Doing this for 15 mins every day will change your life
Struggle to switch off? Head full of ideas / things to do? Never finish what you started? Sound familiar? By the end of this post, you’ll be today years old when meditation changes your life. (There’s also a treat for you at the end)
If you’d told me 6 months ago that I’d be meditating for 15 mins every day and I’d be writing a blog telling the world how amazing meditation is, I’d have laughed.
I first came to meditation as part of Monk Mode. Now, this isn’t a post about Monk Mode, but you can watch my video to learn more: https://youtu.be/nxd6B8sCl9s
Meditation is one of the non-negotiable Monk Mode protocols and, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I’ve sort of tried a bit in the past, but I have a very busy mind and so gave up quickly. If this sounds like you, it’s a sign you should start meditating.
I was sceptical this time would be any different, but I thought, “hey, in for a penny, in for a pound.”
What happened shocked me.
How meditation changed my life:
· Increased focus
· Productivity sky-rocketed
· Mind became less cluttered all the time (not just when I was meditating)
· Improved sleep quality and quantity
· Clearer thoughts
· Better decision making
I started from pure scepticism but I’m a convert and I think it can help you too. Let me explain.
It wasn’t easy
If I hadn’t been doing Monk Mode, I’d have given up. Fact.
Meditating certainly didn’t come easy to me. It took 15 days of meditating every day without fail (no, “it’s the weekend” nonsense) before I started seeing any difference.
At the beginning, I could only last 10 seconds before my mind wandered. I had to use guided meditation from brain.fm to give me any chance of staying on track.
By day 4, I noticed it was taking longer before thoughts would barge in.
By day 6, every time I tried to meditate, I’d feel itchy. Weird. I became hyperaware of my body, the tension in my face, and I’d start itching.
By day 10, that had gone and I had the opposite problem. I’d last 5 mins of meditating before…falling asleep! (I started meditating at lunch time to overcome this.
By day 15, I wasn’t itching, wasn’t falling asleep and wasn’t getting so distracted and as soon as a thought came in, I noticed, parked it, and could quickly return to meditating.
I’m telling you this because so many people make meditation sound easy. It isn’t. At least it wasn’t for me. But once I’d broken the barrier, the good stuff just kept coming.
What changed?
I never knew that meditating could positively impact so many areas of my life!
· Hyperfocus – my ability to concentrate when I’m working doubled. I was an unstoppable focus machine. I used to be known as ‘half-a-job-bob’ because I’d always start something and never finish it. Meditation taught me to focus on one thing, get it done and move on.
· Peace – for the first time ever, my mind felt…at peace. I wasn’t plagued by distracting thoughts; after 28 years, I’d finally mastered my mind. I could control what thoughts entered, when, and for how long.
· Presence – because hyperfocus had sky-rocketed my productivity and I had mental peace, I was more present in what I was doing and with whom. Meditation helped close what David Allen calls ‘open loops’ which freed my mind to give the right attention to the things and people around me.
These benefits occurred as a by-product of meditation. I never expected that simply being still for 15 mins a day could achieve this.
How to meditate
I started using guided meditation as my mind wandered so often. Having a voice to come back to really helped. I used brain.fm because I’d already been using brain.fm for deep work sessions. I LOVE brain.fm and I’ve recently become an affiliate with them after using their product for ages. I’ve included a link and my discount code at the end if you’d like to give it a try.
I played around with different times of the day to meditate, during the day worked best for me. If it was in the morning, I’d fall back asleep; at night it helped clear my mind for bed… but a bit too much!
I find public transport is the best place to meditate: if I’m taking a journey anyway, I just pop a 15 mins session on and settle into it. I find my mind wanders the least when I meditate this way. Try it!
If I need to focus on a task or do some deep work, I meditate right beforehand to get me ‘in the zone’. Or, if I’ve had a particularly stressful meeting / day, I’ll meditate straight after, and it stops me feeling overwhelmed. I intuitively know when I need to meditate to get the best out of my brain.
And now?
I meditate almost every day - at least 5x a week. I’ve also started experimenting with unguided meditation (so far so good).
I never imagined I’d be someone who meditates, let alone preaches about it to others. I’m delighted I was wrong about meditation as it changed my life. How will it change yours?
A treat just for you
I’m an affiliate for brain.fm and you can use this link with code ‘charliehyde’ for 20% off.
https://www.brain.fm?fp_ref=charliehyde
I’ve been using brain.fm for a year before becoming an affiliate and I use it all the time: working, meditation and ambient relaxation. Give it a whirl!
