Tweaking My Meditation Routine

Now that I'me back on track with meditating almost every evening, I've learned a few tricks that work wonders for me.

• Knowing I won't be interrupted- since I'm a mom, there are only a couple of places or times when I get uninterrupted peace. In the bathroom and/or after my daughter is asleep. I've made my meditation time either in the bathroom while waiting for bath water to fill the tub. The back ground noise is good and my family knows to not interrupt me during bath time. And another time that works is after my daughter goes to sleep.

• Having background noise is helpful- I can't have absolute quiet when meditating or else there is a noise in my head called silence that gets too loud. I put on a mood cd with natural, soothing sounds. If my daughter is asleep, this also won't wake her up.

• Try focus meditation- I have, what looks like a deck of cards, but it is phrases or a specific thought/goal to focus on while meditating. This has been extremely helpful for me. Having something to focus on is probably best for anybody new to meditation, like myself.

Everyone's Excuse

I'm just like everyone else who says "I'm too busy". I swore, after being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis that I would not make myself too busy again. My theory about illnesses, at least part of how I got RA, is overextending myself in every aspect of life. It's not enough that I'm a wife, mother, daughter, worker, blogger, friend, but add to that a need to be a perfectionist.

Yep, I swore off all this chaos and decided to begin my self-help journey only to be right where I started 3 months ago- doing too much and not taking care of myself. Isn't that everyones' excuse about not taking care of themselves. "I don't have the time!" How do you get everyone else to accept how important you are, enough to demand time to help yourself and be healthy and happy? Everyone is overextending themselves so we hate to see anyone being happy or having leisure time.

There is a reason for my ramble. Needless to say, I've taken the last couple of weeks off from meditating. You see, meditation is time away from other people, mainly my 3 yr old. Well, that's impossible. She always needs something and I seem to be the only one who can give it to her. In other words, 3 years after my daughter's birth, it is still hard to get away and a big part of my stress. I haven't been away from her more than about 3 hours since she was born.

Well I hope to back on track with my meditation. I resumed it tonight and it was nice, but made it hard to go back to chaos right afterward.