A few years ago I have tried meditation for the first time after one of my good friends recommended me as I was going through a dark period in my life (anxiety). 🤯
My Experience 🤔
For the first times, I tried it, I found it very hard to stay focused on my breathing, as my mind was jumping from one thought to another like a monkey. 🐒 In some cases, my anxiety would even increase during mediation practices. That actually was a good sign that I should practice it even more!
When I started meditating I used an app called Headspace. It's a great app to start your meditation journey with. I still use it to this day! ⭐️
Meditation helped me to train my mind to let go of intrusive thoughts and see them just like clouds that are passing by. It made me focus on the external world more than on my internal world which helped to alleviate a lot of anxiety at the time. 🌈
Don't Do This! ✋
A lot of time passed since I started my meditation journey, and even my perception of meditation changed!
You see, before I used to think that mediation will heal my anxiety, but it turned out to more of a coping strategy instead of a healing tool. And I would get anxious if I missed a day of meditating. That's not a good sign...
Now, I see mediation as a tool to give me more clarity about life and connect with nature, god, etc. Not just as a coping tool. However, I implemented a lot more tools into my routine that helped me to heal, like reframing traumatic memories, cognitive tools, cbt tools and a lot more which I cover in this podcast episode:
Increasing Productivity 🏃♂️
Once I integrated meditation into my daily routine, I started to see a shift in my productivity at work too!
Meditation helped me to be more mindful while working, which made me more aware of when my body needed to take breaks. This turned out to be very helpful in my ability to solve coding problems as I no longer was stuck in tunnel vision. 🛤
A good break helped me to refocus my attention on other things and the answer to the problem came randomly while washing the dishes or while doing other errands. I am sure you experienced this too. Let me know if did! 😅
At the moment I meditate for around 10 minutes every morning. I found 10 min to work pretty well for me. I also published a blog post where I go more in-depth about this topic:
Conclusion
For me, meditation made a big change in my life. Not only that, but it also improved my relationships with my friends and family. ☀️
💬 Let me know in the comments below if you tried meditation and what impact it made on your life. Would love to know! 🙂
p.s 🤫 I recently started a podcast called The Anxious Developer where I share my knowledge on how to reduce your stress, become more present and productive as a Developer. I would love to hear your thoughts on it! 😊
Remember, you are worthy, you are loved and you matter! Have a great day! ❤️