Meditation 101

If you feel stressed and anxious more often than not then welcome to the club. In our ever increasingly busy world of information overload, these two unwanted companions can seem to take up permanent residency in our lives. Having to maintain the work/life balance while simultaneously multitasking endless to do lists can get to be quite overwhelming which creates the perfect storm of unwanted feels. How does one navigate these storms of certain woe? It may be more simple than you think and doesn't take much time from your busy day. When you begin to feel these pesky squatters start to take up space in your mind, use these two following steps:1. With either your eyes open or closed, begin to count your breaths (without changing your normal breathing patterns) from 1 to 10 with 1 being your inhaling breath and 2 being your exhaling breath up to 10. 2. Focus only on the counting (if you find yourself thinking random thoughts as you count - that's totally fine, observe them, dismiss them, and refocus on the counting)Unlike having to create addition time like most activities designed to get you to a place of calm, this can be done on your way to whatever demands of the day require. The best part is it can be as little as a minute or up to an hour, YOU pick the amount of time you need to get to your happy place. Now doesn't that amount of control make you feel devilishly good inside? It's okay to admit it because YOU ROCK! Now go forward and continue to conquer all of life's demands you busy go-getters!Jameson Holman, AMFT