In this busy and fast paced life where we are virtually connected with almost entire world, we forget to connect with ourself. Everybody is running some sort of a race knowingly or unknowingly; a race of money, fame, success, to do something different etc etc. This includes me as well. I am not denying the importance of race or some kind of motive in life which motivates you for the race but slowly we forget the purpose of race and the journey of that race. We forget the people around us, the beauty around us, the family, the nature and most important we forget the inner peace with us. This happened to me as well. I lost the inner peace, calmness, inner happiness and much more in the race of corporate life. And one day I decided to stop this, I wanted to get my inner peace back. I adopted meditation as the regular habit in my daily routine.

I started practicing meditation each day. Initially it was very tough to sit quite for sometime and concentrate on your self. But eventually it was better with time. Though its not been a long time since I started but within 6 months of my start I can feel the difference inside me. People say meditation gets better with time and it takes good long years of practice to meditate and concentrate for long time at one stretch. I started as 5 mins regular sitting in the morning. In 5 mins I was able to concentrate hardly 30 seconds at a stretch when my brain in completely switched off. Believe it or not switching your brain off for your desired time is the hardest thing I think. I have played lot of sports and did long trails on cycles but I think that switching off your brain is the hardest thing for a normal person, much harder than any sport (at the beginning).

5 mins start stretched to 15 mins slowly and than 30 mins. Though I still struggle sometime to concentrate for 5 mins at one stretch. But its getting better and better with time and practice. After the meditation I perform 2 mins of  “shirshasana” (standing on your head with legs straight). Combination of mediation and shirshasana have played a very important role in changing my attitude towards life. Now I am feel much happy from inside in whatever I do. I am more calm, have more patience and have a realisation of inner peace at times. With my experience I want to highlight few points here which can help you in meditating better specially if you are a beginner like me.

Mediation tips for beginners –

• Always start slow, do not think much while practicing. Keep it very calm and relax.
• Meditation is a art of relaxation of your body which means your body should be very light, your mind should be calm, your environment should be peaceful around you.
• Keep your phone, laptop, tablet away from you while practicing.
• Find a very comfortable position. There is not hard and fast rule to sit on hard floor, you can use a cushion under your butt if you require. Do not make your body stiff. Keep the body relax and out of any sort of pain or discomfort.
• Do not close your eyes immediately.
• Keep a good body posture preferable straight if possible. your back should be straight ideally.
• Avoid sitting in noisy place in the beginning, away from TV, music system or outside noise.
• If possible do a little bit stretch after sitting so that your body is relaxed. There should not be any tightness or stiffness at any joint.
• Better to avoid heavy meals before practice.
• After sitting take a deep breath. Inhale form nose and exhale from mouth slowly.
• In the beginning you can also count your breath to keep your concentration at the moment. Take a slow deep breath, fill the air in your stomach, feel the air and exhale from mouth slowly.
• Its very important to feel the air going from your nostrils, travelling inside your body, reaching to your stomach and finally coming out from mouth.
• In the beginning take 10 deep breaths with your eyes open.
• Now gently close your eyes or it will close naturally without your realisation sometime. When you are in the moment and feeling the breath, your eyes will automatically close naturally.
• Keep doing the same thing with your eyes closed. Sometime your mind starts thinking sometime else and you are out of the present moment. That is natural, nothing to worry about. The moment you realize that you are thinking something else, just come back to present moment and start feeling the air traversing inside your body.
• If you feel like itching some where during the practice, just scratch it at that body part. Do not avoid that. Avoiding scratching will lead you to think more on that part which will disturb your practice. So its very natural to have some sort of itching or realisation of scratch in some body part. This happens only for few days initially.
• Try to see a dark black spot when your eyes are closed. This will enhance your concentration in the present moment. The more concentration you will have in the present moment, the more deep you will go in your practice.
• Meditation is all about being in your present moment. This is the art you have to practice which will help your brain to focus more on current moment instead of wandering around.
• Slowly increase your time every day. You will realise the difference in few days.
• Do not break your practice any day else you will break the momentum. In the start focus on practicing 10 days daily for 5-10 mins.
• There is no good to bad time for meditation. Whenever you feel like doing, you can do. But just avoid full stomach. Perfect time is in the morning before your first tea or coffee with empty stomach.

I hope these tips will help you in practicing meditation in the beginning and you will see and realise the difference within yourself in few days of practicing.