7 Tips for Establishing Your Meditation Practice

Start Slowly

Don’t say to yourself: “I am going to meditate every sin¬gle day for the rest of my life.” This is a big mistake - first, because you’re not, and second, because it’s just too much pressure. That is like beginning a running practice by starting with a half marathon. Instead, es¬tablish a routine that is very, very doable. For example, you could decide to meditate Monday through Friday for ten minutes per day. For one month. That would be great. At the end of that month, decide whether you want to continue with ten-minute sessions, slow down, or increase the time. If you want to increase, do so by small increments - say, five minutes. Then, after a month of sitting for fifteen minutes, you can make a decision for the succeeding time period.

Establish Your Seat

You don’t have to create anything fancy or spend a lot of money, but choose one place for your practice - either a corner of your bedroom or office, a particular chair in your living room, or, if you live in a mansion, an entire room. Choose a spot that you enjoy being in. Keep it clean and tidy. If you like, you could have a small offering table with flowers or a picture of someone or something that inspires you. Don’t get carried away here, though. Keep it simple.

Find a timer of some sort. You could use an alarm clock or a stick of incense. (If you like incense, burn a stick and time how long it takes to finish. If it takes twenty minutes to burn completely and you’ve decided to practice for twenty minutes, you’re in great shape. If you’ve decided on ten minutes, stop practicing when it’s halfway burned.) If you’d like, you can light a candle or place a photo of something or someone inspiring nearby, but these things are not necessary.

Sit With Others

Meditation is most often a solitary pursuit, a time for you to simply be with yourself. However, if it becomes unrelentingly solitary, you may start to feel a bit lost in space or even kind of lonely. While the ability to rest in both spaciousness and solitude are actually quite important, instituting some simple checks and balances prevents confusion as your practice develops. (Believe me, it’s easy to become confused! Genera¬tions of meditators will tell you so.)

A great way to keep your practice real is to sit with others from time to time. If there is a local (trustworthy) meditation center in your area, you’re in luck. (See Appendix C: Resources.) However, if there is no such place within a reasonable radius, don’t worry - you’re still in luck. Invite a few friends to practice with you and establish a sitting group. It can be as small as two or three people or as large as you like. You could get together once a week or once a month and simply sit for a mutually agreed-to time, followed by a conversation about how the practice is going for each of you. For readers of this book, I’ve created a “Sit Alone Together” (free) guide with tips and ideas for forming
such a group yourself. The guide has a link to a video with guided meditation instruction especially for a small group. You could play it at your first session together to help you get started. Visit this link for the free download: www.susanpiver.com/shn-resources.