For a variety of reasons, I often suggest to my clients that they learn to meditate and develop a practice of mindfulness. I have found that through meditation, one learns to focus attention, control negative thoughts, and achieve peacefulness.
Often, my clients are overwhelmed with how difficult they believe meditation can be. As a way to get started, I offer them a simple method that I learned years ago from the book “How to Meditate” by Eknath Easwaran. By devoting just 30 minutes a day, they learn how to successfully maintain a meditation and mindfulness practice.
Here are 5 steps on getting started:
- Find a passage of literature which you find inspirational. This could be a poem, a prayer, a song lyric, etc. Spend 10 minutes reading the passage.
- Memorize a portion of this passage
- With your passage in mind, sit in a calm space with your eyes closed for 10 minutes.
- While focusing on your breathing, on each exhale breath repeat one word of your passage.
- For example: If your passage is the “Serenity Prayer”, with your first breath you would say “God,” followed by the second breath, “grant”, the third “me” …etc., and continue until you have completed the passage. If you lose your concentration or place, start over from beginning of the sentence you were on.
- After your 10 minutes of meditation, write reflectively in a journal for another 10 minutes. The only rule is to write something, whether it is a few words or several pages.
Since many of my clients are working at a rapid pace and multitasking much of the time, I recommend this practice as a way to slow down and regain control of their mind. Personally, it is not something I am rigid about, but I know I am at my best when I start my day with this routine.
I know there are many other methods which people use to meditate, and I would be happy to hear from all of you on your meditative practices. Please feel free to share them with me in the comments section below.
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