Why we 21st century beings should meditate, especially when it’s hard!!!

Do you have trouble meditating? When you try, are your thoughts all over the place, like a boingy ball bouncing all over the room? I feel you boo!! And it's not your fault!!

In our flighty 21st century world, we're running at a million miles an hour. We’re driving in cars, flying on planes, and swiping around the world all day on social media.

All of this makes it super challenging to calm down and connect to our breath–even for people working a job in one place!

But for those who commute to work or travel regularly, it’s even harder to slow down our nervous systems!

Ayurveda, the sister science to yoga, explains how this mental chaos often plagues us nomads because travel increases our "vata" (air) energy. Vata energy corresponds to movement, dryness,—and anxiety!!

This is why after traveling (even from home to your office!), our mind is often racing at a million miles an hour. And it feels so challenging to slow down.

But slowing down what we need most!! To ground. To connect to earth energy. To take deep breaths. To come back to the present moment, here, and now.

Because what happens when we don’t calm our nervous systems? For many of us, our anxiety starts to fester. We get insomnia, panic attacks, heart palpitations. Our mind goes to terrible, imaginary places!!

For others, we reach out for substances to ground ourselves. We overeat. We drink alcohol. Often we find ourselves opening the bottle or the pint of ice cream without even realizing why we’re doing it!

But it’s our bodies, needing to pull ourselves back to earth after being in motion. And since we haven’t dedicated the time to ground in a more nourishing way, the body will settle for whatever method it can.

If the ice cream and alcohol is working for you, by all means continue dear goddess. But if you’ve read this far, I’m assuming you’re looking for alternative ways to calm down!

Some great options include drinking a cup of warm tea with herbs like chamomile, cinnamon, or lavender. Eating a grain bowl with root vegetables. Walking outside in nature. Hugging a tree. Doing some grounding yoga asanas like child’s pose, yogi squats, or shivasana.

And perhaps best of all… meditation!!!

But let’s be real–even though meditation is what we need most after traveling, it often feels impossible to do!

We sit down, and start twitching. Our mind is racing everywhere. So we give up, and say that we're not cut out for meditation!

But you are boo!! Everyone is!! Trust me, if crazy hyperactive me can learn to meditate, even after trips, you can too!! Here are a couple of tips to help!

Before you meditate, check in with yourself if you want to simply breath in silence, or if you’d benefit from a guided meditation.

Personally, after I’ve been on the go, I find guided meditations incredibly helpful since they provide a little structure after all the hecticness!

If you choose guided meditation, use a meditation app or go on youtube and type in the energy you are choosing to step in. For example, “Meditation for peace and calming.” These days you can literally find amazing meditations for everything!!

Here’s a great enhancement to your meditations after traveling!!

When you sit down to meditate, imagine roots (like the roots of a tree) descending from your feet deep into the center of the earth. Imagine the calming energy from the earth coming up through the roots and infusing into your body, mind, and soul. Let any anxiety and stress descend down through those same roots into the center of the earth to be transmuted.

Finally, dear goddess, as you meditate, please be compassionate with yourself! Especially when you meditate the day or two after traveling.

Give yourself a hug if you can't concentrate, even during a guided meditation. It's totally natural!

But by committing yourself to deep breathing today, even with your racing thoughts, it will be easier to concentrate tomorrow.

And if you suffer from anxiety like so many of us, meditation is a key to calming, healing, and stepping into your power! I've seen it work wonders not only in myself but also my clients, especially the nomads!

I invite you this week to embrace all the messiness of post-travel meditation!! Celebrate the racing thoughts! The monkey mind. It's all good booboo!

But keep showing up for meditation. Whether it's guided meditation, or simply lying down in bed, taking deep breaths, and connecting to spirit energy, meditating is one of the greatest gifts we can give our body, mind, and soul as beings on the move!!