The Beginner's Guide to Zen Living: 10 Steps to Transforming Your Life with the Spirit of Zen

One of the major intentions of my life is to live with the spirit of Zen.

That's the spirit with which I live my everyday life and the very spirit of Buddhaimonia.

I'm a firm believer that we all hold a certain intuitive wisdom within each of us, and it's that wisdom which hints at our naturally harmonious and interconnected nature.

It's also this wisdom which, if we so choose, can be used to bring this world together in greater peace and harmony.

And it's this intuitive wisdom which we share that is the very spirit of Zen.

Zen is a sect of Buddhism which focuses on the practice of meditation. But that's a very "textbook" response and hardly communicates the true spirit of Zen.

When it comes down to it, Zen has an individual "essence", an essence that speaks directly to us.

Why is this? Because Zen speaks that same language of intuitive wisdom that I mentioned a moment ago and which we all have deep within us.

We may not have practiced or studied Zen, meditation, or even be completely familiar with Zen, but the wisdom it speaks resonates with us because it's in line with the way we feel that we should live our lives.

So what does it mean to actually live with the spirit of Zen? My favorite explanation of this is in renowned Zen teacher and author Philip Kapleau's Introduction in Thich Nhat Hanh's book Zen Keys, where he describes Zen as a possible antidote to many of the problems of modern society:

"One obvious answer is- through Zen. Not necessarily Zen Buddhism but Zen in its broad sense of a one-pointed aware mind; of a disciplined life of simplicity and naturalness as against a contrived and artificial one; of a life compassionately concerned with our own and the world's welfare and not self-centered and aggressive. A life, in short, of harmony with the natural order of things and not in constant conflict with it."

In a way, this isn't Zen at all- Kapleau's describing life itself. This is the intuitive wisdom I speak of. To me, this is simply how we should all live:

• With the energy of mindfulness - Fully aware, alive in each moment, with a single-pointed awareness. If we're cleaning, we're fully present for the act of cleaning; if we're with our loved ones, we're fully present for them; if we're relaxing at home, we're simply relaxing and not letting the events of the day or worries of the future cloud our mind and distract us.
• Simply and naturally - Understanding that less is more and being aware of how this affects the state of our mind as well as accepting things fully as they come or "going with the flow of things" so to speak (among other things).
• Compassionately and lovingly - Concerned for our own well-being as well as the well-being of all other beings together as one, ultimately understanding how we're all interconnected.

As Kapleau put it, this is about overall living in harmony with the natural way of things (and not creating friction).

Figuring out how to truly live with the spirit of Zen in my everyday life has been pretty difficult at times, but along the way I've learned quite a bit.

And it's been infinitely worth it, more so than anything else I've ever done in my life.

In this guide, I hope to impart some of that to you.

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Zen for Everyday Life Online Course...Coming Soon

If you're interested in learning how to live a more authentic Zen life and bring peace, joy, and balance into your everyday life, then you'll love my upcoming course, Zen for Everyday Life.

If you'd like to be notified when more information is available, as well as get some cool exclusive bonuses from here until release, fill in your name and email below!

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10 Steps to Transforming Your Life Through Living with the Spirit of Zen

Below you'll find 10 steps to making Zen living (living with the spirit of Zen) a reality.

Some are straightforward, some are quick, and some are slow and will be more of a constant work-in-progress. But overall, if you put all of these strategies together, they'll make nothing short of a life changing impact throughout your entire life

Many of these tips will seem closely interlinked. That's on purpose. By being able to see clearly how one point leads into another you're able to see clearly the overarching effort involved in making this a reality.

Also, keep in mind that this isn't about perfection. Don't expect to get these all right the first time, or for them to all happen quickly (as mentioned above, some may and some may not). Your focus should simply be on making your best effort.

I hope some, or all, of these 10 steps can help you find the spirit of Zen in your own life.

1. Simplify your daily activities down to the essentials
2. Do a mind cleanse
3. Reevaluate your dreams and goals
4. Establish a daily routine for your life
5. Establish a home meditation practice, but make practice simple and convenient (blend it in to everyday life)
6. Identify the resistance and remove it (lean in to your problems, don't run from them)
7. Become aware of dualistic thinking
8. Live with the energy of mindfulness
9. Do One Thing
10. Respect and Appreciate Life

1. Simplify your daily activities down to the essentials

Before working on anything else, it's often most important just to clear away the unnecessary clutter, and that's exactly what these first 2 points are all about.

The first area to work on centers around your physical activity, so this is all about discovering what's unnecessary or unimportant, but which is still seemingly taking up your time, and then either removing them completely or reducing them as much as possible.

This has significance in literally every aspect of your life: personally, professionally, spiritually/religiously, and psychologically.

An important point:This first point is all about simplifying your mental activity by way of simplifying your physical activity (or physical world).

When it comes down to it, it's not about simplifying your physical life. Simplifying your physical life is only nice because of the fact that it simplifies the "mental clutter", not the physical.

That might not be so clear now, but think on it and you'll see that it's true.

How to do it:

So, how can you begin making this a reality? Simplifying you daily activities can seem like a huge task, and it can be if you go all out, but if you take it one step at a time you'll have created a hugely positive effect in very little time.

These are the most important categories to keep in mind when working on simplifying your life as a whole:

1. Finances - Remember when I said that this really comes down to simplifying mental activity? Almost nowhere is it clearer than when simplifying your finances.

This includes mostly how you spend and how you save.

2. Mental stimulation - This includes associations, T.V., the Internet, news (wherever you get it), books, audio, etc.

This is such a huge category that it's the entire 2nd of 10 steps, but also because it's really its own beast altogether (that's when we get much more directly mental rather than physical).

3. Material possessions - This is the most well-known of all "simplifying your life" tactics.

This one might not sound like it has much to do with our mental state of being, and it does have the least effect, but it still very much matters. Physical clutter in our homes and life overall can have a real effect on us and so tackling this is a worthwhile early venture in seeking to live the spirit of Zen.

4. Daily actions - The one area we've yet to cover is daily actions. This is one of the biggest and most important as it deals with everything you actually do physically all day long: go to the bank, go to work, what you do at work, run errands, visit friends and family, spend off-time, spend time with your loved ones, etc. Literally everything.

There is some overlap between this and #2, but again that's an important point to isolate because it's so important.

