The British School of Meditation Blog

How do you meditate for the first time?

In my experience, most people start a meditation practice because they realise that something has to be done to help them over a particular problem, the most common reason for starting a practice is Stress, or mild
depression.

Once the decision has been made, how can you learn to meditate?

• Buy a good book about meditation and how to meditate, Mary Pearson’s book The Stress Solution is an excellent book. Mary tells you how to meditate in a very inclusive way.
• Find a Meditation teacher in your area, the British School of  Mediation has a register of qualified Meditation teachers.  www.teaching-meditation.co.uk/findateacher/

All of the teachers have passed our Externally accredited training course, they also undertake regular CPD.
Once you have either read or attended a course, set up your  meditation practice at home. If you can, find a quiet place and time where you can begin your meditation. You might like to download some music that will help you to meditate. Often times people say my house is to busy for me to find a quiet place, I have then 
suggested the bathroom. 
Think about the time of day you intend to meditate, for me this is first thing in the morning. Set you alarm clock 15 or 20 minutes earlier and get up and meditate straight away.  This worked well for me when my family were growing up as everyone else was in bed, it was my time.

How long should you meditate? In an ideal world, twice a day for 20 minutes is recognised as being the general rule.  However even if you meditate for just 5 minutes, this is better than nothing, and as you develop your meditation practice this will lengthen.  Please don’t feel guilty if you are unable to commit to even 5 minutes one 
day, just try again the next day.

It can be useful to keep a mediation diary, buy a special book and write down how the meditation went and how you felt.  This can be a useful reflection for your practice.
Starting a Meditation practice is a bit like starting a diet, we say to ourselves, ‘I will start that tomorrow.    ’Well make sure you do!

Helen Galpin BSoMeditation.​