Handy Tips for your Daily Meditation Time
Are you longing for some daily calm?
Remember that you are the masterful creator of your life. It is easy to schedule it in when you regard it as an essential part of your wellbeing and personal growth. 
It may be the only time in your day that you have to yourself. This is known as a ‘formal meditation’, as opposed to informal moments that you include throughout your day.
But don’t let that word ‘formal’ put you off. This is sitting still. Connecting with your deepest self. Your daily meditation time.
Practice peace and calm
Jon Kabat-Zinn describes it as the time when you are ‘weaving your parachute’. You’re creating or nurturing life-saver skills for when you really need them. 
It can be easier to practice peace and calm in these moments. As you meditate you remind yourself what it feels like to be still and calm without doing ‘outside’ things.
You develop the neural structure in your brain to support you and enable you to reach back to your inner core, your still self, your heart. To respond from that place and to continually remember how it feels to be buzzing with life.
There are many ways to formally meditate, but I am keen to invite you here to start really simply, which is where all things begin.
Handy tips for some daily meditation time
1 You really want to do this, don’t you?
Set your intention that you have a deep desire to embark on a daily meditation practice. It can be helpful to think that you are valuing yourself. In order to be the kind of person you want to be, your very best self, this becomes an intrinsic part of your life.
Thus, as part of being your best self, you need to take care of your health. And value your own personal growth. This is time for you to tap into your inner self, like meeting up with a friend. Sometimes overlooked, much needed.
Thus you prioritise a daily meditation practice because it’s important to you.
2 Daily
It’s essential to get going on this every day. Like any new skill, a little bit daily is far more useful than attempting a huge amount once, then forgetting.
As you do it every day, it doesn’t take long to realise that this is pleasurable. Meditation elicits natural highs within the body. So these feel-good hormones, and the sheer experience of being relaxed, means that you won’t want to miss out on this.
3 Where?
Choose a place in your home where you won’t be disturbed. Ensure you have a chair that lets you sit upright. Or a space to use your meditation stool or cushion. 
Ideally you want a quiet area where you won’t be disturbed by others in your home.
You may be lucky that there is a window to let natural light filter in. There might be a window showing sky or even the green of nature. These are all extras that simply enhance your surroundings and support you.
4 How long?
A daily 10 minutes is a good place to start. Even if you never meditate for longer than this, it could become the most valuable part of your day. Uplifting. Calming. And when you have a daily practice seamlessly included in your day, you may naturally wish to increase this timing.
You can use a timer to help you keep to a schedule.
5 When?
It can be hugely uplifting to meditate early in the morning, before you would normally get up. By scheduling an earlier start, you enter a magical space when it’s possibly quieter all around you. This may give your meditation time an added dimension.
From a biological point of view, when we first awake, we are supported to meditate. As we awaken our brainwaves are increasing their cycle rate, from Delta (sleep) up through Theta and Alpha (slower brainwave activity). 
This means it can be easier to access this slower, calmer time because our brains are naturally in this place. It’s before your brain has ratcheted up to the fastest Beta brainwave activity.
However, it’s important to schedule your daily meditation time that best works for you.
There may be a window of time which is more accessible to you, so do that.
Perhaps it is after the children have gone to school. Or after you get back from taking the dog for a walk (which incidentally, can be a great extra opportunity for meditation on the go).
The earlier in the day you can do it, the more it will have a positive impact on the rest of your day. Put it off and it gets put off completely.
However, an evening meditation time can be equally powerful. Again, follow the same tips and it can be a wonderful way to prepare for sleep.
Show up for your daily meditation time! Take account of all these tips, and you build up the vibration of calm and warmth. You enter this space – same time, same place each day.
It becomes your place of serenity, tranquility and calm.
6 Create a Ritual and an Altar
Your ritual can be something as simple as always lighting a candle 
before you begin. This helps you to set your intention to sit still and enter this beautiful meditative space.
An altar is simply a little space you set aside that holds anything you wish.
You can make it beautiful with gorgeous fabric, your candle, plants, flowers, shells, photos of inspirational people/family, books, anything that you love! These items of beauty and support can also be around you in the room.
Low lighting rather than harsh bright lighting is also helpful. Most relevant if it’s winter and still dark.
7 Keep a pen and notebook nearby
While you meditate you sometimes remember something in your life 
that needs doing. Instead of that urge taking over your mind, you can jot it down, and return to your meditation.
In addition, sometimes as you meditate, a powerful and new insight can arise. With notebook and pen to hand, you can make a note in order to remember it later.
It can also help you, especially when you are first embarking on a meditation practice, to scribble a few points about your meditation once you’ve finished. This might include how you felt that day, what emotions, insights, anything of interest that came up. Every day will be completely different! And not always easy or comfortable!
Your daily meditation time – learn to meditate
By attending to our deepest selves day to day, we not only receive nourishment but also plant the seeds of a much-needed alternative to prevailing cultural norms. May our inner work be a blessing, and may it help to bring about a more life-giving, just, and peaceful world for ourselves and one another, for our children, for our planet, for our future.
~ Abby Seixas
If you are looking for some support in learning to meditate, follow this link for Place of Serenity.
Yvette Jane – Place of Serenity
Facts and questions about Mindfulness & Meditation
Your Guide to Learning Mindfulness with Place of Serenity