This May I hit the one year mark for meditation. That means I actually showed up every day for ten minutes for me. That’s kind of monumental.

I think I was able to do it because ten minutes isn’t a huge time commitment. Really it’s ten minutes less social media scroll time, which I can certainly spare.

I wish I could say each meditation was perfect, blissful and ohm-inducing, but not so much. There were a few days that I stayed in the zone a little longer than others. But honestly most of the days it’s just like life: scattered, imperfect, and random with moments of clarity and genius.

What I got back from the ten minute a day investment has been really invaluable; little subtle lasting changes in my approach to every day life. For example, I have more patience. I’m not sure how that happened. Maybe it has to do with a better knowledge of time.

I have more pockets of calmness. I think it’s because I am more aware of how busy the mind can be and how random thoughts are always passing through.

I have a better awareness of the ability to change gears and how easy it is. I can remind myself those are just thoughts, they don’t have to be real.

I am more present more often; which makes me feel more grounded in gratitude.  By that I mean instead of rushing from experience to experience, I get little reminders to breathe, be in this moment and soak in all the good stuff. And that goes for the bad stuff too. I know it might sound counter intuitive but now when I am in physical pain I let myself really feel it. Instead of panicking, I focus on where the pain is occurring in my body and give it a number on a scale of 1 to 10. I breathe into it. It really works.

Best of all I feel like I have an increased capacity for every day joy. It’s that feeling of being in the right body at the exact right time in your life. Those moments are fleeting but so delicious.

So how did I do it? I used my phone, ear buds, and a meditation app called Headspace.

They pretty much walk you through everything. Selling features for me were: really cool teaching animations, Andy’s cool British accent and it’s all backed by research. Watch Andy’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon here.

I’ve tried other forms of meditation but for some reason this is the right one for me. You can try it for 10 days for free too, that’s how I got started.  Click the link here to learn more about Headspace.

Would you like to try Headspace for a whole month for FREE? Just comment below and tell me what qualities you want to cultivate through meditation. I’ll pick a winner  on June 30, 2018.