So why did I start to learn to meditate? Well, I wanted to start something completely new in my life, and it was the start of the New Year. So I really wanted to stick with something, not just start something and then give it up a few months down the line. I already knew the benefits of meditation and how it can pretty much change your life, so I wanted to give it a shot. The only thing I had in mind to compare it to was self-hypnosis, but I can say that it's pretty different from that.

So I learned very quickly that meditation is simply not as straight forward as I hoped. What I mean by that is that the core principal of meditation is exactly the same no matter what, but there are so many other things you need to consider, such as hand positioning, breathing techniques, the way you sit, the way you place your feet etc. So at first it was pretty damn annoying to say the least, and I pretty much tried lots of different combinations, until I found something which worked best for me personally (I'll get to that at later date).

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So the first time I meditated I took a traditional meditation method of sitting on the floor with my legs crossed, keeping my back straight, and holding my hands in the Sacral Chakra (Swadhisthana) position.

Sacral Chakra (Swadhisthana)

Now when I started meditating one of the first things which I was concerned with was the time, and selecting the perfect time was also a problem to me. I thought 10 minutes was too short and 30 minutes was too long, so I decided to go straight bang in the middle with 20 minutes.





To be perfectly honest, I really didn't do that much background research on meditation, so I pretty much jumped straight in at the deep end without a second thought. Obviously now I know that was a mistake, but I kind of just wanted to do it and experience it for myself.



Now, the first time I meditated I can pretty such say I absolutely HATED IT! And the main reason for that was because simply I had no real idea of what I was doing, or should be doing; to be honest I was just sitting there breathing wishing the timer would go off.



If I'm honest at that point I just wanted to give up and find something else to do with my life, but I thought of it kind of like Jiu-Jitsu. When you start Jiu-Jitsu it's tough, and I mean tough! You constantly get your ass handed to you by everybody, and the thought of "will I ever be good at this?" runs through your mind all the time, but if I thought like that about Jiu-Jitsu I most probably wouldn't be doing it anymore, so that encouraged me to carry on.





The main problem I was having was that I was worrying about everything, and if I'm doing everything "the right way". In reality I was trying too hard. The fact was I was trying to be really good at something which I had no idea about or any guidance in, so the thought of being phenomenally good at something on your first try was kind of impossible. All I knew was that I so wanted to be good at it, and if that meant trying everything under the sun to see what worked best for me then so be it. To be honest I just wanted to continue the journey pretty much like I did with Jiu-Jitsu.