How I began my meditation practice

Being a yoga teacher comes with a lot of preconceived notions.  One must meditate, be super bendy and drink green tea.  I do love me some green tea, but I work hard at the flexibility aspect of yoga and prior to last April I had no meditation routine. 

I began with an idea that setting an intention for my day would be a good start. I had just finished reading the Miracle Morning and wanted to try something new.  I am a so-called morning person but like 90% of the population getting out of bed it where the struggle is REAL.  Once I am up, my mind begins to start working and this is the time of day that I feel like I can conquer the world.  (Well at least the dishes from last night, gasp…) Yes, I hate leaving them there, but I am no good after 8pm.

My morning routine began with me brushing my teeth and getting into my workout clothes.  This is something I have done for years, but I decided to add meditation in before working out.  I grab a cup of hot water (I don’t know why, but I like it and I heard it was good for you.)  Next, I go to my morning meditation spot.  It is nothing fancy, just a wooden yoga block that my brother made for my 23rd birthday and my bolster. 

To begin a meditation practice without any direction seemed too daunting for me, so I bought this amazing book called, Practicing Mindfulness by Matthew Scokolov.  It really has been a huge help for me to begin a practice and stick to it.  The beginning of Practicing Mindfulness talks about how and why to start a meditation practice and how the author got into meditation.  It is not an intimidating book and it has so many different meditations that you can decide what you want to focus on each day. They range from 5 minutes to 20 minutes, with a few longer ones.

Listening to music while meditating is another great option.  The music really helped me to drown out the self-doubt that someone might come downstairs and see me sitting in my spot and question what I was doing.  At first, I was not ready to explain meditating to my kids or husband.  When you don’t really know what you are doing or even really why, it is hard to explain. Since then,  I have grown a lot in a little time and now want to share and talk freely about this ancient practice!

Please leave comments below and let me know your thoughts and questions!!