Here are some meditation tips you haven’t heard before—at least this was my hope when I compiled them. Many of these meditation tips are original, in that I’ve developed or adopted them into my meditation practice, which has been part of my life for twelve years. They are not all original. Others I have acquired from books or from social media. I’ve done my best to provide only ones that I feel will add real value to anyone’s meditation practice, whether they’re a beginner or an experienced practitioner. The goal of this post is to leave you with something to actually try, because I believe experimentation and exploration are fundamental elements to an enduring and fruitful relationship with meditation. 

Meditation tips for mindset

The following collection of meditation tips for mindset aims to promote variety in the way we approach and engage with meditation.

Don’t use meditation as an escape – Meditation is a chance to encounter reality. It’s a means of connecting with current thoughts and feelings. Attempting to use meditation as a means of temporarily suspending a troubled state is a pitfall to avoid. 

“Altogether, the idea of meditation is not to create states of ecstasy or absorption, but to experience being.”

– Chögyam Trungpa

A hole of thoughts – Visualize a dark hole in the ground. Actually, I find the image of an abandoned well to be helpful for this exercise. Once you have established a firm visual of the hole, then observe what thoughts arise from the hole. The results may surprise you. 

Focus on lightness – It’s hard to describe this concept in words, but whether you’re in sitting meditation or just attempting to go about your day mindfully, it’s beneficial to imagine yourself being as light as a feather. Let your movements, including your breath, be light and fluid. In motion, a helpful simile to illustrate this concept is to be like water traveling downhill, finding the path of least resistance. I find this imaginative exercise helpful in sitting meditation, but also when I’m running, which is an equally opportune time to practice mindfulness meditation. 

Reset and restore

Start over – Although you’ve probably heard a thousand times that a fundamental element of meditation is to observe thoughts, even the stressful ones, without judgment, it can still be off putting to have the same intrusive thought arise unceasingly. In times like these, it can be helpful to simply start over. Get up. Go grab a drink of water. Take some deep breaths in another room and then return to your meditation. You can find this reset helps to acknowledge the frustration in a physical way, rather than attempting to deal with it solely by cognition while sitting in quiet meditation. 

Lean into worry – If a worry or fear is disturbing your meditation, lean into it rather than fight against it. Remind yourself that no matter the challenge, a calm mindset will serve you well. Visualize yourself overcoming the challenge. Remind yourself that worries and fears are useful mechanisms for assessing consequence and risk, and are not to be avoided or brushed aside. 

Click here for a listenable video version of this article.

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Meditate on something you enjoy thinking about – It doesn’t always need to be loving kindness, positive affirmations, or focus on the breath. You can meditate on things you enjoy thinking about. Often as we’re about to fall asleep, our minds drift towards things we enjoy. They could be little fantasies, fond memories, or scenes from a favorite novel brought to life by vivid imagination. It’s okay to sit with the sole intention of ruminating on things like these.

Observe and acknowledge

Notice objects in the room – Sometimes during meditation, I open my eyes at a certain point and begin to notice ordinary objects in the room where I’m sitting. Over the years, we tend to fill our shelves and ledges with objects—usually ones that we enjoy—but we tend to forget and allow them to fade into the backdrop. Lending a moment of observant appreciation to these forgotten books or ornaments can remind us of the simple abundance that we take for granted. 

Set a timer – I don’t usually meditate for a set duration. But there have been times since I began working primarily from home, where I want to take a ten-minute break from my work to meditate. During these times, I found it was helpful to set a timer so that I could eliminate the distraction of wondering whether I had meditated for too long. 

Find the right technique for you – One of the aims of this post is to encourage readers to experiment with meditation. I have read a lot of books on meditation and I’m interested in its origins and traditions. But over the years, I have developed my own style and acquired certain methods that work best for me. These methods differ depending on my mood or circumstances. Finding a technique that’s just OK is like having a job that’s just OK. There’s a big difference between going through the motions and doing something that’s perfectly suited to you. 