I've written a few articles which deal with this exact topic, even one taking you through a 30-day plan to simplifying your life in every aspect. Here they are:

1. 30 Simple Steps to Simple Living in 30 Days: How to Simplify Your Life from Start to Finish in 30 Days
2. 13 Simple Ways to Increase Productivity, Reduce Distractions and Have More Time for What’s Most Important
3. The 10 Most Important Ways to Simplify Your Life

2. Do a mind cleanse

We often don't realize just how much outside stimuli affects the state of our minds.

It can fog our mind, distract us, completely detract and divert us altogether, as well as lead us to be more aggressive, fearful, and paranoid (among other things). It can have just about any and every effect on us possible.

This step is all about what's called "mental food", and it's extraordinarily important.

What do I mean by mental food? This includes everything from associations (people, relationships) and environments to forms of media such as video (T.V., YouTube, news sites), audio (radio, audiobooks, podcasts), and text (books, blogs, and essentially the Internet as a whole).*

*It's important to note that the Internet is included in every one of those categories, being that social networks are a big part of our associations and the environments we engage in as well as including all forms of media: video, audio, and text. Also, associations and media crisscross because we interact with others via video, audio, and text.

So then, what is a mind cleanse?

A mind cleanse is about taking each of those categories and purging (or reducing) the bad mental food to "cleanse" our minds.

How to do it:

When it comes down to it, for the majority of people, a mind cleanse includes tackling these 3 categories:

1. Associations (people) along with the environments you engage with people in - This is always the most difficult, but also the most powerful, of all the categories in this step. There's rarely an easy way to go about dealing with this but to realize the hard fact that if you continue to be around people who willfully bring you down, it's going to have a definitive effect on your life.

2. T.V. - A point of interest here is the nightly news, talk shows, sitcoms, soap operas, and advertisements in general.

3. The Internet - Again, this is a huge category. The most important points here are social networks (you could be positively spending your time there or not so positively, you'll have to find this out for yourself), news and gossip sites, and blogs.

A mind cleanse such as this can take time, or you can do it all within a week or two (usually, outside of associations unless you're in a position to just stop hanging out with the people in question), it's really up to you (some might need more time, it just depends on your situation).

The first time I did this was back in high school, and it had an extraordinary effect. What kind of an effect? Let me explain...

What you'll notice when you do this is you'll naturally turn "inward" more than you were before.

What I mean by that is, you'll be willing to sit down to read, meditate, and do other more nourishing activities far more often than you were before. It's almost as if you just gravitate towards these things more now than before, you'll almost be compelled to.

*An important note: This won't last forever- it will likely only be an initial feeling that will last a few weeks or even a few months. But as with anything, consistency is key. This is your opportunity to build new and better habits. If you can do this, that period after the mind cleanse will be that much more beneficial.

That leads me to the next point. So what do you replace this bad mental food with? Many things, such as:

1. Books - Preferably self-help of some kind (this doesn't have to be non-fiction either, it can be fiction. See: The Alchemist), although I'll strongly warn against consuming the wrong kind of self-help centered around making more money, becoming successful and powerful, and other ways we try to fill ourselves up falsely.

2. Audio - Audiobooks (same guidelines as with books above), podcasts (see books again), guided meditations, etc.

3. Positive TV programming - There's a lot out there, just have to make your best judgment.

4. Positive groups and environments - This is all about the people and emotions you're around on a regular basis. This can have a considerable effect on your life as a whole, but be equally difficult to find. This one may take time, but if you're always on the lookout you'll begin to see possibilities.

3. Reevaluate your dreams and goals

Most of us are striving towards something.

We have a dream or a goal and we want to achieve it, and we look forward to the way our life will be when we accomplish it.

In many ways, having a dream and a goal is just fine. But it's natural for us to become attached to it, to the point where we convince ourselves that we can't be happy until we get it.

This kind of attachment is very unhealthy, and unfortunately it's something that most of us have fallen for (I was no exception). This next step is about evaluating that very thing.

How to do it:

How do you evaluate your dreams and goals? This includes:

1. Evaluating why you want to achieve said dream or goal - Do you want it because you believe you'll find happiness? Or do you want it because you'll believe it's a worthwhile pursuit that will help others? Or simply something worth spending your time on?

2. Evaluating your daily actions with these dreams and goals in mind - How are your daily actions colored by these dreams and goals? Most importantly, is what you're doing to achieve your dream or goal sacrificing your well-being or the well-being of others?

3. Identifying the thoughts and ideas that exist within your mind in connection with these dreams and goals - An idea of this would be working off point #1, identifying that you want to achieve this goal because you believe you'll find happiness. That's an idea you hold in your mind in connection with the dream or goal.

This last point can take time to develop, and largely comes through developing your mindfulness and meditation practice (which we'll talk about in a bit), so just become aware of these thoughts and ideas as they arise when possible.

The overarching idea here is to begin identifying the harmful thought patterns you hold within your mind so that you can begin releasing them. This step is very important because it's so often this attachment to a dream or goal and the idea that, "I'll be happy when ____" that holds us back from realizing peace and happiness in the present moment.

*An important note: You won't be able to release this idea of "I'll be happy when ____" right away, nor is it required. Just begin to become aware of them, that will be enough right now.

4. Establish a daily routine for your life

Sometimes, we think that things like "order" and "structure" are boring and only slightly useful in some situations, when in fact when used in the right way they can be the breeding ground for much peace, joy, and freedom.

How? A daily routine, for instance, allows for a quieter mind because there's less to think about.

Ultimately, that's really what you want- less to think about = more enjoying the peace of the present moment.

In modern life, planning ahead and remembering certain things is necessary to a point, but by structuring things in the right way and pre-planning, we can remove much of that mental clutter that builds up as a result of our many everyday tasks, to-do's, and important events.

We're so afraid of forgetting what we have to do that we often feel the need to cycle those things repeatedly through our minds until the time comes to do them. The thing is, that cycle never ends because new things come up. So our minds are constantly cluttered with, "Remember this!", and "Remember that!"

By establishing a daily routine and some form of order to your life, you remove a lot of feeling that you need to do that. And as a result, you remove more mental clutter and give yourself more peace and quiet.

How to do it:

So, what should this daily routine look like? That's completely up to your own daily schedule and life as a whole.

To some degree, that will change day-by-day, but as long as you make your major daily (or weekly) activities routine than you'll have just about done your best.

Outside of that, for those activities that are irregular or one-time, I'd suggest keeping a simple to-do list.

Don't let this to-do list rule your life though, only use it to keep a few important points for that day (or group of days). I'd suggest keeping this list at no more than 3-5 things for the sake of simplicity and for keeping it from becoming its own monster (to-do lists are helpful, but only to a point).

