You have probably heard a lot of hullabaloo about meditation. There’s good reason behind it. Researchers have discovered amazing benefits to meditation. It has been found to increase your immune function, decrease pain, and decrease inflammation at the cellular level. Moreover, it can have profound effects on a person’s happiness. It increases positive emotions while decreasing depression, anxiety, and stress. It has also been said to strengthen emotional intelligence and make you more compassionate and less lonely. It can reduce fatigue and improve your productivity. Studies on long-term meditators have even revealed growth in the brain’s gray matter in, including the auditory and sensory cortex — as well as the frontal cortex, which is associated with working memory and executive decision-making.
All these benefits! What are we doing just sitting here? Let’s get meditating!
My first meditation teacher was a Buddhist nun at the temple I go to and highly schooled in the art of Chan, or what Westerners call “Zen.” Basically, she’s a zen master, which is really cool. She was also a great teacher. In this article, I will share with you a little of what she taught me.
To truly teach this art takes more than just one article or even one session; meditation is a practice that must be done again and again. However, here I will cover enough basics to get you started on your meditation journey.
Where to meditate
First, find a quiet place free of interruption. You don’t want kids running in and out of the room. Or attorneys for that matter (as is the challenge in much of my daytime experiences). It should be a peaceful place.
It doesn’t really matter what is around you, if you’re surrounded by beautiful lotus flowers or steel and concrete, because when you meditate your eyes will be closed. Essentially, you should be able to meditate anywhere. (I for example have meditated in courthouse hallways outside hearing rooms before hearings.) However, when you first get started, you may want to find a place where you will be least distracted.
Make sure you’re not directly under an air conditioner vent. When you meditate your body temperature drops, and the cold air will distract you.
You may also want to stretch first. My teacher had a sequence of exercises that she taught me to do before long meditations. They include movements in in tai chi as well as general stretching. She also taught me that these exercises themselves are part of the meditation, which helps the overall practice. Similarly, you may find meditation much easier after doing yoga, as true yoga is itself meditation.
How to sit for medition
Next, sit in a comfortable position. If you have flexibility issues, a chair is fine. However, the favored position, is a lotus or half-lotus style. In that position, it’s best to have some sort of a cushion under your bum to keep your back straight. The cushion doesn’t need to be fancy; you can even use a rolled up towel. The more you meditate, you may want to go out and buy a meditation cushion, or zafu. I eventually bought one filled with buckwheat hulls for firmness.
Really experienced monks and yogis might sit in a full lotus position, but, for most people, that’s just not practical or comfortable. Even though I can do a full lotus, it is far too uncomfortable to even try to meditate in it. Therefore, I sit in a half lotus.
If you have problems sitting in half lotus, you can just sit cross-legged, or criss cross applesauce. Or find another position. I know someone who, because of prior surgery, could not sit cross-legged, so found a semi-kneeling position. Some people may want to use a meditation bench. Other people, especially those with bad knees, choose to sit in a chair. Figure out what works for you.
If you sit in a half lotus, be mindful of which leg is on top. If today you sit with your left leg on top, tomorrow, switch it out so your right leg is on top.
It is important to pick one position and stick to it. You shouldn’t change position every five minutes. The first time you meditate, you might get uncomfortable quickly. Your leg might even fall asleep. Eventually, with practice, you should get used to sitting in the position, and the discomfort goes away. Slight discomfort is not necessarily bad; you should not be so comfortable that you will easily fall asleep.
Once you are seated, cover your legs with a towel or small blanket so the cold air does not bother you. I live in Florida, where there is rarely cold air, but this is what the monks and nuns do anyway. So I just do it. In any case, the more I meditate, I realize covering my legs makes me feel cozy. Sometimes I meditate on my bed and just use my comforter to cover my legs.
Next, check your posture. When you sit, your back should be straight. Your chin should lower slightly. And the tip of your tongue should touch the roof of your mouth.
Position your hands in your lap, palms up. Set your right on top of your left palm, and touch your thumbs. Your thumbs touch to keep you alert. If you get lazy, your thumbs fall. I know that, in yoga classes, people usually put their palms above their knees or thighs, but, in Chan, your hands are together, and your arms form the shape of a circle.
How to meditate using your breath as an anchor
One very common technique is to use your breath as an anchor. An anchor is something to focus your mind on — and refocus it on when it goes astray.
You then close your eyes.
At the very start of a session, take three deep breaths, which relax you.
After that, just follow your natural breath. Don’t force your breath. Simply follow it with your mind. When you breathe in, think, I know I’m breathing in, and, when you breathe out, think, know I’m breathing out.
Your mind will wander. That’s natural. Catching it becomes the challenge. Greet the wandering thought like you would a guest at a party: acknowledge it, and put it to the side. You can deal with that thought later. Right now, your focus is on nothing but your breath.
Sit for as long as you can like this.
When you’re finished, ease out of your meditation by slowly leaning forward, then to the right, then to the left. Sit up straight and warm up your hands by rubbing your palms together. With your warmed palms, cover your eyes, and massage the muscles of your face, your scalp, then your shoulders, your arms, and your legs.
Meditation is a practice and takes time to develop
At first, just try five minutes. Even five minutes may be a challenge. In time, you can increase your time to ten minutes and even longer. The more you practice, the longer you will be able to sit. I usually like to set a timer using an app called Insight Timer, so I can keep track of how long I meditated, but a timer is not necessary. I find that sometimes, however, the timer can even be counter-productive because I will catch myself wondering how much time is left on the timer and may fight to steal a glance at it.
Meditation is a practice. You can’t just do it once and poof — your labyrinthine worries have disappeared. Like exercise, you have to do it regularly and make it a part of your life. Think of it as an exercise for your mind. My teacher told me that an easy way to make it a practice is to do it first thing in the morning. But you may want to play around with times and find out what works with you.
Once you have mastered the art of catching your wandering thoughts and sitting quietly, you might even begin to use your meditation time to contemplate, which is the basis of chan meditation, to cultivate wisdom.
Now that I have given you this basic overview, I encourage you to give meditation a try. I hope that it will improve your life.