Settle in and adapt

Allow yourself to settle in – Don’t rush into specific meditation practices. Take a few minutes to ‘settle in’ before concentrating on your object of focus, i.e. your breath. The body and mind need some time to settle into your meditation. During this ‘settling in’ period, do some neck rolls, take some deep breaths, acknowledge how you feel and the general direction of your thoughts. After a few minutes of sitting for the sake of it, you can then begin to focus on your breath or other object of focus.

Use meditation aids sparingly – Meditation aids like beads, bells, or incense are great for setting the tone for meditation, but use them sparingly—for those times you want to go deeper into your practice. Once we become habituated to something, it tends to become white noise and loses its effectiveness. The same goes for guided meditations. Guided meditations are outstanding for introducing you to new techniques and simply for peaceful guidance into a meditation session. I use them occasionally. There are some wonderful guided meditations that are included in my Audible membership. Again, just like physical aids, guided meditations should be used sparingly to avoid dependence on them.

Be adaptable – If there are distracting sounds, rather than struggle to ignore them, invite them to be the focus of your meditation. A conversation happening in the next room is every bit as effective as your breath for a focal point of concentration meditation.

Ancient traditions

Premeditatio malorum – This Latin phrase, which means ‘the premeditation of evils’, comes to us from the ancient Stoics. It is the deliberate pondering of what could go wrong and a firm gratitude for what is relatively good. It is not meant to foster anxiety or worry, but rather promote preparedness and resilience against life’s inevitable vicissitudes. When faced with an upcoming challenge, it can be helpful, albeit difficult, to sit in meditation to ponder the worst possible outcomes. We do this not to resign ourselves to failure, but to look around all corners for solutions. 

Don’t let inaccessible language deter you – Even we at The Mindful Stoic have used language on occasion like Vipassana meditation, which simply means insight meditation, but we generally prefer to use everyday language when engaging with meditation. However, a lot of good books on meditation adhere faithfully to traditional Sanskrit and Pali terms when describing meditation techniques. It can be hard to absorb information in a foreign language, so difficulty remembering or relating to details presented this way is understandably normal. But, don’t let foreign language terms dissuade you from engaging with mediation practice. Either come up with your own labels or simply avoid resources that use complicated language. You could label the practice of insight meditation ‘Jimmy jingleberry meditation’, and it wouldn’t change the fact that practicing it is good for your health. 

Meditation of task – Perform light, manual tasks with full attention and mindful awareness. Do them slowly and mindfully. Two such tasks I like to practice with are washing dishes and folding laundry. Walking meditation is another opportune moment to practice meditation of task. Check out our article on walking meditation for more information. 

Meditation tips for the breath

There is a good reason for which the breath is so often evoked in meditation instruction. The breath is not only omnipresent, therefore making it accessible to you at all times for an object of concentration, but it also symbolizes life itself and the connection between mind and body. These meditation tips for the breath aim to deepen your concentration when using the breath as a focal point.

Zero in on the breath – Here’s a little trick that helps you drastically heighten your focus on your breath. Bring your full attention to the sensation that occurs in the split second where your breath ‘touches’ the outer edge of your nostrils upon inhalation. 

Quiet breathing – Breathing as quietly as possible is a skilful way to increase concentration on the breath, and it’s very simple. Just attempt to make your breath as inaudible as possible. Perhaps imagine yourself face to face with a sleeping animal, and the goal is to not wake her. 

Don’t try to alter the breath – Some meditation practices and techniques (including the ones I just mentioned) call for deepening, slowing, or quieting the breath, which is perfectly fine. Other times, try to simply notice the breath as is. Observe the breath. Is it shallow or is it fast? Just notice the natural state of the breath.

Meditation tips for the body

When the mind is rigid and stiff, so too becomes the body, and vice-versa. Many people find it difficult to sit in meditation because of physical discomfort. These meditation tips for the body aim to lessen the severity of physical blockers to meditation practice.

Meditation of task – Perform light, manual tasks with full attention and mindful awareness. Do them slowly and mindfully. Two such tasks I like to practice with are washing dishes and folding laundry. Walking meditation is another opportune moment to practice meditation of task.