I prefer Trello due to its simplicity (and it works across all devices), but you could use anything.

*Two more important points:

Having some form of structure, a daily routine namely, keeps you from wasting time. It improves your efficiency towards the task at hand because you act with more of your being in every moment. This is a very important part of Zen in itself as well, so they go together nicely.

On top of that, breaking that sense of order and structure from time to time can become a very liberating experience.

Zen monasteries have always been run with a sense of order and structure because they're perfectly aware of the benefits of it.

Zen priests don't run monasteries with a strong sense of order just because they feel like it- everything in Zen is calculated- they do it to create a breeding ground for those students to better realize greater awakening, and their true nature.

So use a sense of order and structure to liberate yourself in your own life by creating a daily routine, giving yourself more mental energy for what really matters.

5. Establish a home meditation practice, but make practice simple and convenient (blend it in to everyday life)

Meditation (zazen in Zen- meaning literally "sitting meditation" in Japanese) is obviously an important part of living the spirit of Zen, but with regards to doing so in your everyday life (modern life), this can't be done the same way a full-time Zen monk or student practices meditation.

Within this point there's really 2 important sub-steps:

1. Begin your home meditation practice

First and foremost, for those new to meditation, here's a few guides to get you started:

The Little Book of Mindfulness– Discover the power of mindfulness meditation in simple, straight-forward, and crystal clear language. You can get this free eBook by clicking here.

The Mindfulness Survival Guide– Learn 5 powerful meditative practices for overcoming life’s difficult challenges and living more mindfully. You can get this free guide by clicking here.

5 Tools to Help Start Your Home Meditation Practice– This is a guide all about teaching you both the basics of sitting meditation (instruction included along with the 5 tools) as well as the 5 tools you can use to help build your practice. A great beginner's guide.

2. Blend meditation into your everyday life (and make it a daily habit)

Once you've begun your meditation practice, you'll likely discover that it can be pretty difficult to stay consistent. That's where this next point comes into play.

First, because simply meditating isn't enough, focus on establishing meditation as a daily habit. But also, do it in a way that allows you to blend meditation into your everyday life.

Read this guide to establish meditation as a daily habit:

5 Steps to Making Meditation a Daily Habit

These are the only 5 steps you need do to make meditation into a daily habit. You can read the guide here.

This also happens when you bring the energy of mindfulness into your daily activities, which we'll talk about in a moment.

These 5 steps also help you to bring meditation into your daily life in a way that "blends" with it, but here's a few additional points to really make your practice as convenient as possible:

• Meditate morning, afternoon, and night (even if only for a few minutes) to create powerful "anchors" that keep you grounded throughout each day. Early on, spreading out your meditation practice (even if you meditate for less time on each session) is a powerful way to support and encourage your practice. Ultimately, you're just trying to get used to sitting and to make the act of sitting in meditation become as comfortable as possible to you.
• Place your cushion in a place you reside in often, a very common area you'll see regularly and be likely to encourage yourself to sit even if for only a few minutes at a time. This is the best example, outside of living with mindfulness, of blending meditation into your daily life.
• Sometimes, meditate without a cushion (work with what you've got, don't restrict yourself). I work from home and help my wife put our two sons to nap. Well, my oldest son gets a little crazy sometimes, so I often find myself waiting on him to make sure he falls asleep and doesn't instead go berserk around the room before I go back to writing. While I wait, I sit in what's called the "seiza" position and meditate (this is essentially sitting on top of your lower legs and feet, to where your butt is sitting on to bottom of your feet), as I've found it very easy to sit in when I don't have my cushion near me. Sometimes, you just have to work with whatever you've got, and this is a great way to do just that. Remember, you can always meditate while sitting in a chair as well.

Overall, the idea here is to make sitting down to meditate simple and convenient to do. If you can do that, you've surmounted a great hurdle to living with the spirit of Zen in your everyday life.

Don't overlook the importance of meditation. It may by the 5th step, but it's one of, if not the, most important.

6. Identify the resistance and remove it (lean in to your problems, don't run from them)

The idea of resistance is something I've talked about before, and it's a very important part of Zen living.

What do I mean when I say resistance? I mean specifically:

Resistance:Fighting against reality and the true nature of things.

When I say fighting against, what do I mean? Ultimately, I mean accepting some things and not accepting others.

For example:

- A break up or divorce: When one person just won't let the other person go and continues to be tortured by the person's absence.

- Driving home from work: When we drive home from work with the expectation that we'll get home without a hitch, but end up running into traffic and becoming very annoyed and angered as a result. That expectation we're holding on to is driving us to anger, not the reality of things.

- Striving for greatness: Living your life wanting to "get it all" for yourself, constantly trying to bend and rearrange things to get what you want. Ultimately, you're doing this to be happy, but this isn't where true happiness lies. Because this isn't the way things work, where true happiness actually exists, you get sent down a path of bad habits and patterns that fight against the true nature of things, leading to pain and suffering for either you and/or other beings.

Ultimately, this is us clinging or attaching to certain ideas and expectations that just aren't true. And by clinging to these ideas and expectations we're resisting reality (or the true nature of things) and causing ourselves pain and suffering.

Another important point to note here is that, since we were little, many of us have been taught to distract ourselves from our problems as opposed to facing them.

This behavior stays with us to adulthood, and we end up living our lives doing everything we can to avoid our problems. We:

• Eat
• Drink
• Smoke
• Have sex
• Play games
• Surf online
• Watch T.V.
• Engage in groups that help justify our actions
• And so much more...

...because we've been conditioned that the only way to get away from our problems is to drown them in patterns of bad behavior.

*A side note: Almost none of these behaviors are bad in-and-of-themselves, they're bad when used as a way to avoid our problems and difficulties.

But the reality is, you'll never overcome your problems and realize peace and happiness unless you summon the courage to face those problems and lean in to them.

This can be very difficult to do, but it's absolutely worth it.

How can you begin facing and leaning in to your problems instead of running from them?

Your mindfulness and meditation practice will help uncover these problems and challenges, so from there it's your job to simply lean in to them.

Simply accept the situation as it is fully and openly and allow yourself to feel any emotions that arise in conjunction with it.

Do this:When something arises or occurs, stop to follow your breath and be with it. Imagine yourself facing across from your perceived problem or challenge and accepting it fully with each in-breath and out-breath.

In this way, you can begin making friends with these perceived problems instead of running from them.

7. Become aware of dualistic thinking

All our lives, we were taught that there's "bad" and there's "good" and that these are very separate things. But this is very misleading.

This is because, without the bad, there would be no good.

