As a teenager I dealt with pretty bad anxiety. One day I just woke up and there it was. This constant, nagging feeling of dread, controlling my every thought and emotion. It made me despise going to school because I knew it was the place of my biggest source of anxiety. “What will they think of me?” “Will I look stupid?” “Will I say something stupid?” This was the never-ending stream of thoughts that played through my brain.
As an adult I learned to manage this anxiety a bit better. I became able to function with it. I could work a job, go to college, get married even. But it never disappeared. Throughout my adulthood, I’ve gone through bouts of stress like any adult. These phases tend to trigger my anxiety and the stream of thoughts begins again.
But this is normal, right? All adults worry constantly. All adults stress out over things. That’s just adult life. Right?
For a long time, worrying was my normal. I would stress out over something until the situation passed or I found a solution to the problem and then move onto the next problem to stress over.
No More Stressing
This year I have started a series of 30 day challenges. I knew with the new year beginning, I wanted to make sure I started the year off right by implementing a challenge for myself that would help me relieve some of the stress and anxiety I was feeling.
So I began a challenge to meditate for 10 minutes once a day for 30 straight days. It began as a way to see if meditation would actually work to calm my overactive brain and body.
There are so many good resources and apps available to begin a meditation habit that it is easy to start whenever you’re ready. It is not easy however to make a consistent routine of setting aside time everyday just to monitor your body and your thoughts.
I mean, come on. I am a busy working Millennial doing busy working Millennial things.
And as much as I complain about being tired and needing a break at times, I find it very hard to actually rest when I’m supposed to be resting. I often have to remind myself what it is I’m supposed to be doing in the current moment because my brain is already racing off to the next thing.
So how did I do it? How did I teach myself how to meditate for 30 days straight?
Here’s what I did:
1. I set a small goal.
I knew setting ten minutes of my life aside to meditate was not an unreasonable goal. There are several ten minute increments of my day where I’m googling things on my phone or playing with some odd app that could be easily replaced by a quick meditation. Ten minutes was what I knew I could spare of my time. Plus the longer you meditate the easier it is to lose focus so it’s best to start with a shorter amount of time.
2. I chose a convenient location.
There were two places I knew for certain would be good for meditation: my bedroom, and my car. I live with my husband and we are childless so I knew I wouldn’t be faced with many distractions when using the bed or couch in our bedroom to meditate. If you have kids at home who need lots of attention, I would suggest finding a remote location or waiting until they are asleep to start your routine. My bed/couch are also extremely comfortable for me and it’s essential to be in a place of comfort and relaxation to help take your mind off things.
I chose to use my car as an additional meditation space because I knew during my lunch break I would have undisturbed time to meditate in my car if I needed to decompress in the middle of the day or if I had skipped meditation at home earlier that day.
3. I used a variety of resources.
With meditation and mindfulness trends on the rise, there is a plethora of apps coming onto the market that teach people how to meditate by using guided meditations. I’ll name just a few I’ve used: Headspace, Calm, Ten Percent Happier and Abide. They all have their own quirks that can be useful for newcomers to meditation.
I tend to get bored with things easily so I love to give myself options for everything. That way if I’m not totally feeling one thing on one day, I have another resource to turn to.
That’s why I also downloaded a book through my library app called 30 Day Meditation Challenge by Emma Silverman and Nicole Stumpf, which literally lists a meditation for you to try each day. (Some of my favorite meditation techniques came from this book, like the Legs Up the Wall yoga pose and the Body Scan). This is a great book for when you don’t need as much guided meditation to keep you focused or if you’re willing to try different techniques of meditation.
4. I focused on my breathing.
After you’ve set aside a time to meditate (which is one of the hardest things to do), your next biggest challenge will be staying focused during the process. It can be daunting to be faced with the task of shutting your brain off and trying not to think about the million stressors you deal with on a daily basis. One thing I found that helped me get out of my head was focusing on my breathing. Whether it was deep inhales or shallow ocean-sounding breaths, I found if I just listened to the sound of the air flowing in and out of my body, I would become less aware of the other thoughts in my mind. Some meditations will guide you to feel the breath fill up your lungs and chest. Sometimes just breathing alone would decrease the tension I felt.
5. I gave myself grace.
Meditation isn’t for everyone and sometimes it just takes time to master. I found certain meditations worked better for me than others. Some relaxed me and focused my attention while others made me fall asleep (which can be a good thing in itself so give yourself grace if this happens). Additionally, there were a few occasions when I needed to meditate more than once a day because I felt one decompression session was not enough to get me through.
The Result
There were days I woke up and meditated right away to release the tension I was feeling. But there were several days I woke up and felt no sense of anxiety or dread whatsoever, all thanks to my new meditation habit.
My 30 day meditation challenge is well over and I still make sure I set aside time to listen to my breathing and check in with how I’m feeling. Through it all, I saw a significant drop in my anxiety when I started working on managing it through mindfulness and meditation.
You Can Try It Too
So if you’ve been finding yourself in a stressed out season of your life, why not try meditating? All the great thinkers do it. Athletes and CEOs. It’s not a blossoming trend for no reason. People are figuring out that to achieve their greatest potential they need to be operating at maximum efficiency. For me that starts with changing how I think about all the things that make me anxious and how I control my anxious feelings.
I can already feel my breakthrough coming.
You can do this.
Do you need a breakthrough? Have you been fighting the silent battle with depression or anxiety? Have you tried meditating? If not, what do you do to find release from your stress?
I’m curious to know! Leave a message in the comments!
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