Illustrations by Tomi Um
Before you learn how to meditate, it’s helpful to know what meditation is. The most common form of meditation is breath meditation, or mindfulness meditation, in which you bring your attention to your breathing. While breathing in and out, observe when and how your mind wanders to thoughts — for example, everyday stresses of relationships and work — and then return your focus to your breath. By learning to continually bring your attention to your breath and releasing your thoughts without judgment, you are training your consciousness to remain in the present moment. Making this a habit can lead to an emotionally stable state of mental clarity.
“The practice of meditation helps us to release the tension — within the body, within the mind, within the emotions — so that healing can take place,” says Thich Nhat Hanh, the famed teacher of mindfulness and meditation.
Healing through meditation can take many forms. There are meditation practices that help manage daily stress and anxiety. There are meditations that reduce pain; promote relaxation; and others that enhance empathy and compassion. Other forms of meditation include the body scan, walking meditation, and loving-kindness, or metta meditation.
Here’s how to meditate. Find a quiet, uplifting place where you can do your meditation practice. When starting out, try to allow 5 minutes for the practice. Listen to the guided audio meditation in our “Guided Audio” section, or follow along with the audio or written instructions below.
Some people may meditate to develop insight into the true nature of reality; others, to help deal with stress or relieve pain. The Tibetan Buddhist teacher the 17th Karmapa says meditation awakens a trust that we are full of wisdom and compassion. Meditation can simply calm an excited mind, relieving stress and anxiety while relaxing the body. Meditation master Ajahn Chah explains:
“As you meditate, your mind will get quieter and quieter, like a still forest pool. Many wonderful and rare animals will come to drink at the pool, but you will be still. This is the happiness of the Buddha.”
Meditation also fosters a wider awareness, or mindfulness, that can provoke profound realization. This process can help cut through unhelpful misconceptions and encourage a more open, compassionate relationship with yourself. For this reason, meditation practice is considered to have long-lasting mental health benefits.
Additionally, we might meditate to specifically cultivate certain positive traits. Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön lists five key qualities that emerge through meditation practice: steadfastness, clear seeing, courage, attention, and an easeful feeling of “no big deal,” where perhaps that might not have been the case for you previously. Meditation can improve your attention, resilience, compassion, and relationships.
You don’t have to be Buddhist to meditate. The Buddha taught meditation as an essential tool for any of us to achieve liberation from suffering.
Numerous studies on the science of meditation have proved its many benefits, including its ability to:
In order to keep coming back, find a way to make meditation enjoyable. Your meditation space should look pleasing to your eye and be comfortable. You might consider adding a cushion, stool, or chair, some incense, and some artwork. Some meditators set up an altar.
Your practice itself should also be physically pleasing. When you sit, scan your senses for something you enjoy. Rest your mind upon the sound of your breath, the weight of your hands on your knees, or some part of your body that feels good. Try various cushions or chairs if sitting is painful. You can also ask a teacher for tips about posture when meditating.
Alternatively, you could make a walking meditation your habit. Any form of practice contains some discomfort and pain, but it’s not supposed to be torture. Be flexible in your practice to reduce pain.
New meditators often start with practices that calm the mind, like following the breath. If your brain is jumping from thought to thought you can’t take the next step that results from a focused mind: seeing deeply into the nature of reality or insight. That being said, there are other methods to anchor the mind.
These meditations include Body Scan, during which you focus your attention on an area of the body or bodily sensations in a slow progression from your feet to your head.
Some people practice Walking Meditation. While out on a walk, try noticing as each foot touches the ground – follow your footsteps as you would follow your breath. Can you sync the moving of your legs with the rise and fall of the breath?
Another popular meditation is Tonglen, which translates to “giving and taking.” Pema Chödrön defines this practice “How to Practice Tonglen” as visualizing “taking in the pain of others with every in-breath and sending out whatever will benefit them on the out-breath.”
Similarly, Metta, or “loving-kindness,” is a meditation practice in which you conjure thoughts of various people — loved ones, not-so-loved ones, and others including yourself, who and allow “loving-kindness” (sometimes thought of as friendliness) to rise in your heart and mind.
Think of walking meditation as mobile meditating where you center your full concentration on moving your body. The practice is an essential aspect of meditation retreats and is used to counterbalance and transfer the power of sitting meditation. Consider it a way to include your practice into your routine. Here’s how to do a walking meditation:
Begin walking in a peaceful place. Bring your focus to your feet, shifting your weight from one side to the other.
Raising your right leg, take note of your body’s weight redistributing. Focus on what your left side needs to do to keep balanced. Step forward, putting the heel on the earth and rolling onto the ball of the foot. As your weight switches, take note how the heel of your left foot starts to rise. Step forward with the left foot, repeating the process.
