For all of you who know me personally, it is not a surprise when I say that anything stresses me! For as long I can remember, stress and anxiety have been part of my life. Someone who doesn’t know me would never think that I am someone that is stressed or have anxiety.
I know that several of you can relate to what I am talking about. I did a short blog on anxiety, and I could have gone on and on about it. The thing is, the way anxiety makes me feel might not be quite the same has it is for you. The reason why we feel anxiety or stressed could be for different reasons.
Take me for example, being in the middle of a large crowd makes me anxious. However, put me at the coordination of an event that will gather large crowd and I am on top of the world. It all depends on the setting!
Let’s face it, stress or anxiety is not a walk in the park. Don’t get me wrong , a certain level of anxiety is normal… like the first time your child goes out by themselves, you will have this feeling of apprehension and uneasiness which is totally normal. What is not normal is to feel this way for every single event in your life!
Even though I managed to flourish in my career despite the stress and anxiety, I still felt that I needed to take action and take control on this portion of my life. What could I do to manage this part of my life? I know, meditate!
I can hear you now… meditate? Yes, meditate! Ok, let’s make it clear… meditating does not mean you need to sit with your legs crossed and your hands palm open to the sky, eyes closed and repeat ”aaaaahummmm”!
What is meditation? Meditation is a time to sit down and reflect on yourself. In short, it’s some you (me) time. The exercise of breathing and taking the time to simply empty your mind of any worry will help you simply feel at peace. You get to really exercise inner peace.
When I decided to start doing this, I got introduced to an online android application called Insight Timer. When I first downloaded the app, I was wondering is this simple app would actually help.
So, I started my meditation journey, on a sunny Saturday Morning, at 7h30am, outside in my backyard. The sun was shinning and the temperature was perfect. I thought to myself that it couldn’t hurt to try. Made several searches and finally found something for ”morning, start of the day”. Oh my, it was difficult to listen to the recording… here I am, eyes closed and my mind kept bouncing back and forth on grocery shopping, laundry, prep day, cleaning, chores… name it! I got overwhelmed and probably more anxious and stressed then I originally were when I sat down to meditate. However, one thing from the recording did stick with me… it said a few times that if my mind took over and made me lose focus that is was totally normal, that I just needed to keep focus on breathing; which I did!
I could have decided that this was not for me… but I didn’t! Nothing is easy, even meditating. I thought that having my eyes closed and breathing would be easy. However, flipping the brain switch to off is another story. The main thing is that I did not give up and continued on meditating.
I am not meditating every single day… but I would say that I am 5 days a week. Ever since I started meditating, I am more calm and can deal stressful situations more easily at work.
In life, there are some things you won’t be able to control. The important thing is for you to be able to control your stress levels and anxiety. There are some tools out there, don’t hesitate to use them. Meditation was for me…maybe it’s not for you. I still recommend it… as for the rest, ”it is what it is”!
Love you all!
