“But I can’t meditate…”
Yeah, me neither.
What we can do, though, is set an alarm reminder to sit ourselves down once a day. And then we can set a timer for as long as we think we can stand it. We can close our eyes (or let our focus go soft with eyes open), drop our shoulders, unclench our jaw, and breathe.
Our brains are going to do what they do. We will hear our mind chatter, whine, criticize, and remind us there is dinner to make and an overdue report to work on. We will find ourselves listening to the kids arguing inside over the remote or the neighbor’s dog going berserk. We will realize we are rehearsing that perfect comeback to the snark our boss dished out that we were too tongue-tied and intimidated to find in the moment. We will sigh, shift, and try to go back to dropped shoulders, an unclenched jaw, and focus on our breathing.
Rinse, wash, repeat
This doesn’t mean we are doing it wrong, or that we should give it up. It just means we are human, our brains are still humming with electrical signals, and we aren’t accustomed to slowing down. We live in a world that rarely lets us sleep in; how in the world can we expect ourselves to turn off?
Even if we never reach the bliss of an empty, still mind, we are still reaping the benefits by trying. Lowered stress hormones, increased self-awareness, longer attention spans, improved sleep, fewer GI symptoms, decreased blood pressure, reduced anxiety and depression, and frankly, teaching ourselves and the world that it can get along without us for 20 minutes is worth it.
We don’t have to be good at it. We just have to do it.
So download that app. Request we do a guided mediation in session that we record for you to use on your own. Use this as an excuse to go down a YouTube rabbit hole to find some free favorites. Or even just queue up a Spotify playlist that reminds you of that amazing vacation when you lost yourself in the moment.
My noisy mind acknowledges the noise in your mind. And believes that there is also light, healing, and calm under the clatter. Namaste.