Oct 9, 2024 3 min read Meditation lessons

5. Learn meditation in 5 steps!

Once learned, you’ll be able to build your practice to reach deeper meditative states and higher levels of awareness.

You've learned the basics of meditation and are now ready to sit in meditation and train your mind. Before introducing the 5-step meditation process, let’s briefly recap what you’ve learned so far:

Why is meditation so hard?

You may not know enough about meditation to develop an effective practice.

What is meditation?

At its core, meditation is about studying creation from the perspective of a creator (the Higher Self).

What is the Higher Self?

The term "Higher Self" refers to you as consciousness—the version of you looking through your eyes, within your body.

Organizing Your Mind:

Raise your self-awareness by noticing where you’re experiencing thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

Breathing in Meditation:

Whenever a thought, feeling, or sensation doesn’t serve or distracts you, simply return to your breath to regain control.

It may take time to get used to identifying yourself as consciousness and developing awareness over the activity in your mind. However, with practice, you will effortlessly learn to detach using your breath. It's also worth mentioning that these skills can be developed without sitting in formal meditation—it’s all a matter of shifting perspective!

The 5 Step Meditation Process

The following five steps will form the foundation of your meditation practice. Once learned, you’ll be able to build your practice to reach deeper meditative states and higher levels of awareness. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Breathe

Find a comfortable meditation position, ideally with your eyes closed and your spine self-supported, and begin controlled breathing. Inhale and exhale through your nose in a steady and relaxed manner until you feel calm and centered.

Step 2: Position

Never force yourself into an uncomfortable position. As you breathe and self-regulate, you may need to adjust your posture to remain comfortable. Always use your breath as a guide and position your body accordingly. Ensure that you can breathe comfortably. Remember, your body—along with your thoughts, feelings, and sensations—exists in service to your breath.

Step 3: Lock

Once regulated and comfortable, gently roll your eyes upward toward the center of your mind. Avoid causing tension to your eyes; this will only hinder your practice. Consider "locking" as a ritualistic step to shift from self-as-body to self-as-consciousness, or the Higher Self.

Step 4: Meditate

When you're "locked in," you’re meditating. At this stage, assess whether the experience you’re engaged in is valuable. If not, return to Step 1 and repeat as needed until you lock into an experience that serves you. This step not only trains your mind to meditate but also conditions it to serve you better in life.

Step 5: Integrate

When you're ready to finish your practice or have had a moment of enlightenment, take a moment to commit the experience to memory. Savor the feeling in your body, and perhaps honor it with a personal ritual of gratitude or prayer before opening your eyes.

Breathe, position, lock, meditate, integrate.

Memorize these five steps like a mantra: breathe, position, lock, meditate, integrate. If you ever get lost in meditation or lose awareness, always remember to breathe.

It’s time to take a break from lessons while you develop the fundamentals of your meditation practice. Next week, you’ll learn 10 reasons why you should be meditating!

You can dive deeper into the "5-Step Meditation Process" and more by ordering a copy of my book Meditate: Breathing into Meditation and Awaken Your Potential. Discover what you can truly achieve with your own meditation practice.
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Please note: Esoteric concepts are not meant to be taken literally or as absolute truths. However, they can provide valuable perspectives and context, helping our limited human minds grasp complex ideas.