A Personal Journey into Meditation
How would it feel to move through your day with greater ease and flow? To no longer feel like you had a hamster wheel of thoughts running through your head all day, and to find yourself not being as reactive in stressful situations?
Before I began my Transcendental Meditation practice over three years ago, those were some of the things I struggled with. The constant, frazzled feeling was the worst and I found it to be exhausting.
I had heard about the many benefits of a meditation practice, I even tried a number of times to establish a daily habit but it just wouldn’t stick. The problem was that I didn’t do it with any consistency. I would practice maybe 10 minutes for a few days in a row, and then because I didn’t notice immediate results, I would quit.
And then one day, serendipity came into play. I was listening to a fascinating podcast, This is Fifty, where they were interviewing Bob Roth, a long time TM practitioner and head of the David Lynch Foundation. Bob was talking about how Paul McCartney and Jerry Seinfeld had both been meditating for over 40 years. How they attributed their long and successful careers in part to their practice and the many benefits they appreciated, such as increased focus, clarity and creativity and better control over their thoughts. What?? Better control over thoughts? Sign me up! I immediately looked it up and discovered that a new 3 day session was beginning in 4 days, only 3 miles from my house.
Fast forward...I now practice TM twice a day for 20 minutes each and although I initially wondered how I would fit this into my schedule, I now find it to be an essential part of my day. The days flow more smoothly, small things don’t seem to bother me like before, and I no longer have the constant racing mind.
Because meditation was so transformational for me, I wanted to share that with others, yet I knew that TM training wasn’t always accessible to everyone, so I became certified to teach another form of meditation, called Hong Sau (pronounced Saw).
Hong Sau and TM are similar in many ways: they are both mantra based, can be done anywhere/anytime, require no special accessories or sounds and simply call for the non-judgemental awareness of thoughts passing through our minds. When you find yourself thinking, you just bring yourself back to the mantra. Both are simple and effective.
One of the things I love most about meditating is what we call a “deep dive.” In a 20 minute session it can happen within a few minutes or it can take 15 minutes before you feel yourself sinking into a deep deep state of relaxation - where you know things are going on around you, you’re aware, and yet you’re in a different state. No matter how long it takes, the feeling afterwards is of deep relaxation and calm. It’s what keeps me coming back time after time.
If you have wanted to try meditating but struggle with the time commitment like I did, or find yourself resisting it for any other reason, I promise if you give it an honest try, you won’t regret it. Your day will flow more smoothly, you’ll feel more calm, better able to hear your inner voice and in time you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Heidi Fryman is an ADAPT Certified Functional Health Coach and Certified Hong Sau Meditation instructor in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
You can reach Heidi by sending her a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heidifrymanwellness/
Or you can email her at heidifrymanwellness@gmail.com or text at 612-220-7555.
