Meditation for beginners
Hello, beautiful! My name is Victoria and I am so happy to chat with you today. I have to tell you about meditation and why it is so important for achieving success.
If you are new to my blog, I must tell you that I have been on an amazing elegance journey the past couple of years and I have experienced unbelievable growth.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 and everything began to shut down, I took the opportunity to focus on my mental health.
I knew that we were entering one of the most difficult times in modern history and I wanted to make sure that I was caring for my mind.
I looked into many things, but one thing in particular that stood out to me was meditation. Of course I had heard of meditation for most of my life.
I’d even given it a try in the past but I gave up because I simply wasn’t able to quiet my mind.
While researching meditation, I realized that I was very late to jump on this trend. There are so many celebrities who swear by meditation. Oprah, Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga, Kourtney Kardashian, Miranda Kerr, Megan Fox and the list goes on.
Once I realized how popular and powerful meditation can be if practiced regularly, I decided that I wanted to try it again. I was committed to learning how to have a good experience with meditation.
What is Meditation and how can it help you?
Meditation by definition is to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.
Here are some of the ways that meditation is beneficial
- Better Sleep. Meditating at night helps me power down my mind and promotes deeper and more restful sleep.
- Relieves stress. Meditation is a natural way to relieve stress. My doctor told me that daily meditation is one of her favorite ways to help reduce anxiety and stress.
- Easy & Free. You don’t need to pay money to meditate and you can meditate anywhere making it very easy to do if you work hard to quiet your mind.
- A good habit. Changing my daily habits has also been one of the top ways that I was able to create substantial change in my life. I do my visualization meditation first thing in the morning, which replaced my old habit of waking up and immediately wasting time scrolling through social media.
- Can decrease blood pressure. When meditating regularly you might experience lower blood pressure.
- Increased patience. This is because it takes a lot of patience to wait for your mind to calm down after a busy day. You will notice that you are more patient in everyday situations after you begin regular meditations.
- Improves mood. Sometimes my meditations are extremely powerful and words cannot describe the experience that I had or how amazing I feel after. I feel like an otherworldly being sometimes when I am able to put myself into trance (deep meditation)
A beginners guide to meditation
I always associated meditation with monks, or other people in the world who are extremely spiritual. In fact, I was very intimidated by meditation for the longest time.
Step 1. Start with a guided meditation
I remember attempting meditation once, and being completely overwhelmed because I was unable to quiet my mind, and there were too many noises that were causing a distraction for me, so I just gave up.
But recently I tried again, and this time I was serious about making it work for me. After little research, I discovered guided meditations.
Absolute game changer. I’ll explain.
A guided meditation is an audio that you can listen to while you meditate. Your guide will tell you what to focus on and what to think about.
There is background music so that you can drown out any noises around you and it really helps keep your mind focused on what you want to be visualizing.
The first time I tried a guided meditation, I felt like I finally found something that was going to help me learn the art of meditating.
Step 2. Set a time of day when you can make meditation a daily habit.
Once you start meditating, you will probably fall in love with it and want to do it all the time. It brings me so much peace that I feel slightly uneasy if my daily routine is disrupted and I am unable to meditate in the morning.
The best way to keep track of your meditation habit is by using a habit tracker. You can make one on your own. Many people who have a bullet journal create habit trackers in them. If you don’t have a bullet journal you can certainly purchase a printable one from Etsy.
Alternatively, there are apps that you can download that help with habit tracking and there are also a few meditation apps that you might want to try. I personally found that the apps don’t have many visualization meditations but they have a lot of calming ones.
Step 3. Find a place where you are comfortable meditating.
I personally meditate in the bed since it is the first thing I do when I wake up. I make sure to have my headphones on my nightstand so that I can just reach over and grab them.
I like to listen to my meditations with headphones so I don’t have any distractions.
I did meditate on the beach in the mornings during my summer vacation and that was by far the best meditation that I’ve had. I still used the guide but being by the ocean made me feel so connected to the earth and took my meditation to the next level.
Step 4. Select your guided meditation.
Here is where I have you covered. There are two guided meditations that are my absolute favorite when it comes to visualizing your dream life. They are both short but powerful. Both are found on YouTube so they are completely free to use which is absolutely love. Here they are:
Step 5: Bonus. Meditation without a guide.
Something I find amazing is that after I did the guided meditations for a while, I learned how to meditate with just meditation music and no guide.
And honestly, my meditations are quite extraordinary. Once I realized the power of my mind, I started finding inspiration for some of my sessions and I’ve really been able to take my meditations to the next level.
Once, I visualized myself walking through outer space and looking down at earth. It was wonderful.
Here are some tips for visualizing without a guide.
- Remove all limits. Nothing is off limits during my non guided meditations. Outer space, other dimensions, I have fun with it.
- Gather inspiration from the internet. I have a Pinterest board that I’ve recently started with images of places that I wanted to visualize. I choose real destinations and I also find some pieces of dreamy art for inspiration.
- Use meditation music. I’m still unable to meditate without music. There are too many noises around me that prevent me from getting into my meditations properly. I have found this meditation music to be extremely helpful but there is so much music to choose from you just have to find what is right for you.
Troubleshooting:
POV: you are unable to quiet your wandering thoughts. I’ve struggled with this many times over so I have a tip that will help quiet your mind.
Label your thoughts:
Your brain is a super computer. So it’s time to start imagining it as one. Picture your mind as a folder with many folders inside. Each folder is labeled with a different category for your thoughts.
- Happy
- Sad
- Traumatic
- Childhood
- Anxiety
- Planning
Over time you will start to notice a pattern in your thoughts and you will very easily be able to nail down at least 5 different categories.
Labeling your thoughts allows you to acknowledge them. Visualize filing these thoughts away in your mental computer folder and eventually you will be able to quiet your thoughts.
Conclusion
Visualization meditation one of the best and most fun to attract your dream life and to visit other worldly places in your mind. It has worked wonders for me and I know it will be incredible for you!
Do you meditate? Leave a comment and let me know. I would love to hear from you!
