Making the time to meditate has been a life-changing and life-enhancing habit that I, for one, am very grateful I began.
It started with a magazine article in January of 2016. The article recommended a number of apps to use, including a free app, Insight Timer.
I downloaded the app and found there was a beginner’s course. Perfect. I could do one minute a day.
And that’s where it began.
One minute a day.
Gradually increasing to two minutes, then three, moving to four and sticking for quite some time at five minutes a day.
Every work morning I would get up five minutes earlier for the sole purpose of sitting quietly with my eyes closed and thinking about nothing.
Sheer bliss.
A peaceful balm to the overly busy life I was trying to lead.
Gradually I found the peace began to last longer than the time I spent cultivating it.
Our mornings became smoother. I was less reactive to life; we all had a better start to the day.
And so the habit stuck.
For the positive changes meditation has brought, I am grateful. I 100%:
- Love being able to wipe my mind clean of the “Ain’t it awful” thoughts that make little bumps into catastrophes.
- Enjoy showing up genuinely happy, content, and present with the people I love.
- Know I bring a sense of calmness to conversations, along with an air of positive acceptance. I do have time for the person I am with – that I see them, hear them, and acknowledge them. Human to human.
I am also deeply grateful for sticking with it, for not getting caught up in the thoughts that threatened to derail my practice. By simply noticing the negative when it comes to these thoughts, I began to choose how to not listen. To tune them out.
Which was invaluable. Because it now means I have also learned to ignore the negative self-talk that tells me far worse things.
And through the continued practice of ignoring this negative self-talk, I have been able to take back my courage. To choose to step forward: coaching, blogging, running parenting workshops and sharing myself with the world.
Wow. That’s a decent return on an investment of 5 minutes a day!
If this post resonates with you, I encourage you to book an introductory kōrero here. For more daily peace, I will be able to coach you through that change.