By now, I'm sure you have heard about how great meditation is for the mind. It can improve your focus, concentration, and memory. It can reduce anxiety and help treat depression. It can relieve stress. It brings you into the present moment and helps cultivate self-awareness. Pretty amazing, right? So why aren't we all meditating? Well, personally, I was intimidated to try meditation. The thought of trying to quiet the constant chatter of my mind felt impossible. I had no idea how to sit still and be with all these thoughts. The few times I tried it, I couldn't focus for more than one round of breath without having thoughts come up about someone I forgot to email or something I needed to get from the grocery store. And then I couldn't let those thoughts go. That made me feel like a failure. "This is too hard. My mind is too bonkers. I can't do this." Sound familiar?
But meditation kept coming up in books, articles, posts, podcasts that I was following, reading, and listening to. Slowly, I started to feel like the light bulb above my head was flickering on. It wasn't an instant "ah-ha!" meditation epiphany. It took me a while to realize I was personally being a bit too hard on myself. Meditation doesn't have to be hard. You don't have to quiet ALL the thoughts in your brain. You don't have to sit for 20 minutes to have a successful meditation practice.

Mindfulness and meditation is the art of being in the present. Of catching yourself when your mind has wandered off and inviting it back to here and now. Everyone's mind wanders. It's how we are wired. It's noticing you have drifted off. That is a meditation win! Noticing your thoughts is meditating. Inviting yourself back to the present is meditating. Following your inhales and exhales is meditating. Hearing the sounds around you in this exact moment is meditating. These are all different meditation techniques. When you find one that jives with you, I bet you will be more inclined to try it again. And again. And again.
Just like training for a marathon or learning to play a song on the piano, it takes practice. I personally don't know of anyone who became enlightened after one meditation session. ABC News Correspondent and creator of the Ten Percent Happier podcast, Dan Harris, refers to the practice of meditation as "a bicep curl for your brain." I love that visualization. It's a good reminder, that just like your biceps, your brain is a muscle. If you want a muscle to grow, you train it, you nourish it, you take care of it.
So go easy on yourself. Give it a try. You don't need any equipment and you can pretty much meditate anywhere.
Let's try a seated meditation together. No pressure. No judgment. Just read along slowly and notice.
Find a seat. Shift around until you feel comfortable. Notice your sitting bones on this seat. What does the surface feel like? Hard? Soft? Hot? Cool? Let your hands rest at your side or in your lap. What do you feel in the palms of your hands? Do you feel any sensations in your fingers? What does the air feel like on your hands? Bring your focus up your spine and feel yourself grow a little taller. Lean back just a smidge. Move your jaw around and soften the muscles in your face. Let your jaw relax. Notice the space in your mouth. Your tongue. Your throat. Take a deep breath in. Take a long exhale out your mouth. Repeat this two more times. Inhale, filling up. Exhale, letting it go. Inhale. Exhale.
Congrats. You just meditated. You did amazing.
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