Can meditation help this dumpster fire?

How to find a deep exhale in the midst of chaos.

the very orderly props at my yoga studio. finding calm in the chaos wherever I can.

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So, I had an entirely different post and practice planned for today.

But I spent the weekend visiting my parents. There to help in what has become a loooong, slow process of clearing out my childhood home, which they’ve lived in for 45 years, in order to (one day!) downsize. 😅

My parents — maybe like some of yours — are the type that like to keep the news on all. day. long. Always a hum of headlines, nonstop, in the background.

So let’s just say I’ve been catching a lot of 24-hour-news-cycle and commentary this weekend.

And, well, I can feel that impact on my nervous system.

This isn’t a post about “how to take in less” or unplug from our phones or a reminder that you can opt out of the endless news cycle, while still keeping yourself informed.

All of those are great.

But the fact is, no matter how much we monitor our screen time (or whatever), we’re still going to encounter challenging, scary, bad, worrisome things.

And sometimes there’s so many of those things at once, we find ourselves in a moment of a dumpster fire, whether it’s a personal thing you’re grappling with in your individual life or a collective moment we share.

As I’m working on my book project, I’m sifting through a lot of material I wrote in 2020, 2021, and even 2022 — when we were in the midst of another dumpster fire, aka the pandemic.

In those years, I was running 40 Early Mornings as a virtual group program. And re-reading the comments and questionnaire responses from my people in those years reminded me: oh right, meditation can actually help in wildly uncertain and stressful times.

Here’s the thing though — I’m not going into marketing mode, where I overpromise what meditation can do to help (and write the disclaimer in really fine print).

Sometimes I still want to believe, too, that the next “Follow These 3-Steps Exactly” post will be the ultimate life hack to solving everything. But I know that’s not true.

So here’s my VERY unsexy promise about meditation and dumpster fires: meditation CAN give you tremendous relief in the moment (if you practice the right technique, more on that in a moment!). AND over time, with consistent practice, you will start to see that the small shifts and continued cultivation of certain inner qualities really do help you keep your head on a little straighter (for the most part) when you need it the most!

(LOL I would be a terrible used car salesman or influencer 😆)

REFLECT ::

So the question for you today is — what is your normal reaction to chaos? What do you do when you encounter news or a situation in front of you that causes stress? What about when it’s … chronic, in the sense that whatever is causing this dis-ease is not going away anytime soon? Where does that dissonance, that fear, that frustration, that anger (rage?) go for you? What happens to it? Do you have a way of processing it that’s effective?

MEDITATE ::

Today’s practice helps you take the lid off the pot of boiling water (that’s you my dear one) and blow off some much needed steam.

The meditation is 6.5 minutes long, but you will quickly see that this skill is one you already have access to. And once you practice this here with me, you can do it anytime or anywhere you need to. You don’t even need a quiet, special meditation spot to practice this.

Sitting in your parked car right now or standing in your kitchen? Perfect. Let’s go!