I Started Meditating During Lockdown. Here’s What I Learned.
“Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.” — Ajahn Brahm.
If ever there was a silver lining to the current coronavirus pandemic, it’s that it’s given many of us the gift of time and with that comes the desire to try new things. Of course, with a pandemic comes all the negative stuff too, such as increased levels of stress and anxiety, trouble sleeping and just the general sense of impending doom and gloom that can sometimes be hard to shake off.
In my journey to help tackle my own issues, particularly with trying to reduce stress and improve my sleep, I’ve been looking for new ways to help better manage both of them. In my daily scroll through my Twitter feed early into lockdown back in March, I came across several articles about the rise in popularity of meditation since lockdown.
I’ll be honest, I was sceptical — how many people have turned to meditation since coronavirus? Well, I did some digging and I think the facts speak for themselves…
- Downloads for ‘mindfulness’ apps reached a total of 750,000 in the second week of lockdown (March 29th — April 5th) — a 25% increase from the weekly average seen in January and February, according to research from App Annie.
- In that same week, Android users spend 85% more time using those apps than they normally would.
- Popular meditation app Headspace reported that downloads of its app have doubled since mid-March.
Meditation was something people were turning to, but could it benefit me, a complete beginner? Wouldn’t I need a teacher, or at least the ability to sit cross-legged for more than ten minutes at a time before my legs started to ache?
I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. After all, what had I got to lose?
How meditation helped me
This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you that four months down the line, I’ve completely mastered meditation, I don’t get stressed anymore and I’ve slept more soundly than I have in years. I wish I could tell you that was true, but sadly it’s not.
What I CAN tell you though is that in my short time with my meditation practice is that I have seen an improvement, particularly in the stress department. Not only am I better able to spot myself getting stressed, but I’m also better able to manage all the thoughts and emotions that come with it and most importantly, not let those thoughts and emotions take over and completely ruin my mood.
I’ve learned much in my short time. I’m no expert by any means, but for anyone curious about taking up meditation or just might be looking for some advice, here’s a rundown of what I wish I knew when I started meditating:
Get comfortable
When you think of meditation, you most likely think of someone sitting cross-legged on a mat, hands resting just above their knees with their thumb and forefinger pressed together. While this is the most traditional means of sitting during meditation, it is also one of the most uncomfortable.
Light Watkins, meditation teacher and author of Bliss More, (which is a great intro to meditation by the way) stresses that if you want to meditate well, you need to meditate comfortably. This means sitting up against a wall, sitting on a chair, sitting at the end of your bed, even sitting up in bed if it means that you are comfortable during your meditation.
I played with a few different techniques in my first month of meditation and have found I am most comfortable either sitting at the end of my bed or cross-legged on my sofa. You might find you’re the same or maybe you enjoy the tried and traditional way of sitting cross-legged on the floor. The important thing is to experiment and find the best position for you.
Pick the right time to meditate
While the where to meditate is an important question, arguably the even more important question to ask yourself is when should I meditate?
Now I am straight up not a morning person, so I often found myself meditating once I had finished work for the day to help put the workday behind me so I can focus on my evening, something that was important for me when working from home would often cause the workday and evenings to blur into one.
Now that my work is slowly allowing people to return to the office, I’ve benefited more from doing it just before heading into work to ensure I’m in the best mindset possible during my work hours.
Much like finding the right spot to meditate, it’s important to find the time that you feel will ensure you get the most out of your meditation.
How to start meditating
You’ve got your where and when, but just exactly how do you meditate?
You should always start with a few deep breaths with your eyes open, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Once you’ve done that a few times, you can close your eyes and resume your normal breathing pattern.
From there, focus on your breath — I found counting my breaths up to ten and then starting again really helped me in my first month. Your mind will wander. A lot. But that’s ok, when it does, simply acknowledge it and return to focusing on your breath.
Is that it? Well, yes. Meditation is the perfect example of something simple to learn but hard to master. There are additional layers you can add on over time, such as noting and scanning your body, but just focusing on the basics for the first month or so really helped me get a good foundation to then go off and experiment.
My introduction to meditation started with the basic version of Headspace. There are lots of courses aimed at beginners that don’t require a subscription to the app, which is a great way to help you get to grips with the basics.
Understand that nothing will be quiet all the time
Outside noise can be distracting, but it’s also a great way to help improve your meditation over time. Just like how we can’t expect our mind to always be silent when we want it to, we can’t expect the outside world to simply press the mute button either.
You should still try to meditate in a quiet location but it’s important to not get frustrated if things start getting noisy outside as well as inside. I struggled with this a lot due to my street being rather noisy at times but I learnt to just treat it the same as my thoughts; once I’m distracted by it, I acknowledge it, then go back to following my breath.
Put it into practice
One of the hardest things I had to wrap my head around was that meditation doesn’t in itself help reduce your stress or improve your sleep; it’s benefits come from you being able to apply its teachings in everyday life.
I’m not less stressed simply as a result of the meditation itself. I’m less stressed because I now know how to deal with the same levels of stress better when they emerge.
Meditation techniques, therefore, need to be used in your everyday life to get the most out of them. Mind keeps wandering when trying to finish that important piece of work? Stress keeps building because of an upcoming deadline? Worry builds up over something you said or someone said to you? These are all situations where using what you’ve learnt in meditation can be applied in your everyday life to help.
Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day
Finally, like any good habit, learning how to meditate daily takes time.
I would be lying to you if I said I’ve meditated every day since I started back in March. I’ve gone three weeks in a row to then missing an entire week and a half before. Don’t beat yourself up or be tempted to throw in the towel just because you miss a few days. Keep at it, and you really will start seeing the benefits.
“The goal of meditation isn’t to control your thoughts, it’s to stop letting your thoughts control you.” — Unknown.
