We Should Probably All Be Doing This...
"I've tried. It's not for me." - About 90% of people when you ask them if they meditate (and about 99.9% of people who went to see Cats.) I'm in the 10% of people who mediation works for. However, 90% of the time, I don't do it. What is wrong with me?! Are we even living if we aren't self-sabotaging?! I'm making a huge mistake. Meditation is dope and I need to take it more seriously. A lot of us probably do.
In my quest to be a highly-optimized person, I often do things that garner the opposite result. My brain runs a million miles in every direction trying to take over the world and spreads me too thin. Quarantine is... not helping. I think "Wow! I have all this time to do ALL of the things!" and then I take off like I have a jet-pack strapped to my back and slam right into a brick wall. Oh, then add hella anxiety about the world-wide pandemic, you know?
Tara Branch, mediation teacher and author, spoke with Vox recently in a piece about meditation during COVID-19; "When we're in a fight-flight-freeze mode, our limbic system has basically hijacked us, and we lose contact with our prefrontal cortex, the most recently evolved part of our brain, which has to do with executive functioning and making good decisions." (If I ever come out with a line of Tequila, I will call it fight-flight-freeze) She then explains that the mindfulness we get from mediation helps us regain control of our prefrontal cortex. Woo!
Y'all, that's enough for me, I'm gonna jump back into this again. While I'm meditating, I admittedly feel just a little bit silly and fear that I'm not going to get anything out of it but almost every time, I find that it shifts my entire day and allows me to reconnect with my focus and purpose. Focus and purpose > Trying to do it all, all the time. They say meditation is a practice and MAN, do we have time to practice right now!
Here is a great meditation resource that I turn to frequently!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pLUleLdwY4
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/18/21181644/coronavirus-covid-19-mindfulness-meditation-anxiety