You wouldn't have the capability to identify happiness if it weren't for your challenges and struggles.

These challenges and struggles should be appreciated, because they allow the opportunity for us to experience the beauty and joy that life has to offer.

If we can begin to remove this dualistic thinking and see that without the bad, without the challenges, there would be no good, no beauty or peace or joy, we can begin to can transform our relationship with those occurrences so that they no longer affect us the way that they once did.

And, going a bit deeper, much of what we identify as "bad", "annoying", etc. is only so because of the concept we hold in our minds.

Much of the suffering we feel exists because of:

Something happens -> Touches mind, Idea (or combination of ideas) triggered -> Creates suffering

It's when the event registers in our minds that we draw a judgment on it that leads us to react negatively to it. This is, again, something we've been taught since we were little ("This is bad." "That's good.").

This takes non-dualistic thinking to another level: preventative. This is all about living in a way that we simply don't draw judgment on anything and accept it full as it comes (remember the last step).

In this way, those things you once considered "bad" no longer affect you the same as they once did, and you can even oftentimes find joy in them.

This is closely connected to living without expectations, understanding that it's not the traffic which caused us to become angry, it was the expectation in our minds which triggered the anger when we encountered the traffic.

For now, this is something simply to become aware of. Just work on identifying this dualistic thinking and you'll begin to gain clarity about the way they affect your life.

8. Live with the energy of mindfulness

In many ways, mindfulness is an energy. It's very contagious. The more you practice, the more mindful you become throughout the rest of your life. In this way, mindfulness practice compounds on itself.

In Zen, this is all about taking the energy of your zazen (sitting meditation) practice into your daily life.

Zen monks for centuries have lived their practice partly with the intention of living every moment of their lives with mindfulness.

The first and clearest example of how this becomes possible is in their practice of walking meditation.

Zen monks often break from zazen practice to do what's called "kinhin" (literally "walking meditation" in Japanese). The idea is to bring the same energy you've developed in your zazen practice- that cultivated one-pointed awareness- into motion.

From here, Zen monks practice to live every moment of their lives- on the cushion and off- with this same spirit of one-pointed awareness, or mindfulness.

This works as a great practice to begin bringing the energy of mindfulness into your everyday life.

It's so important to live with mindfulness throughout your daily life, instead of just sitting to meditate for a few minutes 1-2 times a day.

Live with the spirit of greater awareness in daily activities, giving your full presence around loved ones, and with complete (but not exclusive, still open) attention during your work and you'll see the significant effect living with mindfulness has on every aspect of your life.

My second book, Zen for Everyday Life, is about teaching you exactly that. It's a valuable resource for further developing this step:

Zen for Everyday Life– Learn how to live with the energy of mindfulness throughout your everyday life. You can get the first 2 chapters free by clicking here.

9. Do One thing

This is a very simple step with a lot of significance.

Ready for it?

What's the one thing you're doing right now?

Give your full attention to that thing (and nothing else).

That's the practice of One Thing.

That's it...really. OK, let me break it down a little bit more for clarity sake:

Is it being with a person? Give your full presence to them.

Is it a physical task? Focus on the movement of your body and be fully present for the act of doing that thing.

This doesn't have to be difficult. Start off by picking one hour (say 7-8 P.M.- picking something random here) where you practice One Thing and then gradually expand your practice from there.

Afraid that you might fall behind in your planning and daily agenda if you do this too often? Then you really need this point.

And don't worry, start small with the 1-hour suggestion and bring this practice into your life slowly.

If you have kids, you could reserve one hour a day to being fully present for them.

If you like to clean, or just need to do it out of necessity, then you can do this while cleaning for one hour (or less) a day in the beginning.

As you can tell, your mindfulness practice and this are very similar (which is why this point follows the former), although the practice of One Thing isn't strictly mindfulness and can be practiced by itself.

The point is to get you accustomed to not having to feel like you have to multi-task and to begin becoming used to letting the things in your mind go for at least a short period during your daily life and doing things with a single-pointed mind.

As you let this practice and that of mindfulness bleed into your daily life you'll begin to realize a greater and greater level of peace and freedom.

10. Respect and appreciate life

In many ways, this is something you'll begin to cultivate on your own through following a number of the steps on this list. But this is still a very important point to mention on its own because a lot is included within it. This includes:

- Respecting and appreciating your own life and understanding your own impermanence (you only have so long to live, appreciate every moment of life).

- Understanding the precious nature of life and not purposely harming or hindering it unless necessary (using/wasting resources, not killing or abusing, etc.).

- Being aware of your interconnected nature, and as a result serving others in some way (there are many ways to do this, it's up to you- aiding physically or financially, teaching, inspiring, being an example).

In many ways, this point is all about living in harmony with the natural way of things, and all of existence.

It's about understanding your place, your relationship with other living and non-living things, and the fundamental truths of this world (impermanence, interconnectedness).

These are principles which we can all use to improve our appreciation for life, so it's really through understanding these truths that we can begin to cultivate that respect and appreciation for life in the first place.

Living in this way, every moment, every interaction, and every thing becomes beautiful and infinitely valuable.

You can see significance in something as simple as a tree or flower.

You can see absolute truth in the smile of a child.

And you can see great beauty and importance within yourself.

And in this way, you realize you never needed anything to be "filled up", because you were full all along.

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Living Zen Spirit...Coming Soon

If you're interested in learning how to bring more authentic Zen spirit into your life, then you'll love my upcoming book Living Zen.

If you'd like to be notified when more information is available, as well as get some cool exclusive book bonuses from here until release, fill in your name and email below!

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50 Meditation Tips for Beginners

The popularity of meditation, particularly mindfulness meditation, has exploded in recent years. Because of this, huge waves of people are just beginning their meditation practice, or still working out the kinks, and could use some simple guidance.

I don't pretend to know everything, but I have uncovered a number of tips and tricks from my own meditation practice over the years which I'd like to share here for everyone. I'm sure just about everyone can find at least a few tips from the 50 below which will help them move their practice forward or deepen their practice in general.

Below are 50 meditation tips for beginners starting their own meditation practice (centered around mindfulness meditation practices). The title says meditation tips for beginners, but the reality is even if you've practiced for a while there's probably at least few points here you can use to take your practice to the "next level" so to speak.

I hope you find them useful. Here are 50 meditation tips for beginners: _____________________________________

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50 Meditation Tips for Beginners

1. You can meditate anywhere

Meditation isn't just sitting in a crazy difficult folded leg position (the lotus position) with your eyes closed.

