Mindfully Move Through 2023 with Meditation Intentional

I don’t know about y’all, but 2023 has started off a little shaky! My patience has been tested more than not, husbae got sick, & I’ve had many nights of broken sleep on account of Max. Not to mention, some folks around me have been experiencing lots of headaches & heartaches as well. Needless to say, we have to get our bag of emergency coping skills together STAT!

If you’ve been rocking with me from the first blog, you know I’m a meditation advocate. I’m typically a skeptic until I see with my own eyes that something is effective, so you can trust the process when I say this helps. It took me a few weeks to really get it to work because I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. I was always distracted.

Then I did a tutorial on how to meditate, & voila! I got it to work! I started to let go of everything for 10 minutes & wind down for the evening. Now I look forward to it each night because it signals I’m ready to go to bed. I’m a tad bit calmer but could probably benefit from meditating in the morning & on lunch too. That pop off during the work week is a beast!

In my search for good information to post this week, I came across a few kinds of meditation that I wasn’t aware of. First of all, I had no clue one of my newfound forms of exercise was also considered meditation: yoga. I never thought of it being meditation even though you work on controlling your breathing as you stretch.

What I have found with doing yoga is it’s just as good for the mind as it is the body. You have to control your breathing so you can stretch a little more, but you also have to focus. Doing the movements correctly gives you a good stretch, while concentrating on the movements & your breath helps you balance. It’s a good way to take your mind off of what happened earlier or what you need to do later. You just remain in the moment.

My favorite kind of meditation is guided. With such a busy mind, I need to be led to chilling out. The narrator has a way of leading you into a calm state of being by guiding you into using your senses to meditate. All you have to do is follow directions, so it’s almost foolproof. You just have to take the time to sit in a distraction-free area & let everything go.

Mindful meditation is another good one. It causes you to focus on the present without judging anything that comes across your mind. I can do this one best when I’m in nature. It’s so much easier to just be present & observe how you feel & what you think when you’re in a beautiful place. Either sitting on a beach or a porch in the mountains are two great places to experience this type of meditation. You can’t beat the scenery!

Four types of meditation I’ve never tried are mantra, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, & transcendental meditation. Mantra & transcendental are very similar. Both have you silently repeat a word, thought, or phrase to calm you. Mantra meditation is used to prevent distracting thoughts, while transcendental meditation is more for relaxation. In that type, the person repeats a personal word, sound, or phrase that brings inner peace without much effort. These remind me of affirmations.

Our other two types involve moving while meditating. Qi Gong combines meditation, relaxation, movement, & breathing exercises. It’s a Chinese practice that helps with restoring & maintaining balance. Tai Chi is also a Chinese practice that combines breathing & slow, graceful movements. Watching someone do this is kind of pretty, I must say! Just the look of it is calming.

Why Meditate?

Meditation takes work, but once you get it, it’s so worth the initial effort. Learning to focus is still something I’m working on. It can be very hit or miss. If it’s something I’m interested in, I can have tunnel vision. Now if it’s something that doesn’t spark my interests, I’ll probably find any ridiculous excuse I can to not stay focused. Not to mention, my mind is constantly racing, so it’s hard to turn my thoughts off. Meditation has helped me learn to focus in the moment & calm down a little.

Practicing meditation may not do the same for you that it’s done for me. I began yoga & guided meditation to improve my flexibility & wind down at the end of the day. Here are some benefits of practicing meditation:

Boosts creativity
Stress management
Improving sleep quality
Improving patience
Looking at stressful situations in a different way
Increasing self-awareness
Focusing on the present
Reducing negative emotions
Lowering resting heart rate & blood pressure
Helping people manage symptoms of:
- Behavioral health diagnoses such as Anxiety & Depression
- Asthma
- Cancer
- Chronic pain
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Tension headaches

I’m a walking testimony that meditation can work! I need to put my patience panties on daily, & when I fail to meditate the night before, it shows. Since I stopped doing yoga every evening before bed, I definitely see the difference in my ability to sleep & how easily it is to irritate me. Although the patience is still a work in progress, I am more peaceful & learning to live more for the moment. It’s so important to embrace the here & now instead of worrying so much about tomorrow. If you spend your time thinking about tomorrow, you’re missing out on today!

Get Started

Want to meditate but don’t know how? There are many ways to begin, but there are some key ingredients you’ll need.

Find a quiet place to sit. You’ll need a distraction-free zone to get the most out of your experience. It may be best to do it first thing in the morning or last thing at night so the kids are out of the way.
Set a time limit. Meditation can be difficult at first, so don’t stress yourself trying to overdo it. Start with 5-10 minutes & work your way up.
Get comfortable. Since you have to hold your position for several minutes, make sure you’re as comfortable as possible. The point is to relax & let everything go, including moving.
Become one with your breath.
Take notice of your breathing & follow it as it goes in & out. Concentrating on your breath will help stay focused.
Watch for your mind wandering.
Your mind may drift off of your breath at times, but just redirect it back to following your breathing. If it does wander, just notice it without worrying about it. Life happens!
Close with kindness. At the end of your practice, take note of how you feel, what you see & hear, & show gratitude for your experience. Pat yourself on the back after completing your practice.

Meditation may be a little different for many people, but it has a way of calming your mind & body. With the busyness of the world, it’s a great way to slow down for a bit. I use the Calm app for my daily meditation, but here are some free meditation apps to download:

https://www.mindful.org/free-mindfulness-apps-worthy-of-your-attention/

YouTube also has some good meditations & yoga sessions to try. Here’s one to start you off: