I’m not really one to start the year off with resolutions… yet when a friend texted me, asking what I was hoping for in 2022, the only thing that came to my mind was less anxiety. In the latter part of 2021, with all the different COVID variants, sending little miss to school, obsessing over every sneeze and illness, and everything else, I picked up quite a bit of anxiety that I never had before. So when I began thinking about a less anxious year, I knew I had to take the necessary steps to get there….
Knowing first hand the benefits of meditation on stress and anxiety reduction, I decided to start with committing myself to a quick, daily, meditation practice. I used to recommend this to clients all the time, and back in the day had one myself, so I knew it could help. I opted for 5-10 minute practices since I knew I just didn’t have the time to complete anything longer than that, and I wanted to set myself up for success. I went between the peloton meditation programs and the tone it up mediation programs (since I already subscribed to, and use, both fitness apps). I would workout in the morning, drop Harper off at school, come home, and go through the meditation practice.
After 30 days, I experienced all the of the below mentioned benefits and elaborated on a few more here…
My stress levels were reduced. Stress isn’t just going to disappear, but I found myself more aware and cognizant of my stressful moments, and was able to take small moments throughout the day, such as deep breathing and/or repeating a mantra, that helped me to collect myself and not run down the stress rabbit hole….
Similar to the reduction in stress, I began to notice that I when my anxious thoughts would appear, I was able to identify them, not ascribe meaning to them, or allow my thoughts to run away with them. The thoughts were there, and then they left. Part of anxiety is the tendency to follow the trail of anxious thoughts… go through different what-if scenarios, and it can become paralyzing. Meditation really helped me to simply be aware of them, acknowledge them, and not follow them.
I can be really hard on myself, but meditation has really allowed me to extend myself grace. To not beat myself up for mistakes made, etc. Again, it’s along the same lines as above, but if a negative, unkind, thought came in towards myself I was able to acknowledge it, but not buy into it… to simply let that negative thought come and go.
There are a few more benefits to a meditation practice that I highlighted in a graphic below and I hope it helps if you’re thinking about, or have ever considered, starting a meditation practice…
In the end, while it was a 30 day commitment to myself, it’s something that I fully intend on carrying with me from here on out… hopefully I’ll be able to extend the duration of each session somewhere down the road!
Hope everyone has a great day!
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