As the semester comes to a close, avoid letting yourself get too stressed and try to slow things down a bit. Meditation is a way to clear your mind and feel at peace with the rush from the end of the year. If you’ve never meditated before that’s perfectly okay! Any time is a good time to begin! Here’s how you get started: Take care of any distractionsDrink some water, go to the bathroom, silence your phone, blow your nose, and get anything that may prevent you from relaxing out of the way.Find a comfortable positionYou can sit in a chair, cross your legs on the floor, or even lay down if you think you can keep yourself from falling asleep. When sitting, rest your hands on your knees and don’t slouch! Rolling your shoulders can reset your spine if you find yourself slumped over. Try making yourself as tall as possible without straining.Pay attention to your breathWith your eyes closed, begin to notice your breathing. For meditation, breathing through your nose is the best way to keep your breaths even and smooth. Focusing on your breath and nothing else is one of the most important steps of starting a meditation session. Really pay attention to the way it feels when air enters your nose, moves into your lungs, and back out again. When you find yourself getting too distracted, return your awareness to your breath again.Maintain a calm mindLet your body settle in and let your brain slow down. You will have lots of thoughts running around and relaxing may be very difficult for you at first but let yourself remain calm and keep breathing. Notice how your body feels. Observe how your brain feels. Let thoughts come and go but don’t dwell on one thing. By not reacting to your thought you will start to feel the mental calmness.Give it timeStarting small is the best option as you begin to get familiar with meditating. Start with as little as five minutes a day and build up from there! Meditate for however much time you feel comfortable committing and don’t be afraid to push yourself a little further when you think you are ready.Let it sink inWhen you’re done meditating, don’t race off to the next thing. Reflect on how it made you feel and absorb positive feelings. Open your eyes slowly and take a few deep breathes. It’s also beneficial to do a good stretch to help your body feel the physical benefits of all that mental relaxation.
Get help
If you find that meditating on your own is too hard, there is always guided meditation! There are hundreds of videos and plenty of apps out there that will help talk you through meditating so you don’t have to do it alone! One of the best apps for beginners is “Stop, Breathe & Think.” It allows you to evaluate how you are feeling mentally and physically and selects guided meditations for you based around your answers. It also logs the time you spend meditating as well as letting you know what progress you’ve made over a week’s time.