Available on Amazon

Keep Your Hands To Yourself

START TODAY

Step 3: NEED A HAND?

The eyes might be the window to the soul but the hands tell us way more, including how horribly awkward it feels to sit and meditate for the first time. Eventually, that becomes a non-issue, but until that happens give them a job:

  • Seat Booster: Sit on your hands – not only will it keep them toasty but it will make you a little taller.
  • Small Object Holder: While meditating, hold a crystal or any object that your drawn too (Star Wars figures, worry beads, lotto tickets, the corner of a blanket, anything really).
  • Knee Warmer: Place your hands over your knees. It will help you sit taller and they operate as a little alarm – when they start to slide off you’ll know that your mind is drifting.

Eyes Wide Shut

START TODAY:

Step 2: GENTLY CLOSE YOUR EYES (OR DON’T)

You don’t have to close your eyes but we recommend it, especially when starting out. It shuts out the external world, cuts off stimuli, and connects you to your body. It’s a way to check in and see what your breath is doing, even when you aren’t meditating.

But if you want to keep them open, keep them open but focus on an object, something soothing like a candle or a flower, not a picture of Chucky.

Meditating with open eyes has different benefits, it helps you develop focus and concentration and for those of you who tend to doze off while meditating, it’s much more difficult when your eyes are open.

Finding Your Seat

START TODAY

Step 1: PICK A SPOT

Why wait for January 1st to start a new habit? One of the things that makes starting a meditation practice so tricky for many of us is that it is incredibly easy to put it off, to tell yourself that you’ll start when you get that new job, when the kids go to college, when you retire and move to Sedona. Start right now. Right this second.

Pick a spot on the floor, the couch, a chair, an outdoor bench and commit to that place for the next five minutes. It’s helpful if it’s a place where you can be alone but if not, put some headphones in.

Sit in your seat of choice, close your eyes, and follow your breath. If you don’t like your spot, sit somewhere else tomorrow. Don’t make it so precious that it becomes another form of procrastination.

Come back tomorrow and do it again.