One of our values at AdventureWomen is the strong belief in our own power as women to achieve our life goals, whatever they may be. Our trips around the world offer opportunities to build confidence, validate our core strengths, build knowledge through exploration, and expand our perspectives. We find meditation to be a powerful way to add focus and clarity to our personal journeys.
Here are our best 5 tips for using meditation as a powerful tool to give you more insights about yourself and help you build a more positive perspective about life’s challenges.
#1 | Choose your own path to meditation, one that works for you.
Meditation is the most accessible and easiest tool for mindfulness. There is no right or wrong way to do it and there are no prerequisites, everybody can do it! Can’t sit cross legged? Sit on a chair. Don’t want to sit? Do it while you are walking. Don’t have time? Simply allow yourself a few intentional deep inhales and exhales while you are sitting at a red light or in front of your computer at your desk. You have everything you need to meditate successfully, wherever you go.
Photo Credit: Meagan O Photography
#2 | When you start off, only meditate for 2-5 minutes.
Try meditating in short periods of time, once a day for a week and see how it feels. Once you feel confident you can build up, maybe try 10 minutes, then 15 and soon you may be able to meditate for a half hour or more! If you start off trying to meditate for too long of a period right away, it isn’t going to work well. Meditation is an exercise for your mind, you need to train it, like you might your quadriceps or biceps.
#3 | Don’t judge your meditation skills too harshly.
Meditating can be challenging! If you fall out of it or miss a day, simply start again. It is not about tracking progress, being in the perfect position, or achieving anything, it is just about being good to yourself and whenever you can fit it in is just fine. Breathe. Relax. Focus.
Photo credit: Meagan O Photography
#4 | Understand all the benefits of meditation.
Meditation can very much be a spiritual practice for some women, but it doesn’t need to be. There are numerous benefits to meditation and the medical world has been studying the effects of it for years.
Here are a few interesting pieces of research on the benefits of meditation:
- Increases focus and discipline [1]
- Reduces stress and anxiety [2]
- Makes you physically healthier [3]
- Improves memory [4]
- Increases self-awareness [5]
#5 | Use guided meditation.
There are a lot of apps out there offering guided meditation. We love the meditation app, HeadSpace. You can get it for iPhone or Android and it starts you off at the basics of meditation, just perfect for beginners.
Need a little nudge to get started?
Here is a fun little video that helps you to understand the relationship between your mind and your thoughts:
