Hey there, Shorties 🙂
What’s with all this meditation crap, anyway???
I mean… who has the time? Who has the patience? What good does it even do?
I know. Even though I’ve been doing this now for almost a year, I still feel this way a little. But like, yeah, it kind of is the ish. Here’s the thing: our minds control us more than we even control it. We let our thoughts go crazy, stress and anxiety build up, and we’re releasing hormones that puts us in survival mode, and then we’re on the fun merry-go-around of just pure yuck.
(In a Ron Burgundy voice): It’s science.
Meditation helps you control your mind, harness it; it helps you keep your thoughts in perspective so you don’t lose it. You can finally give your brain a break during meditation. You can separate your thoughts as what they are, and you can quiet your mind enough from what likely most of us American moms usually have going on- basically a mess of tangled Christmas string lights.
By using the tool of meditation, you can draw awareness to your thoughts and feelings, and you can learn to identify them for what they are, and let that s*** go.
So, I thought I’d share with you, the skeptic, what meditation for me as a busy mom of 3 looks like #irl (in real life). And remember, I was a skeptic, too!
- In between events during a busy day, I stop for a minute, go into my home office or bedroom, and close my eyes. I sit like a yogi, and I focus on my breaths. I might set a timer for 1 minute. Or, there’s always the 4-7-8 breath.
- If I sense that I am feeling overwhelmed, I prioritize self-care. I started looking at self-care as an essential part of my life, and that’s changed everything. During these times of overwhelm, I pull myself aside for an “extended” period of meditation: 10 minutes or so, using a guided meditation on my insight timer app. I search on the app by the amount of time I have and the topic. I try hard to focus on the guided meditation.
- If I’m cleaning, cooking, doing some menial task at home, I put on some of my groovy Kundalini yoga inspired music. My yoga teacher utilizes music in her classes, and she has a curated playlist on YouTube!Â
- If I’m driving by myself and I’m heading somewhere that’s a little stressful (even if it’s a fun event), I might recite some mantras in my car to myself.
- If I just need a quick reminder to stay balanced, I put a drop of one of my fave essential oils on my write or on my lava bead bracelet, and I try to take a second to focus on the pleasing scent.
- I practice gratitude every morning when I wake up, and I try to remember to think grateful thoughts before I fall asleep at night.
- I try to carve out 12 minutes or so to recite the rosary from time to time. There’s tons of great website and apps for praying the rosary out there! My rosary app came in handy when I was freaking on a terribly bumpy flight once!!! ? For me, the Blessed Mother is legit #momspo for me.
- Also- I go to a yoga class! I don’t get to go as regularly as I’d like, but I get a major boost when I go, and I try to use some of the stuff we did in class throughout my week.
As you can see, we’re not talking a huge time investment. I’m not spending my weekends at an ashram!
Now- why would you even feel the need to meditate????
Not everyone feels the need! Some people are super chill and just have that zen thing going on in their temperament. Me? I have way too much Sicilian blood flowing through my veins! I decided to give it a shot because I was finding that I wasn’t feeling as joyful or happy as often as I wanted, I was feeling more anxious than I thought I deserved to feel, and I was more snippy with my family than I wanted to be. I wanted a way to take the edge off, and I didn’t want to rely on the mom drug of choice: wine. I have found my little meditation practice to be imperfectly perfect for me.
(That is not to say I didn’t buy a bottle of wine at Target yesterday.)
