A number of years ago, a friend of mine suggested I start meditating to help with stress. He said he used an app called headspace. I gave it a try for awhile and was trying to do it pretty consistently. However, I stopped as soon as my stress went away and I really got bored of the meditations. Also, the narrator’s voice wore on me. Since then, I tried an app called Calm and really enjoyed the Daily Calm meditation as it was different each day and wasn’t repetitive. The next time stress entered my life, I picked up meditation again and like my first try at regular meditation, I stopped when my stress levels decreased.
Last year, I had two flare ups of my ulcerative colitis both requiring me to consult my gastroenterologist. After the second flare up, I decided to consider meditation just like a medication that I had to take daily. I figured it couldn’t hurt because my colitis issues almost always were caused by some type of stress. When I visited my doctor after I started meditation and told him about it, he said “yeah, I’ve been meditating for 40 years and there is definitely a connection between the brain and the gut”. I really didn’t need his confirmation about meditation, but it was good to know that my doctor was on the same page with not quite an alternative treatment (I’m still on a daily medication), but an additional way to help.
Throughout the last year, I’ve meditated for about 10 minutes a day mostly using the Daily Calm. While meditating longer might help, I feel good about doing the ten minutes. There have been times that I didn’t have cell coverage to get the Daily Calm, so I had to use another meditation that I downloaded. While not as enjoyable as the Daily Calm, it had to do.
Now that I’ve passed 365 consecutive days of daily meditation, I think I can say that it is part of my life. I don’t have a particular time that I meditate, but it is usually towards the end of my workday.
Thank you Calm for helping me achieve this and integrate meditation into my life!