How Does Meditation Really Work?

Meditation changes how your brain works by creating space and helping to see yourself in a different light. That's the magic. We don't truly have a way to see ourselves because our minds are so busy and so overloaded. I too used to think my mind was so busy that I couldn't meditate but that's not how it works. If it did then no human could meditate and meditation wouldn't be this thing that's persisted for thousands of year. Make sense?!

Myths about Meditation:

You have to clear your mind to really meditate.FALSE! If you cleared your mind, you would cease to be a human. Thoughts will and do come in. Enjoy it. You are alive!

Meditation is difficult.

FALSE! So was riding a bike a long time ago but with practice you now do a great job, don't you!?!

I have to get my mind to quiet to meditate.

FALSE! You need thoughts going around in your head to protect you, keep you warm etc.

It takes years of practice to get any results.

FALSE! You will receive benefits when you start meditating.

I don't have time to meditate. I'm so busy already.


Right, we all have the same amount of time in a day. You have 2 choices, stay where you are, often with aches and pains and feeling a bit frantic and being forgetful OR you can find the same amount of time you have in a day to scroll through useless facebook and use it to give you a better quality of life for the rest of the time that you are on this planet. Your blood pressure will lower during the first practice. The body will release less stress hormones that day which helps slow the effects of aging. Also, you will start to feel you have more time with practicing regularly because it slows your brain down. Doesn't seem possible? Try it for 1 month and see. What have you got to lose? I spent years of not sleeping well and stressing out about trivial crap. Worried about things that never happened. Waking up at night with things on my mind. Stress that led to chronic back pain that's now too late to make it just go away. Now I still have back pain but I don't worry about stuff and when I do, I have a mental checklist that I go through to get my mind to a calm place. It literally takes 2 minutes. It's a completely different life that I now lead. Meditation is free and you can do it almost anywhere. To not try it for a month to see how your life changes really is quite dumb to be honest. I've googled it...there is NO ONE that says "I had a regular meditation practice and it didn't help my mind, stress and life." No one!

Here's what you do-

Start out with either the app Stop, Breathe & Think or one of my many free guided meditations.

Watch this video below to tell you how to sit in a meditation posture.

Thoughts will come into your mind and that's the way it should be. Allow them to come. It's supposed to happen...over and over and over. Some meditations I'm pretty sure that I think random stuff the entire time. It's fine and it still means that you meditated.

Some people do best with guided meditation apps. Others do best with zazen which is a silent seated meditation. After years and years of trying and feeling like I failed, I now wake up 30 - 45 minutes earlier and do not look at any notifications on my phone. (believe me, it seemed impossible to wake up earlier at first but now it's just become normal. Like any habit.)

Then I set the timer on my phone for 25 minutes, get into my meditation seat and sit quietly. Some days are better than others but no matter what I feel so much happier throughout the day. The benefits are endless. Science has proven that after 20 minutes seratonin is released in the brain, the body's feel good chemical. Meditation releases endorphins which are the brain's natural pain reliever. I could go on and on. Instead, put the phone down and try it. If your kids or your dog bugs you, keep going. Eventually they will realize that this is what you do. Trust me. If I could get Madeleine, who's 6, and a kitten to leave me alone - you can too. Message me with any questions. I'd LOVE to help!