Although meditation is a simple practise, on paper, it can be some what intimidating. We live in a very busy world and are constantly getting new information, especially from our phones and social media. In a crazy modern world falling back on ancient practises such as meditation can be extremely beneficial to help calm the mind but also help ease our body, which often physically reflects our mental state.

Most people can’t just automatically step into a deep meditation, it takes practise so here are some simple ways to dip your toes in meditation.

Box breathing

When starting meditation the best two focus points are the breath and counting, and box breathing incorporates both

1. Take a deep inhale and count to four
2. At the top of the inhale hold the breath for another count of four
3. Exhale counting to four
4. Hold the breath for four
5. Repeat

Counting to 10

Rather than counting the length of the breath, this method counts the amount of breaths.

After each inhale and exhale count the breath, eg Inhale + exhale = 1, inhale + exhale = 2, inhale + exhale = 3 etc.

Once you get to 10 repeat over and start from 1

If you get distracted by other thoughts before you get to 10 (which is normal), start over from 1.

Eventually, the counting may lead you into a meditative space where you can release the counting method and continue the meditation without it.

What about my thoughts and when I get distracted?

This is completely normal and one of the obstacles of meditation. We aren’t trying to not have thoughts but rather not interact with them. When a thought arises, maybe our to do list or something that has been bothering us, we acknowledge the thought is there but then bring our focus back to our counting or our breath

If you are a visual person you may want to visualise these thoughts as clouds in a sky or movie screens, we can watch them pass through but the cloud or movie screen eventually leaves our mental space as we have chosen to not interact with it and bring our focus back to the breath.

It can be difficult to get into meditation as the distractions can be discouraging, however it is important to have self compassion and not punish ourselves for our thoughts as it is natural for us to get distracted when we have such busy minds. It can help to start with short meditation, even just one minute, then eventually build it up as you become more comfortable with the practise and build up the tools to meditate more freely and eventually you may not need any counting at all!