Meditation Techniques and Benefits for Beginners

Interested in beginning meditation but don't know where to start? Here are a few easy techniques to get you started.

The basic tenets of meditation — relaxation and breathing — can be difficult to master in our hectic lives, but if you're able to find just a few minutes a day, that's all you need to get started.

Benefits of meditation include stress reduction, sharpened concentration, and improved circulation to start. Once you begin to practice, you'll soon experience a quieter mind, a more open heart, and a sense of inner freedom. Sound good?

BENEFITS OF MEDITATION

If relaxation is not the goal of meditation, it is often a result. In the 1970s, Herbert Benson, MD, a researcher at Harvard University Medical School, coined the term “relaxation response" after conducting research on people who practiced transcendental meditation. The relaxation response, in Benson’s words, is “an opposite, involuntary response that causes a reduction in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.”

Since then, studies on the relaxation response have documented the following short-term benefits to the nervous system:

• Lower blood pressure
• Improved blood circulation
• Lower heart rate
• Less perspiration
• Slower respiratory rate
• Less anxiety
• Lower blood cortisol levels
• More feelings of well-being
• Less stress
• Deeper relaxation

Here are 5 easy tips for beginners. Remember all you need is 5 to 10 minutes a day to get started with meditation:

1. Be comfortable in a quiet place.

Find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. To get started, it doesn't matter whether you sit or lay down as long as you are comfortable. You can sit cross-legged, on the floor, or on a chair. If you can sit erect, then great. If not, it's just important to have your body in a somewhat stable position. Then have the palms of your hands face the sky.

2. Become "present."

Become totally aware of your current surroundings. What do you hear? How does it feel to sit? Do you feel tension? Where are your thoughts?

3. Focus on your breath.

As you take long and deep breaths, feel your breath move from your lungs and out through your nostrils or your throat. (Breathing through your nostrils is better though either will work). Your mind will wonder (which is okay), just try your best to be as focused as possible.

4. Feel your body.

Once you're focused, take notice of your body and how each body part feels. Start with the toes and work your way up to your head. If your mind continues to wonder then bring your thoughts back to your breath. Breath 5 to 10 times with full concentration on each breath. Take it a step further and hum "Om" as you breathe out.

5. Practice, practice, practice!

Like anything, practice makes perfect. Make sure to carve out a time each and every day to practice. You'll hopefully find all your practice totally worth it as meditation can be life-changing!