Mindfulness Meditation: Creating the Time, Space and a Place for Your Practice

Mindfulness can often seem a little tricky, particularly by beginners, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Here’s a little guide to making your mindfulness practice as simple and straightforward as possible by streamlining the process of actually getting to your meditation cushion or chair. Yoga teachers say that the most difficult move in yoga is the one on to your mat. The same is true for mindfulness. Your mind, just like ours, will always find a litany of reasons why you can’t meditate just now, in this moment, so try the following tips to help you get around this difficulty.

Time for meditation

When you embark on your meditation journey there will be many times when you feel that you do not have any spare time to meditate. This is undoubtedly true. Life is busy and you have many priorities to juggle. So, if you did have any spare time, the chances are you would already have allocated it to something else by now. So, you have to make time to meditate, but in the long run you will earn that time back since maintain­ing a meditation practice helps to streamline life. If you are still concerned by this commitment, gently ask yourself how much time you spend each day worrying, procrastinating and running through seemingly pointless habits. Maybe you could promise yourself to devote part of this time to meditation?

In practice, any time of the day is good for meditation although many people prefer the morning before work or the evening after they return home but before they have begun preparing their evening meal. If you can’t manage these, look out for little gaps in your day, such as during your morning commute or perhaps during a lunch break. And remember, many of the meditations in our books are only ten minutes long and one ‘emergency’ practice takes just three minutes so you should be able to squeeze one in during even the most busy of days.

Some people are put off starting a meditation programme because they fear it might be seen as ‘self- indulgent’. If this con­cerns you, perhaps you could see it as a fitness programme for the mind. Many people spend several hours a week running or working out at the gym. Why not spend a little time each day doing the same thing for your mind?

Where . . .

It is best to meditate in a pleasant and peaceful place. This can be as simple as a tranquil corner of your home. Try to avoid the bedroom because this might encourage drowsiness. However, if this is the quietest and most tranquil space available to you, it’s OK to meditate there. You might also like to let others in your home know that you would like to remain undisturbed while you practise. Some people find this a little embarrassing, fearing that others will think mindfulness a little odd. In practice, your friends and family will probably be pleased that you are finding the time to enhance your life. If a quiet place is unavailable to you for whatever reason, then turn noise and ‘distractions’ into practices in themselves using, for example, the Sounds and Thoughts Meditation.

And what equipment will you need? You will need only a phone or computer to listen to the meditation tracks (or to stream them to a TV, headset or hi- fi), a chair to sit on and per­haps a blanket to keep your legs warm. If you use your phone to listen to the meditations, it will be helpful to turn off notifica­tions, switch it to silent or divert calls to voicemail. If you are following the programs in one of our bestselling books, each week’s meditation tracks can be found by following the QR code or web address shown in each chapter (in, for example, the practices for the week box).

. . . how

Most people find that sitting on a straight-backed chair is good for meditation, but it’s also fine to use a meditation cushion or bench to sit on. If sitting feels difficult, then the meditations can be done lying down on a rug or mat. If sitting, see if it’s possible to adopt an alert posture, upright but not stiff, with your spine self-supporting, about 2–3cm from the back of the chair. It often helps the posture to sit a little towards the front of the chair and to put a small cushion on the seat, so that your hips are slightly higher than your knees. This will allow your back to follow its natural curves and create a sense of openness in the chest. It will also encourage alertness and emotional ‘brightness’.

The feet should be flat on the floor, about hip-width apart. This encourages a feeling of strength and stability. The hands are best left relaxed, supported by the lap or the thighs.

The best position is one that causes as little muscular strain as possible, while encouraging an alert but relaxed state of mind. Whatever position you choose, remember that you will gain nothing by forcing yourself into a harsh or uncomfortable one. You certainly shouldn’t feel the need to sit cross-legged on the floor. Newspapers and magazines love pictures of people meditating in this posture, but there really is no need to do so. While some people do meditate in this way, it is often extremely uncomfortable if you are not used to it. Sitting crossed-legged has nothing to do with the practice of meditation. It is simply the way people traditionally sat in the East.

You may need to shift positions part-way through a medi­tation. Again, this is OK. Fidgeting is normal, too, and even experienced meditators need to move from time to time. If you do move, see if you can include this in your meditation, moving with full awareness, sensing how the feeling tone fluctuates before, during and after the movement.

. . . and when?

Why not close your eyes for a few moments, take a deep breath, and begin right now? Perhaps with this simple Finding Your Ground Meditation from our latest book Deeper Mindfulness. Other free to stream/download meditations can be found here.

What is Mindfulness?

What it can do for you

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