Happiness Skill #15

Meditation

I like this one. I have been thinking about doing this for a while and I think this helps give me an easy route on a beginning stage.

Why meditation? There are plenty of reasons to meditate but the one benefit I hope each of you experience is stress relief and relaxation. The less stress we have and the more relaxed we are the happier we will be. And, believe it or not, meditation is a lot of fun.

So, here is the assignment:

Commit to two minutes of ‘breath meditation’ per day for one week. Pick a time of day you would like to mediate…morning, evening, after the kids have gone to school, etc. You do not need to pick a specific time like 7:00 am. Just the general time of day will be great.

Find a quiet spot where you will not be disturbed for 2 minutes. You may need to wait until the house is empty or you are in your car alone…however you do it, find a place for 2 minutes of uninterrupted time. Be sure to turn your phone off or at least to vibrate and leave it in a different room.

Sit comfortably and focus on your breath for 2 minutes. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Breath deeply…as deep as you can. Keep your eyes open and focused softly at the ground. If you prefer to close your eyes then close them. As you breath count ‘one breath in…two breath out…three breath in…four breath out’ etc. When you get to ’10 breath out’ start over. Repeat this 4 times. That should be close to 2 minutes so you don’t even really need a timer.

The counting of your breath and the feeling of the air coming in through your nostrils and out through your mouth should be the only things you think about for the two minutes. If you find your mind thinking about other things, and you will, start over again with ‘one breath in…’ and see if you can make it all the way to ’10 breath out’ without being distracted by other thoughts. It is tricky and you may not be able to do it the first few days…but keep at it and you will have a calm, focused mind.

Happy meditating! : )

Remarkable, calm ME