How to Meditate

You always see me recommending meditation as a tool to help in various areas of self care and personal development. However, many don’t actually know how to meditate. Either they don’t believe they can quiet their mind, or they feel they don’t have the time or a way to take 10–15 minutes just to themselves.

There’s also the belief that you have to be some sort of Deepak Chopra-like spiritual guru in order to develop a meditation practice and routine. While it’s true that you could gain a deeper sense of spirituality when you meditate, or go into a trance-like state, the idea of meditation is to essentially loose that time/space/self-awareness. People put so much pressure on themselves to have the perfect meditation or to do it right or well that they just don’t do it at all. They think they are simply not allowed to think. The truth is, it’s next to impossible to not think. The human brain simply doesn’t work that way.

It’s important to not that even during meditation, you brain is still active. You are still thinking. You’re just thinking less. During meditation, brain activity slows down, and certain parts of the brain either come to a complete halt or slow down significantly.

As you are meditating, the flow of information is reduced, and you are left with your inner thoughts. Sometimes you’re thinking about something mundane. Regardless, the goal of meditation…