The most amazing thing happened to me this morning before I ever opened my eyes. I’ve been meditating off and on for a little over a year, you can see my progress in the chart below. Overall its been beneficial in that I’m a little more patient, more self aware, and a little less stressed. I incorporated meditation into my morning routine because of all the health benefits associated with it in the medical literature. But this morning, this crazy little thing happened that demonstrated a unique awareness I’m developing concerning my surroundings. My husband, who’s insane, occasionally gets up at 4:45 to go to a yoga class. I’m usually asleep with good reason and awaken some time after he’s left. In the winter the room is very dark, so I’m not sure if he’s gone until I reach my hand across the bed and find an empty place in the darkness. This morning, before I opened my eyes and reached across the bed, I already knew he was gone. I could tell simply from a change in the air that happens after someone showers. Even though it was 7am over 2 hours later as I took in a breath I could feel the microscopic water particles in the air. What an amazing feeling to have such a highly honed sense of awareness, it was like I’d developed a super power!
My Progress Over The Past Year +
So if you’re interested in giving it a try, I highly recommend this app, Insight Timer. It makes mediating easy and tracks your progress which is extremely motivating. Don’t be afraid to start slow, even 5 minutes a day can be a great way to develop the habit. I started with 10 minutes a day, although I use the words “a day” very loosely. Sometimes I went weeks without meditating. I’m up to 30 minutes “a day” now and I’m still using that term loosely.
If you’re someone who thinks you could never meditate, give it a try anyway. There’s simply no one more important for you to get to know than you. Meditation is all about exploring who you are and how your brain operates. It demonstrates that your mind is a more powerful tool than you think, but more importantly, it teaches you that you have more control over your mind and your body than you realize. For most of my life I hated mediating, my mind is usually in…”What do I need to accomplish?” mode. Meditation has given me the ability to accomplish more of the important things in my life and that’s very rewarding.
The goal is to just rest your mind, if a thought starts to develop, don’t stress about it, just let it dissolve into nothing. If you find yourself lost in thought, don’t worry, it happens to me all the time, sometimes if feels like most of my 30 minutes of meditation is spent realizing I’ve just been sitting there thinking about something and then starting over. That’s perfectly fine. When you notice you’re lost in thought, just let it go and refocus on your breath going in and out of your body. Over time the quiet mind gets stronger and lasts a little longer. Then something amazing starts to happen. You get better at living the life you want to live and being the person you want to be.
If you have meditation stories you’d like to share, please do so in the comments, I’m sure this is a topic that will yield some fascinating stories.
Best of luck to you,
Beth