Meditation tips for the breath

There is a good reason for which the breath is so often evoked in meditation instruction. The breath is not only omnipresent, therefore making it accessible to you at all times for an object of concentration, but it also symbolizes life itself and the connection between mind and body. These meditation tips for the breath aim to deepen your concentration when using the breath as a focal point.

Zero in on the breath – Here’s a little trick that helps you drastically heighten your focus on your breath. Bring your full attention to the sensation that occurs in the split second where your breath ‘touches’ the outer edge of your nostrils upon inhalation. 

Quiet breathing – Breathing as quietly as possible is a skilful way to increase concentration on the breath, and it’s very simple. Just attempt to make your breath as inaudible as possible. Perhaps imagine yourself face to face with a sleeping animal, and the goal is to not wake her. 

Don’t try to alter the breath – Some meditation practices and techniques (including the ones I just mentioned) call for deepening, slowing, or quieting the breath, which is perfectly fine. Other times, try to simply notice the breath as is. Observe the breath. Is it shallow or is it fast? Just notice the natural state of the breath. 

For more on the breath, check out our post How To Breathe With Intention To Reduce Stress.

Meditation tips for the body

When the mind is rigid and stiff, so too becomes the body, and vice-versa. Many people find it difficult to sit in meditation because of physical discomfort. These meditation tips for the body aim to lessen the severity of physical blockers to meditation practice.

Find movement, or even take breaks – Far too many people find that back pain prevents them from sitting in meditation. I believe (and know from experience) that adding some gentle movement to our meditation practice helps us immensely to overcome back or other bodily pains. Gentle swaying back and forth or side to side is one such movement that helps to loosen up tight muscles. You can also incorporate some simple yoga poses into your meditation practice, such as Extended Child’s Pose or a Cat-Cow flow. Finally, you can take breaks from your meditation when you begin to feel physical discomfort. Getting up or changing positions all together doesn’t ‘break’ the meditation practice. In fact, you can incorporate a break into the practice intentionally. 

Alternate postures – Shift your posture alternately between ultra upright and slouched. Changing positions like this every few minutes feels good and helps to alleviate stiffness. 

Flexibility of space – It’s great to have a dedicated meditation space, but try not to become too attached to it. Try meditating in other spaces, such as a public park or the kitchen. Cultivating the flexibility to practice quiet meditation anywhere will promote the ability to bring mindfulness into the areas of life where it is most needed. 

Happy meditating! 

“The expectations that you bring to your meditation are often the greatest obstacles you will encounter.”

– Mingyur Rinpoche

Much like the breath itself, meditation is always there for us—accessible to anyone. It pains me to hear people tell me that they or someone they know can’t meditate. I think people can be averted from practicing meditation because it has been somehow overcomplicated for them. Meditation is simple, easy, and so profoundly important for its numerous health benefits. This article aims to clear up some common misconceptions about meditation and shed light on the fact that meditation is something you can personalize to your own tastes—it’s not a rigid practice and it doesn’t require rules. We thought a fun way to write this post would be to answer some of the most Googled questions on meditation. Let’s start with ‘How do you meditate?’ 

How do you meditate? 

To me, meditation consists of two fundamental elements: breathing and quietude. It’s about finding a quiet time and space to simply breathe. You can sit or stand or walk, but as long as your surroundings are relatively still and you take even just a few deep, conscious breaths, you’re already well on your way to meditating. 

I’d like to expand on this by listing some truths about meditation with the hope of busting some myths or misconceptions. 

Meditation is not about silencing your thoughts. It’s actually quite the opposite. Meditation is a time to experience your thoughts and observe them, as neither good nor bad, in a deliberate and dedicated way. Meditation is a great way to process thoughts on your own time. It’s all right if you find yourself thinking about your problems and worries during meditation—it’s entirely natural and inevitable. When this happens, just observe and label your thoughts neutrally: “There’s a thought about my upcoming deadline”.

