I was going through a major situation involving my child. It lasted for months, I felt that because of the stress it had me under my entire life was impacted. I was finding it difficult to focus on my career, I would have mood swings. The only thing holding me together was seeing my 5 year old. But in situations like that we tend to forget that we still need to function. We still need to be our best and work hard. Be everything that not only they need but we need as well.
I tried counselling. Therapists seemed to only tell me what I wanted to hear.
I tried getting more sleep. I was sleeping 7-8 hours a night anyways, I didn’t need more sleep. I had to get up as my business needs me up early in the morning. And my child needed me in the evening after school.
I tried reading. I read books upon books about people’s journey’s. Books about success, books about staying positive.
Nothing seemed to work. Until one day I came across a blog post about meditation and how it changed a woman’s life for the better. How she was finally at peace with some major issues she had been facing in her life. I immediately started googling. Could meditation help me? Wasn’t it just something hippy’s did in the 70’s while they are high on whatever drug of choice? It couldn’t be for me… It couldn’t work. Sitting around humming or listening to weird music was too easy. Too soft. No way.
I’ll tell you this. I have overcome many obstacles in my lifetime, I have surprised everyone in my life at how hard I have worked. But never have I encountered a more difficult skill than meditation. I have been at it for nearly a year and still cannot fully find my “zen”. I drift in and out of what I have found to be the absolute most calming feeling I’ve ever experienced. But because of that same feeling, I intend on fully mastering the skill and practicing it for the rest of my life.
You can read a lot about meditation, different methods… Different approaches. I am by no means a doctor so I would highly suggest you read for yourself, maybe even speak to someone if you are that serious but here is what I do every night for 10 minutes before I prepare to hit the sack.
1. Turn off anything that could make a noise loud enough to wake a sleeping baby up in your house.
2. Turn off the lights (I prefer to leave one on in the distance so I am not in complete darkness).
3. Sit in a chair that keeps your posture as straight as possible (I’ve found it’s next to impossible to do this while laying down).
4. Breath in for 4 seconds and breath out for 4 seconds.
5. As you breath in imagine the air you are breathing in is red. Representing anything toxic that is surrounding you.
6. As you breath out imagine the air you are breathing out is blue. Representing a cleanse. Clean. Pure. Almost as if your lungs are acting as a filter for anything that may be causing you stress, pain, or anxiety.
7. Try to only focus on your breathing… If you start to drift away into thought (trust me, it will happen often, especially the first few months). Simply catch yourself, stop and start focusing on your breathing again.
Meditation has changed my life for the better. It’s one of those things you have to invest some time in and really start focus on making it work for you.
Again, this is my personal opinion I am by no means a medical professional. It has worked for me.