How to Meditate for Peace of Mind

Learning how to meditate on a regular basis has helped me to feel such a greater sense of peace, happiness, and wellbeing. That’s one of the many reasons that I love teaching other people how to meditate. I’ve been teaching meditation for 30+ years, and one of the most frequent questions that I am asked is about how to meditate. This article is intended to help you to get started with meditating.

When we meditate, we’re cultivating two qualities of mind: concentration and mindfulness / awareness. Let’s start with exploring concentration practice.

How to Meditate for Beginners

Mindfulness is awareness of the present moment with kindness and curiosity. It is a practice of awareness of the present moment without clinging to it when it feels good, without turning away or trying to escape it when it feels uncomfortable, and without wanting it to be otherwise. We can practice formal meditation, with sitting meditation, mindful eating, walking meditation, writing meditation, or photography meditation, or informally, by applying the principles and practices of mindfulness to activities in our everyday life.

If you’d like to try to practice meditation, find a location where you won’t be interrupted. I’d invite you to begin by turning the attention to either sounds or the breath for a few moments to focus the attention. When the attention wanders, I’d like to invite you to notice that with non-judgmental awareness, and then bring the attention back to sounds or the breath.

How to Practice Concentration Meditation

Concentration meditation involves focusing our awareness concentration on a particular object of focus. Breathing meditation and sound meditation are two common concentration meditation practices. You might consider trying breathing meditation. Many people find this to be a relaxation meditation, but some find that it increases anxiety. If you find that breathing meditation increases anxiety, then I would encourage you to try sound meditation instead.

How to Practice Breathing Meditation

I’d like to invite you to begin the practice by finding a place to meditate where you won’t be interrupted. Consider finding a comfortable posture that allows you to be alert but relaxed. If you feel comfortable, I’ll invite you to close your eyes, and if you prefer to leave your eyes open, consider choosing a spot two to three feet in front of you on which to focus, and relax your eyes into a soft gaze.

I’d like to invite you now to turn the attention to the breath, noticing the coming and going of the breath in and out of the body, the rise of the chest and the belly with the inhale and the lowering of the chest and belly with the exhale. If you have a difficult time getting a sense of this, it may help to place one hand on the chest and the other on the belly so that you can really feel this up and down movement of the chest and belly with the breath.

When the attention wanders (and it will, because that’s what everybody’s mind does), as soon as you notice that it has wandered, I’d like to invite you to objectively notice that and then bring the attention back to the breath. This is the practice, over and over again. I encourage you to start small, perhaps beginning with about two minutes. Any length of time that you practice is better than none, so if two minutes is all that you feel you have to give to it, keep that up. If you’d like to expand the practice, I’d encourage you to gradually increase the length of the practice to 24 minutes and see how that feels.

How to Practice Sound Meditation

If you feel undue anxiety with the breathing meditation, I’d invite you to try sound meditation. This meditation practice is similar to breathing meditation, except that you rest the attention on sounds, noticing how some sounds come and go and others are steady. When the attention wanders, try to notice this with kindness, and then return the attention to sound meditation. This is the practice, over and over again.

How to Practice Insight Meditation

Beginning with one of the above concentration practices to calm the body and steady the attention, now move the attention on sounds or the breath to the background of your awareness as you make room in the foreground of your awareness for any dominant sensation, feeling, or thought that arises. I’d invite you to try to meet whatever arises with an attitude of non-judgment and kindness, without clinging to it, trying to turn away or escape it, and without wanting it to be otherwise. See if you can practice allowing whatever has arisen in this open awareness meditation to be as it is in this moment and just observe it. It’s like we’re taking a step back from our experience and practicing being aware of our experience from the perspective of our internal objective witness consciousness.

When you notice that the attention has wandered, I’d invite you to observe this, too, with non-judgement, curiosity, and kindness, and then bring the attention back to sounds or the breath or back to whatever dominant sensation, feeling, and thought has arisen. This is the practice, over and over again.

How to Practice Meditation for Creativity

Studies have shown that this sort of insight or open awareness meditation increases creativity, so if you’re a writer, artist, or other creative type, you’ll likely enjoy reaping this benefit of the practice as well!

Any length of time that you practice is better than none, so if two minutes is all that you feel you have to give to it, keep that up. If you’d like to expand the practice, I’d encourage you to gradually increase the length of the practice to 24 minutes and see how that feels.

Mindfulness Meditation Practice

Hopefully now you feel you know a lot more about how to meditate. As they say, meditation practice is simple, but it’s not always easy. If it feels right, I hope you’ll give it a try. There’s no right or wrong way to practice. What matters most is the sincerity with which you approach it. With a regular practice, most people begin to reap many of the rewards, which may include an increased sense of peace, happiness, wellbeing, and creativity as well as decreased anxiety and depression, decreased pain.

What has been your greatest joy and your greatest challenge related to meditation practice? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.

If you would like to learn more about how to meditate and develop a regular mindfulness practice, Register for the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction MBSR online course.