want to dive deeper into your meditation practice? in this blog post, we’ll talk about five different ways to take your meditation practice deeper and further.
keeping a consistent meditation practice.”
1) think about your intention before each meditation
as you sit down to begin your meditation, spend just a few moments on what your intention is for this meditation. even a daily meditation can become autopilot if you’re not deliberate about how you use it. remind yourself – why are you doing this meditation in the first place?
is it to improve your focus? reduce stress? build emotional awareness? having that in mind as you begin your meditation can help you guide your mind as you meditate.
2) maintain momentum with the “1 minute meditation”
a big part of having a deep and rewarding meditation practice is consistency. meditation builds on itself over time. each sit increases your ability to focus, to be present and to explore your mind.
yet, sometimes life gets in the way. perhaps it’s an early morning meeting, or an ill-timed layover. missing meditations can interrupt your momentum and prevent your meditation practice from deepening.
how can you avoid this? one way to do it is to commit to a daily meditation – even if it’s just for one minute. if you’re truly in a rush, spend just one minute meditating. that way, you can keep your “momentum” until you’re able to sit for a longer period of time.
3) be mindful of your interest level
one of the most common ways the mind resists meditation is by losing interest. after a time, you might find yourself getting bored, lethargic or disinterested in meditating. it’s important to notice this when it happens. the best way to treat this kind of resistance is to treat it like any other kind of resistance that surfaces during meditation.
first, notice it and be aware of it. let it be and don’t resist the resistance. acknowledge it compassionately, and simply let it pass. observe the emotion, but don’t let it dictate your actions. as you put your attention on it, without resistance, it’ll slowly fade away, allowing you to explore the next layer of your mind.
4) use a regular meditation spot to “anchor in”
anchoring is a term from neuro-linguistic programming (nlp), a field of study that examines how the mind encodes experiences. one thing that researchers have found is that people tend to associate strong emotional states with objects, places and people that were around when they experienced that emotional state.
one way we can use this with meditation is by “anchoring” states of mindfulness, peace, depth, focus, etc. to a specific location. all you need to do to do this is to pick a consistent place to meditate in.
over time, this specific spot will become associated in your mind with those deep mindful states. then, whenever you sit down to meditate, your mind will automatically start to calm itself down and tune into mindfulness.
5) mix things up
finally, remember to experiment with different kinds of meditation. different kinds of meditations can have different kinds of effects on the mind.
once you’ve been meditating for a while, consider going back to meditations that you’ve already tried in the past. doing the body scan meditation after you’ve spent a year doing breathing meditation will yield a very different experience than when you tried it for the first time with no meditation experience.