Meditation has to be perfectly still. A common blocker that prevents people from meditating is their inability to sit still. Many people try to sit perfectly still in the lotus position (legs crossed) and quickly give up when their back starts to ache. First, you don’t need to sit in this position. You could sit in a comfortable seat, stand, or even walk. Check out our article on walking meditation. I don’t give up when my back starts to ache while sitting legs crossed. Instead, I use some gentle movement to smooth out the tension. You can pause and get up to stretch, use some yoga poses, or even alternate between sitting up straight and slouching a bit.

Keep it fresh

You can use different techniques or styles depending on your mood or needs. There are times when my meditation practice consists of simply sitting in silence and thinking. Letting my thoughts come to me naturally like this is an excellent way to process the day’s events. There are other times, perhaps when I’m worried about a loved one or troubled by events in the world, where my meditation consists of sending out compassionate thoughts and wishes. If I’m nervous about something coming up, the focus of my meditation session becomes positive affirmations, remembering my strengths and past successes, and visualizing myself being successful.

If I’ve been feeling anxious or stressed, then I use the breath as my sole focus point. Beginning with some deep, cleansing breaths, I then attempt to focus entirely on my breath. When my concentration is interrupted by a thought, I don’t get frustrated. Instead, I return to the breath, building my focus muscles much like you would with physical muscles by repeating an exercise in the gym. These are just some of the methods I use to vary my meditation practice. Adding variety to your meditation practice keeps things fresh and interesting, but it also helps address specific needs and feelings you’re having on a given day. 

What is meditation in simple words? 

Meditation is breathing and concentrating with the goal of simply breathing and concentrating. 

What are the 3 types of meditation? 

There are certainly more than three types of meditation, and as described above, you don’t have to adhere to any given technique. In fact, I recommend that you personalize and experiment freely with your meditation practice. However, I’ll still attempt to answer this question by providing a brief description of three common types of meditation. 

Concentration meditation. In concentration meditation, you simply identify one thing to attempt to concentrate on with full effort and focus. For all practical purposes, the breath is the best object of focus for beginners. Your concentration doesn’t necessarily have to be the breath. According to different meditative traditions, the object of your focus can be a mantra or positive affirmation, an imagined visual image, or a sound.

Vipassana meditation. Prevalent in the West, Vipassana meditation (pronounced Vip- ah-suh-nuh), which roughly translates into Insight Meditation, generally allows the meditator to achieve insight into three fundamental teachings of Buddhist philosophy. Simply put, Vipassana meditation is a time to reflect on these three fundamental teachings, which are impermanence, suffering, and ego. Here we see some similarities with Stoicism, because the Stoics also prescribed acknowledging the finite nature of life, accepting suffering, and dissociating with the part of our ego that tells us we’re special. It can seem complicated at first glance, but a simple way to practice this could be sitting in quiet meditation and taking a few seconds to acknowledge that life is short, suffering is what makes us human and enduring it is noble, and reminding yourself that you’re not a finished product. Read our full post on Vipassana meditation for more. 

How do you meditate? Loving kindness meditation

This type of meditation was largely popularized in the West by great meditation teachers and writers like Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. It’s similar to mantra meditation because you can leverage mantras or positive affirmations to send loving thoughts to yourself or others. Here’s a simple combination of affirmations you can use or adapt to your needs: “May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be at peace”. As a more affirmative approach for yourself, you could try “I am happy. I am healthy. I am at peace”. Simply repeat these or similar words to yourself for as long as you’re comfortable and try to cultivate a half smile throughout. You’ll be surprised by how this can significantly boost your mood and strengthen your compassion for others. 

What is meditation and its benefits? 

I feel we’ve already answered the first part of this question, but I can certainly discuss some of the health benefits of meditation. Studies have shown benefits against a plethora of health conditions both physical and mental, including irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Here’s a short video from The Harvard Gazette article When Science Meets Mindfulness, which touches on the definition of mindfulness meditation. It also distinctly describes how meditation practice increases one’s ability to listen to their body and disengage from negative thought patterns. This fundamental characteristic enables meditation’s various health benefits.

