Practice presence with us.

“Am I doing this right?” is a question we all ask at some point in our meditation journey.

We may not be sure if the experiences we’re having while we meditate (things like a distracted or busy mind, boredom or sleepiness) are the ones we ‘should’ be having, or if we’re following the instructions in the way they’re intended or if we should be seeing specific kinds of progress.

How do we know if we’re doing this right? We love asking good meditation teachers this question, so you’ll find plenty of interesting answers in the courses, single meditations, talks and podcast episodes in the app.

Here’s a quick summary for when you’re wondering how to assess a session, need a little encouragement, or just curious about what might be coming along next: meditation is about noticing what’s happening and then choosing where to put our attention next, even if only for a moment. It’s a repeated act of noticing and attending. We can consider anything we notice (including a busy, bored or emotional mind) as natural, as a worthy object of meditation. If we ask, ‘what’s happening now?’, ‘what’s this moment like’, and feel the answer, it’s a safe bet that we are meditating in a helpful way.

Sitting is a common posture so you’ll hear it a lot but meditation isn't restricted by position, ability, or equipment. In addition to sitting, some traditional postures for meditation are walking, lying down and standing. Most experienced meditators meditate in more than one posture so you can feel free to try different options and see which ones work for you. 

Sitting meditation: You can sit anywhere (on a cushion on the floor, on a chair, or sofa). Some guided meditations will walk you through how to hold your posture in a specific way to increase alertness and ease. In general though it’s helpful to find a way to sit where your back is relatively upright, yet also relaxed – you can release your shoulders and belly, and feel the support of whatever you’re sitting on. To support sitting upright some people sit without anything behind their back, and on top of a cushion so that their hips are higher than their knees, while others people sit with a pillow pushed against the back, supporting the lumbar region. 

Lying down meditation: Meditating while you’re lying down is great and there are some things you can do to help stay awake in this posture. Traditionally you lie flat on your back with your feet slightly apart. Put a pillow under your knees or bend your legs if that feels more comfortable for your back. Your hands can be at your sides; some people like to put one hand on their heart and one on their stomach. If you want to meditate lying down but keep falling asleep, it may indicate that your body needs the rest, and it’s okay to sleep. If you don’t want to fall asleep, you can try bending your arm at the elbow, so that your hand is up in the air, perpendicular to the bed or floor. If you start to fall asleep, your hand will drop and wake you up.

Standing meditation: This is great to practice at home because when you get used to it, you’ll find yourself getting in little bites of meditation everywhere — in line at the grocery, waiting for the bathroom at a show. To practice standing meditation, set yourself up by rolling forward and backward, then left and right, on your feet, then come to center. Relax your stomach and shoulders, tilt your chin down a little and close your eyes or look down gently. Take a breath, and you’re ready.

Walking meditation: We’ve got lots of walking meditations in the app and it’s easy to practice these anywhere. Traditional walking meditation is done very slowly so you can feel each sensation of your feet as they make contact with, and then lift above, the ground. If you don’t want to slow walk or you’re out in public, you can meditate walking at any speed. Pay attention to your feet on the ground or find any sensation in your body that stands out, like the bending of your knee or your hand rubbing the side of your pants with each step.

One of our goals with meditation is to be able to access mindfulness anywhere, anytime. So we don’t insist on a particular type of environment for meditation practice.

That said, when we’re trying to develop a consistent, supportive meditation habit, it can be helpful to choose a consistent, supportive place to practice. Some people like to choose a relatively quiet place in their home. Others choose a place that they only use for meditation, which helps them remember their intention to practice – you could do this by setting out a cushion in a corner or a room only when you meditate, or creating a small altar with objects and pictures that inspire you. Other people like to meditate in a place that is comfortable to their body – like a favorite chair, or outside in a garden or park. 

If you’re doing walking meditation, and would like to walk slowly, you might choose a more private area – it doesn’t need to be large. Many of our teachers learned walking meditation pacing back and forth in a small room, feeling each step. 

There’s no need to worry about finding one particular place if that’s difficult to arrange or just doesn’t feel right. The best place to meditate is the place that supports you today to give yourself time to practice. 

There have been random control trials and other studies that indicate that meditation can be a helpful intervention for both anxiety and depression. Some of the ways that meditation is understood to help is by decreasing habits of negative ruminative thinking, and by increasing the mind’s propensity to notice and experience supportive states like appreciation and calm, and enter more easily into flow-states.

But it’s important to say that meditation, and the Happier app, isn't a replacement for therapy or medical care. If your life is being negatively impacted by depression or anxiety, we encourage you to seek professional help. We see mindfulness meditation as a tool that can help in conjunction with care from medical providers.

Many of the positive effects of meditation are expected over time and happen differently for different people. If you sit and listen to a guided meditation you might immediately feel an easing of anxiety. But you also might be more aware of anxiety while you meditate and only notice after some weeks of meditating that your relationship to anxiety has changed.

If you click the Search tool in the app you can find meditations and courses for anxiety and depression. We hope these can offer some immediate help, and we also don’t see meditation as an easy fix. And that’s been okay, more than okay, actually – in our own practices we’re especially appreciative of the deeper changes and support we’ve gained from meditation over months or years. 

We offer a range of meditation techniques to support beginners. Some of the most common types are meditating on a chosen object such as the feeling of the breath coming in and out of the body, or on sound. Some people like to start with a meditation that is active for the body like walking meditation or mindful movement. Others appreciate guided meditations where the teacher walks you through an experience of mindful awareness step by step. You can also start with meditations designed for particular situations – like sleep meditations to listen to when you go to bed, or gratitude practice. We also offer Courses designed for beginners so you can try out meditation in a systematic, supported way.

There are many ways ‘in’ to the practice of meditation. While some people choose a technique they are interested in and want to learn, just as many choose based on liking a teacher’s personality or the sound of their voice. 

For some of us, the best meditation to begin with is the one that makes us feel good to listen to – the one that makes us feel a little spark of curiosity and happiness. So feel free to listen around in the app and find the favorite meditations that can be the building blocks of your new practice.

There are some proven ways to build a meditation habit:

• Try meditating every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes a day.
• Meditate at the same time of day, at a time that fits easily into your schedule (e.g. every morning before you eat breakfast).
• Stack your meditation habit with something that is steady in your daily routine (e.g. if you ride the bus to work every weekday, listen to a guided meditation during your commute).
• Be kind to yourself and flexible: if you miss a day or two, or more, it’s ok to just begin again. This is a normal part of developing a meditation practice.

We like all of these methods and the app also allows you to set notifications to remind you to meditate at a chosen time of day. 

We also like to emphasize noticing the positive effects of meditation. When we feel changes in our moods, or see them in our lives, and appreciate them as a result of our efforts to practice, it’s natural to make time to continue to meditate.   

Similarly, see if meditation can more often than not be a ‘pull’ rather than a ‘push’ – in other words, something you love to do and look forward to, rather than something you have to force yourself to do. Experiment to find a meditation routine – posture, duration, timing, place, technique – that feels pretty good a bunch of the time.