You may noticed my frequent mentioning of my meditation practice amongst my posts. Perhaps you have thought: Ive always wanted to give that a try, but I really don’t have the time or think I could be any good at it.

I respectfully disagree.

Over the next few days I am going to provide some basic instructions on how to get started with your own regular meditation/mindfulness practice.
I will try to make each post short, sweet and easy-peasy to follow.

To start off you will only need to commit 5 minutes of your day to meditating. 

OK. You good?

What you will need to prepare…

1. A space to sit. Ideally, you will need somewhere quiet, where you will not be interrupted. A dedicated space you can return to each time. 
2. A time to sit. If possible, make a commitment to sit at the same time each day.
   For me, early morning works best, before the world wakes up. But find a time that works best for you.
3. Something to sit on. I am sure you have seen pictures of people meditating on small round cushions (known as a Zafu in Japanese). If you are going to sit cross-legged on the floor you will need a pillow, cushion or folded blanket to sit on. I will cover the details of correct posture soon. I will also cover sitting in a chair if you are unable to sit on the ground.
4. Clothing. Whilst you are doing your meditation practice you will need to wear something comfortable that is not too tight or constricting. 
5. Timer. You will need some sort of timer to bring your meditation to an end. There are some great free apps available for this (I use Insight Timer, but there are plenty of good alternatives). These apps usually let you configure the timers and they have pleasant sounding chimes. In the Zen tradition we usually have 3 chimes at the beginning of the session, and 2 chimes to end it.
   Honestly, any timer will do.

That’s it. Today all you need to do is mentally commit to giving this meditation thing a try.
Tomorrow I will talk about posture.

Featured image via: Cdd20