My Journey into mindfulness - from critic to raving fan

If you'd asked me this time last year would I become a mindfulness coach, I'd probably have laughed. You see, I was one of those people who when it came to meditation my response was BOR - ING! I couldn't think of anything worse! I mean yeah I did yoga, but the thought of just 'meditating' sounded boring and conjured up images of people sitting around a camp fire, chanting away with beads round their neck trying to 'still their mind', and that just wasn't for me. 

However, I was curious about meditation since those who do practice meditation on a regular basis will tell you how fantastic it is for their mental wellbeing. In fact Steve Jobs was a regular meditator and credited many of his successful ideas coming to him during his meditation sessions. 

So out of curiosity, I tried to give it a go. I sat in my room in silence with the intention of meditating for the recommended time of 10 minutes for beginners. I started to focus on my breath. A minute went by which felt like an hour. The more I tried to 'still my mind' the more my mind went crazy. My thoughts wandered off into the future and I started thinking about all the things I needed to do and all the things I hadn't done, and then I started thinking about how this was SO boring, I hated this, I don't have time for this, why am I doing this? After what felt like a lifetime, I looked at my watch, and to my surprise it had only been 3 minutes. Ugh I give up, that was painful, I'm never doing that again! I felt disappointed. I thought meditation was meant to make me feel calm and relaxed! But actually it made me feel more annoyed and irritated that I didn't feel calm and relaxed. In fact I thought the whole experience was a waste of time.

If you're anything like me and you've tried to meditate, you've probably experienced something similar.

Here's the funny thing though, despite not really liking meditation, I was still curious about it and wanted to understand what all the fuss was about. So I did a short mindfulness course and what I discovered was that mindful meditation is not all about 'stilling your mind', it's about acknowledging and accepting your thoughts and feelings and then bringing them back to the present moment by focusing on your breath (something we rarely check in on and take for granted). I also discovered that there is no right or wrong way to meditate and that peace, calm and happiness are by-products of meditation and not the end goal. So rather than thinking, I'm going to meditate for 5 minutes and then be the happiest person alive, I discovered that by accepting what was happening in my mind during my practice was what was happening. So if I was completely bored and frustrated and thinking "what is this all about" then that was the meditation. If I was feeling calm or angry, then that was how I was feeling at that moment in time. I realised that rather than wanting things to be different, I would just accept how I was feeling and then let myself be open to things as they were at that particular moment in time.

Now I'm not going to lie, when I first did this mindfulness course I was very resistant when it came to the meditation, but I tried to be disciplined and committed myself to doing a meditation practice every day for a week. To my surprise after the first few days, I actually started to enjoy it. I felt more revitalised and focused afterwards and I became more creative and productive. If I was dealing with a problem I needed to solve, somehow by meditating it helped me to come up with the best possible solution, I even started to feel happier. I can't explain it, but I started to feel different within myself. I even started to miss my meditation practice if I didn't do it one day because I couldn't be bothered or thought I was too busy. I guess you could say, I was starting to experience what everyone raves about.

Fast forward a few months and I decided to do a teacher training course so that I could become a qualified mindfulness coach and start bringing mindfulness and meditation to the modern age by demonstrating the positive impact it can have on your mental wellbeing. I've even set up a little 'side hustle' called Mindful Station where I aim to bring mindfulness to peoples workstations.

So if you are new to meditation, and want to give it a go, here are my top tips:

• Start by using a guided meditation - don't do what I did and try and sit in a silent room for 10 minutes as it can be difficult to train your mind to focus and switch off when you're first starting out.
• Make a commitment to yourself to put aside 5 - 15 minutes a day to practice mindful meditation. There's no point doing a few minutes meditation on a Sunday night before a stressful week at work, thinking it will make you more calm and relaxed, as mindfulness is something that needs to be practiced on a regular basis to really feel the benefits.
• Try and see this as time FOR yourself to BE yourself. A lot of people feel guilty about putting aside time to just 'sit and be still' especially since we live in a culture that is so fast paced, and if you are not doing something, then you are being lazy. However, looking after your mental health is just as important as your physical health. 
• You're never too busy for self care. So many people tell me "I'm too busy to meditate", and that used to me. But the reality is, you're not too busy, you've just allocated your time to something you think is of higher priority like binge watching Netfilx. 
• If you're struggling to fit meditation into your life, try and do it last thing at night before you go to sleep. Listening to a sleep meditation such as my guided 10 minute meditation will help you to settle your mind and ease you into a full nights sleep.
• Don't give up. It takes approximately 21 days to change a habit, so even if you think meditation is a waste of time or it's not working for you, keep going, as sometimes it takes time for the benefits of mindfulness to unfold, and once you start to feel the benefits you will be glad you persevered.  

If you're interested in a simple and practical approach to mindfulness, check out my four week programme Mindfulness for maxed out minds - How to restore peace and calm in just 15 minutes a day.