Letter #45 - Meditation Can Be An Escape

To anyone who needs a break from their own thoughts,

Meditation is such a big thing and has been gaining traction for years, since it’s such a valid strategy for combatting certain types of stress and managing the more overwhelming parts of life. Over the past two years, I’ve given meditation a try; first unsuccessfully and then I got to work in my favour. I found sticking to a routine of daily meditation was not for me, but when I tried to use it as and when I felt I needed it, the whole practice worked so much better.

For me, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to try something that cleared my mind, as I always found a similar sense of quiet with yoga and that’s something I’ve been doing for years. I did find that quiet and meditation are not necessarily the same. I had misconceptions of what exactly meditation meant. At the time, my mind wandered to ideas of monks atop mountains, feeling at one with the air around them. It was just the ‘feeling at one’ part that was slightly close to the truth.

The first app I used to learn more and have a guided experience was Headspace, and I feel like that was one of the first apps of its kind, at the time. I remember finding the man who guided the sessions to have a really soothing voice, but I would always end up sleepy before the end. Eventually I gave up on it.

But then I tried again. This time has been more successful because I didn’t feel restricted to an order or having to practice meditation daily. That’s mainly due to the apps I use now.

Oak

This app was the one that started me back up on the journey to meditation again. It is the best, simply for being so simple! It has two main methods of meditation: guided and unguided. For both settings, you can choose silence or some sort of background sound, from rainfall to white noise. This is great, if like me, you need something to suit your mood, and have a change from time to time.

Another feature that is my absolute favourite, is the different breathing exercises they have, complete with images that prompt you as to when to breathe in and out. If you’re one to get a bit overwhelmed at times, these can be an on the go lifesaver.

Smiling Mind

This one is a fairly new app for me, but I really like that it has guided meditation sessions based on factors like age, working life and what you need to get out of it. They have some fantastic, focused sets for young people around 11-12 years old all the way to those at 18-19. I like these sessions for the times when I need something more focused and if there’s something specific that I want to work on.

Reflectly

This final app isn’t a meditation app but I found it to work so well as a journal alongside the meditation. It has helped so much with daily mindfulness as it is simply a journal where you recount what made your day good/bad and why. It allows me to really think and get inside my own head. 

The best part about it is that once you’ve input 7 entries, it begins a log of how you answered; it shows you how many good, bad and meh days you had in that week, or over a month. This can be so helpful for recognising how you’re feeling and making sense of your emotions for yourself. It’s a great little nugget of insider info for you to use on yourself.

With practice, and trial and error, I’ve found that it really just comes down to individual choice. But I will say this, meditation can be difficult in the beginning and it can feel like it’s not working, but just stick at it for a little while longer than you feel you should and hopefully you can see the good it can do.

In a world that can get considerable busy at times, it is almost essential to find time for some stillness, even just 5 minutes of it.

Give it a try this weekend, and see if it’s for you. All the apps are free anyway!

Until next time, be inspired...

Z

Letter #31 - Gratitude shouldn't be this hard

Dear readers,

I haven't written in a while, I know, but it felt like the world was starting to fall apart and it felt frivolous to just write my thoughts and expect anyone to even want to read them. This isn't a place for me to talk politics or economics and so I won't. But I just think that the state of the world will always be in trouble, if we go by what history reminds us, but it can always be salvaged by individuals so be those individuals. *political aside done*

Anyway, it's thanksgiving weekend in America. That's not very relevant to me given that I'm in the UK and all I know of thanksgiving comes from episodes of the event that I watched on Friends. But even without knowing much about the history of the day, the word alone evokes a warming sentiment. I like that fact.

It is a day to give thanks and I don't think there is a better activity to spend the day on. We may not celebrate the even here, but I want to celebrate what I feel to be the essence of the day by being grateful.

We're always so busy and jumping from one thought to another without much time to actually think. We want things done quickly so we can move on to the next task. We want what we want as and when we want it. All of that wanting can begin to take over if it isn't reigned in with some perspective.

When you live in an age of ease and speed, it can be easy to complain when we don't get what we want. We complain at the slow wifi, or the traffic jam slowing us down, or the time it takes between ordering a coffee and then receiving it. We're a generation of complainers now. I'm mostly talking about myself here but I'm sure others do it too.

We're never just grateful for having wifi at all, for having a car for transport, for having the luxury of buying a coffee every day. It's those small privileges that we forget about when we're so caught up in our own self-importance. I know that I whine the moment an Amazon delivery doesn't arrive on time or when I'm in an area where I can only get 3G mobile data, over 4G. It's pathetic really and it's embarrassing to say out loud because then I have to actually think about it.

If we spent those moments when we're beginning to complain, actually thinking about what we are complaining about, we would see all that we have to be grateful for instead. Gratitude is difficult. Sometimes we all just want to feel sorry for ourselves and say "woe is me"; it feels good at the time to indulge ourselves. But what does it actually get us? How can we grow by doing so? Simple answer: we can't.

So why waste our time doing it? If we're all for speed and efficiency, why should we waste precious moments being ungrateful about the small things?

I've been thinking about this all week now, and I think that I've reached a solution that I can be happy with. I'm going to start trying to be more aware of my thoughts so that I can stop them in their tracks.

If I start to whine, I'll twist it on its head and see if it's really something that needs moping about. If I start to complain that the house is too cold this winter, I'll remind myself that I have a home and that I can layer on an extra jumper. 

It might sound like I'm taking this too far and trying to be too "good", and maybe I am. Of course you can complain if you want to. The important part is that I personally don't want to. If the twenties are the time when good habits should be made, then this is definitely one that I am happy to develop.

The world tries so hard to shove change down our throats and to get us to want to be something that we're not. We end up coveting something that never even occurred to us before it was made popular. That's a post for another day though!

For now, I just want to try to be a little more mindful with my thoughts. So at the end of every month, I'm going to start a short round up of things that I am thankful for.

For this month, I'm thankful for:

my thoughts: I appreciate the ability to have a voice and opinion of my own and that I have never had to suppress or hide it.

my blog: I love that I have the opportunity to get my voice out there and say whatever I please and cultivate a project that I can look back on.

chocolate: specifically dark chocolate! I'm thankful that it is technically good for me. I love the fact that while my recent dietary requirements have cut out a lot of foods that I loved, I am at least still left with chocolate.

That's enough rambling from me for today! Let me know what you're thankful for in the comments! We should all have something that we can stop and appreciate today and every other day.

Until next time, be inspired...

Love, Z