You can meditate anywhere, any time of day, and in multiple positions with multiple forms.

Expand your practice to your entire day and utilize multiple forms to see the real power of meditation. To learn how to meditate, or for ideas on where to start your practice, you can read How to Meditate for Beginners.

2. You don't have to close your eyes

It's a common misconception that you have to do meditate with your eyes closed, and while this is perfectly acceptable (for sitting meditation at least...), it's highly beneficial especially in the beginning to meditate with your eyes partly open to help you maintain alertness and avoid dozing off.

Many traditions and backgrounds meditate exclusively with eyes partly open, never closed.

3. Start simple

Don't jump right into walking meditation or mindful eating, start with breathing meditations. The most basic, most common, and most useful of which is mindful breathing.

This is essentially the same as sitting in meditation (with mindfulness of breath), so whether you sit or take a minute or two throughout your day to practice mindful breathing, whatever works for you is fine.

4. Walk it off

There's an exception to the last point. Whether you've just begun or have meditated for some time, if you feel a strong energy in your body, or are extra restless, you shouldn't force sitting in meditation, you should get up and walk slowly with mindfulness (walking meditation).

This is a common practice that helps the practitioner calm their nerves so that they can sit more successfully.

In the beginning, you should sit despite this restlessness, but if you've sat for a few weeks and still find yourself moderately restless it can be beneficial to do walking meditation for a moment and then sit after.

This is also a valuable advanced meditation tip for those who are experiencing an abnormal level of restlessness.

5. Find what works best for you

Once you've practiced mindful breathing for a few weeks I'd suggest you start trying out the various other forms of meditation. This usually begins with walking meditation and expands out to eating meditation, driving meditation, and so forth.

It's limitless really, and I wouldn't just dive into them without some instruction, but you're free to experiment, find what works best for you, and structure your meditation practice accordingly once you're passed the initial phase of practicing mindful breathing.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying don't sit in meditation, but I am saying that you can sit for half a day in meditation or you can sit for 30 minutes and do other meditative forms, like do walking meditation, and focus on simply living your everyday life as it is in mindfulness.

For anyone living a halfway "normal" life, this is generally much more effective and far more natural.

Even with regards to sitting meditation, there's no one way to do it. You can sit and be mindful of your breath, or you could mix it up and be mindful of the many sights and sounds within your field of awareness as well. Or you could even meditate on compassion from time to time.

The choice is up to you, so find what works best for you.

6. It usually takes practice (but not always)

Some people get the idea, that is, how to be mindful, almost immediately. But most people take a while to get the hang of it.

I was the latter, so if you're having some difficulty in your practice don't worry, it's only natural. There's no rhyme or reason to this, and those more proficient at first don't go on to be better at mindfulness, they just get it faster.

So don't be discouraged by this and think it "isn't for you" or something else discouraging. The challenges you're facing will actually help to strengthen your practice.

7. Soft focus, not hard

While mindful, it should feel as though you have a soft, but constant, focus on your object of meditation (your breath, steps, etc.) and of anything else that comes into your field of awareness, rather than a hard focus that makes you strain your eyeballs and hurt your brain.

If this is what you're doing simply relax a bit and remind yourself that you're not forcing your awareness, or focus, on one point.

Your object of meditation works more like an anchor helping you stay in the present moment, rather than a laser target that's concentrating your focus.

If you become drawn away, by a thought or sensation, this isn't a bad thing, it's only bad if you don't acknowledge it with your mindfulness.

These thoughts and sensations coming into your field of awareness are totally natural, and should be welcomed (of course after acknowledging them, come back to your object of meditation- breath, steps, etc.).

8. Don't worry about whether you're doing it right or not

I didn't get the hang of mindfulness right away, it took me some time. Get a good resource with instruction on how to meditate and simply follow it as best you can, practicing at least a little each day.

As long as you're doing that, don't worry about whether you're doing it right or not. With time, provided you're doing you best to follow the instruction, you'll get the hang of it.

9. Don't worry about your hands

I know you've probably seen pictures before of people meditating (who hasn't?). In those pictures, they were usually doing something specific with their hands, right? That specific hand placement is called a mudra (Sanskrit for "sign"), and it's generally meant to symbolize some important principle in the particular meditation or spiritual tradition that it originated from.

Mudras can be used to enhance your practice specifically while sitting in meditation, so feel free to use them, but in no way think that they're required.

10. Wake up

In a very literal sense, you should be wide awake when you attempt to meditate, especially sitting in meditation, as otherwise, it becomes very easy to doze off. If you're not, you might need to wait until a better time or find a way to wake yourself up beforehand.

This could be something simple like caffeine or something more complex like only meditating during a specific time in the day (such as an hour into your morning, when your energy is full and the sleepiness of the morning has worn off).

11. Stretch

While meditation isn't about rejecting anything or quieting your mind to the point where you stop thinking (an impossible and useless feat), the beginnings of meditation are about bringing the mind to rest.

This is because, before you do this, your mind will be too active to sit back and observe, which is the entire point.

A simple trick you can do to help this along is simply to stretch a bit before you begin meditating, as this will help to not only relax you but activate your body to some degree. It doesn't matter what you do, just pick a few simple stretches that relax you and do them for a minute or two before meditating.

12. Posture is important

Your ability to stay focused while meditating is directly connected to your posture.

Without proper posture, you're more likely to doze off and improper posture is usually an obstruction to your breathing.

To some degree, this isn't something you have to worry all that much about, as often just becoming fully present will make you realize you're slouching and stand up straight. But in any case, make sure while sitting in meditation that your back and neck are straight.

13. You don't have to sit in the lotus position

If you don't know it, the lotus position is that position which involves sitting cross-legged and then placing each leg on top of the opposite thigh.

The lotus position is not something that everyone is capable of doing (or should try doing) even with practice.

Feel free to sit in a chair, it really doesn't matter. Keep the main thing the main thing, and that's the actual act of meditating. Everything else is there simply to help support your practice, even physical positioning.

14. Don't sit and meditate on a full stomach

Zen students avoid meditating on a full stomach, as this generally leads to an increased tendency to doze off. Of course, it can be equally bad to meditate while you're starving, so I'd suggest against that too.

It's not as difficult as it sounds, just something to stay mindful of as it can affect your sitting meditation specifically.

15. Half-smile

In the beginning of your practice, or even if you've practiced for some time and just had a tough day, the stress and general restlessness you're feeling can make it really difficult to meditate.

