The Beginners Guide to Meditation
From a former skeptic who hated sitting still
If you told me a few years ago that I’d be writing a guide about meditation, I would’ve laughed in your face. Respectfully.
I was the kind of person who thought meditation was only for yogis, monks, or people who could actually “clear their mind”. None of which described me.
I’m a restless perfectionist whose brain loves to keep a running to-do list at all times.
So when I first tried meditating the “traditional” way—sitting on a cushion inside my apartment, eyes closed, listening to traffic go by, and unable to stop thinking about everything I had to do—it felt like torture. My thoughts didn’t quiet; they seems to multiply. I’d cycle through the unanswered emails, laundry I forgot to fold, a text I should’ve sent, and somehow also relive a conversation from three years ago.
If meditation was supposed to reduce stress, why did I feel more aware of everything I hadn’t done?
For a long time, this left me feeling like meditation was another thing I was failing at, but here’s what no one tells beginners: meditation doesn’t have to start in silence, stillness or a perfectly curated corner of your home.
Start with Your Environment
For someone like me—task-oriented, detail-oriented, and easily distracted—being at home made everything worse. My environment constantly reinforced the need to be productive. Every object felt like an obligation and my brain interpreted “quiet” as an invitation to audit my entire life.
One day when decompressing from the gym, I went to SweatHouz infrared sauna and set up a short 10-minute meditative practice on the media system to help me relax while I sweat for an hour. I figured it would be harder to fall asleep in 135 degrees Fahrenheit.
Being away from my distractions—my home office, dirty laundry, and random to-do’s—finally made meditation feel accessible. Even though it was only for 10 minutes, I consciously noticed that I was more present and focused during this particular practice.
I realized that meditating isn’t about not thinking or stopping your thoughts. It’s about noticing them without reacting to them.
There’s More Than One Way to Meditate
Meditation includes many modalities such as forest or nature bathing, breathwork, sound baths, yoga, and other mindfulness practices I’ve yet to discover.
Forest or nature bathing, shinrin-yoku in Japanese, is a therapeutic practice of mindfully immersing oneself in natural environments like forests or parks. When forest bathing, it’s important to emphasize a slow, sensory-rich experience rather than a goal-oriented activity like hiking. That means engaging all five senses, moving at a leisurely pace, and leaving your phone behind to allow for a mini digital detox.
Breathwork is the practice of using conscious, intentional control of your breathing to promote relaxation, focus, energy, and emotional release. By deliberately altering your natural breathing patterns, you can reduce stress, release tension, improve self-awareness, and support overall wellbeing by regulating your body’s nervous system.
Sound baths are deeply immersive, meditative experiences where you relax while lying down while being “bathed” in resonant sound waves from singing bowls, gongs, chimes, and tuning forks. These instruments are designed to promote deep relaxation, improve mood, and shift brainwaves into a more restorative state.
Yoga is an ancient practice designed to unite the mind, body, and spirit through physical postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation. While many focus on physical poses, true yoga also involves breathing, meditation, and ethical, healthy living. You can have a dynamic Vinyasa practice or a slow Yin or Yoga Nidra practice to boost energy, improve sleep, and promote relaxation.