How to meditate to find inner peace and bliss
I hear often about how people couldn’t maintain the habit of meditation. There are so many conceptions of how meditation is supposed to be and what success in it means. There are so many ways to meditate and so many ideas about the goal of meditation, just as the mind has infinite possibilities. I wanted to explain an approach that I often use to achieve serenity within. I have listed four steps that I hope will lead you to the bliss that I feel as a result of meditation, giving you the knowledge of how to meditate for beginners.
To offer a tip on how to follow these steps, I recommend not trying to do this step-by-step while reading. I recommend reading and understanding all five steps, and then closing your eyes and attempting them.
Step 1: Get rid of all ideas of how it should go
Your meditation practice doesn’t have to be like anyone else’s. Let go of the idea that you have to be like images of Buddha, like the one below.
You don’t have to be sitting in a lotus position, or even cross-legged. You don’t even have to be sitting. The position of the body is not that important. Just be comfortable.
Meditation doesn’t have to be about stopping thoughts, or focusing your attention on your breath. Before beginning, let go of all the ideas you have about how it should go. It’s just you and your self, no one else can tell you what you need to be doing. Shake it off.
Step 2: Analyze at the current state of both your mind and your body
It’s always good to notice the state of your body when getting into a meditation session; where it hurts and where it feels good. The same can be done in your mind. Imagine your hand gripping to the things that are uncomfortable, that are causing you to think negative thoughts, and let go. Watch them fade away.
It’s also good to take deeper breaths, and focus on them for a moment. You are your body, so taking a moment to check in will allow you to put attention on the things you may have been ignoring in your day-to-day life. Often the things surfacing physically will point to the non-physical, mental things that need attention.
Getting comfortable with the current state of both your body and your thoughts will allow you to start to heal them both, or move with them to a place of bliss.
Step 3: Find a place of balance
After you close your eyes, find the balance between past and future — the now. (This will get easier the more often you do it.) Don’t venture beyond the ‘here and now’. I like to do this by not allowing my attention to go beyond my nose. All the ‘here and now’ is sitting right in front of my closed eyes. If I don’t allow thoughts to go beyond that mental space, then they calm themselves and stay still. It becomes so peaceful and quiet, and that’s when great things can start to happen.
When this quiet place is found, I recommend finding the balance between what’s inside you and what’s outside you in the world. Feel the harmony and beauty of the world and its energies working together. Visualize all the movements around you, the humans, animals and even planets, and where you are among them right now. If you can connect calmly with the workings in the world and plug yourself into the place where you fit among them, you will find greater peace.
Step 4: Just let it be
In the final step, when this quiet calm and balance is found, I just let it be. I ‘ride’ the moment. I witness the rise and fall of events within me — just like I will witness them after waking from the meditation — and stay in my place of calm. If I feel that I have reached a very peaceful place, often I will turn my focus inwards further to find the source of my consciousness. This might sound intense, but once you’ve mastered these four steps, you might find that anything is possible beyond them.
Meditation can be challenging and daunting at first, but it is a simple thing. It is you becoming comfortable and aware of yourself. The benefits of the calm that you will feel are enormous, and you will become a better human with clear thinking if you keep practicing. If you get to step four, it’s likely you’ll want to be meditating as often as possible because it is so satisfying and fills you with love.
If you liked this post, you might like another one I wrote about meditation and self-care.
