Embracing the Discomfort of Meditation

I sit in a dark room, cross legged and focused on the soft voice of a woman.

“Let. It. Go” She says

I breath in as full as my lungs will allow, and gently release the air held within.

“Let. It. Go” She chants again.

This simple mantra echoes in my mind.

Today, did your husband say he doesn’t want to tell you something because he is worried how you’ll react?

Did your aunt Barbra Jean give you a backhanded compliment about how there is ‘more of you to love?’

Did someone cut you off and then flip you the bird?

Okay, so only one out of those three things actually happened today. But, seriously. I am meditating and trying to push out the negative energy that rattled my soul today.

And it’s working a little.

I have a good idea about what people will probably think when I admit that I meditate. But I do.

And I even do that finger pose where I connect my thumb and my pointer finger.

(I really only do this because it makes me feel more professional at meditation.)

The Let it go meditation I am telling you about is a practice I do whenever I feel stressed.

Believe it or not, I usually feel stressed about my interactions with others.

I worry whether I was too awkward, too unprofessional, too crass or crude, or too loud.

People mostly know me for that last one!

But, the practice of meditation has helped me stay centered in my busy life and helped me worry less about people pleasing.

People might think meditation is something only long-haired-hippy-vegans with access to lots of MJ and free time do. But that is not the case.

I meditate for 10 minutes here-and-there or sometimes on a long day; I devote 30 minutes to this practice.

I don’t mean to be all “if I can do this, you can too!”

But if the shoe fits…

However, in order for this to work, you have to swallow your pride, accept the discomfort, and embrace the weird.

Swallow your pride

You might be judging yourself for doing this. You might be saying “I don’t need to freaking Meditate, Tanisha” but swallow your pride and consider that in order to feel a way you haven’t felt before, you are going to have to do something you’ve never done before.

Accept the discomfort

Change is uncomfortable, and meditation is a change that might make you feel emotions that you aren’t used to. But be vulnerable and accept the discomfort and you’ll come out of it feeling proud that you accomplished such a simple task even though you dreaded the very idea.

Embrace the weird

Look, meditation is weird.

I do it, and I know its weird. You sit, you focus and literally try to think about nothing (WUT) and you breathe. You put aside your to-do list, hide in the bathroom away from your kids, or put the headphones in doing this before bed and you listen to a stranger’s strangely satisfying and soothing voice tell you to breathe and “think about your intentions for the day”

But, the only way for this to work is to embrace it wholeheartedly.

Embrace the weird and follow instructions!