1. Commit to meditation
You make lots of commitments, whether you are aware of them or not, and you must commit to meditation if you want to truly master it. For this, you must understand why you want to meditate, decide on a schedule, resist giving up and notice when your practice pays off.
2. Meditate regularly
Like all activities, you have to practice meditation regularly to become good at it. Meditation is not easy and you must develop multiple skills including, awareness, concentration, and mindfulness. Once you master one of these skills, you will find it easier to move onto another, until you’ve mastered them all.
3. Control yourself
Controlling destructive habits can be very useful when perfecting meditation. This can involve avoiding fatty foods before practice to aid concentration, returning to your focus if you become distracted when meditating and putting the energy you gain from meditation back into your practice rather than wasting it on something else.
4. Give it your all
The more of yourself you dedicate to your practice, the more energy you will find you have. This is because you aren’t letting anything hold you back and are willing to dedicate one hundred percent of your energy to self-care. Make sure not to force the energy if it’s not there.
5. Practice consciously
Being conscious of your practice is key to improving your meditation. This is what allows you to take into account the different nuances of each practice. Rather than giving up, it encourages you to try something new if your practice isn’t working or continue with the same technique if it works.
6. Find balance
Meditation is not an activity you can master by trying to control it. Similarly, if you give up all concentration, you may fail altogether. Finding a happy medium is the key to improving your practice. Once you become adept at exerting the right amount of effort necessary, it will feel effortless.
7. Practice acceptance
One of the most sacred lessons of meditation is learning to accept the things that you cannot change. Obsessing over certain past events or mistakes that you made won’t help you change them. However, with meditation, you can learn to view them in a different light and move on peacefully.
8. Don’t judge
Passing judgment over people or experience is something that everybody does, however, this can become very destructive when you meditate. To avoid judgments from clogging your thoughts, try and practice objectivity when you feel a judgment arising. This will help you get over the habit and encourage a peaceful practice.
9. Learn to let go
Many people have preconceptions about how meditation is supposed to look but these are more likely to hold you back than to help improve your practice. Letting go of these harmful ideas will allow you to fully immerse yourself in the activity and support your ability to let go outside your practice.
10. Breathe deeply
Breathing may seem like the most natural activity in the world but in order to meditate, you must learn to do it correctly. To practice breathing, try and notice how you breathe regularly, attempt to breathe into your stomach rather than your chest and breathe slowly and consciously until you feel more relaxed.
Why have you found helped you the most with meditation? Share with us in the comments below.
