Meditation And Reflection: A Beginner's Guide

Meditation and reflection are powerful tools for improving mental and physical health, enhancing self-awareness, and boosting creativity. While meditation is widely practised in the West, its origins lie in Eastern traditions, with mindfulness and awareness practices extensively developed and taught by the Buddha and his followers.

Meditation is a broad term encompassing various techniques, from simple deep breathing exercises to complex mantra repetitions. At its core, meditation is about focusing attention and becoming more present in the moment. This can be achieved through observing the breath, walking contemplatively, or engaging in creative activities like journaling, music, or art with mindful intention.

Reflection, or contemplation, involves actively thinking about and internalising teachings or insights gained through meditation. It helps clarify purpose, strengthen resolve, and bridge the gap between intellectual understanding and direct experience. By combining listening, reflecting, and meditating, individuals can transform their understanding into lasting positive change.

Meditation has been scientifically proven to provide numerous physiological benefits, including reducing stress, improving focus, managing pain, lowering blood pressure, and fighting anxiety. Additionally, it can lead to increased self-awareness, heightened spirituality, and a sense of inner peace and balance.

To begin a meditation practice, find a comfortable and quiet place, set a time limit, and focus on your breath. Notice when your mind wanders and gently bring your attention back. Be kind to yourself throughout the process, and remember that meditation is a skill that develops with patience and regular practice.

Walking meditation

• Find a suitable location. It can be outdoors, in a hallway, or even a large room, as long as it is a peaceful place where you won't be disturbed or observed.
• Place your hands wherever is comfortable: on your belly, behind your back, or at your sides.
• If you find it useful, you can count your steps up to 10, and then start over again.
• Start walking at a natural pace.
• With each step, pay attention to the lifting and falling of your foot. Notice the movement in your legs and the rest of your body.
• Notice any shifting of your weight from side to side.
• If your mind wanders, gently guide it back to the sensation of walking.
• Maintain awareness of your surroundings, especially if you are outdoors.
• Expand your attention to sounds. Pay attention to the sounds around you without labelling or naming them, or getting caught up in whether you find them pleasant or unpleasant.
• Shift your focus to your sense of smell. Notice how your mind wants to create a story out of each smell.
• Now, move your attention to your sense of vision: colours, objects, and whatever else you see.
• Keep an open awareness of everything around you.
• When you're ready to end your meditation, stand still for a moment, pause, and choose a moment to end the practice.

Gratitude meditation

How to Practice Gratitude Meditation

The beauty of a gratitude meditation practice is that you can do it in any number of ways, anywhere, and at any time of day. You could design your own personal morning gratitude meditation while you’re brewing that perfect cup of coffee! Or give thanks for the abundance of food available to us while you’re on line at the grocery store. Sitting down for an evening gratitude meditation is an opportunity to mindfully reflect on the good parts of your day.

If you’d like some guidance, check out the Headspace guided meditation course for gratitude: Headspace on Appreciation, where you’ll practice a technique called Reflection. Begin with a 10-minute gratitude meditation, or choose the 15- or 20-minute options. The idea is to become more familiar with the feeling of appreciation, rather than the intellectual idea, which can often sound a bit clichéd. The experience of appreciation is anything but. It’s a heartwarming feeling that encourages us to be more present.

Benefits of Gratitude Meditation

If experiencing more feelings of happiness and appreciation isn’t enough, here are a few more reasons to give thanks. According to Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., a deep sense of gratitude reduces anxiety and feelings of isolation because it takes us out of our cocoon of self-absorption and entitlement, and helps us connect to something larger than ourselves as individuals.

Another benefit, from even a short gratitude meditation, is that it can help us get unstuck. Because our brains can sometimes get caught in a loop of anxiety, worry and fear, we have to work at breaking the cycle. Gratitude helps us to shift perspective and open up our minds, allowing us to disentangle ourselves from negative thoughts.

Findings suggest that the effects of practicing gratitude are long-lasting. The feeling of happiness that comes from appreciation may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude. Gratitude appears to actually rewire our brain so we’re better able to deal with adversity — both in the present moment and also to build reserves we can draw on down the road.

Many social psychologists believe that gratitude isn’t our default setting. For survival purposes, humans were designed with instincts sensitive to the merest whiff of anything amiss. Our ancestors were hardwired to scan for danger. Psychologists think this tendency to live more fully in our negative emotions rather than in our positive ones is an inherited evolutionary predisposition.

To shift our focus takes a little effort. And, as with all types of meditation, the more we practice it, the easier and more natural it becomes. The duration of your meditation is not important; what matters is consistency, which is key. Whether it’s a few minutes each day, or once a week, the more appreciative moments we create for ourselves and the more we make a habit of giving thanks, the more we reap the benefits.

Body scan meditation

How to do it

Get comfortable. You can lie down or sit in a position that allows you to stretch your limbs easily. Close your eyes and begin focusing on your breath. Notice the sensation of your breath filling and leaving your lungs as you inhale and exhale.

