Day two of our meditation course: Understanding your practice

You’ve learned to meditate. You’ve sat down on your own and given it a go. Now you have a few questions.

Was that right? Was there supposed to be less thinking? Why did yesterday feel different? And how do you know whether you’re actually meditating or just sitting there with your eyes closed?

This is what day two of our four-day meditation course at Daily Meditation Berlin is for. In this 90-minute session, we help you understand your practice, make sense of your first experiences, and feel more comfortable meditating on your own.

Meditation can be simple to do and surprisingly easy to overthink. A little good instruction can clear up a lot.

You don’t need a different mind

“I’d like to meditate, but my mind is too busy.”

We hear this often. People imagine that meditation is for somebody a little calmer, more disciplined, or naturally good at sitting still. They’ve tried it, had plenty of thoughts, and decided they aren’t that sort of person.

But you don’t need to arrive with a quiet mind. You bring the one you have.

It’s rather like going to the gym. You take your everyday body there, with whatever it can and can’t do. You don’t wait until you’re fit before you’re allowed through the door.

The same applies here. A mind that gets distracted, plans dinner or remembers an unfinished conversation is a perfectly ordinary starting point. On day two, we help you understand how that mind fits into the practice.

For someone who has spent years thinking they’re bad at meditation, this can be a useful change of perspective.

What happens on the second day?

On day one, you receive personal instruction and begin your mantra-based meditation practice. On day two, we take a closer look at how you’re approaching it.

We explore the questions that tend to arise once you’ve actually tried meditating: how much effort to use, what to make of thoughts and distractions, and why the experience can change from one sitting to the next. We revisit the instructions, explain the finer points, and then meditate with that clearer understanding.

There are practical examples, a little humour, and explanations that relate to ordinary life. You don’t need to memorise a lecture or learn a new vocabulary to understand what we mean.

The aim is for you to leave knowing more clearly what you’re doing — and feeling less need to keep checking whether you’re doing it right.

Understanding what effortless really means

“Just relax” isn’t always particularly helpful advice.

Neither is “stop thinking”, especially when you’ve already discovered that trying to stop thinking gives you quite a lot to think about.

Our approach gives you something more useful to work with. We help you recognise the difference between following the practice and adding unnecessary effort to it.

This matters because many of us are used to solving problems by trying harder. We pay closer attention, tighten things up and make sure we stay in control. Those habits can come straight into meditation with us.

You can end up working quite hard at something that was intended to be easy.

Day two helps you understand a lighter approach. We explore how the practice can become more subtle and comfortable, without turning “being effortless” into another thing you have to achieve.

These are small distinctions, but they’re much easier to understand when a teacher can explain them in relation to your own experience.

Thoughts aren’t a reason to give up

One of the most useful things to understand early on is that having thoughts during meditation doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing it wrong.

People can spend an entire session thinking they’ve failed, simply because their mind hasn’t gone blank. Then they try again, have more thoughts, and decide meditation must be for other people.

We want to clear up that confusion before it becomes a reason to stop.

On day two, we explain the place of thoughts in this practice and how to relate to distraction without making the whole thing a struggle. You learn what deserves your attention and what you can stop worrying about.

There’s no prize for giving yourself the hardest time. Most people already have plenty of practice at that.

Every meditation doesn’t have to feel the same

Perhaps your first meditation felt surprisingly restful. Naturally, you’d like the next one to feel just as good.

Then it doesn’t. You’re a little restless, your mind is busy, and now you’re wondering where yesterday’s meditation went.

This is another important part of day two: understanding the difference between the experience of a particular session and the value of a continuing practice.

A pleasant meditation is lovely. But making every session live up to your best one can create a lot of unnecessary pressure. We help you develop a more practical understanding of what to expect, so you can keep meditating without needing the experience to follow a script.

You also don’t need to compare yourself with the person beside you. They may have something extraordinary to say about their meditation. You may have very little to report. That alone doesn’t tell us who is getting more out of it.

The point is the life you get up into

We’re interested in what meditation brings to your everyday life.

A quiet moment with your eyes closed can be enjoyable. But you also have work to do, people to see, and things that don’t go according to plan. Whatever you’re learning needs to have a place there too.

Can you meet a difficult moment with a little more room to respond? Can you notice when you’re caught up in something? Can you get on with your day without every inconvenience becoming the whole story?

These are the kinds of changes we encourage you to explore through your own practice. People come to meditation for different reasons, and what they find valuable will differ too.

We don’t need to promise you a completely different personality. We want to help you develop a practice that supports the life you actually want to live.

Why we teach over several days

You can hear a clear explanation and still wonder what it means when you sit down on your own.

That’s why the course includes time to practise between sessions. You learn, try it, and come back with some experience behind your questions. We can then help you understand what happened and clarify anything that felt uncertain.

A phrase that makes perfect sense to one person may leave another person puzzled. Personal teaching gives us room to find the explanation that helps you.

You might need reassurance about a busy mind. You might be trying harder than you realise. Or you might simply need to hear that an ordinary-feeling meditation isn’t necessarily a disappointing one.

Day two gives us time for those details. The following sessions develop your understanding further and help you find a workable place for meditation in your daily life.

Your practice, your life

You don’t have to adopt a new set of beliefs or become a “meditation person” to learn with us.

We respect the tradition this practice comes from, and we teach it in a way that leaves room for your own outlook and lifestyle. You can be curious, practical, sceptical, or simply tired of searching for another explanation online.

Our aim is self-sufficiency. We want you to understand your practice well enough to meditate on your own, without needing an app, a video or a teacher talking you through every session.

And if questions arise later, you can ask. Lifetime support is included in the course, alongside opportunities to join our weekly group meditations.

Learning to do something independently is easier when you know support is there if you need it.

Learn to meditate with more confidence

Day two is about making the practice clearer, more familiar and easier to trust. You’ve already begun. Now we help you understand what you’re doing, so uncertainty doesn’t keep getting in the way.

Our four-day beginners meditation course in Berlin combines personal instruction, practical understanding and support for developing a daily practice. Courses are available in English and German.

If you’re wondering whether it would suit you, start with a free 15-minute introductory call. Tell us what you’re looking for, what you’ve tried, and what hasn’t made sense.

“I sit down and think about everything” is a perfectly good place to begin.

You can book the course with us on the homepage!

Check out dailymeditationberlin.de for all the details or contact alison@dailymeditationberlin.de