just sit!

Just sitting – that seemed like an impossible undertaking for me when I jumped off the rollercoaster of my “corporate mum” life.
Starting my coach training, I admired those of my class mates who had a meditation practice. Some of them were meditating as much as 40 minutes (in one stretch! per day!) and I got this sneaking suspicion that at some point in time, I’d have to build some kind of meditation practice myself. Although I secretly hoped that “I don’t need that”.

Courageously, I started out with a timer. I gave it a go with 2 minutes, trying to “not think” and miserably failed at suppressing my thoughts. More often than not I stopped after a minute and started doing my list for the coming day. Impossible to “not think”, as hard as I tried and just giving in to the busyness my life would call for.

The thing that did the trick for me was getting an app and trying guided meditations, which would keep my attention focussed on something. I slowly was able to stay with a meditation for up to 10 minutes and started to feel how taking this break would help me be better prepared for a day, some kind of life hygiene like brushing teeth.

Over time, I can feel how “just sitting” supports me in multiple ways, my capability to be present in the moment, to not be drowned in thoughts or overwhelmed by emotions, in being with my clients, fully listening and also in being with my kids without the next to-do from my list in mind.

The video below is a cool way of describing what happens when we meditate and would definitely have been a shortcut for me to adopting this healthy practice for reducing my stress and increasing my wellbeing. It shows how “not thinking” is not the goal. Rather not being submerged in thoughts…

If you want to give it a try – headspace is my go-to app now.