Meditation For Day's End
Ending Your Day Beautifully
Meditation gets written off as a new-age line of BS sometimes, but it has genuine, measurable health benefits you will notice every day. People practicing it consistently report sleeping better, putting an end to panic attacks, and finding a real mental balance that helped every part of their lives.
You can meditate effectively in many different ways, but here’s a stripped-down version of an end-of-day meditation that’s useful for starting the practice and conditioning your mind and body. Your mind will not cooperate at first, so don’t worry about it. The key to successful meditation is accepting, then letting go, then returning. With a little practice, this process will become as natural as blinking.
Let's Get Physical About Our Mental Health
Take a minute to relax — flex your muscles as you inhale and release them as you exhale, starting from your head and going to your toes, one breath at a time. Focus on how it feels and take all the time you need to do it. (Pro tip: men need to do Kegels, also.) Then relax and listen to your breath for a moment.
Feel your heartbeat. Your body is a wonder of fantastically complex moving parts, miraculous chemical reactions and, of course, just the grossest stuff you can imagine. Take a moment to appreciate it all. Be grateful for what you have.
Remember What's Happened - Appreciate Your Time
Then, look back on your day. You don’t have to work through it sequentially, just go over what’s happened to you and what you remember.
Thoughts and memories will come flooding in; that’s fine, just take a second to acknowledge each one and then move on.
This is not the time to worry about what your thoughts are. This is the time to just see what’s in your head. See what you’ve picked up in your day’s journey.
If this is the first time you’ve ever done this, you might feel overwhelmed. It’s fine. You are learning about yourself and how your mind works; it’ll be new territory for you. Just observe what's happening in your head for the last 24 hours.
Listen, Feel And Trust Your Body
After you’ve spent a couple of minutes going over the day, go back to focusing on your breath and your heartbeat. Swipe left on every thought that comes along and go back to your breath, heartbeat or any neutral point of focus you choose.
Try to visualize the number one, and repeat it in your head, over and over, until it’s all you think of and all you see. It will take a lot of practice and patience to push out all other thoughts and focus on a number like this, and you will still have to constantly go back to it and refresh your concentration, but it really helps to create calm and be at peace.
Finish With Irrational, Unrepentant Optimism
It is very important to end your meditation with positive thoughts and an attitude of success. The point of this is to get your mind to work with you as a friend and ally!
Even if you feel like it did nothing, understand that you’ve done something extremely worthwhile and beneficial, much like starting a workout routine. Celebrate your beginning and promise yourself to do it again tomorrow.
However you think of affirmations, congratulate yourself with a phrase such as, “I’m doing this to help make my life happy and successful. It’s a great thing and I know it can work.”
It may seem silly, but your brain really does believe what you tell it. So be happy, positive and persistent!
Selfishness Is Necessary For Self-Care
Keep in mind that meditation is personal and subjective. You may only be able to do a minute or two to start, so think of it as beginning a new part of your life. Be grateful that you’re taking care of yourself and finding ways to improve everything you can.
Do not overthink this! Stay with a one day at a time mentality every time you settle down to do it. Repeat a pleasant, kind phrase, “This is a positive, healthy step and I’m grateful I can do this to help myself!” each time you start. Your mind can only act on what you tell it, so tell it to be happy and positive!
You will succeed if you give yourself every chance. Be good to yourself.
Mark Schneider
After a full, but empty career of writing, editing, producing and directing, Mark has settled into a life of sharing and learning, hoping to make many experiences into a teachable wisdom.
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