HOW MEDITATION CHANGED MY LIFE

We all hear about the importance of taking time for yourself and the benefits of meditation. I have always been an advocate for self care and self love, but I can’t fully say that I’ve always practiced it as much as I preached it. I know that I’ve valued wellness at a young age and always prioritized exercise and good nutrition, but I was definitely missing the spiritual aspect.

I spent a weekend at the Hamptons this past summer and that’s when I began to get in touch with my spiritual being and started to familiarize myself with being comfortable with silence. It isn’t easy and being type A and someone who is always pressed for time, closing my eyes even for one minute seemed unnatural. But there’s something to be said when you are able to sit still in silence. The mind is a powerful tool and we all have a million thoughts running through our heads at any given moment in time. Learning to calm the mind is the ultimate key to living a healthy, balanced life.

I wanted to share how meditation changed my life in the hopes that it can change yours as well. For starters, meditation taught me to prioritize my mental health above all. Instead of starting the day and reaching for our phones or answering our emails, we should all set time for ourselves since we are our best selves when we feel the best. I personally believe starting the day with meditation is the best way to cleanse your mind and prepare yourself for the day ahead. I know we all have different schedules and maybe meditating in the morning doesn’t work with your lifestyle, but if you can, even for five minutes, I would highly recommend doing so.

I truly believe in the law of attraction and the belief that you can manifest your thoughts and intentions into reality by truly focusing on them and setting them out into the universe. Meditation has brought me closer to my goals because I always try to ask myself what my why is and how I want to show up into the world every morning. I also find it helps by journaling my intention because writing it out makes me feel more aware of what I want to achieve for that specific day. When I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I always try to go back to my intention and it honestly shifts my mindset to a more positive one.

Having social anxiety has made it more difficult for me to deal with stress and we all know that stress has negative effects on our health and bodies. However, meditation has definitely improved the way I deal with stress because when I compare my mental health to how it was at the beginning of the year until now, I can see a drastic improvement. That’s not to say that I still don’t have a long way to go but I think meditation has given me a reason to slow down, breathe and to refocus.

I can go on and on about why I love meditation but I think it’s best if you guys try it yourself. For the remaining of the year, I challenge you to:

• Meditate at least 3x a week for at least 5-10 minutes
• Write down your intentions everyday (if you don’t have time, then at least say it out loud in the morning)
• Say at least one positive affirmation everyday along with your intentions

Getting started with meditation might be difficult, but I know that you can all set at least 5 minutes 3x a week! In addition, writing or saying your intentions will be a great way to show up positively into the world. And last but not least, we all forget to love ourselves. Start the day by saying at least one positive affirmation. For example, it can be ‘I am going to have a beautiful day today and nobody and nothing will ruin it’ or as simple as ‘I am enough.’ It’s amazing how these little things can honestly change the way you experience life so I hope you can all incorporate these into your daily routines.