Meditating is so productive for the mind, body, and spirit.

But for those of us with disabilities, meditating how everyone else does might be hard on us. For me, I know I can’t sit cross-legged for long periods of time without my legs becoming stiff and going to sleep. So, instead, I meditate in bed. I find this much easier to do, and in turn, it makes meditating itself easier to practice. You can’t meditate if you don’t feel comfortable, so learning how to meditate in bed is the way to go.

In this blog post, I’m going to go over how to meditate in bed, step by step, and why you should give it a try.

How to Get Ready to Meditate

Do Your Daily Routine

Having and doing a routine can in itself be meditative. While you are doing your routine, relax and do everything at a gentle pace. Try and think about everything you’re doing — you can even try practicing mindfulness in this moment.

In this post about examples of mindfulness, I go over using all your senses to practice mindfulness, and I think that would be a good idea to implement that here as well. Think of the taste of your toothpaste, the feel of washing your face, and the sounds of your household as it wakes up for the morning or as it winds down for the night.

Lay Down in a Comfortable Position

If you’re not comfortable, this isn’t going to work. The whole point of meditating in bed is so that you will be comfortable enough to begin the process of meditating. Only you know the best way for you to situate yourself, so go ahead and get in that position now. If you need to put any pillows anywhere to support yourself, go ahead and do that now as well. Wrap yourself up or leave the covers off — whatever you prefer.

Close Your Eyes

Closing your eyes is an important part of meditation. It blocks out all distractions and keeps your head in the game. If you’re neurodivergent and have a hard time focusing, don’t worry! Meditating is hard at first, but honestly, there are many different techniques and there’s bound to be one that works for you. I’m going to go over some in this post, so stay tuned.

Take Relaxing Breaths

This is another important part of meditation. Without the breathing, there would be no meditation. To be fair, without the breathing there wouldn’t be much of anything, but I’m sure you get what I’m trying to say here! Focus on how good it feels to breathe in and out, and where you feel the breath moving in your body. Starting to notice these things is tipping us over into mindfulness, which is a helpful tool when it comes to meditation.

Meditation Techniques

So, we got you ready to start meditating! Now, I’m going to go over some meditation techniques in detail and you can pick and choose which ones you like and want to try.

Noting

First up, my favorite. Any time my meditation app assigns me this technique, it makes me so happy. I think it has to do with the ADHD of it all, and I’ll get into that as I explain what “noting” is.

So, you begin by breathing normally and counting your breaths, 1 on the inhale, 2 on the exhale. You count all the way up to 10 and then you start again. During all of this, if you have any thoughts or feelings floating by, you recognize them as a thought or feeling that you just had.

For me, I like to organize them visually. If I have a feeling of anxiety, I recognize that as a feeling and put it in the “feeling” column. If I have a thought about a new blog post idea, I recognize that as a thought and put it in the “thought” column.

Do you see how it works? It’s very gentle and doesn’t require a lot of effort, especially since we aren’t trying to change any of our thoughts or feelings — all we’re doing is recognizing them and letting them pass.

Why I think this one is good for my ADHD is because I can think and feel however I want and nothing is wrong. I don’t have to clear my mind, thankfully, because I can’t. Noting is wonderful for those of us with ADHD because we are allowed to be as we are and still have a meditation practice. All I have to do is have my thoughts and feelings and then go back to counting. It’s amazing.

Visualization

Next, we have visualization. This is exactly what it sounds like, and it can be anything you want it to be.

For me, I often visualize my muscles “shutting off” for the night (I do this when I’m going to sleep). Basically, I imagine each one of my muscles going to bed for the night and turning off their little workstations, like in Inside Out. Or, when I’m super tired, I just imagine flipping a switch and everything turning off instantly. I start down at my feet and go all the way up to my head.

Another way to do it is when you’re first waking up (or any other time throughout the day, really) is to imagine golden sunlight warming up your body from head to toe. For this one, I start at my head and go down to my feet. I imagine being warmed up by the sun, and I picture the sunlight filling up my body.

Body Scan

This is another good one. As someone with chronic illnesses, I do this a lot without even thinking about it. Basically, you just scan your body and take inventory of how everything feels. Does your stomach hurt? Is your chest tight? Does the air conditioner feel good on your skin?

For this one, I just simply scan my body from head to toe, and I think about the sensations each part of my body is feeling. Like, right now as I’m writing this, my blood sugar is dropping. I feel sweat across my forehead, I feel weak in my arms and legs, and I feel nauseous in my stomach (don’t worry, I’ve taken care of myself now. I’m just waiting for my blood sugar to come back up — I might have a touch of pre-diabetes as well).

Anyway, that’s a good example of a body scan. I took inventory of everything and put a name to how it was feeling. This is a good practice to have during meditation. And remember, you aren’t trying to change anything (unless it’s a health issue like mine was), you’re just accepting that things are the way they are.

Box Breathing

This one is a breathing technique that can be used in or out of meditation. I mention it in this post about how to deal with anxiety attacks. As you can see, it’s a very useful breathing technique. Let me tell you how to do it!

So, I used to call this one “square breathing” before I knew it was called “box breathing” because it’s basically the same thing. I would tell people “Breathe in a square,” and then I would show them what I meant.

Here’s what I meant. You pick a number, I usually go with 4, and then you inhale for a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and then pause for another 4. And there you go! That’s how you box breathe. It’s all about thinking in a square — in is one line, hold is another, out is one line, and the pause is another.

I like this one because I can visualize it in my mind, which is good for me to have something to hold onto during meditation (as an ADHDer). I think anyone could pick this up though, and the beauty of it is you can do it outside of meditation as well. You can do it when you’re having problems throughout the day, or just when you feel like you need it.

Why You Should Give All This A Try

Meditation is a great way to practice self-care. This is the biggest reason I recommend learning to meditate. It will help improve your life in a big way — the more you take care of yourself, the more you’ll be able to do in the long run. Also, self-care is just important because we’re worth treating ourselves nicely sometimes. In this post about simple self-care ideas, I go over different things you can do to get started on your self-care journey.

Learning how to meditate in bed is a really good idea for anyone, especially those of us with disabilities. I’m sure I speak for more than just myself when I say that the bed is where we’re the most physically comfortable, so it just makes sense to try practicing meditating there. It gives us an advantage because our minds and bodies already recognize the bed as a safe space, and therefore, we can perform better there.

In Conclusion…

So, we went over everything from how to get ready to meditate in bed to why you should want to give it a try. I just want to say that, back when I had insomnia, meditation changed my life, ESPECIALLY when I started doing it in bed. Anywhere else was just too uncomfortable for me, and almost made me feel self-conscious as well. In bed, lying down and just being with myself, I could really give it a try. I want it to work for you too — that’s why I put this whole blog post together in the first place.  I hope you found something useful to you here.

Thanks so much for reading!

— Bee <333