Meditation Journey Update

I wanted to write about my journey into getting into meditation in this blog, specifically Vedic meditation. Meditating isn’t easy for me because I am not inherently good at sitting still. This is probably one of my less endearing traits to my husband. Haha.  

I have children and I also run a business, so, meditating was the last thing on my mind considering my busy schedule. Months ago, I interviewed my friend, my chiropractic school roommate, Dr. Lisa Papenbrok.  She talked about her meditation journey.  During the Thanksgiving weekend, I finally decided to do the introductory course with her teacher.

I am used to doing a ton of continuing education where they give you lots of papers, handouts, and other stuff you can go over and go back to. However, it was different for Vedic meditation as it is more of a tradition passed from one generation to another. When they tell you about it, you basically just sit and absorb without reading, which is not exactly my best way of learning. It was good to try something completely different and outside of my typical comfort zone.  

My Meditation Journey

Vedic Meditation is done without any apps or props.  You simply need a place to sit and a calm and quiet place.   My teacher gave me a mantra that I am not supposed to share with anyone. It is not a word, but more of a sound.  We don’t want to have that outer chatter in our brains.

What I like about the practice is the teacher emphasized that it’s not about being uncomfortable or sitting rigidly. It is a flexible practice.  I just had to find a spot to sit with a support on my back and my head upright. I can do it anywhere… on a chair, in my car, or at work. I find that this works perfectly for the crazy schedule of a working mom. I can squeeze the practice in almost anywhere.  

I have used apps in the past where they would lead me through the meditation, but from what I gathered from my four days of course work with my teacher is that a led meditation cannot get you into the deepest states of rest. The deepest states of rest is where we can let stress go. Supposedly, those 20 minutes of meditation are even MORE restful than an entire night’s sleep.  

Stress is relative and everyone has different levels of stress and people process stress differently. My life is very busy. It’s very stressful because I have two toddlers and I run my own business via brick and mortar and virtually. There are different stressors that come with my life and work and that can weigh too heavily on me. I was really intrigued with getting to the point of meditation where it can release past stress that has accumulated in my body.  

When I was trying to decide whether or not to give meditation a try, my biggest stumbling block was carving out an extra 44 minutes a day.  I do not have 44 extra minutes in a day to allocate for meditating. I know it’s crazy, but my typical Tuesday and Thursday work day is to get up at 6 A.M., leave the house at 7 A.M., and get to work and treat patients from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. There is an hour break in between that, but I am usually still doing my notes and charting while I am eating during the break. After 8 P.M. I stay at the clinic and do more charting and I don’t get home until 10 or 10:30 P.M. I felt that I really could not squeeze in meditating because I barely get any restful sleep. Meditation is supposed to be 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night with two minutes each to come out of it.  During the meditation course, my  teacher said that the 20 minutes where you get to the point of supreme rest is MORE restful than sleep. I sleep terribly and that is really what convinced me to find the time to meditate. If I could get more rest and possibly sleep better, I thought it would be a good trade.  

I committed to meditating until the end of the year. I would say that in the beginning, I was doing really well.  We had an extremely stressful event two weeks after that and have been struggling a lot the past three weeks. I have missed a few meditations for the entire day and a few days where I only got one in for the day.  I found it hard to meditate when I was almost ill with stress. It really forces you to face what your stressors are and sit in it. I always have to remember what my teacher said that it’s okay to have thoughts come in during meditation because that is you letting go of stress. When thoughts flood you while meditating, just try to come back to your mantra and let the thoughts float away.   I’d say that it’s going better than what I expected it would be for me because I thought there was absolutely no way that I would be able to spare the 44 minutes necessary for meditating. If you’re on the fence of trying meditation because you don’t have the time, I am telling you, as someone who pulls 16 hours of work two to three times a week in my brick and mortar office and does a weekly podcast and social media content on the other days, it can be done.

I also want to discuss one of the effects of meditating: being more calm or not having such a short fuse. I haven’t seen the full effects of me snapping at my family members or my kids because of stress. It’s been particularly stressful for two and a half weeks now and I don’t know how much worse it would have been if I hadn't been meditating.  I snapped at my son a week into altering our schedules drastically and my daughter, who is older, put her arm around her brother and walked him back into his room. She told my son, “Don’t worry, mommy is just under a lot of stress.” If this does not make you want to keep meditating or whatever you do to help manage stress better, I don’t know what will.  It was a huge wake-up call that I need to actively try to be better and manage it. It’s also important to show our kids the constructive ways to have and maintain a happy, healthy life.

As a musculoskeletal practitioner, stress eats people alive physically and mentally. If somebody does not address their stress level, it makes my job so much more difficult to address their physical issues. If they have a mental and emotional tie with their pelvic floor and they are not addressing the root cause of their stress, it’s going to be next to impossible to get full resolution of that issue. For example, I got a ton of tension in my jaw over the past two and a half weeks and I ended up with terrible headaches. I do not have time for terrible headaches.  If I don’t address those stressors in my life and different issues affecting me physically, it is not going to get better. A ton of muscle work will only give me temporary relief.  I also have to do a ton of breath work while incorporating the meditation practice.  Just something to think about. The mental-emotional and physical aspects of our lives are tied together. It is not in a “woo-woo,” all in your head kind of way. It is true in a biochemical sense.  

Conclusion

Pick whatever way you want to address your stress. I like this Vedic meditation because I feel like it’s so much bang for your buck. I already get 20 minutes of deep rest twice a day and I get to release some built-up stress I’ve been having for the past years.

If you want to hear more about Vedic meditation, you can listen to my podcast with Dr. Lisa Papenbrock.

If you have any more questions regarding these tools, you can drop it in the comment section or you send me a message through Facebook or Instagram. I’d be happy to do another podcast about your questions. Also, if you want me to talk about something specific, let me know!

You can also check my TikTok account as I use the platform to educate viewers about movement, chiropractic education, yoga, pregnancy, and more! 

Thank you for listening and see you next week!