“Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.”
Henry David Thoreau
When people learn that I love manifesting, chakra healing, yoga, crystals, oracle decks, and just about everything that has to do with energy work, they assume that I also love to meditate.
But I have a confession to make: I don’t meditate — at least not in the traditional sense.
I enjoy guided meditations and breathwork but I can’t say the same for the “spine-straight-don’t-move-a-muscle” variety.
And it’s because I don’t find it liberating to sit in the same spot in total silence trying not to become immersed in thought while staying fully attentive to your breath or some other point of focus (a friend calls this type of meditation “listening to the wind”).
The truth is trying to “listen to the wind” for more than 20 minutes feels stressful and anxiety-inducing for me and for a long time I thought I was the only one.
But it turns out research shows people who have experienced some form of trauma — which is just about everyone — can sometimes have negative physical and emotional reactions to the practice.
The reasons behind this are inconclusive but some spiritual leaders and members of the scientific community agree that it could be because quieting the conscious, thinking mind allows repressed or suppressed thoughts, feelings, and even physical symptoms locked in the subconscious to emerge.
Please understand that I’m not knocking traditional meditation or its benefits — quite the opposite!
I believe meditation has huge benefits and there’s scientific and spiritual evidence behind it.
Meditation can strengthen focus, lower blood pressure, enhance critical thinking, reduce age-related memory loss, increase creativity, and more!
But as we know just knowing something is good for us isn’t enough. A helpful activity, habit, or behavior needs to feel good in some way or we’ll never do it, or at least we won’t stick with it.
So there I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I knew traditional, “listening to the wind” meditation was good for me and I wanted to enjoy the benefits but I couldn’t get myself to do it no matter how hard I tried.
Plus there was the vague feeling of shame behind all of it. I mean a spiritual person who doesn’t meditate isn’t “really” a spiritual person at all, right?
At least that’s what I thought and that’s what the world seemed to reflect back to me.
(I’ve since learned that spirituality is a deeply personal experience. Being “spiritual” is not a goal to be achieved and it’s certainly not a race to be won. Unfortunately, way too many “spiritual” folks see it that way but that’s a discussion for another day!)
So now that it’s out in the open that I’m not a big fan of old-school meditation I’m excited to share a fun approach to the practice that offers a similar spectrum of benefits.
This updated approach is easy-to-do and it can fit seamlessly into your daily routine because it takes just a moment or two — no need to set aside an hour or more to meditate!
The method is also beautifully effective for manifesting because it can help to raise your mood and your vibration in under a minute.
Start by taking 1 Healing Breath (if you’re not sure what this is, you can take a peek at the video here). It can be 1 Healing Breath of love, joy, expansion, beauty — anything that tickles your fancy 🙂
Next, tune into something uplifting that you can see, feel, hear, sense, or remember.
It could be the sound of your beloved cat purring, or a memory of a perfect day at the beach with your little one. It could be the satisfying sensation of a comfortably full tummy or the simple pleasure of knowing your best friend loves you.
It doesn’t matter what you focus on as long as it gives you a pleasurable sensation of being lifted up — something that makes you feel lighter, something that makes you want to smile.
And that’s it! That’s your meditative moment. A moment of focus, of peaceful presence, a single moment that raises your vibration.
Do this as many times as you want throughout your day and you’ll be delightfully surprised at just how much this simple, steady, satisfying practice can improve your mood, open your heart, inspire your mind…
And act as a soothing balm on an emotionally stressful day.
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