Transformative and Refreshing Meditation

Fun fact: Last semester I meditated at least once a day! St. Thomas is a huge advocate of meditation and has three free classes weekly that are aimed at helping students de-stress and meditate.  While I haven't taken advantage of these classes, which is silly because one of them includes yoga which I pay $15 a class for down the road at CorePower, I was introduced to it during a mentoring breakfast at school.

Pick a Mantra!

For me, the most important part about meditating is to pick a mantra or a word to focus on throughout the meditation.  Love, Kindness, Earth, Happiness, are all good ones.  The hardest part of meditating is to stay focused on nothingness - to draw your thoughts away from the world and inward - to you.

It's so Good for YOU!

For me, I have a hard time sticking with things unless there's proven value that I can recognize from doing it.  Studies show that meditating helps ones overall health, helps with depression greatly, helps you live longer, helps your memory, and decreases anxiety.  Meditating actually changes your brain, causing different parts of it to light up and be more engaged and active than if you weren't meditating!

Clearing your Mind? 

One of the goals of mediating is to not let your mind wander into "thoughts" of the outside world.  However, when meditating my guide/instructor constantly reminded us to not feel bad about it happening.  It's completely normal to think of outside thoughts, and you shouldn't punish yourself for it.  Simply reel your thoughts back in and focus again on meditating.  Repeat as often as necessary and never beat yourself up for it!

Where to meditate and how to do it? 

I like to meditate in my room with the free Calm app.  I love the Calm app because it has beautiful backgrounds to bliss out to, white noise for after you meditate, and a great selection of free guided meditations such as a body scan.  

Another even better choice for a free and huge selection of guided meditations is the University of St. Thomas's Project for Mindfulness and Meditation app that includes 22 different meditations such as Laughter, Purifying, Living from our True Self, and more.  

What's your meditating experience like?  Are you up to trying it?  I'd say challenge accepted ;)