When Meditation Feels Hard

Struggling to meditate with a busy brain and a highly sensitive mind? Brenda Carey shares these quick and effective tips to quiet overthinking, calm your nervous system, and help you find acceptance even on hectic days.

Transcript

Do you find yourself saying,

There is no way I could have a consistent meditation practice,

I have a very busy schedule,

My mind is very active,

I couldn't possibly just sit there and listen to the swirling thoughts and emotions that come up,

There's just no way.

I feel you friend,

And I have totally been there.

However,

After having a meditation practice now for well over 20 years,

And surprisingly being a meditation teacher,

I would like to offer you my best tips in having a consistent meditation practice that you genuinely look forward to,

And that really helps you as a sensitive soul.

Blessings,

My name is Brenda Cary,

And I'm a holistic healer for highly sensitive souls.

Allow this time to be a sanctuary for you,

Where you can soften,

Heal,

And awaken your own inner wisdom.

I am so grateful that you are here with me today.

I would love to talk about meditation,

And having a consistent meditation practice,

Especially if you are a highly sensitive person,

Or an empath.

I definitely understand the struggles that highly sensitives have when trying to either introduce or restart a meditation practice.

I have been there before.

When I first started meditating,

I remember I went to my meditation teacher and simply told her that,

You know,

I just,

I don't think I can be good at this meditation thing.

It's really hard for me to just sit there with all of my thoughts,

Unfortunately,

Many of them were negative self-talk.

And she looked at me and said,

Well,

I definitely understand that.

Definitely do.

Those are all struggles,

Having a scattered mind,

Not being able to sit with some of the more painful emotions.

And I said,

Well,

What else could I do instead?

And she just looked me straight in the eye and she just said,

Nothing.

You definitely still need to meditate.

I was like,

Oh,

No free pass there.

My encouragement to you is to shine a light on your meditation practice currently,

Or if you have an interest in starting one.

By no means do I think meditation is the be all and end all of all spiritual practices.

However,

I do notice when I don't meditate for a period of time,

That is when I start becoming much more overwhelmed.

It's harder for me to make simple decisions like what kind of toothpaste I want to buy at the grocery store.

I also start getting more irritable with family members and I just feel a little more frustrated in my work life.

So I'm going to offer these three simple tips that I have learned over the past couple of decades that have helped me to have a consistent meditation practice and stay with me till the end because I'm going to share with you my absolute favorite tool and I share it with all of my clients.

So first things first,

I realized that many people want to meditate because they've heard it's a good thing.

And there's a lot of great science on how meditation can be helpful in a myriad of ways.

But you need to come up with your why and make it rather specific.

Why do you want to start a meditation practice?

Because if you don't have your personal why,

Doing meditation just because it's a good thing to do usually won't stick.

So for example,

Maybe you want to be more focused in your work or creative production.

And so focus or concentration might be your reason why.

Maybe you want to sleep better and having better sleep might be your reason why.

Maybe you're an energy healer and you want to be able to channel divine energy more fluidly.

That might be your why.

There are so many different reasons why.

I just say choose one and make it specific for your life right now.

And just know that over the years,

Your why will change.

I especially say this to those of you who maybe you used to have a meditation practice,

But you know,

Kind of life changed and your season of life is different.

Re-find what your why is now.

So once you have your why,

Then we need to work on what I call the no big deal amount of time.

Oftentimes we self-sabotage our meditation practice because we have this idea of I'm going to meditate for 20 minutes,

Even though maybe you've never meditated or it's been a really long time since you have.

What I ask my clients is what would be on a daily basis,

A no big deal amount of time for you to start meditating and no judgment.

Would it be one minute?

Would it be three minutes,

Five or 10 minutes?

And start with one minute and then slowly work your way up.

And if you can genuinely say,

Oh yeah,

Two minutes,

That's no big deal.

Three minutes.

Okay.

That's no big deal.

Four minutes.

Well,

I don't know.

I don't know if I have that much time.

Consider how much time to you is no big deal and start there.

Even if it quote unquote doesn't seem like enough,

It's enough.

We kind of have to sneak it in to your rational mind that this will be absolutely no big deal to start.

Again,

Once you have your why,

Why you're going to meditate,

Your specific reason,

Then we'll go into what's your no big deal amount of time.

Preferably this needs to be at least most days out of the week.

I always say that a shorter,

More consistent practice is going to be more beneficial than once a week or once every other week for a longer period of time.

And simply schedule it in.

Which leads me to my last tip.

And that is have your space and tools already set up.

Once you have the time of day and the amount of time that you're going to commit to,

Have a specific space that you like.

Make it cozy.

As a highly sensitive person,

I like to sometimes have a blanket,

Something to keep me warm.

I'm not always seated.

Sometimes I lay down.

Sometimes I even stand up if I want a more energizing type of meditation.

When the weather is nice,

I might choose a walking meditation.

That's also a great way to start as well.

But make it comfortably you that aligns with your why.

Now,

As promised,

My absolute favorite tool for a consistent meditation practice,

And this has been true for me for about the last 10 years,

Is the Insight Timer app.

It's an app that I have on my phone.

It is not only meditation,

But it's also beautiful music and sound healing.

There's also courses in the paid version.

You don't necessarily need the paid version.

The free version is great.

I've been a meditation teacher on there for about the past four years.

It's a great place to start.

I have a lot of meditations tailored to a highly sensitive person.

I'm just telling you,

This is what I use on a daily basis that keeps me consistent.

And what I do in the Insight Timer app is I will bookmark seven meditations for that week.

I can even filter as to how much time,

Like if I have five minutes or 10 minutes,

I'll also put that in the search function,

And then there's a filter that I can use.

And I will have my daily meditations bookmarked and set up.

I am a morning meditator,

Sometimes an evening meditator if I need a little help with sleep,

But I will have that ready to go in my sacred space.

And that's how my meditation practice has become consistent over the years.

So I'm curious for you,

What are your barriers to meditation?

I'm curious to know.

And do you have any other tips or tools that you really enjoy?

As always,

Blessings on your healing journey.