A few months ago while scrolling through my Twitter feed, I came across the mention of a meditation app called Headspace (don't worry, this is NOT a sponsored post in any way shape or form). Meditation along with yoga is something I've tried to get in to several times in the past, each time losing interest very quickly.
Still my curiosity was aroused and so off I went to find out more. The app looked quite fun and didn't seem to take itself too seriously. It reminded me a lot of Duolingo in the way that it approached the teaching aspect. Lots of fun looking characters, animations and other bits and bobs to keep you amused. Considering the dryness of the subject had turned me off in the past, this actually appealed to me so when I saw that you could get the first ten days for free I wasted no time in downloading it.
And then came the hard part.
One of the things that sold me was that each session was only ten minutes long. Perfect. Except it turned out that even finding that small amount of time with Alessi in tow was simply impossible.
I hadn't wanted to tell Dan what I was doing as I thought he would laugh at me, but I soon realised that I was going to need his help if I was going to carve out ten minutes each morning. To his credit, he didn't bat an eyelid. I guess he figured that anything that could help me get through the day was worth trying.
Long story short; that was over two months ago and I'm still meditating every day. I finished the free ten days and was hooked so I paid for a year's subscription, which I will admit, was pricey. And if I'm being completely honest, I was afraid for the first few weeks that while it was a nice little app, I had just pissed away fifty odd quid. I told you it was pricey.
Once you subscribe you have to complete a further two levels of basic meditations, The first level which is ten days long is the part you get for free. The other two make up the foundation course which I really enjoyed. Once you've completed this foundation course you unlock the rest of the meditation library and it was when I got to this point that I realised I had got my money's worth.
There are guided meditations for everything. Anxiety, confidence, relationships, pregnancy, creativity, productivity, running, sleeping blah, blah, blah. Having already completed one, I can hand on heart say it's made a massive difference.
Hence this post. I am slightly embarrassed to come out of the meditation closet, more so in fact that I am of sharing that oh so natural photo of myself meditating above*
But I've come to find that there are only two things that really work in making me feel calmer during stressful times, running and meditation. As I am well out of the running habit and because I'm easily put off by rain, sun, the fact that there's a 'y' in the day etc, meditation has become an important part of my daily routine and I just wanted to share it.
I read so many posts written by people feeling overwhelmed and wanting to find some calm in their days, but not knowing where to start. If this sounds familiar and the idea of meditation doesn't sound too cringe worthy, then why not give it a go?
*And by "meditating" I mean, pretending to meditate and by photo of myself, I mean a picture so heavily filtered it's barely me at all. Oh the joys of blogging.
