Meditation is the new age movement. Everyone is talking about how awesome it is as a path to peace and clarity. And yes, meditation is healthy and important to do. But then, most people don’t tell you how difficult it can be to start and stick to the meditation habit if you’re just starting at home.
I’ll take you through the best ways to meditate at home so you can develop this practice.
Things You Need to Meditate at Home
A Quiet Environment
Distractions are the number one reason why meditation does not go smoothly. Seasoned practitioners don’t let their environment distract them. But when you’re starting, it’s easy to get distracted by what’s happening around you. Hence, it’s best to get rid of stuff that can keep you from immersing fully into a state of meditation, such as your phone or TV running in the background.
A Timer
Meditation is a practice in self-control. Therefore, a timer is essential as it offers you the time guidance you need when starting meditation. But, you might not need it when you become less restless when meditating.
I kept looking at the time when I first started, wondering when 10 minutes would be over. But after I got a timer, the time did not bother me because I knew all I needed was to hear the sound of the alarm.
Fulfill Your Needs
Have you ever gone to bed hungry? It takes longer than usual to settle into sleep. The same happens when you try to meditate when hungry, thirsty, sleepy, or tired. Meditation needs an alert mind that’s not listening to other bodily needs. Therefore, take your time to fulfill your needs, and you’ll find meditation enjoyable and blissful.
Comfort
Trying to change your sitting position every two minutes goes against what you’re trying to achieve. To sit still, you need to be in a comfortable position. Whether you’re sitting or lying down, you are good to start meditating as long as you don’t fall asleep.
Best Ways to Meditate at Home
Get A Comfortable Spot
Find a quiet, comfortable spot to start your meditation. It could be your home office, your bedroom, on the balcony, etc. If you can’t find a quiet location, you can add white noise to drown out the noise.
Next, close your eyes and relax your muscles. It’s not as easy as it sounds because as soon as you relax your shoulders, they may begin to tense up as soon as you shift your focus to your palms. Work at loosening your body for a few minutes until you feel everything is relaxed.
I like taking a few deep breaths to get my mind to shut up. If I hear lots of mind chatter, the 7-4-7 technique usually works for me. I take a long breath for 7 seconds, hold it for 4 seconds, then let it out for 7 seconds.
Start with Short Durations and Work Your Way Up
I find it quite hard to quiet the mind in five minutes, but sitting still and focusing on nothing is even harder when you’re a beginner. Before you can concentrate for long periods, it’s best that you take baby steps and then add a few minutes to your sessions. Before long, you’ll grow the patience to focus on one thing at a time.
Consider Guided Meditation
I flirted with meditation for about a year before sticking to it when I first started. And this is because I did not know how to go about it. I wish I knew about guided meditation back then; maybe I’d have stuck with it sooner.
Guided meditation is a fundamental course to get down the basics. To this end, Headspace is an excellent app to consider since the first ten lessons are free and quite elaborate. You can also watch mindfulness videos on YouTube as they will help you breathe correctly, learn about posture, and you’ll know how to maintain your meditating position.
Create a Schedule
Set a daily meditation reminder and always meditate at the same stop. This practice will help your brain develop a new habit, making it easy to stick to meditation in the long haul.
Think About Your Goals
As you get into meditating, think about why you’re doing it. Without motivation, you’ll soon find it boring. But if you’re meditating to develop patience, generosity, or empathy, you can keep meditating since you’ll have a measure of progress.
Consider Meditation Music
I have to tell you that meditation music is not for everyone. But it has helped numerous people focus on the instrument’s sound or nature sounds. Meditation music often soothes your mind and eases you into tranquility. Hence, I advocate for it, especially when you’re beginning. And did I mention that it can make meditation enjoyable? I indulge in meditation music, and it’s perhaps my most effortless method of decluttering the mind.
Types of Meditation You Can Do at Home
There are many techniques of meditation. However, not all will appeal to you. Thus, it’s good to try different them out to see which ones you like.
Here are my favorites.
Concentration/Samatha Meditation
Samatha meditation uses an object as a focal point. For example, you envision a lighted candle in your mind and ground your attention to it. At the same time, you brush off intruding thoughts during Samatha meditation. When practiced over a long period, it helps with concentration.
Loving Kindness
When you want to boost your well-being and self-care, I recommend using Loving Kindness meditation. This practice helps you to cultivate self-love and compassion towards yourself and others. It opens your heart and increases your capacity to forgive, connect with others, and realize that we are all interconnected.
Vipassana Meditation
Vipassana meditation, or insight mediation, is deeply rooted in Buddhism. It is about learning about our existence or nature fundamentally. It pushes your mind to focus on the sensations in the body so that you eventually experience that nature as it is.
Secular Mindfulness
Mindfulness meditation that has gained popularity in the west, is Vippasana mediation stripped of its religious elements. It involves watching your breathing and staying in the present. Unlike Samatha mediation, you ‘watch’ intrusive thoughts rather than blocking them off.
Final Thoughts
Meditation is ultimately different for everyone. However, finding a comfortable location and an insight method can help you find the best ways to meditate at home. Hopefully, you can get into the meditation practice and enjoy all the benefits that come with it.
Good Luck!
Thanks for the beautiful blog, its very nice to read about meditation also we can try it at home. Meditation has countless benefits on our body and mind. Therefore it is good if we are practicing it on regular basis
Hi Yogi,
You are more than welcome. Thanks for sharing your comment.
Cheers,
Kenny
I find as you have mentioned just how hard it is to try and meditate when you have too much on your mind. When your head is full of thoughts and things from the day just as that can keep you from sleeping it also keeps you from relaxing from meditating.