Verbal prompts can be a way to create harmony and rhythm during your walking meditation. As your thoughts start to stray, use an easy cue like “lifting, moving, placing” to remind yourself to return your thoughts to the body. Integrating a simple verse to assist the practice is a technique utilized by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. Here’s one that might be used for walking meditation:
(Breathing in) “I have arrived”; (Breathing out) “I am home.”
(Breathing in) “In the here”;
(Breathing out) “In the now.”
(Breathing in) “I am solid”;
(Breathing out) “I am free.”
(Breathing in) “In the ultimate”; (Breathing out) “I dwell.”
At the outset of this form of meditation, you might note that your footsteps are very deliberate and mechanical. Try to discover more fluidness as you link your breathing with the way your body moves. Consider dropping the phrases for a while and focus on your body before returning to the vocal cues.
Begin with about a ten-minute walking meditation, gradually working up to half an hour.
When you have completed your meditation, try standing still, finding the energy in your body and noticing what is still.
In our culture, people find it difficult to direct loving-kindness to themselves. We may feel that we are unworthy, or that it’s egotistical, or that we shouldn’t be happy when other people are suffering. So rather than start loving-kindness practice with ourselves, which is traditional, I find it more helpful to start with those we most naturally love and care about. One of the beautiful principles of compassion and loving-kindness practices is that we start where it works, where it’s easiest. We open our heart in the most natural way, then direct our loving-kindness little by little to the areas where it’s more difficult.
1) First, sit comfortably and at ease, with your eyes closed. Sense yourself seated here in this mystery of human life. Take your seat halfway between heaven and Earth, as the Buddha did, then bring a kind attention to yourself. Feel your body seated and your breath breathing naturally.
Think of someone you care about and love a lot. Then let natural phrases of good wishes for them come into your mind and heart. Some of the traditional ones are, “May you be safe and protected,” “May you be healthy and strong,” and “May you be truly happy.”
2) Then picture a second person you care about and express the same good wishes and intentions toward them.
3) Next, imagine that these two people whom you love are offering you their loving-kindness. Picture how they look at you with concern and love as they say, “May you too be safe and protected. May you be healthy and strong. May you be truly happy.”
4) Take in their good wishes. Now turn them toward yourself. Sometimes people place their hand on their heart or their body as they repeat the phrases: “May I be safe and protected. May I be healthy and strong. May I be truly happy.”
5) With the same care let your eyes open, look around the room, and offer your loving-kindness to everyone around you. Feel how great it is to spread the field of loving-kindness.
6) Now think of yourself as a beacon, spreading the light of loving-kindness like a lighthouse around your city, around the country, around the world, even to distant planets. Think, “May all beings far and near, all beings young and old, beings in every direction, be held in great loving-kindness. May they be safe and protected. May they be healthy and strong. May they be truly happy.”
The Buddha said that the awakened heart of loving-kindness and freedom is our birthright as human beings. “If these things were not possible,” he said, “I would not teach them. But because they are possible for you, I offer these teachings of the dharma of awakening.”
Zen teacher Norman Fischer proposes a two-week trial run to get your meditation practice started and looks at how to deal with some of the obstacles you may encounter.
The simple act of stopping, says Pema Chödrön, is the best way to cultivate our good qualities. Here are five ways meditation makes us better people.
Dan Harris gets the inside story on mindfulness and compassion from Buddhist teachers Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Mark Epstein.
Valerie Mason-John shares a meditation for cultivating a positive relationship with yourself, and, by extension, the world.
Valerie Mason-John shares a meditation for cultivating a positive relationship with yourself, and, by extension, the world.
Zen teacher Norman Fischer proposes a two-week trial run to get your meditation practice started and looks at how to deal with some of the obstacles you may encounter.
Dan Harris gets the inside story on mindfulness and compassion from Buddhist teachers Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Mark Epstein.
The simple act of stopping, says Pema Chödrön, is the best way to cultivate our good qualities. Here are five ways meditation makes us better people.
Cheery, colorful, and in plain language, How to Meditate presents the basics of mindfulness and other forms of Buddhist meditation, from trusted readers’ favorites like bestselling authors Sharon Salzberg and Matthieu Ricard. Also included are inspiring stories of success with the practice from Peter Coyote, Sylvia Boorstein, and Charlotte Joko Beck; answers to common beginners’ questions, advice, and resources for sticking with meditation. Enjoy experimenting with a range of practices like Zen meditation, loving-kindness meditation, and much more.
Drawing on the unrivaled Lion’s Roar stable of wise and encouraging spiritual teachers and authors, Everyday Mindfulness takes the grounding power of Buddhist meditations and teachings and boils them down so that anyone can learn how to make their every day—and moment—more enlightened and enjoyable.
Our free, biweekly podcast is an excellent resource for anyone interested in meditation and Buddhist practice, featuring teachings, guided meditations, and fascinating thinkers like Dr. Rick Hanson, Lama Rod Owens, Jessica Pimentel, Joan Halifax, Sylvia Boorstein, and more.
Listen to The Lion’s Roar Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and LionsRoar.com
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