Meditation Quick Tip: Counting

You learned this ages ago — now apply it to your meditation practice.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

When you first start meditating, the practice can often feel challenging. The mind typically isn’t used to focusing on just one thing — especially breathing.

Breath mindfulness is a beautiful technique, but it isn’t the only one.

A great trick to help narrow focus during meditation is counting, which gives your mind a specific task to focus on that’s a bit more involved than simply breathing.

Try this simple practice:

• Take a deep, full breath.
• Now breathe normally. On your first exhale, think to yourself “one.”
• On the next exhale, think “two.” And then “three,” “four,” and “five.”
• Then you get to five, start back at one.
• Repeat for the duration of your practice.

Alternatively, you can start at “five” and count down to one for a bit more challenge.