How to Meditate: Tips For Making it Easy!

Meditation has played a powerful role in strengthening my mindset and creating the life that I live today (including manifesting our upcoming cross-country move!). I know from my own experience, as well as hearing from so many of my readers, that this can also feel like such a struggle. So today, I’m sharing my tips on how to meditate and how to make it easy!

For the past two+ years, I’ve meditated every single day. Before this, I’d always start and stop repeatedly, never making it past two or three weeks at a time. Seeing as I never really noticed a significant difference in my life, I always either gave up or simply forgot about it. 

How I Started with Meditation

Just over two years ago, in the spring of 2019, Mike and I were at the gym talking with a friend. This friend casually mentioned that he was on day 400-something of meditating. He was chatting about a recent hardship that he had been through, how he had been beating himself up about it, and shared that meditation truly helped to save him from it all.

My jaw dropped as I was SO fascinated! I had never heard anyone say that they had meditated for so long. Hearing how much it changed his life made me realize that I wanted the same for myself!

The very next morning, I started meditating with a goal of reaching 365 consecutive days and I haven’t looked back since!

The Myth of Meditation

If you’ve struggled with even the idea of how to meditate, you are far from alone!

Have you ever been told that meditation is all about the practice of “clearing” or “emptying” your mind? Well … I’m calling BS on that.

I believe that this myth is why so many people feel that meditation is “hard” or something that doesn’t work for them. Honestly, who can just completely stop their thoughts?! 

I often hear others say that all they needed to do was meditate once and they were hooked. Or, it felt like they were floating the moment they first closed their eyes. Another, that they felt such a deep connection to God/The Universe/[insert anything that you believe in], on the first try.

Hey, if you feel like you’re levitating after your first meditation, more power to you! I just know that for me … this was not the case.

It took me at least a few months to notice a difference in my life, and even longer for it to become a real habit. I had to write “meditate” in my planner every single day, for months, or else I would forget. Now, it’s easy for me to remember, as it’s made such a beautiful difference in my life. My husband, Mike, even meditates with me, as he’s noticed such a difference from it as well!

I believe that so many people stop before they even have a chance to succeed because they expect instant results. Just know that if you don’t notice anything right away, or your mind wanders like crazy … that’s totally normal! It gets so much easier with time and lots of practice. You just have to stick with it! 

How Meditation Can Change Your Life

While some might disagree with my beliefs on this, I simply use meditation as a time to focus on what I want to attract into my life. This doesn’t mean that my practice is perfect by any means (hey, it’s called a “practice” for a reason). Some days my mind completely wanders, but with time, I’ve learned to no longer judge my thoughts. I just let them be. When I realize my mind is running all over the place, I simply refocus my attention towards what I want to create. Again, this all gets easier with time. It’s definitely not something that I was able to do right away.

Meditation has helped me to:

• Become aware of my thoughts throughout the day
• Reprogram my mind
• Be more intentional with how I spend my time
• Strengthen my mindset
• Calm any anxiety
• Give me answers that I’ve asked for (as I’ve come to learn, answers and clarity come to me in silence – aka. often during meditation)

The longer I’ve been doing this, the more benefits I’ve noticed!

What My Meditations Look Like

I keep my practice SIMPLE, which is also what makes it sustainable. I know that some are all about “setting the mood,” such as lighting candles, getting the room ready, etc. However, that just isn’t my style. Again, do what feels right for YOU!

Here’s what I do: First thing every morning, Mike and I sit down on the floor of my office to meditate (we love sitting with our pups, Max + Shadow). I use the Insight Timer app to keep track of the time and the amount of days that I’ve been meditating. We typically meditate for 10-15 minutes, usually holding a crystal or two (100% optional! I simply love crystals for their energetic properties). We both prefer doing silent meditation (using one of the apps “bells” to know when we’re done), but there are tons of guided options to choose from, as well as many different apps and types of meditation. More on that below!

This is an absolute priority in our mornings, as I know that for us … if we wait until later in the day, it most likely won’t happen. Also, it’s a GREAT way to start the day!

How to Meditate

Each and every one of us is unique, and this is all about finding what works best for YOU. Your way of doing things might be completely different from mine, and that’s awesome! There is no right or wrong way to meditate. Whatever helps you to stick with it, is all that matters.

Here are some of my best tips for how to meditate:

*Take what resonates with you, and feel free to leave the rest behind!

• Download an app, such as Insight Timer (my personal favorite), Calm or Headspace.
• Look into different types of meditation – i.e. guided, mantra, transcendental, metta, etc.
• Plan out a time in your day to meditate. I highly recommend first thing in the morning!
• Set a goal for how many days in a row you’d like to meditate & know why you want to achieve this.
• Make yourself comfortable and sit however you’d like!
  • If you have trouble staying awake, I’d recommend sitting up a bit more (I sit on a rug, against a wall).
• Start with 3-5 minutes and work your way up from there.
• Be super patient with yourself. It’s okay (and completely normal!) if your mind drifts off. It gets easier with practice! The key is to not judge yourself.

Breaking Through Your Own Excuses

Now that you hopefully understand that meditation doesn’t need to be hard, one of the other excuses that seems to come up is that there’s not enough “time” to meditate. I GET IT. Who doesn’t feel like there’s always so much to “do”? We all have a lot going on, but as you can see from my list above on how meditation has helped me … it’s been key to being more intentional with my time. This also means that I’m so much more productive than I would be otherwise!

Even if you have five minutes to meditate daily, that’s an amazing place to start! It’s time that you can take for yourself to begin to build a life that you truly love.

If you feel like you need extra help with sticking to healthy habits, stay tuned! We have a blog post on this topic coming next week!