The Best Meditation To Do When You Can’t Sit Still

Many people that try to learn to meditate end up giving up long before they get to experience any of the real benefits meditation has to offer. Mostly this is because they find it hard to sit still. This is not unreasonable because it’s not always easy at the end of a busy or stressful day to expect to sit down and unwind by closing your eyes and being still.

The main reason that people find it hard to sit still and meditate is because in our society we tend to carry around a lot of tension in our body that accumulates during the day. The more  stressful or hectic our day is, the more tension we tend to create.

Then, if we don’t take the time to dissolve this tension from our body at the end of each day, then it’s almost impossible for us to relax. This is all too common an occurrence amongst busy or stressed out people which is why you can  find it hard to sit quietly and be still – even for just a few moments. I think of it as having energy that is stuck in our body which has no way to be released.

Make no mistake, trying to sit down and meditate to release this energy is never going to work. It’s like putting a steel bar in a jar of cold water and expecting it to soften – it’s never going to happen. So if sitting down to meditate isn’t going to work when we’re tense on the inside, what’s the answer?

The Best Meditation Techniques For Stressed Out People

The answer is that you need to move your body before you sit down and meditate. The reason for this is actually quite scientific. It’s well known that exercise can help with de-stressing the body in a variety of ways from increasing neurohormones that improves mood and cognitive functions, to activating the cardiovascular system.

The reason why activating the cardiovascular system matters is because it causes the various systems that regulate your stress levels to start communicating with each other. The result being that your body naturally starts to manage your stress and tension levels. On the flip-side, when we are stressed out and remain inactive, then managing stress gets harder.

It makes sense then that if we move our body for 5, 10, or even 15 minutes before meditating, then we’ll have less tension in our body and it’ll be easier for us to sit or lay down and meditate. It doesn’t matter how you move your body as long as it makes you break a sweat and gets you breathing a bit deeper.

I personally like to either dance or shake my body before meditating as I find that I can do them both to music and have fun at the same time. Remember, this is not for fitness. This is just to get your body moving so that you can get out your head and elevate your heart rate enough to help stay letting go of stress and tension from it and by default quiet the mind.

The best way to tell how much time you need to move your body for is to notice how restless or peaceful your body feels when you sit or lay down to meditate. If you did 5-minutes of movement but you still can’t sit still, then try doing another 5-minutes. Keep adding 5-minutes until you find what works for you.

This can also include any of your favorite sports like skipping, swimming, working on your core strength, some forms of yoga, tennis, and anything else you enjoy that moves your body and makes you sweat a bit.

Just by adding in some body movement immediately prior to meditating, or even if you decide to meditate after your regular exercise session, you’ll find it so much easier to sit quietly and enjoy your moments of blissful stillness and peace.