Meditating seems easy enough. But if you’re in a rush, have a hard time calming your mind or just don’t like sitting still, it can be a challenge. To get the ball rolling, try simply counting to ten.
Photo by suc.
Meditation has a wonderful effect on your brain. It helps you focus, diminish anxiety, and improve memory. Even 1980s action movie beefcake Dolph Lundgren is a fan.
We’ve told you how to get started before. It comes down to finding a quiet place and focusing on one thing: your breath, the sound of music, a guide’s voice, etc. There are a variety of methods.
If you have trouble getting started, or you don’t have a lot of time to meditate to begin with, try this suggestion from Redditor jdarbuckle. It’s pretty simple and basically consists of counting to ten. You start by finding a quiet, still place, as you would with any meditation. Then, say the number “one” in your mind, on your exhale, hearing your mind “speak” the word when you say it. Keep counting until you get to ten. Jdarbuckle explains:
The first time you begin the perfect ten method, you’ll make it to about the number two before your mind starts saying, “Hey, what gives! Here’s are a thousand thoughts for you right now you can examine, interact with, and worry about!…”
When this happens, you need to just let those thoughts go and focus back in on the numbers. Sometimes, you’ll “snap back into focus” around number seven or eight, and you’ll realise you were thinking about something completely different while your mind ran the numbers on autopilot.
You may go even go over ten, or lose track completely. Start over or try again later. Your only goal with meditation at this point is to make a “perfect ten”, a slow count of your breathing with no distractions.
Meditation is sometimes difficult for me because I worry I’m doing it wrong. I get upset with myself for allowing a thought to linger on too long. But we’ve addressed the myths of meditation before, and a big one is that meditation is clearing your mind of all thoughts. It’s more about focusing on one thing. This helps quite a bit during the process, because it’s easier to remember to focus than it is to worry about not having thoughts at all.
Counting to ten is an easy enough thing to focus on, and it’s also a quick way to fit meditation into your day. All in all, it should take about a minute. Check out the full tip over at Reddit in the link below.
I call this my perfect ten method of meditation I do throughout the day.
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