Strength in Numbers
Studies have shown that New Year’s resolutions, especially as it relates to fitness, tend to last about six weeks. Don’t be a statistic. A surefire way to fail is trying to do everything on your own. That’s why we have built-in accountability here to keep you happy and healthy.
There are many reasons why doing everything on your own tends to lead to nowhere. Training with a partner, with a personal trainer, or in a group of friends is the perfect system for accountability. When you train by yourself and don’t feel like working out, the inclination might be to skip out on that workout. However, when regularly attending a class setting, peers will notice your absence. Knowing this gives you that extra edge and thus makes it less likely to skip out on that same workout. Also, many times, peers will even reach out and make sure you’re there next time. Surely your trainer won’t let you skip out on workouts either…
There’s so much more to working out with a partner in a group than just pure accountability. Research shows that training with a partner or group also can actually elevate your workout. This concept is known as synergy. The sum of individual efforts will never be as great as the sum of the efforts of a group. There’s a reason that elite athletes often train in groups or with a trainer. They know that to reach their potential, another individual will help them achieve higher levels of performance.
Lastly, we as humans are neurologically wired for connection. Your genetic makeup to function within a community is woven into the very fibers of your being. This plays huge implications in the role of your health and fitness. Everyone knows that exercise is necessary to human health and flourishing, but why do so many people fail at this? How many people do you know who get a membership at a club then cancel six months later because they don’t use it? Get involved right away.
The Miracle of Meditation
The miracle of meditation is no secret. A vast and growing body of research shows that meditating can reduce stress, alleviate anxiety and depression, increase your attention span, and deepen your compassion for others, among its many other benefits. We now know that regular meditation can change the physical structure of the brain, and recent studies by scientists at the University of Wisconsin and UCLA suggest not only that meditation might make your brain better at cognitive functions such as processing information and forming memories, but also that the more years you regularly meditate, the greater the potential benefits. From the Dalai Lama to Oprah and from cell phone apps that prompt you to look inward to worldwide flash-mob meditations that aim to publicize the benefits of the practice, meditation is heralded by secular, spiritual, and scientific communities alike as unimpeachably good for you.
But knowing that meditation is good for you is one thing—sitting down every day to do it is another. And consistency is the key to realizing the practice’s many benefits.
Choose a Technique
If you’ve ever thought about learning to meditate, you know that there are a potentially overwhelming number of styles and techniques to choose from. Vipassana or Transcendental? Visualization, prayer, or mantra? Music or no music? Decisions in the vitamin aisle at Whole Foods seem easy by comparison. Kempton’s advice is not to fret over the sprawling meditation buffet. Instead, think of the various techniques as tools or portals to give you access to the meditative state.
Which technique you use is less important than reaping the rewards of a quiet mind. Beginners, says Kempton, should start by finding a practice or technique that reliably puts them into a meditative state. Once this “core practice” is established, you can then begin to experiment with other meditation techniques and styles—always with the knowledge that you can return to one that works for you if you start to lose your way.
Try out several different techniques, beginning with the basic mindfulness practice of consciously following the breath. This technique gives a beginner’s busy mind something to do.: The exchange of air, as well the metronomic rhythm of the effort, steers the meditator toward the natural energy inside the body that wants to take the focus inward, an energy described as the “meditation current.”
Establish a Habit
It’s helpful for beginners to establish conditions for a meditation practice that will remain basically constant—the same time, the same cushion, the same quiet corner. Our minds and bodies have natural rhythms, and they respond positively to meditating at the same time every day and to visual and sensory cues like cushions, clothing, candles, and spaces dedicated to meditation. Neuroscientists believe that we form habits by way of a three-step “habit loop”: The brain prompts you to perform an act in response to a cue, you do the activity, and you find it rewarding, thus strengthening the loop and making you eager to do it again.
When you create the conditions for your meditation practice, you’re not only setting up signals that tell your mind and body it’s time to turn inward, but you are making it that much more likely that you’ll sit down in the first place.
Of course, real life—in the form of work, significant others, and kids, to say nothing of laundry and dirty dishes—can make such constancy impossible. But don’t let the fact that you don’t have a quiet corner (or even a dedicated cushion) deter you. Don’t get stuck on the idea that you must meditate at a certain time, or in certain clothes. Whenever and whereever you can set aside a few minutes to just be.
Be Patient
You should make yourself comfortable so that physical discomfort doesn’t stop you from meditating. Supporting the back against a wall with pillows, or even sitting in a chair is fine, so long as the spine is erect—a slumped posture constricts breathing, reduces alertness, and puts a kink in the energy running through the body. Keep going through the motions while your mind gets used to focusing on your breath. Meditation is a simple and powerful tool available for everyone. Think of it as a gift you give yourself.
Once you’re seated comfortably, place your hands on your knees, palms up or down, with the thumb and forefinger touching. This completes an energetic circuit that allows the energy to expand and rise in the body.
In a Chair: Sit upright in a straight-backed chair with a flat seat, rather than one that tilts backward. (If you don’t have a chair with a flat seat, place a folded blanket under-neath your sitting bones, as shown, to tilt your pelvis forward.) Place both feet flat on the floor, and use pillows or bolsters behind your lower back, if necessary, to keep your back upright.
Find The Joy
Subtle benefits: heightened compassion, more objectivity, a greater sense of happiness and calm. a final key to establishing a meditation practice is finding joy in it.
Sit in a comfortable posture with your spine easily erect. Inhale, letting the hips, thighs, and sitting bones become heavy as they sink into the floor. Exhale, feeling that the breath gently lifts the spinal column up through the crown of the head. Inhale, letting the chest lift and open. Exhale, allowing the shoulder blades to release down the back.
Get a Good Seat
Proper posture is crucial for meditation, but you don’t have to sit in a classic yogic pose. The only absolute rule is that your back must be upright—straight but not rigid—to allow the breath and energy to flow freely. Beyond that, steadiness and comfort are key; you should be in a stable position that you can maintain comfortably for at least 20 minutes. Here are three options to get you started.
Simple Crossed Legs: Sit on the floor in Sukhasana (Easy Pose). If you’re on a hard floor, sitting on a rug or a folded blanket will cushion your ankles. Your hips should be two to four inches higher than your knees. If they aren’t, elevate your hips and buttocks with a firm cushion, a wedge, or two or three folded blankets under your sitting bones. This support will keep your posture erect and protect your psoas and the muscles of your lower back.
Against a Wall: If you find it difficult to sit upright on the floor, you can sit against a wall in Easy Pose and place soft pillows behind your lower back (keep the pillows behind the lumbar spine, rather than behind the middle back). Use as many as you need to support your spine and put you in an upright posture.
Begin With the Breath
Breath-awareness meditation is a simple practice. Focusing on a slow deep breath and counting to four as you inhale and expale. When you want to establish a foundation for turning the mind inward, it’s important to work with a single core practice daily until it becomes a habit.
Exerpts from Sally Kempton. She is an internationally recognized teacher of meditation and yoga philosophy and the author of Meditation for the Love of It.