To combat this, adopt a simple half-smile. We hold a huge amount of tension and stress in our facial muscles, and a light smile (a half-smile) can relieve much of that tension and stress. It's a simple act with a powerful effect.

16. When questions arise, stay focused and mindful

In the beginning, it's natural to become frustrated with your practice and wonder what you're doing, why it isn't working, or just feel like quitting.

During this time you need to meditate more than ever. Stay focused and know that it's just a part of the process (largely, just the process of removing the jitters and stress from your body).

With time, your mind will calm and you'll find a great sense of peace from your practice again, often even more than before the ordeal.

17. Count

Don't just breathe (or walk, chew, etc.), while being mindful it's highly useful to count while doing so. Counting to yourself helps keep you awake to the moment and helps you notice when you've become distracted.

You can simply count from 1-10, one number for each inhale or exhale. So: inhale (one), exhale (two), inhale (three), and exhale (four). If you notice yourself slip, start the 10 count over.

If you have a heavily productivity centered mindset you might find yourself trying to cheat here. Don't, there's no point. All you'll end up doing is fooling yourself and hurting your own practice.

The quality of your practice is dependent upon your willingness to be honest with yourself. This technique can really help you improve your practice, so don't get in the way of your own ability to get the most from your practice.

18. Set a timer

If you don't set a timer, you'll have no idea when to stop and often end up pausing your meditation to glance at a clock constantly, interrupting your practice and making yourself even more uncomfortable and distracted.

By setting a timer you can relax and focus on your meditation practice, knowing you won't go over your time and miss what you have to do afterward.

19. Don't set a timer

OK, a timer isn't always a good idea. In general, my rule with a timer is that it's good to use one, but keep it in a place where you can't see it or get to it, such as up on your desk while you sit several feet away on the floor, and with your chair blocking your computer screen for good measure.

This way there's no way for you to find out what time it is during your meditation, but you still know your timer is set, and so can rest comfortably knowing that you should just stay focused since your timer will tell you when you're done.

But even after doing this, sometimes just knowing there's a timer set can be the very cause of your restlessness. If you find that happening, just don't set a timer.

Sitting without a timer can be really pleasant, and is the way I almost always meditate. It feels more natural, like I'm free to just float off as long as I please. Of course this is a luxury I'm not always afforded, and the likelihood is neither will you, but when possible it can be really nice.

20. Don't sit longer than you can

Even so, after calming yourself before meditating and using a timer in the proper way, in the beginning at least, you'll grow increasingly more restless as time goes on.

Maybe that time is 5 minutes, maybe it's 10, or maybe it's 20. Whatever it is, if you've only been meditating for a week, a month, or even a few months, there's a time period you'll get to where you just can't sit any longer before feeling like you're crawling out of your skin.

Once you get to that point, just stop sitting. It's as simple as that. There's no reason to push it. If you do this consistently, each day, you'll gradually be able to sit down for longer and longer periods until the point where you feel as though you could sit forever peacefully without this feeling ever arising.

This stage is the goal, but there's no rush to get there. Take your time, and don't sit longer than you feel you can.

21. Start sitting for 5 minutes

When you begin your sitting meditation practice, simply sit for 5 minutes. Don't attempt to sit for 10, 20, or more even if you think you can.

Don't think you're Mr. or Ms. hot-shot and go into your practice ego-first, that's a sure way to stumble hard right from the get-go and lose the motivation to keep practicing. Just do 5 minutes and then expand later only IF you feel comfortable enough to do so.

By sticking to this, even if you feel you can do more, you make the idea of meditation a simple and quick practice in your mind, and this helps establish it as a daily habit.

22. Work in blocks of 5

With that being said, it's generally best to increase your meditation in series of 5-minute blocks.

Let's say on Monday you begin meditating, and one or two Mondays later you begin feeling pretty comfortable while meditating for 5 minutes, no longer feeling the intense restlessness you once felt after a few minutes of meditating.

That's a good sign you're ready to begin meditating for 10 minutes, at which point you should test it out and see how it goes. If you feel it a little tough towards the end, you can always push through it.

But if the difficulty is intense, as I mentioned earlier, there's no reason to push it, so just go back to 5 minutes for another couple of days.

23. Have a meditation space

It's important, at least with your sitting meditation practice, just as with work and family, to have a space designated for the activity.

By doing so, when you go to sit down in meditation distractions go away, you become focused, and overall become more able to cultivate a strong meditation practice.

You shouldn't limit your meditation practice to this one place, but it's still important to have a place like this you can go to that's reserved for your practice. This is your Zen space, as I discussed in a previous post (which was an exclusive preview of a Zen for Everyday Life chapter as well).

24. Read a book, or get instruction

You don't have to get personal instruction, but it's important to at least read a book on meditation to get detailed instruction on the practice, preferably various forms of meditation you can use throughout your life and for various purposes (focus on one at first though).

This is all but necessary, as otherwise you're shooting in the dark and aren't completely sure if you're doing it right.

25. Don't restrict your practice to the meditation cushion

By this I mean don't restrict your practice to sitting meditation only. As I mentioned, you can meditate anywhere and at any point in your day, no matter what you're doing. But it can be easy to get comfortable and just stop there.

This is greatly limiting your practice. Once you get the hang of sitting in meditation, begin to try out other forms of meditation.

Most importantly, bring mindfulness into your everyday life.

26. Get a good audiobook (or a couple)

This will really help you take your meditation practice beyond the cushion and into your everyday life, on top of being the perfect complement to your book. With audio, you can take your practice with you wherever you go.

I love listening to audiobooks in my car (mostly Alan Watts right now) and still occasionally use them elsewhere as well. Test it out for yourself and see how it helps.

27. Try guided meditations

Rolling off of this point, in the beginning, it can be beneficial to try out some guided meditations. These are enjoyable at varying levels of practice but are especially helpful for anyone beginning with meditation.

Guided meditations are also nice for the same reason audiobooks are- you can take them anywhere and listen to them at just about any point in your day.

28. Let others know you're serious

Let your friends and family know that you're serious about your meditation practice. This is important for a few reasons, but an example would be letting those you live with know not to interrupt you during your sitting meditation practice.

For that purpose, if you live with others and you meditate, say, in your room, then you can hang a sign on your doorknob once you begin your meditation. There are various ways this can manifest, though, so you'll have to look at your own life and take the necessary steps to let those around you know how important your practice is to you.

29. Reduce distractions

I'm talking specifically about sitting meditation here, but if you have a scheduled time for walking meditation, or even just plan to eat your lunch or another meal in mindfulness, then it's important to reduce distractions as much as possible to improve your practice.

