However, a lot of this frustration can be avoided. This article discusses five of the most common mistakes made by beginning meditators, and gives some suggestions about how to avoid them.
1. Not Experimenting With Different Meditation Techniques
Mistake number one is to just try one meditation method, decide doesn’t work for you, and then give up. There are lots of different ways of meditating – such as focusing on your breath, or using a mantra, or following a guided meditation – and just like anything else, different methods will suit different people.
So if you try one method, and find that you don’t like it, don’t give up on meditation altogether. Instead experiment with different methods until you find something that is more to your liking.
2. Expecting Results Too Quickly
Another common mistake is expecting to see dramatic results too soon. Meditation has many wonderful benefits, and when you’re first starting off it’s very easy to feel excited by the prospect of experiencing these for yourself.
As with other pursuits however, meditation takes practice, and very few people have wonderful experiences with it right from the beginning. So if you’re finding it hard to focus your mind, or you’re feeling bored and irritable, know that this is normal for new meditators. Just keep practicing and you’ll soon move beyond this stage, and begin to experience meditation’s real benefits if you persevere.
3. Not Practicing Consistently
In order to get the most from meditation, you really need to meditate every day. It should really be part of your daily routine, like cleaning your teeth or taking a shower – think of it as a ‘mental hygiene’ practice.
Some people just meditate sporadically, and then wonder why it doesn’t seem to work very well for them. So make sure you avoid this mistake, make time for meditation practice every day, and you’re more likely to avoid being one of those people who gives it up because it ‘doesn’t work’.
4. Meditating In An Inadequate Environment
A fourth mistake that people make with meditating is not practicing in a suitable environment. It might sound obvious, but it’s very important not to be disturbed when you’re meditating, so make sure that anybody else in your household knows this, and respects your meditation time.
You should also ensure you have a comfortable place to practice, including a soft but supportive surface on which to sit or lie down, and a quiet environment at a comfortable temperature. You should also wear comfortable clothing. Taking care of details like these will go a long way to ensuring your meditation sessions are enjoyable, and so you’ll be more likely to stick with them.
5. Making It Hard For Yourself
A final mistake often made by new meditators, is that they make it difficult for themselves by choosing meditation techniques that take a long time to learn and master.
While just about anyone can master any technique with enough practice, if it takes weeks or months or even longer before you experience the full benefits, you’re not likely to stick with it for very long.
One of the easiest meditation methods, especially for new meditators is to use a brainwave entrainment recording. Such a recording is designed to help your brain to focus and relax deeply. This helps to overcome the number one problem faced by new meditators, which is the lack of ability to control the mind and stay focused.
Using a brainwave track that is especially designed for meditating can help you to experience results much more quickly, giving you the motivation to keep going.
I strongly recommend that anybody who is new to meditation give brain wave entrainment try, because you really can experience some extremely powerful results very quickly this way.
If you do decide to try brainwave entrainment for your meditation sessions, make sure that you get a very good quality recording, to avoid wasting your time. I recommend checking out the meditation recordings from The Unexplainable Store – these are of excellent quality and are fully guaranteed. Just go to http://www.brain-sync.com and choose ‘Meditation’ from the left hand menu for more information.
You can also read more about how brainwave entrainment works at my site.
Loren Mann is an experienced ‘explorer of consciousness’ who enjoys writing about self-empowerment topics and sharing helpful, high quality resources, and may receive compensation as a result of making these recommendations.
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