Meditation (and breathwork) has become increasingly popular, and for good reason — it has a number of health benefits. If you're unfamiliar with meditation, it's a practice where you focus on your breathing, thoughts or a mantra with the goal of achieving peace of mind and alleviating stress. Meditation can help lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety, improve sleep quality and even enhance your immune system (all scientifically proven!). It can also help fight depression. Meditation is not necessarily about emptying the mind—instead, it's about refocusing the mind to simply observe your thoughts and breathing.
The most basic form is the breathing technique known as prânâyâma, which is basically the process of controlling your breath. There are also guided meditations, where you are listening to someone narrate a story and/or offer you suggestions of what to do while you're meditating (like a mantra that evokes no specific emotion or memory). Generally speaking, meditation is simply focused attention on something.
-If you have 20 minutes, try doing a guided meditation on your favourite app (like Headspace or Calm). I personally love finding them on Youtube.
-If you have just 2 minutes, try doing a quick breathing exercise where every time you exhale, say "peace" aloud.
-If you have 30 seconds but need something more structured than just breathing exercises, try downloading an app like Stop Breathe & Think (which will guide your breathing while giving you other prompts like "What are my goals?" or "What makes me happy?”)
Consistency is key when it comes to meditation. 20 mins a day is enough if you can carve out time every day.
My Experience
I personally have had mind-blowing experiences with meditation and breath work, in fact, that's how I received the idea for using the compostable material for our eco blockout blinds. Not convinced?! Read about my experience below! It's super cool!
I started meditation daily when my kids were babies (22months apart), and to be honest, most of the time I would fall asleep! Once they were a bit older and were at family daycare 2 days a week, I always carved out time to meditate, do breath work and visualisation.
One day, I went into my meditation with the intention to find what fabric I could use for my eco blockout blinds! I had been trying for about a year to find the perfect sample but nothing was free of plastics, polyester or vinyl.
I was 18 mins into this guided meditation where the dialogue stops for a while and music keeps playing. In a moment a question popped into my head. I didn't think the thought, it was as if it was "given" to me. It said, "what if it's not a fabric". And in that exact moment I knew the answer! I had a compostable mailer bag in the drawer next to me, I sprung out of the meditation and put the bag on the window to see that it was completely blackout! So, it wasn't a fabric I was searching for. It was our lightweight compostable cornstarch material! I'm still blown away by this experience and the benefits of meditation.
I love finding meditations on Youtube, they are free and so many to choose from as you may not resonate with certain voices or music. Try different ones until you find the right fit for you. I love guided meditations by Paul Babin as his voice is easy to listen to.
Also, search Dr Joe Dispenza, Abraham Hicks and Jay Shetty for more in-depth scientific and spiritual learnings of meditation.
Here's to sweet dreams,
Aliesha xo
