Silent Meditation: A Beginner’s Guide

If you are a newbie, the diversity of meditation techniques might overwhelm you. How do all these techniques work? And most importantly, will they work for you?

Silent meditation is another meditation technique we believe everyone should know about. It teaches mindfulness and control over your own thoughts in the most gentle, calm, and soothing way possible. 

What Is Silent Meditation?
As you can guess by its name, silent meditation is a type of meditation when you are supposed to sit in complete silence, without engaging in any kind of verbal or physical activity. 

At first sight, silent meditation is very similar to mindfulness meditation. But there are key differences between the two. 

Firstly, mindfulness meditation is about feeling present. During this meditation, you should pay close attention to how your body feels and notice all the thoughts that come and go. Silent meditation, on the other hand, is about clearing your mind in complete peace. 

The second key difference is that mindfulness meditation can be accompanied by music, mantras, or guidance. In the case of silent meditation, any noise is seen as a distraction. 

The Benefits of Silent Meditation
Silent meditation comes with the typical range of meditation benefits. It helps reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep increase, boost your mood, and increase energy levels.

But silent meditation is particularly good for cultivating the following skills and virtues. 

Patience
Even if you are not much of a talker, remaining silent during silent meditation may still be rather challenging for you. These silent sessions, especially the first few practices, will make you learn the hard lesson of being patient. The patience this medication teaches is not only about being quiet. It’s about communicating with your inner self as you are sitting in silence. 

Improved Focus and Concentration
Silent meditation is a practice that involves no distractions. As a result, it helps improve your ability to concentrate. Sitting in complete silence also helps improve focus. 

Better Understanding of Yourself
The more time you spend in silence with your own thoughts and emotions the better you will understand yourself. We humans have too many layers and there is always room to get to know ourselves better. 

Vipassana: The Silent Retreat
When talking about silent meditation, Vipassana is a technique worth mentioning. It is one of the more popular approaches to silent meditation. 

This is an ancient meditation practice that originated in India over 2500 years ago. It is all about self-observation and gaining insights. The term itself means to see things as they are. 

If your goal is to learn about the traditional form of silent meditation, then going on a Vipassana retreat is your best bet. Vipassana meditation is based on Buddhist meditation practices and helps discover silent meditation in its original form. 

Should You Try Silent Meditation?
Practicing silent meditation may seem an easy task. But it may take quite some time to learn how to calm your mind and meditate in complete silence. 

This meditation style may not be a good fit for you if you like having guidance while meditating or prefer active meditation, i.e. meditation in motion. 

But if you need a practice that will boost your self-awareness and bring peace and balance to your daily life, then silent meditation is certainly worth a go. 

Silent meditation may also not be a good fit for you if you are just starting to meditate. While this practice seems to lack any special meditation techniques, it takes skills to be able to sit still in complete silence, breathe properly, and bring your mind to the present when it starts to wander. 

Whether you are a beginner or not, always assess your emotional state when you have finished your practice. If the silent meditation session leaves you feeling relaxed and calm, then it’s something up your alley. But if it leaves you feeling more stressed, consider branching out and trying other types of meditation. 

With this said, practicing silent meditation once or twice may not be enough to make a decision. Take your time to get to know this practice in order to decide if it works for you or not. 

Silent Meditation: A Step-by-Step Guide
You don’t need any props for silent meditation. A quiet place and the right mindset are all this practice calls for. Here are step-by-step instructions for practicing silent meditation. 

1. Find a quiet place. Whether it’s indoors or outdoors, you will need complete silence for this practice. 
2. Get comfortable. You can sit on the floor with your legs crossed or sit on a chair. Get into a position that you feel most comfortable so that you are able to sit still without any discomfort throughout the entire practice. 
3. Close your eyes. Breathe through your nose. Nasal breathing is slow which allows maximum oxygen absorption and helps you calm down and relax. 
4. Focus on your breath or a certain area of your body. If you are a beginner, it’s easier to focus on your breath. Notice how the air you inhale and exhale slowly flows in and out of your body and how it makes your body feel. If doing this is easy for you, your next step would be to find any tense areas of your body and focus on them. Try to relax any part of your body that feels tight and tense. 
5. In the meantime, notice any thoughts and emotions you experience and bring your mind back to the present moment as soon as it starts to wander. Bring your attention back to your breath or whatever you are focused on. 
6. Practice for 10-15 minutes a day if you are a beginner. Feel free to practice longer if you feel like it. Most importantly, be consistent.