How to Create an Environment for Meditation

Meditation, an ancient discipline that focuses the mind while deepening the breath, is practiced by many as a popular way to reduce stress and improve mental functioning. It's easy to create a proper environment for meditation, though it's important for you to understand that what is considered a "proper environment" varies considerably from individual to individual and technique to technique. To maximize meditation's stress-reducing, awareness-heightening benefits, the crucial first step is to create a proper environment.

Things You'll Need

• A space in which to meditate
• Computer with Internet access
• Flowers and a vase (optional)
• Candles and/or incense (optional)
• Curtains (optional)

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Instructions

Create an Environment for Meditation

• 1

  Choose a place in your home you will convert into your personal meditation space. In many cases, this will be your bedroom.

• 2

  Remove any distracting items from the walls you will face as you meditate. Ideally, the wall you face while you meditate will be a uniform color, preferably (but not necessarily) green or blue. Learn more about colors and meditation online (see Resources below).

• 3

  Clean the room. Keep it nice and tidy, free of dust and dirt.

• 4

  Remove any obstructing furniture items. A good rule of thumb is to allow 4 to 5 feet of empty space around you in all directions while you meditate.

• 5

  Build a shrine, if you are meditating for religious purposes. Decorate it with spiritual or religious imagery, and position it in a place where it will face you while you meditate.

• 6

  Block out excess light using heavy curtains. Again, blue and green are considered favorable colors.

• 7

  Place candleholders or sticks of incense at safe and attractive intervals within the room. Small amounts of fire are viewed by many belief systems as beneficial to meditation.

• 8

  Keep fresh flowers in your meditation environment. This will add to its pleasant air. In some belief systems, flowers are an ideal offering to deities or higher powers.

• 9

  Find a focal point. If you constructed a shrine in Step 5, it can serve as your focal point. Otherwise, you can use a candle or meditation crystal.

• 10

  Play music. A simple search of the Internet will lead you to countless sources of free, specially created music for meditation.