7 smart ways to enhance your mediation

I often face this question- how do I enhance my meditation experience? Whether you are a pro or just a beginner, time and again, one may feel the need to improve their meditation technique. To all of you, I would say, meditation is not something that you want to have in your “to achieve” box. Meditation is something that I would put in the “to experience” box. What I mean by that is the depth of degree of calmness you feel after meditation depends on how much you were involved with the process more than how long did you meditate. Here are the seven things that you can do to enhance your experience. 

1. Exercise: Any physical activity that you regularly do such as running, walking, yoga, or some light warm-up exercise is excellent. If you do a heavy exercise, a shower should help to enhance the comfort and the meditation experience.
2. The best time to meditate: Meditating right after stretches and shower is good.  Dawn and dusk are also ideal times to meditate.
3. Meals: It is ideal to meditate an empty stomach. But if you are the type of person, who can’t stay hungry, I would stay eat light, some greens or fruits, a cube of cheese, etc. is okay. If you have eat a full meal, wait for about 30 minutes to an hour before you  meditate. 
4. Remove any sensory stimulus: Phones, tablets, computers, or anything in that category lying around you can be distracting to the meditophilic-mind ( mind with a firm desire to meditate). A stimulus-free zone of about 6 feet around you that is devoid of any distraction can help ground and make it easy to get into and out of the meditation.  
5. Kids and Pets: After a good run in the park, I decided to meditate at a beautiful quiet spot. I was just about to be in that meditative space when I heard a dog, and the next moment she was in my lap. That didn’t go the way I wanted it to be. 
6. Meditation space: If you have a place where you meditate every single day, that would be a perfect scenario. I have a couple of places in my home, where I generally meditate. It is easier to slip into that state. But, I have also successfully meditated in subways, railways stations, airports, buses, parks, to name a few. Make sure you are meditating in a predictable environment, i.e., you know nothing with happen for the double the time you are planning to meditate.
7. Willingness to meditate: Last but not least, if the part of you has already decided with all logical explanations that you do not want to meditate, you won’t have that experience. Instead, let your mind come to rest with a moment of quiet. 

I hope you find these tips helpful. Use them as much as you can and pass it along so your friends and family can benefit. Let me know in the comments if you found any of them more or less helpful.