This is how I meditate

6 years ago I had started doing meditation. I was inconsistent in doing meditation, although I knew there are countless benefits of meditation. If I did meditation one day, then I skip it for around one week or 15 days or more. That much inconsistent I was.

I found that the main reasons for this inconsistency were:

When I sit for meditation, I feel it is boring.
I couldn’t find any interest in doing meditation.
While doing meditation, my mind wanders here and there. My mind starts entertaining so many unwanted thoughts.
I fail to bring my attention back to my meditative state easily. As a result, I couldn’t see it working. I felt like doing meditation, and not doing both is the same for me.

Whatever you do in life, it could be anything – meditation, exercise or anything else. If you do it properly, then it does not take a long time to see the changes. You will start noticing the changes within a shorter period of time. It could be a little change, but you will definitely start noticing it. Even if you can’t notice it, you will start to feel the changes at least.

I don’t think that you will disagree with me about this: that if you do things properly, then you can feel the changes within a shorter period of time.

I have tried so many different kinds of meditation techniques. I did third eye meditation, candle meditation, observing thoughts meditation, sound meditation, listening to inner sound meditation, body scan meditation, guided meditation, thoughtless meditation, Joe Dispenza meditation, Vipassana meditation, observing breath meditation, and many more.

I did countless experiments to find out the easiest meditation for me. So that I can do it on a consistent basis without feeling bored.

After doing all those experiments, I found that the easiest and simplest meditation for me is breath observation meditation. Not only easy and simple, breath observation meditation is also very effective meditation.

In 10 days of vipassana meditation, for the first 3 days, they teach breath observation meditation; they named it ‘anapana’ meditation.

But if I start doing breath observation meditation (anapana meditation), then within a minute I start feeling bored, the same as I feel doing all the other above-mentioned meditation techniques.

So after a long time of experiments and practices, I have got an idea to make breath observation meditation interesting. So that I don’t feel bored while doing meditation.

I do the same simple and easy breath observation meditation. But I have included some questions that I ask myself during meditation. Asking those questions makes my meditation more effective and more interesting. And because of those questions, I noticed that I can observe my breath more deeply.

Now you may be curious to know those questions. Don’t worry; here, in this article, I have shared everything. You will get to know all the processes step by step.

Many of you may not know how to do breath observation meditation. So let’s first learn how to do breath observation meditation step by step.

Here is the step-by-step breath observation meditation process:

First, sit comfortably in a quiet place.
Make sure you wear comfortable clothes.
Keep your back straight. While sitting for meditation, it is very important to keep your back straight. Because when you sit straight, energy flows through your body easily.
Now observe your breath. Don’t try to control your breath. Let your body breathe normally. Your only work is to observe the breath. That’s it.

Now if you do meditation this way, within a minute you will notice that your mind is wandering; a lot of thoughts are coming into your mind. You will start to bring your attention again to the breath; again your attention will go to the past or future thoughts. Even if you succeed in bringing your attention back to the breath, and if you again start observing your breath, you will notice that within one or two minutes you start feeling bored. I can say it because I experienced it.

We all know that things get better with long-term practice. But instead of waiting for a longer period of time, why not we find a way so that it doesn’t take a longer period of time to get better at meditation?

So how can we get better at meditation in a shorter period of time? How can we make meditation interesting? How can we meditate on our breath in a more focused way?

To do the breath observation meditation in a more focused way, I ask myself some questions. Asking those questions not just makes my meditation more interesting but also helps me to go into deep meditation.

Here are the questions I ask myself during meditation:

Where is my breath coming from, and where is it going?
Is my breath short or long? If short – how short is it? If long, how long is it?
Is my breath slow or fast? If it’s slow, how slow is it? If it’s fast, how fast is it?
Am I feeling any sensation in my nose area during inhaling or exhaling? If yes, then ask again, how does this sensation feel?
Does my abdomen expand (or rise) when I inhale? And does my abdomen contract (or lower) as I exhale?
How do I feel when I exhale? How do I feel when I inhale?
Which one is long, inhalation or exhalation?
Am I feeling any cold or warmth during inhalation or exhalation?
Or you can sometimes just count your breathing.

You don’t have to ask all those questions at once. Take any one or two questions at a time. The main purpose of asking those questions is to give more attention to your breath and to make the meditation interesting instead of making it boring.

What are the benefits of asking questions?

If you ask these questions during meditation, you will receive the following benefits:

You will be able to bring your attention back to your breathing easily and effortlessly.
Not only that, but you will also be able to observe your breath deeply.
You will be able to observe your breath for a longer period of time.
You will also enjoy observing your breath.
It will feel like you are studying and researching your breathing.

I truly believe if you ask these questions while meditating on breath, you will be able to meditate more effectively. You will become a good meditator within a shorter period of time. You will start enjoying meditation.

Now you may have a question about how much time you should spend on meditation. I would suggest you do one hour meditation daily to see the good result. If you are a beginner, then you can start with 15 minutes and then gradually increase to one hour.

You can meditate once a day or twice a day based on your choice and requirement.

Final Words

I strongly request you to please meditate.

After seeing the changes in my behaviour, thoughts and actions due to meditation, the only regret I have in my life is that I wish I had started meditating at the age of 12. Because at that time I first came to know about meditation from a book called Personality Development by Swami Vivekananda. At that time, I was not aware of the benefits of meditation.