30. Meditate with friends and family

You might think that meditation is a private affair, but it's not. Meditation is greatly enhanced when two or more people sit, walk, or meditate in any other way, together. Try it and see for yourself.

31. Sit in the morning

Whether you're a night owl or an early riser, it can be very beneficial to begin meditating once you rise in the morning. A daily morning meditation practice is probably the single most powerful morning ritual you can adopt. It will literally transform the rest of your life with a consistent daily practice.

32. If your interest begins to wane, reaffirm your practice

This might happen, and it might not. Due to the sometimes difficult nature of meditation, but probably more importantly just because sticking to anything for any length of time can be difficult, it may be necessary at times to reaffirm your practice.

By this I mean remember why you began meditating in the first place. Typically, coming back to your book or audio can be highly beneficial in these cases as they'll remind you of how powerful and beneficial your practice can be and usually be mixed with enough encouraging words to keep you going.

In general, if this does happen, it will only be a phase. So stay strong, reaffirm your practice, and keep moving. It will wear off. Once this happens, your practice will be stronger than ever.

33. Discover the power of silence

You might be compelled to listen to some peaceful music or something while meditating, and at times this can be OK, but in general I'd suggest you learn the value of silence.

Silence is a powerful and almost mystical thing really which can often leave us with no real way of describing the experience itself (of sitting in silence, for instance). Silence is healing and revitalizing, so learn the power of silence now. Not just in sitting meditation, but in all forms of meditation: silent walking, silent eating, silent driving, etc.

Test it out- it's a beautiful and highly nourishing practice.

34. Use bodily signals to uncover and deal with strong emotions

It can be difficult to sit with strong emotions, like sadness or anger. To help this, it can be valuable to focus your concentration (or object of meditation, where you place your attention- typically your breath, steps, etc.) on your body.

Practicing mindfulness of the body can help detect these strong emotions, and sometimes, when you're feeling restless and don't even exactly know what you're feeling, identifying where on your body you're feeling changes can help you identify what emotion it is that you're feeling.

Overall, whether you've already identified the emotion or not, practicing mindfulness of body can help to bring these emotions into perspective.

It helps you see that these emotions aren't any different from the rest of your body's natural processes and helps shed their sometimes monstrous cloak which make them feel to us like they're these impossible forces to overcome (which they're not).

35. Don't jump up

Once you've finished your meditation session, don't immediately get up and rush off to the rest of your day. It's important to take a moment after your meditation to stay in this relaxed state, look around, let your thoughts come back to you slowly, and get up only once you feel you're ready.

Doing so will make your practice more enjoyable and help break the habit of rushing from place to place.

36. Have fun

Ultimately, your practice should be a great sense of joy. You won't always enjoy it, as we talked about earlier you may run into problems or your motivation to keep practicing might wane, but these things will be temporary and you'll soon go back to your "usual" practice.

And this practice should be highly enjoyable, bringing you in touch with the limitless beauty and peace of all the things within your everyday life.

37. Find a community

This is in no way required, but finding a meditation community can be both highly beneficial to your practice and greatly rewarding in your life as a whole.

Meditation done in groups is far more effective than alone, so even just one weekly group meditation session with people can be of great benefit. This could mean simply bringing your friends and family in on your practice as I talked about earlier, or it could mean joining a local meditation group. 

Whatever you decide to do, finding a group of people to practice with is something to strongly consider.

38. Mindfulness isn't about quieting the mind

Know that mindfulness isn't about getting to a point where your mind is literally quiet like the dead of night, so don't get frustrated if even after a year of meditation you still have thoughts popping up regularly.

The purpose of mindfulness is to calm your mind to the point where you can observe it with clarity. You'll never completely quiet the mind, and nor is this the point.

You'll greatly calm the mind and derive a great source of peace from your meditation despite this. This is definitely one of the most important points on this list because it's not just a common mistake beginners make but also a common misconception even among those who practice (at least those who haven't practiced for long).

39. Meditation forms are generally separated by position, but there are various forms of meditation for each position

Let's take walking for instance. You might think that there's only one form of walking meditation. That is, walking while being mindful of your steps.

This is the most common, but while walking you can also be mindful of the sensations you're experiencing, especially if you're outside, such as the wind hitting you and the heat from the sun on your body.

The most common forms of meditation are generally the most common because they're the most universal and straightforward, but it doesn't mean there aren't ways to mix it up. Doing so can really take your practice to a different level, allowing you so many other varied methods of living with mindfulness and offering new opportunities to deepen your practice.

40. Stick with it

Meditation, in all its forms, is like anything else in life. If meditation is something you want to make a daily practice, you'll need to work to establish it as a habit, and that means wrestling against all those negative habit energies that will likely try and get in the way.

It won't take long to really start cementing meditation as a daily practice, but things will come up from time to time that will try to throw a wrench in your practice.

Just stick with it, the longer you take your practice the more consistent you'll become and the less effort it will take to stick with it.

41. Create a lifestyle and a daily practice, not a habit

The whole "21 days to create a habit" myth has been handily debunked in recent years, but in general anything you want to make a new habit is something you've decided you'd like to be a new part of your life for at least an extended period of time, if not the rest of your life.

Because of this, it's better to stop thinking about creating habits in a short term sense and to start thinking about designing your life as a whole. This will help give you perspective and instill patience in you and is more accurate to what you're trying to do.

We tend to focus too much on what it takes to create a habit, when in reality even once you've gotten to that point (whatever that point is), that thing still requires consistent upkeep or else you'll fall off.

There is no magical point where a habit is just automatic for the rest of your life, only varying levels where something becomes easier and requires less effort. Have a long-term vision for your practice, and stop being pulled along by the "get it done" attitude so many of us have.

42. Your mindfulness is nonjudgmental, thoughts themselves are not

Don't get confused, while mindful awareness itself is nonjudgmental- that is, while being mindful you're simply observing without purposely thinking anything and making any judgments- it doesn't mean judgmental thoughts won't arise while being mindful.

Mindfulness and mental activity are two totally separate things. Mindfulness observes this mental activity nonjudgmentally, but the mental activity itself sprouting from you while meditating encompasses all of you, and that includes thoughts that have to do with your beliefs and opinions.

If you notice a thought like this pop up during your meditation, don't think you're doing it wrong. As long as you're acknowledging the thought itself nonjudgmentally with your mindfulness, you're right on track.

The point is, in a way, to make no purposeful effort to think or enter your mind. But your thoughts are their own monster, and they'll continue to bubble up whether you try to think about something or not. Your "effort" is to observe nonjudgmentally, not to condemn judgmental thoughts which arise.

