7 exercises to meditate at home, explained

Some simple exercises to meditate at home following easy to follow guidelines.

Have you ever thought of starting meditation? Or maybe you already practice it? According to scientific literature, this ancient practice has proven to be effective in reducing anxious and depressive symptoms in many people.

Therefore, in this article you will find several exercises to meditate at homeThey are easy to apply but require practice and perseverance. These are varied exercises, many of which can be combined and interspersed. Before, but, we summarize the basic premises that you should know about meditation.

Meditation: 6 previous steps

The meditation is, at the same time that a philosophy of life, a millenarian practice that includes a series of techniques and exercises aimed at training the mind so that we can end up recognizing the mind's own content without identifying with it..

It is widely used to reduce anxiety and stress and to improve the quality of life of people, many of whom report feeling happier, more peaceful and harmonious after meditating.

According to studies developed by the American center Johns Hopkins Medicine, the fact of practicing meditation 30 minutes a day, is already enough to reduce, in some way, symptoms such as anxiety and depression.

Before starting to practice meditation, it is advisable to follow a series of premises, it is advisable to follow a series of basic premises, or steps, that you should follow in order, and that will help you to make the practice as profitable as possible.. For this, we propose the following, from the coach and writer Miriam Subirana, which can be found in her book "Mental Serenity" (Obelisco, 2011):

• Choose a quiet and pleasant place to do it, with dim light and soft music.
• Sit in your sleep with your back straight and without tension; breathe deeply with your arms relaxed.
• Choose a point in your field of vision and leave your gaze there; let distractions disappear.
• Begin to observe your thoughts without judging or holding them.
• Create positive thoughts and images; visualize them for a few minutes.
• Close your eyes for a few moments, and let the silence envelop you.

Now you can begin to practice meditation, you can begin to put meditation into practice through the home meditation exercises to meditate at home that you will see here.

7 exercises to meditate at home easily

The 7 exercises that we propose are the following:

1. Exercise focused on breathing

The first of the exercises for meditating at home is a very basic one a very basic one focused on working on breathingThis is a key element of this practice. It is normal that, if we have never meditated, at the beginning it is difficult to control our breathing and concentrate for such a long time.

So, the first step is to concentrate on the breath, and try to forget the other distracting elements of the environment. When thoughts appear in your mind, do not let yourself be dragged by them, just let them flow while paying attention to your breathing.

2. Objective observation exercise

Another exercise to meditate at home, which can be added progressively to the previous one, is one that puts into practice the observation of thoughts objectively. It is to sit down, with relaxed shoulders and arms (as we have seen in one of the steps of the introduction), and let the thoughts flow, in silence.

At the beginning it will be normal to have a multitude of thoughts; We must focus on observing them, without intervening, without recreating ourselves in them, without judging them.. We will be spectators of them, and we will have to work so that, little by little, they pass and we do not leave with them.

A trick that can help you to be more aware of your thoughts without judging them, is the following: imagine that your mind is a river that flows, and that each thought is a log; you must visualize how the logs are passing, without climbing on any of them or trying to stop them.

3. Exercise to create positive thoughts

The next exercise to meditate at home, like the previous one, can be added to the initial breathing exercises. It consists of creating positive thoughts and images as we put into practice meditation (closing our eyes and paying attention to our breathing).

The images can last a few minutes in our mind (although the time can also be worked on and extended, as well as the precision of the images). The objective of this exercise is twofold; on the one hand, to relax the mind, and on the other hand, to foster in us a more positive and serene attitude towards life and towards oneself.

4. Countdown exercise

Another recommended exercise is the "countdown"; Its objective is to improve concentration by inhibiting distracting stimuli.. The exercise consists of placing ourselves in a relaxed position, with our eyes closed, and start counting backwards little by little.

It can be done whispering or mentally. We can start from high numbers (for example, one hundred), and go backwards until we reach zero.

5. Body Scan Exercise

Another widely known exercise to meditate at home is the "Body Scan". It is to review the different areas of our body mentally.We will focus our attention on the sensations produced by each one of them.

As the rest of the exercises, we will put it into practice by placing ourselves initially in a comfortable and relaxed position. First we will relax the whole body, and then, we will leave the mind blank.

Gradually, we will focus our attention on each of the parts of our body (usually done by Muscle groups). (this is usually done by muscle groups). It is an exercise to connect with the body, to self-observe it without judging it, accepting the information and sensations that it gives us. Normally, what is done is to start with the toes, and continue upwards (up to the head).

6. Exercise with movement

So far we have talked about exercises to meditate at home where movement did not appear; this one does include it. Ideally, it would be ideal to do it in a place where nature predominates (for example, the countryside or the beach). (for example the countryside or the beach), although at home we can do it quietly if we have a garden, terrace or a more or less large home.

It consists of taking conscious walks, while we focus our attention on the sensations of our body, in the sun, the sound of nature itself, the emotions that all this generates, etc..

7. Canvas exercise

Finally, the last of the exercises to meditate at home that we propose is one of static meditation, which alludes to the metaphor of "the mind as a canvas. We will begin by closing our eyes and concentrating on our breathing..

We will imagine that our mind is a blank canvas, and that we are mentally throwing to that canvas, each of the thoughts and images that appear in our mind. We don't have to do it with all of them, but with the ones we choose.

This exercise includes a short reflection on why one or the other thought has appeared, how useful it can be, what sensations it provokes, etc.what use it can have, what sensations it provokes in us, etc. Finally, we can imagine that the painted canvas moves, has life, and we can even project ourselves onto it and analyze it from the inside (or from the outside).

Bibliographical references:

• Gen, L. (1995). Calming the Mind. Snow Lion Publications. Book on Buddhist methods for developing single pointed concentration.
• Lutz et. al; Slagter, HA; Dunne, JD; Davidson, RJ. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in cognitive sciences 12 (4): 163-9.
• Subirana, M. (2011). Mental serenity. Ediciones Obelisco.