How to meditate

a simple guide to mindfulness meditation

As my meditation teacher and friend, Justyn Comer, says to his students:

If you can breathe, you can meditate.

More specifically, he emphasises that meditation is simply the ability to place our attention on any given experience (i.e. the breath) in any given moment. And perhaps to hold it there. And then notice when, inevitably, the attention has wondered elsewhere before gently and non-judgementally bringing it back to the centre of our awareness.

That, he says, is gold. The moment you notice your attention is not where you placed it - that very moment - is the split micro-second of returning to awareness, and the strengthening of the muscle that is meditation.

Have a listen to Justyn’s guidance (above) on how to start a simple meditation practice, part of a conversation we had on the podcast earlier in last year.

Making the habit stick

There was another really interesting moment in our conversation. When I asked Justyn why he thought it was so difficult, for so many, to form a meditation habit that ‘sticks’, he offered this:

The problem often is that you already have another very powerful habit, and that habit is not meditating. So the first thing we must learn to do is to let go of that existing habit and gently replace it with the new habit of meditating.

Sounds obvious. It is obvious. But it’s worth persevering, in whatever way works for you, to make meditation a part of your daily habits. More on that another day.

You’re always welcome here.

JR