Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: Mindset to meditate

In the third part of this Guide, we will re-signify some ideas that may be blocking you to start a meditation practice. We will be working your mindset to meditate.

In the first article in this series, “What is meditation about?” you have realized that it is normal for thoughts to arise and that is somehow part of meditation. You learned that with constant practice, the space between thoughts is growing larger and more easily is to you have access to your inner peace.

With the second article “Why you should meditate” you realized the several benefits of meditation, among them the fact that when you observe your thoughts, you start to have a greater knowledge about yourself and that contributes in your way to living the reality.

So, already in the introduction, we killed the biggest enemy about starting to meditate, which is:

I can’t stop thinking. I can´t empty my mind.

No problem at all, let the thoughts come and go your way. See it as a way to understand what is going on in your head, and after a few attempts, you will see that you begin to have more power controlling your mind. Just relax.

 

WHY A MINDSET TO MEDITATE IS SO IMPORTANT

In my experience, changing my mindset to meditate made all the difference. Because in the beginning, my beliefs about what I thought meditation was and which level I was supposed to be lead me to demotivate myself and to think I wasn´t able to meditate.
Consequently, I found a lot of excuses to confirm it.

From the moment I started to respect my evolution time without judgments and when I discarded all the expectations about meditation, my whole relationship with it changed. I admit that the 10-day retreat in silence helped me to reach that conclusion on my own, however, I will save your time and walk this path with you in this article, we will build a great mindset to meditate.

When I was at my second meditation retreat in Thailand, before we started meditation, the monk always said:

“There are only 3 rules in meditation:
Relax
Do nothing
No expectations “

Simple as that. So why should we complicate something so simple?

I challenge you that the next time you start meditation, remember the monk in Thailand, a 21-year-old monk, bald, with orange clothes and a smile that just seeing him makes you want to smile too. And keep in mind the 3 basic rules.

 

RELAX

Sit down and relax. Take a couple of deep breaths, find your most comfortable position, and smile. Let’s look at meditation more lightly and life too 😉.

 

NO EXPECTATIONS

Don´t create expectations that you have to empty your mind, you have to feel tranquility and peace or whatever the goal you think to achieve with meditation. Free yourself of all expectations you feel about meditation and accept whatever comes. Because it will never be the same, there will be days when meditation will take you to an incredible place and others that all you will do is watching thoughts passing by and focus on breathing again and again and over again.

The way your meditation is going it is exactly where you have to be on your journey. If you feel that frustration starts to appear because you think you will be unable to calm down your mind, just take a deep breath and free yourself from those expectations and judgments that you make to yourself. Accept what it is today, things as they are.

 

DO NOTHING

Do nothing! Think of the relief that it is for some moments of your day not to be forced to be something or to do something. Doing nothing is not trying to look for a result, it is for a moment to disconnect from the mental and, once again, accept what comes.

 

HAVE PATIENCE

I will not lie to you. In the beginning, we need to be patient and this is a difficult thing these days when we are used to having everything we want so instantly. But someone has already said that “Good things take time”.

Every action has a reaction and it is not possible to meditate and receive no benefit from it. You may not realize its benefits now, but slowly and gradually you are working on your subconscious that will help you later.

Think of the meditation process as when you plant a seed. When you plant a seed, you won’t see the result in the next few days, right? There is a time when the seed is transformed, strengthened and finally the result is visible and you can consciously enjoy it. Today, you are planting your seed!

Be kind to yourself.

 

COMMIT YOURSELF TO MEDITATION

Committing to something is halfway to achieve anything in your life. Therefore, commit yourself to meditation.

When you feel like giving up or going to do something else, remember the reason that made you want to start this journey, either to get to know yourself at a deeper level or to reach a state of calm and inner peace. For whatever if so, remember that you made this decision for your benefit and your evolvement as a person.

Can you see it as the same commitment to going to the gym, remember the first article I wrote about it? It’s the same 😄 eventually the results will appear and you will thank yourself for not giving up.

 

LET’S SIMPLIFY?

I am hopeful that through this article on creating a mindset to meditate, you will be able to see some obstacles that exist at the beginning of this journey with another point of view.

Meditating is a simple technique, our perception of it is what makes us believe it is hard. Because usually, we want to sit down and start meditating like a monk and that will not happen 😅

I believe that in order to take things lightly in life, we need to make them a little less serious and with meditation, the same thing happens. Things are what we make of them, so the next time you meditate don’t go with the thought:

“Oh how boring, I will have to sit down quiet and control my thoughts now and try the impossible”

Instead, try something like this:

“Let’s find out a little more about the person I’m going to be with the rest of my life, I’m going to say hello to her and see if she’s okay.”

We are on this planet to evolve through experiences, we are just passing through this world and any tool that helps us to make our trip happier and more authentic should be very welcome.

Relax. Have fun getting to know yourself. Don´t be hard to yourself. Stop self-judgments. And become your best friend.

In the fourth and last article of this series “Meditation Guide for Beginners” I will give you some practical tips for meditation, which will help you to stay more focused on meditation. A step by step to starting practicing as soon as you feel ready 😉

Let´s start the journey?