A majority of the people that come on our Live Better Wellness Retreats don’t consider themselves (regular) meditators. In fact, many don’t believe they are capable of doing so at all, albeit they are willing to try.
We find this person exists mostly in the “Type A” archetype, with feelings of chronic stress, a busy schedule, and little time for self care as it is. We often hear, “I can’t even find time to workout or sit down to a meal…how am I supposed to add (20 minutes) of meditation on top of that?!”

The answer is you don’t, at least not in a large block of time. Why does meditation have to last 60 minutes? 30 minutes? Even 10 minutes?

Does taking one, singular, present-state focused breath count as “meditation?” We say yes. And it might be all you need to get your meditation journey started.

We find the biggest mistake people make with meditation is expecting far too much. The idea that you can “empty your mind” is false; in fact, why would you want to completely empty it? The goal is to simply harness our focus, sometimes even just bringing our focus back to a center point is enough. Taking one good conscious breath, focused on your well-being, is an awesome start.

Let’s try it today. The next time you feel stressed, simply put whatever you’re doing down for 30 seconds, walk away (preferably outside, but a quiet conference room, bedroom, bathroom, boardroom, or the like will do), close your eyes, and take one huge breath in and out. Shake it out, open your eyes, and go back to what you were doing. Bonus points if you smile headed back in.

This should take roughly 10-30 seconds. Anything or anyone can wait for 10-30 seconds.

Stop putting unnecessary pressure on your meditation performance. In fact, just simply remove any of the stigma you have of whatever you think it looks or feels like. Take a 10-30 second break, take one huge breath in and out, and go back to work.

Congrats, you just meditated.

Make today the best day ever. Take a one-breath break when you need to. Go get it.