Three Tips for a Smoother Meditation Practice

1. Sit comfortably

If, once at a meditation retreat, you were asked to sit on the floor with your legs crossed and your back straight, it doesn’t mean that all your meditation practice needs to be like that. For your daily practice, you could sit on a couch (avoid the bed), on a comfortable chair, and have your back supported if it helps. 

And about crossing your legs: it doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Everyone’s body anatomy is different. Take my lovely friend Kel, who is a good runner, which means she is active in sports. But she tried sitting cross-legged once and found it completely unnatural and uncomfortable. But differences in body anatomy don’t mean you can’t meditate. You could sit on a chair and put your feet on the ground.

Meditation practice is not about getting your body into an uncomfortable position where all you can think about is how uncomfortable you are and how soon you can end this misery.

Let your body feel easy and relaxed so it doesn’t get all your focus. The spine should be upright. That’s all. That’s why I said earlier that, if it helps, you can take back support. Or you could try placing a cushion under your hips, which can help you maintain an upright spine position as well. Your shoulders should be relaxed, and your palms placed comfortably in your lap, facing upwards, with your right hand over your left hand.

Now put all the pieces together. Adjust yourself so that your whole body feels easy and moves as one flow. No tension or resistance anywhere.

Bonus tip: During your meditation, after a minute, try tilting your chin slightly upward, towards the ceiling. It creates a noticeable shift in concentration and focus.

I mentioned “after a minute” so you can experience the shift in concentration yourself. If you have already felt this shift before, you could start your meditation with a slight upward chin tilt. 

2. Don’t start your practice on a full stomach

You don’t want to start your practice when you already feel lethargic and dull.

During digestion, your body is processing the food you have eaten, and you feel heavier or more lethargic. Sitting upright with a full stomach is also uncomfortable and breaks your focus. Sitting in meditation right after a full meal is like adding friction to your practice. It makes it very difficult to continue your practice for a good amount of time, even if you sat down with an ambitious intention of 20 minutes.

That intention alone won’t serve the purpose.

Allow a gap of around 1–2 hours, depending on the meal you had. If you had a light snack, like a few slices of apple or cucumber, you could start after 20–30 minutes. You are looking for a time when your body isn’t engaged in heavy exertion of energy, so start when you feel light in your stomach. 

3. Any setup is better than a perfect setup if it gets you consistent

If you are getting in 10–20 minutes of practice as part of your daily routine in what you think is a perfect meditation room and setup, that’s amazing.

But on a hectic day, and specifically on a travel day, don’t miss out because you couldn’t find a slot for your perfect routine in your defined setup. Staying adaptable to a different setup is far more important than associating your practice with a specific place.

That’s the beauty of meditation practice: you only need to carry one thing with you to start—that’s your mind. If you have access to your mind at a certain place, you have access to the practice as well.

Now the question is: is it difficult to take out 10 focused minutes on a plane?

Peter Shankman intentionally booked a round trip to Tokyo to write his entire manuscript for a book on a plane. For him, uninterrupted travel was the best environment for deep focus. His example shows that a travel environment becomes an opportunity for the uninterrupted time and space needed for focus.

Similarly, you could use travel as an opportunity for your meditation practice rather than seeing it as a reason to skip your routine. In fact, you might even start looking forward to travel as an opportunity for a more focused meditation session.