#mentLiving in a World of Distraction

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

Once upon a time, I dated a man-child-thing who was lovely in some ways but prone to emotional dysregulation. (Aren’t we all?) He told me he would meditate for long stretches of time, tapping into a sort of energetic high, or something. Meditating for an hour seemed, to me, an abhorrent waste of time, but I listened politely as he described how it helped him, or what he thought about, or whatever. Meditating for an hour also seemed like something most adults don’t have the time to do, what with work and family and social things and hobbies and bills and car payments. But hearing him wax poetical about the benefits of meditation made me curious, so I downloaded one of those free meditation apps and started with an unintimidating 3 minute meditation session.

I’ve been meditating for a total of four days at the time of this writing, but I have noticed a few things: I feel more relaxed and less stressed, my breathing is deeper, I’m able to calm my incessant thinking. One big reason I wanted to start meditating in the first place was to help my attention. I’m in the middle of starting a new job with a lot of moving parts, and my life outside of work is happily full, which means my wee little brain barely ever gets the chance to turn off. I’ve noticed a franticness about myself lately: email her, call him, text…