We’ve talked about meditation here on the blog before. It’s a practice that we do and fully encourage you to learn. Meditation helps to exercise one of the three pinnacles of your health–the mind, and right now is actually the best time to start practicing it if you haven’t already. You might feel like meditation is the last thing you want to do at the moment–you’re stressed, you want to get out and walk rather than stay inside–but there are many reasons why adding meditation to your day can be beneficial to you at this time.
Most peoples’ routines have been upended during this pandemic and many have struggled to adjust to our new (and semi-temporary) normals. In this case, starting a habit like meditation might be easier and more beneficial than usual. If you’re working from home, you can use meditation as a way to signify the beginning of your day or the end of your day, or both. It’s a good way to establish a new routine. Bonus: It’ll also guide you toward a positive mindset to start/end your day.
Most of us don’t have as many other obligations as we used to–free time is a little easier to come by these days. Or if you’re still scrambling for free time, think about it as if you’re trading your normal commute to work with 15 minutes of meditation.
The whole point of meditation is to clear your mind and achieve a calm and stable emotional and mental state. Habitual meditation has been proven to alleviate anxiety. Some people swear by it. During this time, we could all use a little mental clarity and relief. Even the most routine or basic things can be stressful right now–getting groceries or going out isn’t the same, working out has been a frustrating adjustment to make for many (we know!), social interactions are at a minimum…etc.
It’s important not to neglect our mental and emotional well-being during this time. We’re being inundated with news about the virus and the near future can be uncertain. Think of meditation as time to yourself, when you should be blocking out the noise of everything else. The line between work life and home life can be a little fuzzy, too. This is a good way to detach from everything and focus on yourself.
Another great thing about learning meditation right now is that it’s not something that costs money (unless you want to pay for it) or involves interacting with someone. All it takes is staying at home and sitting down on the floor. If you’d prefer a guided meditation or having the sounds of waterfalls or ocean waves to meditate to, you can find it pretty much anywhere. There are podcasts, apps, playlists, videos, etc.
At times like this, it’s helpful to see the silver lining in things. We’re all feeling confined in more ways than one, but remember to make the best of what we have and take advantage of this situation. There’s no better time than now to create habits that you’ve always wanted to have and to work on improving ourselves, body and mind.
Love this blog post. It is so true that one should create habits during a time where we can actually create them. I realized that it wasn’t about me not having time to create habits. It was more so me not really wanting to make time to create those habits.