43. Don't take your thoughts, well...personally

Your thoughts are not the "you" you imagine them to be. This might be difficult to see for now, but know that your thoughts are their very own monster. As I just mentioned, without even trying, while meditating thoughts will pop up. And these thoughts can sometimes be uncomfortable.

But begin realizing now that those thoughts are not you, so you should in no way judge yourself for what thoughts arise. Not just while you're being mindful, but ever.

Thoughts arise because of our life experiences, the effect they have on us, our interpretation of the whole thing, and general imagination which when broken down we see is hardly the "us" we imagine when thinking of ourselves.

Don't take your thoughts personally, know that they'll pop up no matter what you do and involve a lot more than "you" and you'll be able to begin distancing yourself from them. If you can learn to do this, which meditation will naturally do, you'll experience a great sense of relief.

44. Stop trying to win at meditation

Most of us are so productivity-obsessed and goal oriented that when we begin to practice meditation of any kind we tend to apply these same ideas to our meditation practice. This isn't in any way your fault, it's just something that's been ingrained in most of us since we were little (it certainly was for me).

But this can only damage your practice and lead you to take less from it than you could, ironically. You can't win at meditation, plain and simple. It isn't a game, and there are no shortcuts. No matter how hard you try, aside from dedicating yourself to a daily practice and striving to be mindful during each moment in your everyday life, you have to let your practice develop on your own.

You'll only discourage yourself and quit if you try to apply this same productivity mindset to meditation because it just doesn't work that way. Stop trying to win at meditation and rest simply feeling the peace of the present moment.

45. You can just be, too

You don't have to be doing anything in particular to meditate, you can literally just sit or stand and be fully awake to everything around you. A sort of "global awareness", this form of mindful awareness is the act of simply letting everything within your field of awareness come to you equally.

It's a highly nourishing practice which can often leave you feeling a profound sense of interconnectedness with everything around you. This is a nice practice to do from time to time, the literal expression of non-striving, and simply being one with the moment fully.

46. Start where you zone out

Once you've practiced some basic form of meditation for a few weeks, it can be highly beneficial to target some other activity during your day where you tend to zone out and bring mindfulness into it.

This won't just have the "usual" impact. Making a typical zone-out activity, such as driving, into a meditation can completely transform the rest of your day for the better. The great part about this is the activities you usually zone out on are the activities you do most often, so if you pick something like walking or driving you'll also be targeting a major part of literally every single day. This can have a hugely beneficial effect on your entire life.

47. Look for "moments of nourishment"

Find it difficult to carve out time to sit and meditate? One of the great things about mindfulness is you can do it anywhere, and that means even those times you typically feel are wasted like sitting in a waiting room or in your car during a long commute.

These are what I call potential "moments of nourishment", little bits of time in your day where you can slip in your meditation practice that would otherwise be unproductive or just boring wastes of time.

Of course, your goal should be to practice mindfulness throughout your day, but practicing in this way is a really effective way to grow your practice in the beginning and can have a big impact on your stress level and help you find a sense of peace between the chaos and craziness of your everyday activities.

48. Use a book to remind you

I carry a Moleskine book I call my "book of mindfulness", which has various verses and phrases meant to help instill greater awareness in me throughout my day. It's a great little book which has been of much use to me.

But the greatest part about the book? Because it sits in my pocket, it reminds me to be mindful throughout my day. Reminders such as these are powerful, and can really help you establish a daily meditation practice. You can read more about my little notebook in The Little Book of Mindfulness.

49. Be in nature

Simply sitting or walking in nature and being mindful of the many sights or sounds within your field of awareness is highly nourishing and helps to improve your mindfulness practice. With the high amount of stimuli you can't help but be fully present for what's going on around you, and this helps you develop your mindfulness and gives you a reference point for when you practice during your everyday life.

50. Focus, work in chunks

Once you've begun meditating and really seen some positive effects from your practice, it can be pretty exciting. That is, the idea that you can meditate with your whole life and bring more of those feelings into so many of the other activities you do in your everyday life.

You can be mindful anywhere and everywhere and throughout your entire day. But, at least in the beginning, what actually ends up happening is usually a bit rockier than this attractive fantasy of a day filled with peace and joy.

The likelihood is, you'll forget to me mindful constantly and have a hard time developing a strong daily practice. The universal application of mindfulness is great, but it also tends to make us feel lost in the beginning. Where do we begin?

Even if we know that we should start by practicing sitting meditation, or at the least following our breath, the next step can be fuzzy. Unless we focus on one or a few activities at a time, we tend to end up overwhelmed and don't practice it at all (or sporadically, and never make it a daily habit).

For this reason, it's highly beneficial to work in chunks. For instance, after you've practiced mindful breathing for a few weeks, you can then add walking and driving meditation to your daily practice.

Don't worry about being mindful at any other point in your day, even if you know that you can. Simply take the next 4 weeks to practice walking and driving meditation at every chance you get and make those activities new mindful habits.

Once you've established those, or at least gotten them to a point where you generally remember to do them consistently and can then add something else in, pick one or two more activities and tackle those.

After a while, you'll start becoming mindful throughout large portions of your day and often remind yourself to practice without any effort at all, but at first it's important to focus on just a few activities at a time to gradually build the foundation of your practice.

Learn to Meditate

Below are resources to help you learn the practice of mindfulness meditation and associated practices:

Creating a home meditation practice:

1. How to Meditate for Beginners
2. ZfEL Ep. 8: How to Create a Home Meditation Practice
3. 10 Ways to Make Meditation a Daily Habit
4. 5 Tools to Help You Start Your Home Meditation Practice
5. My free eBook: The Little Book of Mindfulness
6. What is Mindfulness? A Guide to Mindfulness Meditation
7. The Buddha’s Guide to Mindfulness Practice
8. 10 Awesome Tips and Tricks for Beginning with Mindfulness
9. The Beginner’s Guide to Walking Meditation

Free Guided Meditations:

Below are guided meditation episodes made freely available for your use. Learn to meditate with these guided meditations:

1. Mindfulness Meditation / Mindful Breathing
2. Mindful Walking (formal practice)
3. Mindful Walking (out-and-about in your daily life)
4. Mindful Welcome
5. Mindful Driving

*This list will grow quickly in the future. Each week I feature a new guided meditation on the Zen for Everyday Life podcast. You can listen to the podcast on the blog here or on iTunes here:

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So, what tips did you find most helpful? I'd love to hear from you. :)