20 Meditation Tips For Beginners After Practicing Every Day For 6 Years

Hands down, bar none, meditation has been the most important habit I have formed in my life. From greater well-being to enhancing my relationships to becoming more present in my life, the benefits of meditation are countless.

Below is a list of tips I learned along my journey to help you deepen your practice and maybe change your relationship with meditation. Sometimes the best tweak we can make to something that unlocks incredible benefits is by changing part of our perception about it.

I hope these tips can aid you in this way.

1. Experiment with different postures to see how they feel.

There’s no “right way” to position your body. You can sit in a chair, lie down, stand up, or balance on your head if you like. Choose a posture that feels good while keeping you relaxed and aware. It also depends on what your body needs on that particular day.

2. Smile.

Smile while you’re meditating. It will tell your brain you are happy even if you are not. And smile when your session is finished. It will tell your brain you just did something enjoyable and pleasant.

3. Thoughts are not the enemy.

Instead, thoughts are what you practice with. Our brains are thought factories, and asking it to stop thinking is like asking the heart to stop beating. Embrace distractions so you can change your relationship with them.

4. Don’t try, just allow.

Meditation is the exact opposite of how we are conditioned to operate in our lives: it’s not about constant “doing,” adding more effort, or hard work. Instead, it’s about letting go and allowing whatever arises. Your body already knows how to relax and pay attention. Allow it to do so.

5. Do it first thing in the morning before “life starts.”

This will help establish the habit of meditating every day while setting your day up for success. Would you leave the house without brushing your teeth or showering? Meditation is an inner cleansing.

6. Mediate for short periods of time at first.

The duration of your practice doesn’t matter. Start with baby steps to the point where it feels like you’re doing almost nothing. You can build up the duration of your sessions over time.

7. Make it enjoyable.

Have fun, and don’t take yourself so seriously. Choose a style and technique that feels good and that you like. If it feels like a tooth extraction or a chore, you are unlikely to stay with it.

8. Go deep, not wide.

Expanding on number 7, once you pick a style you enjoy, commit to it for at least a few months. Regularly changing styles and techniques prevent you from ever having a deepening practice.

9. Yawn, stretch and take a big breath.

Before you start each session, go through the motions of a great big yawn. Then take a giant, deep belly breath and belt out a great sigh of relief. This will send the message to your body and brain that it is time to relax.

10. Shake your body.

Shaking your whole body, or even just your hands and feet helps return the blood to them and relaxes your muscles. Better yet, dance, run in place, or do a 1-minute burst of high-intensity cardio. Movement helps dissolve tension.

11. Rub your hands together.

Feel the sensations of tingling and heat build in your hands to ground yourself into the present moment and dissolve any mental chatter. Bonus: take the ball of energy you created in your hands and place them over your eyes, heart, or forehead.

12. Gratitude is the magic elixir practice.

Focusing on gratitude is the easiest and highest upside practice for beginners. Asking the question: “What am I grateful for” is enough to change the chemistry of your brain. Do the “three things” gratitude practice: three things you are grateful for in your life, three things you love about yourself, and three things you are excited about in the future.

13. Focus on the journey.

Meditation is one of the only places in your life where success and failure don’t exist. Remember, you don’t meditate to get good at meditation. Instead, you meditate to get good at being human—to develop freedom and because you want to choose how you use your mind.

14. Pay attention to your body.

Any sensation you are having is your body’s way of trying to communicate something to you. Welcome these sensations with compassion and allow them to speak to you. Sometimes we hide past difficulties in our bodies. Scan your body and investigate.

15. Focus on your senses.

If you are not a fan of observing your breath, do a five-senses meditation. Notice light, sounds, smells, and energy. Go through each one of your five senses and notice what you experience. The five senses are a gateway to intuition and your higher self.

16. Release expectation to become blissed out.

This is a common misconception about meditation. Don’t get caught up in needing to experience a certain feeling in your practice. Meditation is not about having a mental trip that renders us unconscious. It’s just the opposite: we are trying to wake up.

17. Embrace unpleasant emotions.

Emotions like anger, anxiety and irritability that arise during your practice are 100% ok. Like body sensations, see emotions as signposts to get curious and learn something new about yourself. Stay with whatever arises and use it as a vehicle for insight.

18. Your intention is what matters.

Just the mere intention of showing up for yourself and then following through is alone powerful. The act of keeping an appointment with yourself because you love and respect yourself will change your life. Zero in on your intention and the rest will take care of itself.

19. Keep a journal.

After every session, document your experience and observations. What insights came to you? How did you feel? What was your experience? After some time, go back and review past entries. It will be interesting to see what patterns and themes start to emerge.

20. Be kind to yourself.

Leave the judgmental and analytical parts of your mind at the door. See meditation as the journey of becoming friends with yourself. Embark on it with a friendly attitude instead of one of criticism. Meditation is essentially compassion training: compassion for your mind which turns into compassion for yourself, and eventually others.

Final Advice

Meditation isn’t always easy or even graceful. Just like relationships with the people in your life, attending to your job or business, or exercising your body, some days will be harder than others. What matters is you keep showing up and keep things in perspective. Life is about what happens outside of the cushion

Munindraji, a vipassana meditation teacher, articulated this sentiment well when he answered the question of why he practiced meditation:

“So I will see the tiny purple flowers by the side of the road as I walk to town each day.”

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