9 Best Tips on How to Meditate for Beginners

By Curtis Simpson

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Many people are new to meditation and interested to learn how to do it. That's a great thing to want to learn. It will benefit you physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. Here are my best tips for beginners:

• Use a chair. Put a chair somewhere that you can leave it and return to it. After a while it will call to you to come and meditate. This is good.
• Ground yourself. Put your feet flat on the floor and sit royally with your chest opened and head level. Place your hands on your lap, palms up or down. Feel as if you are holding the sky upon your head. Close your eyes.
• Connect with your breath. Start by noticing your own normal breathing. Notice how shallowly you breathe. Is your inhale or exhale longer? Do you breathe from the nose or mouth?
• Center your awareness in the middle of your chest where your heart is. Breathe more deeply and imagine that your heart is breathing. Breath is flowing into and out of your heart. Feel how comforting this is.
• Breathe rhythmically, slowly, deeply and silently. Breathe in and out the nose. Let your exhales be a discarding of what you don't need, mentally, physically, or emotionally. Let your inhales be a receiving of what you DO need.
• Feel the energy that comes into you along with the breath. Let that energy come into your heart, softening it and opening it.
• Think of your heart and your breath as your two oldest friends. They have been with you your whole life and will stay with you until the end. Enjoy spending time with your two friends in meditation.
• Cultivate gratitude or appreciation for someone you care about or take care or even about an animal or a place that is special to you. Hold that feeling state while you breathe in and out. This will create entrainment between your heart and mind. Stress will melt away and creative insights are yours to enjoy.
• Exhale completely. This is important because the more you exhale, the more you can inhale. A complete exhale gets rid of un-used and stale air that tends to remain in our lower lungs. By emptying the lungs we are able to breathe in up to twice as much air and breath as before. This oxygenates our bloodstream and brings new energy to every cell in our being.
  Just be sure to breathe slowly.