This Harvard article on the health benefits of meditation is excellent and definitely worth reading in its entirety. It touches on the clinical realities of meditation research and provides a reality check to remind us that although the benefits are real, meditation is not a cure-all. If you are suffering from any kind of illness, you should always seek advice from your doctor. We should not approach meditation with the aim of reaping specific benefits. Instead, we should view it simply as mental hygiene that should be combined with other self-care practices such as diet and exercise. 

What should I focus on while meditating? 

Focus on whatever you feel like focusing on in that moment. It’s not so important what you focus on. The key is to choose something and try to stick with it. It can be your breath, your thoughts, a sound, or even an object. 

How do you meditate? 

My parting advice in addition to the above for anyone Googling ‘How do you meditate?’ is to start small. Another misconception is that meditation has to last for 20 or 30 minutes. You can have a healthy meditation practice with sessions of just two minutes (although I’m positive that as your meditation practice becomes more habitual you will want to meditate for longer). Be patient with yourself and stick with it. Building a habit takes repetition, so start with small sessions and try to do it every day. If you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up. In fact, it can be beneficial to take breaks from your meditation practice. When you return to it, you may find a renewed motivation or that there was something missing before. Remember, meditation is simply carving out a moment from your busy schedule to simply be. 

Here at The Mindful Stoic, we love experimentation and exploration when it comes to mindfulness and meditation. I’ve participated in meditation retreats, temple stays, and have some limited experience with guided meditation apps and audio tracks. But this is the first time I really dove deep into a comprehensive subscription-based meditation app such as Headspace. I hope for this Headspace Review to serve as an overview of its strong points and its areas of improvement. I should note that we have no affiliation with Headspace. This review is just our attempt to make meditation more accesible.

Pros and Cons 

Before drilling down into the plethora of features Headspace has to offer, let’s take a classic Pro vs Con snapshot of the overall experience

Let’s get more granular with our Headspace review and look at the Top Features

The Guided Meditations

When describing Headspace’s guided meditations, two words bubble up immediately: Quality and Variety.

It’s evident that the Headspace team has kept their users’ best interest in mind at every stage of development. The audio quality is flawless HD, which is good because anything less would be distracting. The facilitators have been carefully chosen for their soothing, spacious and conscientious voices. As mentioned above in Pros and Cons, we appreciated the fact that there are female and male voice options, but ideally we’d have them for each and every recording. Finally, we were overall soundly impressed with the content curation and the expertise evidently displayed therein. 

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It’s clear that the Headspace team has taken care to ensure their guided meditations broadly fit within what we’d expect from mindfulness and meditation based on a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) model. However, we also thoroughly appreciate that they do not adhere too rigidly to ‘classical’ meditation techniques. With courses such as ‘Productivity’, ‘Coping With Cravings’, and ‘Creativity’, it’s clear that they’ve also made an effort to explore new applications for classical mindfulness and meditation skills. 

This brings us to the astounding variety of courses and exercises offered, which is the other characteristic we appreciated most. The best way for our Headspace app review to show you the immense variety is to enumerate the different types of exercises and expand on each one a bit.

A Headspace review of immense variety

1. Meditation courses and ‘Singles’ – in durations from 1 to 20 minutes, on topics from anxiety, to sports recovery, to patience. This is really just to name a few as there are dozens of courses and singles on meditation. 
2. SOS – short 3-minute guided exercises for emergency situations such as panic, losing your temper, and pain. 
3. Timers – for customized lengths of guided or unguided sessions.
4. Techniques – practical explanations of meditation techniques both familiar and unfamiliar: body scan, visualization, noting, skillful compassion, common obstacles, and more. 
5. Sleepcasts – soothing storytelling to lull you to slumbertown.
6. Winddowns – guided meditations meant to help you switch off before bed.
7. Nighttime SOS – for those times you wake up feeling unnerved.
8. Sleepscapes – sleep music and sleep radio for even more lullabies. 
9. Physical exercises – all sorts of physical exercise routines ranging in duration from 10 to 45 minutes. High production value with a person on video to guide you through the motions. 
10. Performance mindset sessions inspired by NBA and WNBA athletes. 
11. Focus – focus music, soundscapes and focus exercise for when you need to block out ambient distractions and concentrate. 
12. Social sharing and progress tracking to let your friends and yourself know how far you’ve come.
13. More – group meditations, ‘wake up’ messages when you first turn on the app, and more still. 

