Everyday Meditation Practices Anyone Can Do

Everyday Meditation Practices Anyone Can Do


Usually when people think about meditation they think about sitting in a lotus or half-lotus posture with eyes closed, thumb and forefinger touching in a mudra (symbolic, ritual gesture usually performed with hands and fingers) reminiscent of the Buddha with the hands resting on the knees while chanting the sound “Om” over and over. Though this is a valid form of meditation, it is not the only way to meditate, nor the easiest or most effective.

Meditation is essentially one-pointed attention. The following is a list of some of the easiest meditation practices anyone can do.

The first meditation practice that anyone can do is also the easiest to put into practice. This is simply the practice of doing one thing at a time. This narrowing of focus on one task is a form of meditation.

The second meditation practice that anyone can do is related to the first in that it is an extension, and deepening of the first practice. In this meditation practice, one is not only doing one thing at a time but is actively using all of his senses to become completely immersed in whatever activity they may be doing, whether that is eating, making love, painting, mowing the lawn, or any task at all, from the most mundane to the most exciting. When you wash the dishes, for example, you should get all of your senses involved in the experience. You should feel the tickle of the suds on your hands, smell the lemony freshness of the dish soap, listen to the rush of water from the faucet, and see the sheen of the clean dishes, to the exclusion of thought.

The third meditation practice that anyone can do is a more formal practice. This practice involves sitting comfortably on a chair, or cross-legged on the floor in a quiet place if possible and just noticing intently one’s in and out breath. Feel the rise of your belly as your diaphragm expands, pulling fresh, oxygen-filled air into your lungs. Feel the pulling inward of your abdomen as the stale air is expelled out your mouth or nose. Notice how the cycle repeats itself endlessly.

The fourth meditation practice that anyone can do involves an attention on the arising and passing of thoughts without mentally grasping onto any one of them. This involves a detached observation of one’s thoughts…like a silent witness. This is similar to the third meditation except for the focus of one’s attention is now one’s own chaotic thoughts rather than one’s breath. This is a difficult meditation to do well because of the tendency to follow the thread of one’s thoughts as a participant to their bitter conclusions, but one must remain detached…almost aloof.

The fifth meditation practice that anyone can do is chanting a sacred sound or word, or any word or phrase that has importance or significance to you, in any language. This could be as simple as repeating the word “Peace” over and over again in a slow, methodic way in unison with one’s breath, or the repetition of a phrase in some obscure language such as Sanskrit or Tibetan.

Everyday meditation is a practice that anyone can do and should do, not just to relieve stress or seek some holy spiritual grail, or as a grounding technique, but for all these reasons, and for the sheer peaceful joy of doing one thing at a time.