how to meditate - creating a blissful ritual.
If you find the thought of meditation intimidating then do not fret, you are not alone. I hadn’t done a lot of meditating before this year, just the odd little bit at the end of a yoga class and if anything, I was more likely trying to not fall asleep in savasana!
So what is meditation? We’ve all been told it’s good for us, but….. What are the benefits?
It can help improve focus, reduce stress, improve self-esteem & self-awareness, fight addiction, manage anxiety & depression, control pain, make you a more loving person & help you connect to yourself & the world around you.
Surely, those are things that everyone wants? So, sitting down, closing your eyes & quieting your mind sounds like a simple thing to do to achieve them, right?
WRONG
I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s not something that you pick up instantly. It’s something that you have to practice often. Just like any other good habit you want to pick up, you have to give it time & make space for it, but quieting your mind is not so easy when you live in modern society. We have so much more to think about than our ancestors did. We live in the information age after all.
I started to be serious about meditation a couple of months into lockdown when I became unemployed. I had an additional 10-12 free hours a day & I wanted to do something useful with my time. A few of my friends were also in a similar situation & had started a free 21 day abundance meditation course by Deepak Chopra & had encouraged me to do it. So I took this as a sign from the universe & dived in. I can honestly say, I think it was one of the best things I have done this year. (Not that there has been much to compare it to!)
There were daily guided meditations to listen to & daily tasks to perform, taking at most 1hr to complete. At the start, I did see my mind wandering from the present moment into thoughts of the past & future but day by day, my focus got a little bit better. Now I meditate every day, sometimes more than once.
The course was so beneficial because it gave me some sense of a routine when I didn’t have much else to do. I now think of meditation as a ritual that I love and would go so far to say that it’s one of my favourite parts of the day. To just sit with myself & be blissfully happy, thinking about nothing at all.
Making meditation a ritual in the morning is something that’s helped me get off on the right foot everyday, so I thought I would share with you how to do this yourself, to make it something you look forward to rather than a chore.
I hope you find this guide useful. I would love to hear from you if you decide use my technique. Please let me know how it works for you. The best way to contact me would be through my Instagram page!
I’m going to follow up this article with a part two on how to meditate where I will go deeper into how to focus your mind whilst meditating so keep your eyes peeled on Instagram for this. You can even put the notifications on my posts so you don’t miss it if that helps!
I hope you have a blissful & abundant day,
Love Jessica x
