Making Meditation a Part of Your Life

Meditation. It’s something I’ve wanted to incorporate into my daily life for as long as I can remember. I’ve flirted with it for years, meditating and then stopping and this summer I finally started making it a daily ritual, waking up at 5am to meditate every day. And then we moved from Oregon to California and the time when meditating would have served me best is when I was thrown out of my regular schedule, dealing with a preschooler that really, really wanted to go back to Portland and trying to create a home in a new environment. I needed, and still need, some stillness but sometimes the things we know we need the most are the hardest for us to incorporate into our own lives.

 Why meditate?

We are all so busy in our everyday lives that we seldom have any stillness to connect with our deeper selves. With the stillness come endless health benefits, including:

-improves brain function

-slows down ageing

-helps you feel more connected and gives you a better appreciation of NOW

– helps lower high blood pressure

-increases your attention span

– improves sleep

-decreases tension related pain (headaches, joint problems, muscles aches etc. )

– lowers anxiety

Here is some great reading on the benefits of meditation:

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

 Meditation: Change your Brain, Change your Life

Video: Meditation: What is it and what are its benefits by Deepak Chopra

How to Start.

I started with a meditation 21 day challenge created by Deepak Chopra and Oprah. Every day you get an email with a new link for a new meditation. It’s not quite a guided meditation, Chopra starts the meditation by giving you a mantra to repeat during the meditation and talking about it for a minute or two and then there’s music and you just meditate. After doing the 21 day challenge I purchased some more 21 day meditations from his website. There is even a iphone app so you can take your meditations wherever you go.

Luckily there happens to be a new 21 day challenge starting on Monday March 16^th. Here’s the link to sign up.

If you’d like to try meditating on your own but are looking for a little guidance I highly recommend the book A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield. 

If you’d like to get your children to start meditating Sitting Still Like a Frog is a great book for beginning mindfulness and meditation for kids. Annabelle fought me the first time I turned it on and didn’t really follow but I’m confident the more she hears it and becomes comfortable the more she’ll be open to following along.

Are You Ready?

I am! I’d love to hear about your experiences with meditation and if you have any favorite guided meditations, on you tube, apps, or books!