Avoid 4 mistakes that beginner meditators make
How do you actually start a meditation practice, if you’re a beginner?
What often happens is when we try to meditate, a million thoughts come rushing in and we feel worse than before we started. We’re put off meditation, “it’s not for me, my mind is all over the place” — and miss out on a possible life transformation!
In this video, I share with you 4 specific rules to succeed by avoiding the mistakes that most beginners make.
Peace & Love
Rishi
PS if you want to deepen your practice then check out my course How to Meditate Like the Ancient Yogis & Transform Your Life — https://www.meditatewithrishi.com/reshapeyourreality
Video Transcript:
Namaste and welcome. It is Rishi here from MEDITATEWITHRISHI.COM Today’s video is a really simple one and it’s a question I’ve been getting a lot recently, which is how do you start a meditation practice if you’re a beginner? So I want to make it very very simple for you and I’m going to give you 4 steps on how to start a practice If you’re a beginner, so let’s get to it. The first one step 1) Or rule 1') is begin with short sessions — ten minutes is ideal if you’re starting out. So 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening because beyond 10 minutes, if you’re a beginner, you’re going to lose your concentration and you’re not going to be doing what is necessary. And it also seems really daunting if you have to sit for a long time, right? It’s easy to convince yourself to sit down for 10 minutes in the start. So do it 10 minutes first thing when you wake up and last thing before you go to bed. After you’ve done your reading, your nighttime routine, you know, you’r scrolling on Instagram — after all that. The last thing you do before bed is do your meditation, ten minutes. Okay. That’s rule number one. Rule 2) is to keep the object of meditation very simple. You can start with just focusing on your breath. In fact, you can continue with just focusing on your breath. But keep the object simple, don’t look for any fancy techniques. It’s just unnecessary, If you have a mantra that you already like, use the Mantra. If not the breath is perfect. Listen to your breath coming in and going out, get to know the breath. Feel the stomach rising and falling as you breathe in and breathe out. Just get to know the breath. Our mind loves the sound of our breath. It loves being in touch with our breath and it becomes very calm when it connects to the breath. So rule number two is use a simple object of focus. The breath is perfect. Okay rule 3) is one of the most important rules, especially for a beginner. Which is do not expect it to be peaceful! Don’t expect that You will not have any thoughts or you will become thoughtless or you will have perfect concentration. That is, that is just setting yourself up for failure. Okay. Expect that as soon as you sit down, thoughts are going to come rushing in. Expect that you are not going to be able to concentrate because the reality is that when we actually sit down in silence for the first few times, we realize how chaotic the mind is. How it’s going in a million different directions. So your only job, your only job in this meditation is when your mind wanders, try to become aware that it’s wandered and bring it back gently, lovingly, to the breath. That is all you must do. Do not get angry, do not get agitated. Just the fact that you’ve realized that you’re thinking about something other than the breath — is progress. It means that you are aware. So be happy. And gently, with love, bring the mind back to the breath, bring the mind back to the breath. This is how you build your concentration. The more you do this consistently every day. The longer you will be able to sit for and you know the better you will become at this practice and actually reach the meditative state. So what you are practicing right now is concentration, concentration on the breath. Okay. So rule 3) is simply do not expect peace. Just expect that your mind will wander and your only job is to bring it back with loving attention to the breath. Okay, and Rule 4) is commit to the practice, you know, like with anything in life, especially with meditation — consistency is King. It is going to make the difference between whether you can build your concentration and actually go deeper into this practice and see the benefits or not. So starting with small sessions, you know, 10 minutes in the morning ten minutes in the evening is very easy to commit to and make sure that you commit to it no matter what happens, you know, there is no — I mean think about it, There is no excuse that before you sleep. you cannot spend 10 minutes. Just focusing on your breath. There is simply no reason right? So commit to that practice and commit to doing it every day. In the start, don’t judge yourself on how well did I concentrate. The only thing you need to be judging your self on is, did I practice today? or did I not practice today? That’s the only box you need to tick. And trust me when I say this, if you do that, if you commit to this daily practice, if you sit for short sessions of ten minutes, if you choose a simple object like the breath, just keep everything simple and not worry when your mind wanders. Bring it back to the breath, you’re going to be able to sit for much for longer periods quicker and reap the benefits of meditation, which I’m not going to go into in this video because I can talk for hours & hours on that (lol). Okay, so that is it. Let me summarise the four steps on how to start a practice if you are a beginner. 1) Stick to short sessions, 10 minutes is ideal in the morning and in the evening. 2) Have a simple object of focus, the breath is perfect. 3) Do not expect peace — expect your mind to wander and when it does bring It back to the breath with loving, gentle, kind attention. And 4) Commit to the practice, just ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the evening. Worst case definitely do the ten minutes right before you sleep and just commit to that seven days a week. That is all you need. Okay now once you’ve done that, let’s say you want to take your practice further, or you want to deepen your practice, I’ve created a beautiful course called How to Meditate like the Ancient Yogi’s and Transform Your Life. You can check that out on meditatewithrishi.com. Okay, but if you’re just starting out, you know these simple 4 steps that I mentioned are going to be perfect to just get you going. And then you can deepen your practice later, once you have the appetite for that. So thank you. Thank you very much for listening and I hope that was helpful! Namaste
