Meditating Your Way To A Happier You

 

Stress is such a buzz kill. Nothing will bring you down quicker than feeling stressed out. It keeps you from sleeping well, staying productive, and getting in a good mood. It only makes sense than that reducing stress increases happiness. One of the best ways to bring your stress levels down and increase your joy is to meditate.

In addition to reducing stress and increasing happiness, meditation is good for your health, helps you practice self-awareness, and it strengthens your concentration. If you’re new to meditating, let me give you a quick primer on this ancient technique of clearing the mind.

Meditation is a state of thoughtless awareness. It’s reached by practicing meditating, until we can reach that state of mind easily and effortlessly. Along the way meditation will help us concentrate, contemplate, and gives us more control over our mind and our thoughts.

There are all sorts of different ways to practice mediation. Some will have you focus on your breathing, some will have you focus on your body. You can practice in complete silence, while listening to white noise or soft music, or you can work through guided meditations.

If you’re new to meditating, a simple guided meditation may be your best bet. There are plenty of recordings online, on YouTube, and even on apps. Some of them will be free, while others are paid guided meditations. Listen to a few of them until you find a mediation you’re comfortable with.

Give meditating a try

If you want to just give this a try without downloading or buying any guided meditations, give this basic meditation exercise a try. Start by laying down comfortably on your back. Have your hands on the side and relax. Close your eyes, and breathe naturally. Notice how the breath moves your body and try to focus  your mind on each exhalation and inhalation. If your mind starts to wander (as mine always does, I’m not that good at this), bring it back to your breath. Aim for a few minutes of meditation to begin with. Don’t feel bad if you find yourself nodding off. Meditation can be very relaxing and a great way to help you get to sleep.

With practice you will be able to mediate for longer periods of time. Experiment with techniques and lengths of mediation until you find your own routine that reduces stress, increases happiness and is something you can stick with for the long run. Keep meditating to keep up your happiness levels.

Now here’s something I’ve learned over the years. Meditation is not just about completely clearing your mind. It’s about quieting it. For years I thought I just had to get to this space where there was nothing going on. I never got there and frankly I didn’t want to keep putting the work into trying to get to that point lol Instead, do above as I suggested and just let thoughts quietly pass through, trying to slow them down. You will absolutely get better at is as you practice.

Homework

Ok, give meditation a try and then report back. Is it easy for you? Or are you like me and it’s work? lol  If you are into meditation, SHARE! This is one area I know I can learn a lot from you.

Let’s be happy,

 

PS – if you just found this post, it’s day 22 of the challenge. Sign up HERE and get an email with links to each of the 30 days in the challenge.