘calm’ during the practice, but you don’t have to,” Wong says. “Where the magic happens in meditation is in the time after—the feeling, the grounding, the certainty.”
How Do You Quiet the Mind?
The challenge with any meditation is to try and stop thinking about your to-do list and to just be. It can be hard to switch off with a noisy washing machine going on in the background or the thought of a pressing email sitting in your inbox, but there are techniques to help focus your attention to the present.
“It’s really helpful for me to focus on one single thing at a time, so when I’m breathing all I’m thinking is ‘breathe in, breathe out,’” says Mah. “You can even count the breath and just focus on the numbers. You can say to yourself, breathe in 1, 2, 3, 4, breathe out 4, 3, 2, 1. Repeat that for a minute, staying focused on the counts, and see how differently you feel from establishing single-pointed concentration.”
How Can I Tell Whether I’m Meditating Correctly?
As Mah points out, there isn’t a correct way to meditate. Any intentional focus on the breath can be meaningful. “Over time, you may notice your mind wandering less and start to see positive benefits in other areas of your life—better sleep, greater awareness of your emotions, more presence in daily moments perhaps. One of my teachers said that you’ll know when you’ve become more mindful or more evolved when you smile more and stop taking yourself so seriously. That’s a really great marker to know if your meditation practice is working!
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