Doing a small workout or taking away before meditation makes a lot of sense to help get you into a better place to prep you for meditating once you see about settling your mind down from the day you’ve had.
Excellent advice and I’ll see about trying it out and check back to your site for more tips etc.
HI Travis,
Thanks for checking out and sharing your thoughts. Hope doing some workout take some of your stress away.
Cheers,
Kenny
A really interesting post my friend on the best ways to meditate at home. It was extremely thought provoking and actual I felt enticed towards trying it for myself. There are also some AMAZING TIPS written too and I think I will have to invest in some meditation music. I used to have some when I was much younger but never understood its true purpose.
Hi Simon,
I think you could get many meditation music through Youtube. I’ve tried some but the one that I recommended is really something different. Feel free to try a few of their previews. I hope you start trying meditation soon.
Cheers,
Kenny
yes I may just do that lolol, seriously tho matey 🙂
If you bump into any meditation difficulty, just drop me a mail.
Cheers,
Kenny
Hi Kenny
Thank you for such a nice post!
I love to meditate. I cannot explain it but I need to do it to relax.
I have a very stressed job and when I meditate my mind flies away…
Yes sometimes I only want to go to bet and rest but I just can relax my mind after meditate over my cushion.
It’s amazing what meditation can do to your mind and to your body!
Thanks
Alex
Hi Alex,
I’m glad that meditation helps you to cool down your thought after your work. You’ll find you sleep better after you meditate. Keep it up.
Cheers,
Kenny
I will have to try these meditation techniques, i could do with some de-stressing.
Actually I swim as my main source of exercise and have read that swimming can be considered a for of meditation. All that water and noises that come with the swimming motion are supposed to help relax you during the exercise.
Do you agree with this?
Hi,
While I agree swimming can be relaxing, as it is part of working out. I don’t think swimming is meditation by itself. Meditation works more on the mind rather than our physical action.
Just like walking can be relaxing if we employed certain meditation technique into it. But walking meditation is more than the physical action alone. It involves our mind in training itself to observe thoughts or build concentration.
I’m not sure if this explains it well for you but hope it helps.
Cheers,
Kenny
This is a great article filled with great tips! I think that the most difficult aspect for people to relax and de-stress is to find the RIGHT method for themselves. You give some really great ideas for how to get out of your mind and set the stage for “productive” meditation. I love walking meditations, especially in nature. I find that appealing to the senses in simple ways helps me calm my mind (like walking, incense/essential oils, and music).
Great job 🙂
*Namaste*
– Kate
Hi Kate,
Walking meditation is really awesome. While sitting meditation allows me to go into deeper meditative state. I find it easier to apply the technique of walking meditation to daily life. Say walking to your car or office. Or on your way back home. It’s a perfect method of leaving your work problems before stepping into your house.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Kenny
Thanks for these great recommendations. I do have a hard time with meditation cause I’m impatient and if I know there are other things for me to do, I want to get to them. However, I do realize the many health benefits, so I’d like to find a way to incorporate this into my health routine. Relaxing music and guided meditation may best suit me, but I’m going to check out some of the links you provided to get more info. That meditation cushion with strap seems interesting. Thanks again.
Hi,
Thanks for checking out my post. Sometimes we are either reluctant or find meditation difficult. Yet that could be exactly what we need if we can get do it right, instead of getting frustrated.
The strap cushion could help people with back problem like me.
Cheers,
Kenny
You are totally stressed out and all you want tto do is relax and meditate to relieve that stress, but your overworked mind just won’t let go and let you get your mind off your day and into that meditation mode. We’ve all been there. Sometimes the best way isn’t to just stop thinking of everything and let your mind go blank, because it’s just not up for that. It’s these times that a guided meditation works best. Pop in a cd or get on you tube and find one you like and let the binural beats do their thing. If you are on you tube, you may also be watching something that you can focus on to get your mind focused on something else, even if just for a few minutes. This way you get your meditation done, your stress levels lowered, and your body relaxed.
Yes guided meditation does help in relaxing and lowering stress level.
Cheers,
Kenny
I’m loving your article here Kenny. You described my experience with meditation perfectly. I only think to do it when I’m stressed out. I guess that’s why it never works for me. How am I supposed to meditate for the sake of meditation though? The only times I think of doing it are when I’m stressed. How should I approach it? Also, about the music, are there any channels I should watch for on YouTube? Which do you prefer?
Hi Makki,
It’s ok if you think if you think you want to meditate to get rid of your stress. But when you are actually doing it, you just focus on what you’re supposed to do in meditation. For example, mindfulness meditation is about training your awareness to be in the present. If ever such thought of “Can my stress please go away” crept up during your practice, just bring back your thought to observing your breath, rather then stressing about whether are you meditating the right way.
As for the music, there are so many meditation music on Youtube, but I can’t pin point any of my favourite. It’s hard for me to get a good quality on Youtube. The one I recommended is being sold at various website. But as far as I’m concern, you can get it at the cheapest price at the site I recommended.
Alternatively, there are a few relaxation MP3 that you can download for free at the site.
Hope it helps.
Cheers,
Kenny
This is interesting. Ya, perhaps I should try it as you suggested.
Hi Arthur,
Thanks for checking it out.
Cheers,
Kenny
I have never meditated before and was not really interested in it because I am always on the move and doing my work back to back. But recently I have been feeling stressed out and my friends suggest that I meditate. It’s not just to help relieve my stress but I want to lead a more calmer and relax lifestyle. I might try out the meditation incense but I don’t know if I can find it near my local store
Hi,
Meditation incense is optional. If you can spare just 5 minutes, you can get started with mindfulness meditation. You can check out the simple instructions from my meditation guide. Hope it helps.
Cheers,
Kenny