As New York Times Bestselling Author Kris Carr puts it, "of all the healing modalities I’ve explored, meditation is the most powerful for calming our minds, soothing our nervous systems and reducing stress."
But beyond just the mental benefits, meditation has been shown to impact your long-term health as well.
Meditation can reduce anxiety and depression, and reduce inflammation due to stress. Meditation has even been shown to increase the gray matter in your brain and help with self-regulation.
Below, Kris has shared three guided meditations created to help you begin a regular meditation practice.
Note: If you're a Plantapalooza VIP participant, you also have access to her Meditation Toolkit & Habit Tracker inside your Plant-Based Toolkit.
Before you get started with the meditations, here are some tips to make your meditation practice more successful:
Kris Carr's Steps for a Successful Meditation Practice
There’s a lot of confusion and even resistance to putting your tush on the cushion.
Well, here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to take long, be complicated, or be intimidating. And it’s not about pushing away thoughts or controlling feelings.
It’s about learning how to focus your attention on the present.
When thoughts come up, as they inevitably will, you simply train your mind to let them float by so you don’t become attached or triggered.
Here are my top tips to help you get your tush in the cush and start a meditation practice that pays off with big rewards.
Preparing for a Meditation Practice
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- Set an attainable goal. Just 5-10 minutes per day is enough to get started.
- Block off time to meditate on your calendar. This will make it a priority.
- Take time to create the right environment for your new practice. Find a quiet space, dim the lights, and light a few candles.
- Set up a daily cue for yourself. This could be a timer on your phone or a sticky note on your mirror. Something that reminds you to stay on track.
- Use the resources you already have. There's no reason to invest in a fancy meditation cushion or expensive app. Start with the three meditations below and find a path that works best for you.
Techniques to Make Your Practice Successful
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- Focus on Your Breath: This one is really simple, but in some ways, it’s also the hardest. So what you do is, breathe in and out through your nose and bring your awareness to the gentle rising and falling of your breath. Tune into how it feels entering and leaving your body, how it sounds, the temperature of it. And so on. Your breath is your lighthouse. Whenever you lose track of it, notice you’re gone and come back.
- Count Your Breaths: For some people, myself included, focusing on the breath can be a challenge. So when I’m struggling, I use silent counting from 1 to 10 to ground me. Which basically looks like this: the inhale and exhale is one, then inhale and exhale two, then inhale and exhale three.. All the way to 10. Once you get to 10, you start over. Sounds easy right? Well it ain’t, even for the most seasoned meditator. Your mind is wild and so is mine. If you’ve drifted by your 3rd or 4th count, just start over, without judgment. No beating yourself up, this isn’t about getting a perfect score. It’s about learning how to thrive in the majestic wilderness of your inner landscape.
- Repeat a Mantra: Another way to anchor your mind is through mantra. Which is basically a series of words that work to focus the mind and even raise your energy. There are many forms of mantra, from ancient sanskrit to affirmations. But a very simple one is “in” and “out”. That’s it. You inhale and silently say the word “In” and exhale “out”. When you drift off, just come back to the “in” and “out”.
- Observe Your Thoughts: Just let them come and go without judgment. And know this is how everyone feels. You aren’t doing it wrong. I like to imagine I’m peering down into the water of a soothing stream. I can see the fish below the surface swimming by. That’s how my thoughts are during meditation. They just are. I don’t have to change them, but I can choose not to reach out and grab those fish just like I can choose not to engage with my thoughts. I just let them pass.