How are the advanced courses?

We thought that the advanced courses would be a good test for Headspace’s value in the long run. We found that the main difference between the basic courses and advanced courses is that the latter contained a lot less commentary and guidance, leaving more open space for the meditator to be on their own. It’s arguable that this intermediary between meditating unguided and using a guided meditation app such as Headspace is somewhat unnecessary. 

However, where the advanced courses may have lacked structural utility, they made up for in tackling the hard problems of meditation and mindfulness. Knowing that the audience is looking to progress beyond the basics of breath, the facilitator walks us through difficulties like recognizing the difference between helpful planning and unhelpful planning or realizing that anxiety is unavoidable and even important. 

Are all Headspace meditations the same? 

With so much variety, it seems likely that the exercises may get repetitive. We can say that with dozens of guided meditations, it is true that the opening minutes of some sessions can seem a bit repetitive. But because of the inherent simplicity of meditation, so often solely focused on the breath, we think this is an inevitable challenge in offering diversity in a meditation app. We applaud the Headspace team for avoiding the temptation of reusing scripts verbatim to keep things relatively fresh across so many different exercises. 

Sleep as a strength

We really enjoyed the sleepcasts and wind-downs. The story telling in a soothing voice is an excellent alternative to reading to put yourself in sensory experience conducive to falling asleep. We were surprised by the quality of the storytelling. It’s evident that the Headspace team went to great lengths to find some top authors of short stories to contribute to this production. The stories are rich in sensory detail and are careful to avoid excitement while remaining immersive. It’s also cool that you can toggle the volume heavier on the voice or the ambiance according to your preference. 

Areas of improvement 

Soundscapes for focus – Although they claim to be ‘3D recorded’, the ambient nature sounds seem to be a bit unnatural. With that said, I’m no expert in sound engineering and I only have ambient nature sounds videos from YouTube as a point of reference. The Headspace soundscapes do the trick when it comes to blocking out distractions while working; and without becoming a distraction themselves. 

Is Headspace worth the price?

The annual subscription to Headspace, including all the features mentioned in this Headspace review, is $69.99 USD after a free two-week trial. If you’d rather go monthly, Headspace is $12.99 USD per month. Student and family pricing are also available.

So is it worth it? Affirmative. Here at The Mindful Stoic, we’re big believers in turning mindfulness and meditation practice into more of a lifestyle, much like physical exercise is for so many people. The biggest obstacle to harnessing the power of mindfulness in daily life is remembering to practice it. The more reminders and prompts we have, the better. And considering that its variety and quality are its strongest points, we think the Headspace subscription can be a valuable tool to keep things fresh and explore new horizons. It could even serve as a motivator if at times you feel that your practice has stagnated. 

It almost goes without saying that Headspace could be an invaluable tool to someone new to the practice. But with anything moderation is key. It’s a cliché statement but one we really want to emphasize. Guided meditations and apps can provide enrichment, but don’t let them overtake your practice. Make sure you take time to meditate unguided and naturally, as guided meditation can alter valuable experiences that you can only have when you are truly alone with your thoughts. 

Headspace review bonus tip

Of course the app can be used on any device (tablet, smartphone, PC), but my personal favorite way to use Headspace was with my Echo Dot (Alexa device) using the Headspace skill available here. I don’t associate meditation or sleep with my phone or computer, so rather than adding more screen time to my day, I was thrilled to be able to simply sit down and say “Alexa, ask Headspace for today’s meditation” or “Alexa, ask Headspace to help me fall asleep”. 

We hope that this Headspace review can help you make a decision either way if you were considering a meditation app and we hope to review other major meditation and mindfulness apps in the near future.