So I started dabbling with daily meditation in November. First off, a few caveats: I am not converting to buddhism, and I don’t fancy myself some spiritual guru.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I would love to share what meditation means to me, how I think it will help you, and how to get started.

It’s one of the most difficult things i’ve ever tried to learn because it takes a different type of discipline – total concentration, time, and lots of practice.

When I first started I literally had no idea what was going on. I would sit there, eyes closed and breathing… basically waiting for it to end.

But… before pulling the chute, I did some research. I reached out to Jonathan Fields after reading his book, Uncertainty, and he pointed me to a few really cool resources. I was also inspired by this really cool personal anecdote on meditation from JC Deen.

So here I was, confused guy looking to meditate his way to a stress free, hyper-productive life, but how did I actually start meditation?

The premise of meditation for me is focused awareness, living in the present moment, and being aware your body.

I’ll save you the spiritual cheesefest, whilst trying to explain a bit about each below.

Starting out I struggled like crazy

I started meditating in November for a few reasons. Long days and bad sleep, but also i’m also just curious about ways to promote well-being, increase productivity, etc.

Coming from a psychology background, stress and anxiety are two things I spend a lot of time thinking about. The spiritual aspect of mindfulness meditation always popped up in psychology research as viable alternatives to your standard drug therapy approach.

I also, have this issue where I can never turn my mind off and ‘let go.’ When I go to bed, my mind goes crazy and I can’t sleep because its racing so fast.

I feel like a lot of people share similar issues – daily meditation can help you because it’s helped me.

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