Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there.
Deepak Chopra
Anytime is a good time to start a meditation practice, but now seems to be a better time than ever. With all the challenges and tumult that are happening in our lives and all around the world right now, developing a practice that taps into the oneness that we all share – in both good times and bad – will help us all survive and thrive as we navigate through this global crisis.
I would like to share a few tips and tools that I found helpful in developing my meditation practice:
#1 – Keep it simple.
Meditation is simple, but not necessarily easy. When you are beginning, I suggest keeping it simple, and this will make it easier. You need do nothing more than this: find a quiet place, set a timer for 5 minutes, close your eyes, and concentrate on your breathing. Do this simple practice every day for 5 days, and I guarantee you will notice a difference.
#2 – There is no such thing as a “bad” meditation.
This being said, it also means there is no such thing as a “good” one either. The first thing to let go of when you are starting to meditate is the habit of judging each session as if they are assignments to be graded. Once you’ve sat a few hundred times you’ll see what I mean. They’re all good, no matter what.
#3 – Don’t tell anyone you are meditating.
Just in the beginning, it’s best to keep this wonderful new practice to yourself. People like to tell other people how to do things. Sometimes advice is helpful, but quite often it just gets in the way of you figuring out what works best for you. Once you’re into a groove, then I encourage you to share your experience far and wide.
The goal of meditation isn’t to control your thoughts, it’s to stop letting them control you.
Anonymous
And here are some tools I recommend to help support you along the way:
This is an excellent and very popular app that has a nice timer function and offers lots of meditation courses, guided meditations, music for meditation, and more. But what I like best about this app is the feature that shows you a map of all the people all around the world who are meditating at the same time with the Insight Timer. And after you finish your meditation, a little page pops up that shows you a list of several individuals who just meditated with you, and allows you to send them a message saying, “Thanks for meditating with me.” The basic app is free and offers in-app purchases.
Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana
This short (224 page) book by the Buddhist monk Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a masterpiece of insight and wisdom. If you could read only one book on meditation – this is the one to read. Everything you need to know is here: what meditation is and what it isn’t, common misconceptions about mediation, how to practice meditation, and how to overcome common problems. And all written in plain English!
Mindfulness Daily on Sounds True
This is actually a double recommendation. Sounds True is a great website that offers a vast array of audio books, CDs, courses, and videos on meditation, spirituality, relationships, health and healing, and more. The accompanying app allows you to access many of these offerings on your smartphone.
Mindfulness Daily is a basic meditation course offered by Sounds True. This 40-day course is created by the world-renowned meditation teachers Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Each day includes a short lesson and brief guided meditation lasting no more than 15 minutes. It’s available on the app, once you’ve downloaded it from the website. This course will get you up and running with your meditation practice right away, and best of all: it’s free!
Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.
Katherine Dunham
I wish you the best as you begin your meditation practice.
Namaste (The light within me honors the light within you).
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