I stumbled upon Headspace in 2013 as a freshman in college. In hindsight, I was an incredibly anxious 18 year old. I struggled to emotionally self-regulate my emotions and was chronically impatient.

Headspace was my entry point to self-discovery. But while guided meditations got me in the door, the real mental and spiritual unlocks have come into my life recently through silent meditation.

In today’s edition, we’re going back to basics to understand the core principles of meditation and what it can offer for our minds, bodies and souls.

Whether you’re a seasoned meditator or have never tried it, I hope today’s edition leaves you with some practical tools you can experiment with this week.

Let’s get into it.

💡 Is meditation boring?

If you’ve never meditated before, it may be because you consider it a waste of time. You might be thinking: how interesting can it be to sit in silence?

To which I’d answer, extremely interesting. We have an entire galaxy of thoughts, feelings and emotions living inside of us.

Still, many of us never bother to explore our inner world. We direct the majority of our attention, a majority of the time, on the external one.

In truth, what lies within you will blow your mind, if you allow yourself the time to explore it with curiosity.

A few things that silent meditation has unlocked for me:

• Connection to my intuition

• Connection to God

• Ability to self-regulate emotions & anxiety

• Experiencing the Thinker vs. Observer paradigm

• Discovering my purpose

You can think of meditation as a navigational tool that brings you home to You. With practice, it becomes the space in which you get to know the real You. The You beneath your thoughts, feelings and emotions. The core of You. In this way, meditation can actually become quite addicting.

When you start out on your meditation journey, you will spend time getting frustrated when your mind wanders. You’ll say things like “I’ve tried meditating, but I’m really bad it” or “I just can’t seem to focus my attention.”

The truth is, the goal of meditation isn’t to stop the mind from wandering. It’s to strengthen the muscle of noticing when it wanders, and gently bringing the attention back to center.

The act of noticing is Consciousness. This ability to notice, and then coach yourself through the process of redirecting your energy back to center, is the practice. You’re doing it right!!!

While guided meditations are a great way to start out, you don’t want to spend too much time there. The real growth comes from allowing your mind the space to wander and then discovering the tools within you to bring yourself back to the present moment.

A few tips depending on where you’re at in your journey:

If you’ve never meditated before…

1. Download the Balance App. (It’s free for 1 year.) Start with the 10-day Foundations I course. I recommend taking the first 3 foundations courses over the course of 30 days.

2. Read Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. This is a great primer for silent meditation.

If you’re a seasoned meditator, but feel stagnant in your practice:

1. If you’re using Guided meditations, try moving to silent meditations. I like using the timer from Medito (it’s free).

2. Read (or reread) Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. For years I struggled to experience the thinker vs. observer. This book in combination with a silent meditation practice unlocked this for me in just a few days. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please let me know in a reply to this email so I know to cover that in a future edition :)

🧠 1% smarter

If you listen to one thing this week, let it be this:

Diary of a CEO: The Exercise Neuroscientist

Format: PodcastTime Commitment: 1 hr 30 minsWhy bother: Last week’s edition was titled “If you want to change your body, change your mind.” I should really follow that up with “If you want to change your mind, move your body.” This episode with neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki delves into the science behind how exercise improves various aspects of our brain function, including our mood and memory, and can even help prevent dementia as we age.

🫶 Actions

1. Try a silent meditation. I can recommend Medito’s free timer tool.

2. Read Untethered Soul. Get your copy!

That’s all for now. Thank you for being here.

See you next week!

Love, Brooke

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