Mental Health Mondays: Beginners Guide to Meditation
If, like so many of us, you struggle with an overactive brain, meditation can seem like a completely impossible task. Yet, despite how unappealing the idea may sound, the mental benefits you could gain will far outweigh the initial struggle. So, to help you get started on your journey, we’ve put a beginner’s guide to meditation:
The Benefits
- Stress reduction
- Restful sleep
- Weight management
- Greater clarity and focus
- Lowered blood pressure and hypertension
- Slower heart rate
- Decreased cholesterol levels
- Improved immune function
Our Top Tips:
Start Small
If you find meditation daunting, try not to bite off more than you can chew. Start small, with just a 10-minute practice instead of a 30-minute session, to make things seem easier and therefore help you stick to it long-term.
Practice Makes Perfect
Learning to meditate is a skill, and similar to when you’re working on your muscles in the gym, it takes time and practice to get better and stronger. It’s going to be hard and uncomfortable at first, but it will get easier – try not to get discouraged if you don’t pick it up straight away and you feel like your mind will never be still
Get Help
You don’t have to go through this alone! As a nation totally addicted to tech, why not use it to your advantage? Download an app, such as Calm or Headspace, which will give you daily meditations you can do with a guide. Concentrating on their voice will make it so much easier to focus and quiet the racing thoughts going through your mind.
Find an Alternative Way to Get Mindful
Really struggling to get meditation to work for you? Don’t worry, there’s plenty of other ways to incorporate mindfulness. Start a gratitude journal which you fill in every night, go for a walk outside without any technology, take the time to do something creative or take some deep breaths for a couple of minutes! You don’t need to meditate in the stereotypical sense to feel the mental benefits.