Choose where to start. You can begin anywhere—the top of your head, left foot, right hand, or right foot. Focus on that spot as you continue breathing slowly and deeply, then move on to another part of your body.

Pay attention to sensations of pain, tension, discomfort, or anything out of the ordinary. Spend anywhere from 20 seconds to 1 minute observing these sensations.

Acknowledge any pain or discomfort you feel, and sit with any emotions that arise. Accept them without criticism. For example, if you feel frustrated and angry, don't judge yourself for these emotions. Notice them and let them pass.

Continue breathing, imagining the pain and tension decreasing with each breath. Slowly release your focus on that specific body part and redirect it to the next area. Some people find it helpful to imagine releasing one body part as they breathe out and moving on to the next as they breathe in.

Continue the exercise along your body in a way that makes sense to you, moving from top to bottom or up one side and down the other.

Note when your thoughts drift—this will probably happen more than once. Gently return your awareness to where you left off scanning.

Once you've finished scanning your body, let your awareness travel across your entire body. Visualise this as liquid filling a mould. Continue inhaling and exhaling slowly as you sit with this awareness for several seconds.

Slowly release your focus and bring your attention back to your surroundings.

Benefits

Research suggests that body scan meditation can have many mental and physical health benefits, including:

• Lower blood pressure
• Reduced anxiety and stress
• Better emotional regulation
• Increased self-awareness
• Improved sleep
• Reduced inflammation
• Greater self-compassion

Mindful listening

How to Practice Mindful Listening

Firstly, set a clear intention to be a better listener. This will create a frame of reference for checking in with yourself, so you can catch yourself getting lost in your thoughts. Once you recognise what you're doing, take a breath, smile at the fact that you noticed, and gently redirect your attention back to the speaker.

The HEAR Practice

The HEAR practice can help you cultivate deeper listening skills:

• Halt whatever you are doing and offer your full attention.
• Enjoy a breath as you choose to receive what is being communicated to you, whether wanted or unwanted.
• Ask yourself if you really know what the speaker means. If not, ask for clarification. Bring openness and curiosity to the interaction.
• Reflect back what you heard to the speaker. This tells them that you were listening.

Tips for Mindful Listening

• Get comfortable and gently close your eyes or find a reference point to return your gaze to if your eyes wander.
• Notice the flow of your breath. You don't need to breathe in a special way. Simply observe each breath coming into and leaving your body.
• Stretch your listening to the farthest sounds you can hear. Allow them to come and go like the breath.
• Direct your attention to the sounds immediately surrounding you. Listen, observe, and let each sound be what it is without wanting to change it.
• Bring your attention to the sounds from within. Listen to the sound of your breath, your heartbeat, or your stomach rumbling.
• Pay attention to the sounds and sensations with an attitude of curiosity, as if you're becoming aware of these experiences for the first time.
• If you get restless or impatient, notice these feelings and gently turn your attention back to the experience of listening.
• Notice the arc of sounds—how they arise, linger, and fall away.
• One of the greatest gifts of meditation is noticing what you are feeling and not giving into the impulse to judge, hold on to, ignore, or push away.

Journaling

• Move for five minutes: Before you begin journaling and meditating, stir up some energy by doing yoga poses, stretching, jumping around, or shaking your body. This helps you get in touch with your body and create a physical and emotional space that is conducive to meditation and journaling.
• Meditate for five minutes: Once you have stirred up your energy, sit in a comfortable position with your spine tall and your eyes closed or with a soft gaze. Focus on your breath and allow the energy you gathered to settle and ground. Open up your senses and welcome all sensations.
• Journal for five minutes: After meditating, express yourself by journaling from a place of spaciousness. Allow your journaling to be organic and intuitive. You can write freestyle, with no direction or filter, or use a word or phrase that resonates with you as a launching pad. Write until you feel complete.
• Meditate again for five minutes: After journaling, pause and return to meditation. Observe the thoughts and feelings that arise from your journaling. Allow them to wash over you without judgment or attachment.
• Start and end with gratitude: Begin and end your journal entries by expressing gratitude. This helps you cultivate a sense of positivity and appreciate the good things in your life.
• Be honest with yourself: Be authentic and honest in your journal. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and express your true thoughts and emotions. This will help you gain deeper insights and understanding of yourself.
• Use journal prompts: Coming up with new things to write about every day can be challenging. Journal prompts provide suggestions and questions that give you a starting point for your writing session. You can find many journal prompts online or in journaling books.
• Set a regular time and place: Make journaling and meditation a priority by developing a consistent routine. Choose a time when you won't be rushed and find a quiet, private place where you can feel free to express yourself without distractions or interruptions.
• Add variety to your methods: Experiment with different types of journal writing, such as gratitude journaling, stream-of-consciousness writing, or art journaling. You can also try different types of meditation, such as walking meditation, guided visualization, or chanting a mantra.

Frequently asked questions