Meditation...How to reclaim your Zen

So I'm a pretty intense person, or at least I used to be...ok, so I still am intense it's just channeled much better than it was and here's how.

Meditation. It has been a game changer in my life. I have been doing it now for a little over a year and while day to day I can see subtle differences that have added up, but when I look back from where I started to now, the difference is somewhat unreal.

It all started after one of my daughter's basketball games. I used to be a raving, screaming mom. Yup, THAT mom. Not a super fan, just a psycho mom. My poor kids... and husband. Anyway, after one particular game when I got pretty crazy, I came out of the gym ashamed of myself and disappointed I had become that person. I totally embarrassed my daughter. And for what reason? I don't even remember all the circumstances but I knew something had to give.

Enter meditation.

I was beginning a journey of self discovery around that time and my personal awareness was becoming better. It was time to put what I found in all those self help books to work for me. I started my meditation practice with an app called HeadSpace. It's a great app that helps you learn what meditation is and guides you through it step by step. You can customize the "programs" you feel you need at those moments when you need them. I would do it laying in the floor of my office at lunch for 10-15 minutes at a time. It was a wonderful starting point for me. But once I started exploring the unguided meditations in the app, I knew it was time to learn to be a better meditator without a guide.

That's when I found Ziva meditation and read Emily Fletcher's book Stress Less, Accomplish More. The book is very interesting and is a quick read. I actually did the audiobook so I could "read" while in the car. She was a Broadway performer that was stressed out with insomnia and found meditation through a coworker. She then did 3 years of training in India and developed her Ziva Technique. She is enjoyable to listen to and has an amazing, soothing voice. Her approach is practical and completely doable you just got to do it. Her technique is what I use now and I am very much enjoying it. Check out the online program here. She also has a live program in NYC.

If you are stressed, at your wits end, having any kind of difficulty be it relationship, family, health, money, whatever or just want to be your best version, you owe it to yourself to give meditation a try. It is a practice. So, you consistently have to do it. Make it a part of your self care routine. You deserve it. And if you think it's fru-fru new age, hippie stuff, that couldn't be further from the truth. It's been around for thousands of years and for it to last that long there has to be something to it. It is the ultimate "old school" practice. Give it a go and let me know what you think!

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Cheers!