11 Steps To Improve Your Meditation

People often ask me, “How can I improve my meditation?” or say “I often lose focus during meditation” or “I’m always getting distracted when I try to meditate.” These are common issues that crop up, which often cause well intentioned people to abandon their efforts to start a meditation practice. In this article, I’m going to give you some practical steps on how you can improve your meditation practice. 

Be Consistent 

Meditation often gets pushed to the side in favor of getting more done in the day or trying to complete things we feel “should” be done. The first thing to understand is that for your meditation to improve, it needs to be done consistently. Consistency is far more important than duration or the length of the time spent meditating. 

The more consistent you are with your meditation practice, the better results you’ll experience. Ideally, you should meditate daily, even if it’s only for 5 or 10 minutes. Meditation has numerous benefits, so the more you meditate, the better the effect. Consistency also means you should meditate at the same time each day, whether that’s in the morning or the evening, whatever suits you best. Since meditation can be so enjoyable and relaxing, you should look forward to it and that will help your consistency.

Avoid Expectations

Don’t expect miracles overnight. Realize that for the first few weeks or months you may feel uncomfortable or frustrated and even think that it’s not working. You may think that nothing’s happening. However, you’ll find that over time, you’ll become more relaxed, centered, grounded, peaceful and content. 

You’ll also find that meditation becomes easier for you and more enjoyable. Like all things, meditation provides an evolution, not a revolution. Progress will be slow and methodical. This is not a race, it’s more like a marathon. After all, Rome was not built in a day.

Don’t Meditate When You’re Tired

Many people complain they can’t meditate because they fall asleep. This is one reason I meditate in the morning, just after I wake-up (even before my morning coffee–HEAVENS!). I do a “morning meditation.” You want to try meditating when you feel refreshed, full of energy and can focus. 

While it seems counterintuitive, being full of energy allows you to focus better and become more centered. Your mind will wander less and you can bring your mental efforts to the fore.

This Is A Mindfulness Practice

As I just explained above, meditation is a practice that uses the mind to focus on the here and now, to become centered and to visualize. Thus, meditation is a mindfulness practice above all else. This too seems counterintuitive, since you’d think, “Don’t I want to take my mind out of the equation?” 

Mindfulness is simply another term for focus and centeredness. Therefore, make your meditation a mindfulness practice.

Find A Comfortable Place Without Distractions

While you certainly want to be comfortable during your meditation, you don’t want to be so comfortable that you fall asleep. Therefore I always recommend finding a comfortable armchair in a quiet room. Keep the dog out, keep the spouse, significant other or children out. You finally get some alone time–YAY! Don’t forget to turn off any appliances (otherwise there might be some unfortunate consequences).

Consider this place your own Nirvana for a short time, and it’s all yours. Turn off your phone (yes, unplug), turn off any alarms, and just allow yourself to be alone in the quiet of your own being.

Focus On Your Breathing

When you begin your meditation, focus on your inhalation and your exhalation. Feel your chest rise and fall with each breath. Feel the air fill your belly and leave your belly the way a bellows would. Do this for several minutes. Allow your breathing to find its own natural rhythm. Relax into each breath. With each breath, become even more relaxed. You can even do an entire meditation focusing only on your breathing. This is called a “breathing meditation” (what a shock, right?).

Relax Each Muscle Group

After your breathing exercise, begin to concentrate on each muscle group. Allow each muscle group to relax, get softer, looser, lighter, and just let go. Start with your scalp, then move down to your temples, then your jaw, then your neck, shoulders, arms, chest, hips, legs, feet, and toes. Work with each group individually and slowly. Again this is not a rush. 

Use Visualization Meditations

Visualization meditations are very powerful. Begin to visualize in your mind’s eye a scene that you find comforting, calming, relaxing, and pleasurable. This might be a beautiful green meadow with a soft breeze, or a glade of trees with the wind rustling in the leaves, or a beautiful sunset on a warm beach with waves lapping at your feet, or gently floating into space without a care in the world. Allow yourself to dream up whatever feels good to you. 

This is basically a wonderful daydream. Allow yourself to go someplace else and just escape. Some people have difficulty visualizing, and that’s ok. Instead, just focus on the feelings of what it might feel like to experience any of these scenes or situations. With any experience, whether it's breathing or visualizing, just focus on the feelings.

Repeat Mantras

You can also repeat words or phrases in your mind or out loud to help you focus. You could repeat the phrase, “I love myself,” or “I am love,” or I am light.” You can also repeat sounds like “Ohm.” You could repeat the Buddhist phrase “Om Mani Padme Om,” which essentially is the fundamental concept of compassion. Since the mind can only hold one thought at a time, your mind is focused on the mantras as you’re repeating them. 

Use Mala Beads

What are Mala Beads? A mala is a strand of beads (traditionally 108, or a fraction thereof) used for keeping count during meditation. It's often worn on the wrist or as a necklace. It's very similar to the rosary in concept and practice. It's a tool that focuses your awareness and concentration during your spiritual practice, meditation, prayer or reflection. choose your intention or affirmation. 

Hang the first mala bead gently on the middle or ring finger of your hand. Place your thumb on the guru bead, and use it to count each smaller bead, pulling it with the thumb towards you as you count, or repeat your mantra. Reciting a mantra takes your mind away from your daily life and establishes positive thought patterns. Repeating a single sound, word, or phrase focuses your attention and is scientifically proven to calm the mind.

Consider Chakra Meditations

You can open each chakra and your overall energy channel with a chakra meditation. This will help you to unblock the energy in each chakra point. You can choose to focus only on one chakra at a time or work on all 7 chakras together. You can choose to focus on the color with each individual chakra or the energy and number associated with it. Whether you choose a root chakra meditation, or heart chakra meditation or a crown chakra meditation, for example, the effects can be different. 

I have a chakra meditation that helps you unblock each chakra and allow the energy to flow in your chakra system. By the end of a chakra meditation, you feel more open, allowing, centered, grounded and at peace. This is only one of the numerous meditations available. Others include loving kindness meditation, transcendental meditation, mindfulness meditation and movement meditation to name a few.

I hope this article has helped you find ways to improve your meditation practice and get you one step closer to improving your spirituality and spiritual awareness. If you’re interested in exploring different meditations, I have several available for free here. If you’d like to further explore ways to improve your meditation and have a guided meditation to practice along with, then I have a YouTube video you can watch here. 

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Tags: meditation, visualization meditation, mindfulness, chakra meditation, guided meditation, mala beads, benefits of meditation, body mind soul, transcendental meditation, how to meditate, morning meditation, living spiritually, loving kindness meditation.