Have you ever thought about starting meditation? Or maybe you already practice it? According to scientific literature, this ancient practice has proven to be effective in reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms in many people.
Therefore in this article you will find several exercises to meditate at home, easy to apply but requiring practice and perseverance. These are varied exercises, many of which you can combine and intersperse. First, however, we summarize the basic premises that you should know about meditation.
Meditation is, at the same time as a philosophy of life, an ancient practice that encompasses a series of techniques and exercises aimed at training the mind so that we can end up recognizing the content of the mind without identifying with it
It is widely used to reduce anxiety and stress and to improve the quality of life of people, many of whom report feeling happier, more at peace and harmony, after meditating.
According to studies carried out by the American center Johns Hopkins Medicine, practicing meditation for 30 minutes a day is already enough to reduce, in some way, symptoms such as anxiety and depression.
Before you start practicing meditation, It is advisable to follow a series of basic premises, or steps, that you must follow in order, and that will help you to make the practice as profitable as possible To do this, we propose the following, from the coach and writer Miriam Subirana, which we can find in her book “Mental Serenity” (Obelisco, 2011):
Now yes, you can start putting meditation into practice through exercises to meditate at home that you will see here.
7 exercises to meditate at home easily
The 7 exercises that we propose are the following:
1. Exercise focused on breathing
The first of the exercises to meditate at home is a very basic one focused on working on breathing, since this is a key element of this practice. It is normal that, if we have never meditated, at first we find it difficult to control our breathing and concentrate for such a long time.
So, the first step is to focus on breathing, and try to forget about the rest of the distracting elements in the environment. When thoughts appear in your mind, don’t get carried away by them, just let them flow while paying attention to your breathing.
2. Objective observation exercise
Another of the exercises to meditate at home, which can be progressively added to the previous one, is one in which the observation of thoughts is put into practice objectively. It is about sitting down, with our shoulders and arms relaxed (as we have seen in one of the steps in the introduction), and letting our thoughts flow, in silence.
At first it will be normal to have a multitude of thoughts; We should focus on observing them, without intervening, without dwelling on them, without judging them We will be spectators of them, and we will have to work so that, little by little, they pass away and we do not go with them.
A trick that can help you be more aware of your thoughts without judging them is the following: imagine that your mind is a flowing river, and that each thought is a trunk; You must visualize how the logs pass by, without climbing on any of them or trying to stop them.
3. Exercise to create positive thoughts
The next exercise to meditate at home, like the previous one, can be added to the initial breathing exercises. It consists of creating positive thoughts and images as we put meditation into practice (closing our eyes and paying attention to our breathing).
The images can last a few minutes in our mind (although the time can also be worked on and expanded, as well as the precision of the images). The objective of this exercise is twofold; on the one hand, relax the mind, and on the other, encourage in us a more positive and serene attitude towards life and towards ourselves.
4. Countdown exercise
Another recommended exercise is the “countdown”; Its objective is to improve concentration, inhibiting distracting stimuli The exercise consists of placing ourselves in a relaxed position, with our eyes closed, and beginning to count backwards little by little.
It can be done whispering or mentally. We can start from high numbers (for example one hundred), and go back until we reach zero.
5. Body Scan Exercise
Another widely known exercise to meditate at home is the “Body Scan”. It is about reviewing the different areas of our body mentally focusing our attention on the sensations that each of them produces in us.
Like the rest of the exercises, we will put it into practice by initially placing ourselves in a comfortable and relaxed position. First we will relax the whole body, and then we will leave the mind blank.
Little by little, we will focus our attention on each of the parts of our body (normally done by muscle groups). It is an exercise to connect with the body, to self-observe it without judging it, accepting the information and sensations that it provides us. Normally, what you do is start with your toes and work your way up (to your head).
6. Exercise with movement
Until now we have talked about exercises to meditate at home where movement did not appear; This one does include it. The ideal, however, would be to do it in a place where nature predominates (for example the countryside or the beach), although at home we can do it quietly if we have a garden, terrace or a more or less large home.
It consists of taking conscious walks, while we focus our attention on the sensations of our body, on the Sun, the sound of nature itself, the emotions that all this generates, etc.
7. Canvas exercise
Finally, the last of the exercises to meditate at home that we propose is one of static meditation, which alludes to the metaphor of “the mind as a canvas.” We will start by closing our eyes and concentrating on our breathing
We will imagine that our mind is a blank canvas, and that we are mentally throwing onto said canvas each of the thoughts and images that appear in our mind. We don’t have to do it with everyone, but with those we choose.
This exercise includes a short reflection on why one thought or another has appeared, what usefulness it can have, what sensations it provokes in us, etc. Finally, we can imagine that the painted canvas moves, has life, and we can even project ourselves onto it and analyze it from within (or from outside).
