1. Start with a short time

Meditation does not have to take hours. For beginners, it is recommended to start with just a few minutes, 3 to 5, in order to grasp the basics of meditation. Even this time can feel long when you first start, therefore it is helpful to start small. During this time, pay attention to sensations and taking deep breaths.

2. Understand how meditation can benefit your mental health

Meditation is a good way to increase resilience to stress. Furthermore, if you are an anxious person, it can reduce your general tendency to physiological over-arousal and tranquilize your nervous system. Meditation helps you focus more, avoiding rumination and overthinking. It can ease down your irritability because it can teach you and make you aware of how your irritable thoughts come up, which generates stress for you.

3. Understand the principles of meditation

Many people think that meditation’s main goal is to help you focus through distraction, however, it is much more than that. It mainly helps you to be aware of when your mind is drifting away as soon as possible and try to help it. Being aware of your thoughts is the basis of successful cognitive therapy. To be able to restructure your thoughts you have to develop the ability to identify the thoughts. Meditation can also help you refocus your attention to one main issue without criticizing yourself.

4. Meditate your way

Meditation can be done in different ways, and every person is invited to meditate in their way. You can do walking meditation since walking is a way to reduce distractibility and helps to concentrate. It is recommended that you do a 10-minute walking meditation paying attention to each of the following:

• what you see
• what you hear
• the feeling of your body walking
• the sensations of air or wind on your skin
• the feeling of your breath

After that, allow for 5 minutes of open awareness, allowing your awareness to absorb everything you’ve seen or felt. Rather than looking for things to see, hear, and feel, let whatever rises to your awareness attract you instead.

5. Reduce the all-or-nothing thinking

Not all people are willing to meditate regularly. However, the good approach is to do formal daily practices of meditation like walking meditation and then incorporate meditation in your day in informal ways. This could involve focusing on your sensations while breathing every time you switch tasks.

Daily formal practice can:

• Help you try different ways of meditation
• Give you familiarity and comfort with meditation to restart formal practices especially if you are in a stressful time in your life.
• Have a good understanding of meditation so you can create your informal meditation practices.

Source:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/201303/5-meditation-tips-beginners