Meditation is something that has been recommended to me and I’ve ignored it for many years. Whether someone said it helped with anxiety or sleep, I nodded like I’d give it a try and blew it off as a practice that would work for other people but not me. I didn’t really think I needed it. I had other things I did to relax. But somehow the idea of meditation began following me everywhere I was-I was surrounded with more advice everyday from everywhere, to meditate with a growing list of benefits.

At this point, I couldn’t ignore the advice any longer. But how was I going to make this stick? It was nice that I wanted to do it but nothing had changed really, the same old challenges still stood in my way-inability to concentrate, my twitching and eye fluttering, judgement about how I look doing it and truthfully, I still had doubts that it would really work for me.

Me on day 3 of my 30-day meditation practice using a palo santo stick to clear the energies before my practice. 

Cue the 30 day meditate challenge I created for myself to mediate everyday for 30 days. Nothing fancy, no real rules just meditate, even just for a few minutes, each day and see what results it brings. I was inspired by an Instagrammer I follow, Lee From America who made it one of her monthly  intentions to meditate for the next thirty days. Sharing my promise to myself to meditate is what helps me stay accountable and actually do it. It also helps to create community and hopefully you’ll join me in the challenge too.

To get you inspired here are some things that meditation can help with;

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Sleep
• Relationship problems
• Stress
• Addiction
• Hormone imbalances
• HPA-axis dysfunction (stress related health issue)
• Creativity
• Focus and concentration throughout the rest of the day
• Anger, rage
• Symptoms of endometriosis
• Parenting
• Children with behavioral problems (but really any kids can benefit and the younger you start them the better)

and more….

There are no rules to meditation. Here are some places to consider meditating to take the stress out of it is you don’t think you have time…

• In your car-whether you’re just outside of your house or work or the grocery store, if you know this is going to be your only alone time for the day, consider meditating.
• In the bathroom-if you alone time is typically during your showers in the morning, use this time to meditate. Make a comfy cushion of towels on the floor and wear your robe if you have one.
• In a room with a divider, curtain or sign that says you need privacy-if you truly can’t get alone to mediate, don’t let that stop you either. I’m currently in a very small space and my boyfriend and I use a divider
• Backyard, porch or garden-it may be hard this time of year but if you can get outside do, it will intensify your meditation.

Resources….

Gabrielle Bernstein- hers are free and simple and the ones I tend to use the most.

Bexlife-she’s a Mom to like, five kids so if she can set aside 4 minutes to meditate, so can you.

Calm app-It’s an application that you can get on your phone or other device like an iPad and use quite simply. There are lots of prompts and the voice is calming.

Do you have a meditation practice that you use and love? Please share!