Is meditation something you’ve wanted to add to your routine? Does the idea of it overwhelm or frustrate you?
Firstly, let’s talk about WHAT is meditation…
Just like how “exercise” can mean weight training, running, crossfit, yoga, or [whatever your favorite form of exercise is], meditation can actually mean a lot of different things as well.
I was first introduced to meditation in high school by a book called Hardcore Zen. This book is about a bass player from a hardcore punk band who eventually found himself becoming a buddhist monk and then a zen teacher. In the book, he describes the traditional buddhist method of meditation. So, I tried to follow along. The instruction given in the book was to sit in front of a wall and stare at it for 5 minutes. And when I tried to do it, that lasted a whopping 5 seconds… so I decided maybe meditation just wasn’t for me.
I moved on with my life until it became overly apparent that I needed to make a change with my mindset. As I was struggling with keeping focus and my mental health throughout grad school, I began to revisit the idea of meditation as a form of mood enhancement. I kept reading study after study about how beneficial meditation was.
At that time, I was also focused on powerlifting as my form of exercise, another attempt to take the feelings inside my head out into the physical world. It was actually through efforts to become a better powerlifter that I learned about a guy called the Barbell Buddha. Through reading his book Way Past Strong, this is when my meditation practice REALLY began. And it was totally different from my previous attempt.
It actually started with me lying on the floor with my eyes closed, listening to three songs at a time. And that’s when the magic started happening for me.
So, meditation traditionally involves stopping our bodies from moving, slowing down, and – more often than not – closing our eyes. Doing this quiets the noise around us, which shifts how our brain functions. It increases awareness within our bodies rather than outside of it. This means we get in touch with our body. But it doesn’t have to be what I described above. It can even be the opposite if you’re someone who leans more towards the anxious side of the spectrum, sometimes it’s opening your eyes and paying more attention to the outside world.
The process can be very different for everybody. And that’s part of my job with the clients that I work with one-on-one, we try to figure out what works best for them and for their daily routines.
For some of my clients, it’s simply lying on the ground after their workouts and focusing on breathwork to downregulate their system. For another client of mine, it’s going for a walk with her dog, unplugged from her phone and unplugged from music or podcasts. Some people find the most benefit from isolation chambers or sensory deprivation tanks. I have a bunch of clients and coaches who get the most out of a journaling practice. And then there’s others who love the traditional old school zen lotus position with eyes closed.
Whatever method works best for you, you will eventually notice a result that changes inside your brain and in your outside life. It might not happen after the first time you find the right method, but you might just feel a bit better than you did before going into the practice.
A lot of people I work with feel improvements in focus, levels of happiness, better quality of sleep, and this ultimately results in changes in their hormones and a reduction in inflammation.
Some people benefit from doing this multiple times a day. Others can benefit from doing it just once a month. It really just depends on you and where you’re starting.
Have questions about finding the right method for you? I’d love to hear from you and see if we can find a way to help quiet the noise.
