How To Start A Meditation Practice

How To Start A Daily Meditation Practice

One of my 30 By 30 Goals was to meditate for 30 days, in hopes of developing a regular meditation practice. I was first introduced to meditation in college when I took an entire course on various styles of meditation. I remember very little from taking that class, but one thing I do remember is that there a lot of different meditation methods.

You might have heard by now that meditation is good for you. It supposedly reduces stress and increases levels of warm fuzzy feelings. It has been said to have many different physical and mental health benefits. I’ve suffered from anxiety since childhood and have spent the better part of my life attempting to reduce my anxiety as much as possible. Since I don’t want to be on medication for my entire life, I am trying meditation (and many other natural stress and anxiety management techniques) instead.

I added the goal of meditating to my 30 By 30 list when I first created the list nearly a year and a half ago. I have meditated more regularly since then, but I really struggled to make it a daily practice, even for only 30 days.

Until I started using Calm.com‘s app and set it to remind me once a day. I found that the moment during at least every week day that I need meditation most is right after work, so I set the reminder for 5:45PM. This really helped me to remember to slow down and take a moment for myself, which is often much needed after a long, stressful work day.

Even though I had been familiar with meditation and had taken a class a few years ago, I found the 7 Days of Calm program to be incredibly helpful. It gives you all the basics of meditation. I, however, do not sit in a chair as it instructs. I prefer to be more comfortable than that and typically sit with my legs crossed or lying on the bed or couch or something.

7 Days of Calm

The 7 Days of Calm is included with the free version, and so is a basic guided meditation that plays over whichever scene you have selected.

The app has three different “scenes” that you can use that come with the free version. You also have access to more scenes with the Pro version. (Radiating Energy, pictured below, was downloaded from the Pro app.)

Calm Meditation App Scenes

After I started making it a more regular practice, I found the Pro app to definitely be worth the $10/year investment. It has a lot more guided meditation programs that I definitely will be able to benefit from. I’m especially excited about the Anxiety Release, Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Sleep guided meditations.

calm3

The Calm app was the one key that I needed to really feed my regular meditation practice. With so many resources out there, it can be really overwhelming to try to find the right ones for you. I mean, if the voice of the person guiding you through meditation drives you crazy, you’re not going to be able to concentrate. This app has everything needed for a beginning or even intermediate meditation practice level.

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