6-Step Meditation

Photo Credit Voland Ratibor

Meditation is awesome. It can be long and luxurious, or short and incredibly helpful like a power-nap. It helps stress, depression, anxiety, and improves health and cognitive function (AKA brain power).

But meditation is really, really hard when you have no idea where to start. So, after a ton of research, Q&A, and the desire for a simple meditation walk-through for beginners I devised this 6-step meditation process.

I'm attempting to start a meditation habit, if you haven't noticed yet. I hope you'll join me.

1. Turn on some relaxing music. I use a thunderstorm CD, but this is different for every person. If music isn't your thing, find somewhere quiet.
2. Stretch. This will help relax your muscles. Focus completely on your stretching.
3. Relax and get comfortable. Lay down with your feet up for maximum relaxation, but if that isn't possible just get as comfortable as you can and then try and relax.
4. Close your eyes. Blocking out the visual stimulation will allow you to focus better on relaxing.
5. Take some deep breaths. This will help you calm down your heart, and boost your mood and improve your focus on the meditation. It also helps your muscles relax.
6. Clear your mind. This can be done two ways: focusing on one thing, like a mantra ('I am beautiful' is a good one), or by clearing out thoughts and letting your thoughts leave when they come (this is hard for some people, like me).

Next, just continue with the sixth step until you're done, out of time, or relaxed. Come out of the meditation slowly. Give yourself at least 5 minutes to come back to the world.

Then continue with your day, refreshed and reinvigorated.