How To Meditate If You're Lazy

If you don’t meditate regularly your idea of meditation might be something like this:

I started meditating in 2018 and started regularly meditating in 2020 after reading several anecdotal tales of people fully overcoming anxiety and panic attacks after starting a regular meditation practice.

Yes, people fully overcoming serious mental health challenges through a consistent practice of meditation.

I want to clear the air and say that no, you don’t need to be criss-cross applesauce, in the middle of a field, at 5am, to meditate, lol.

There are many forms of meditation and you can keep it as simple and short or long and complex as you’d like.

I’m going to break down some really simple ways you can get into the practice of meditating starting with the simplest:

Balancing Your Mental Input & Output

There is so much noise in the world today, so much social media, so much news, so much Jeffrey Bezos on your doorstep, so much going on all the time.

You can fall into this never-ending cycle of trying to enhance your productivity by listening to podcasts while you’re in the shower, audiobooks while you’re driving, and checking to see if you have any new work emails you while you’re at a redlight, only to get honked at moments later (guilty).

The reality is the internet is pretty much infinite, and with good ol’ AI, the amount of content one can consume is vastly expanding.

There’s always going to be another news story, another book, another productivity hack, another friend of your dog’s twice removed cousin that’s getting married and for some reason you’re spending your precious time investigating.

There’s SO. MUCH. INPUT.

Input = consumption, checking your phone, listening to something, reading, binge-watching a show you don’t even really enjoy.

The beauty of input is that we have the power to control its levels in our lives.

Okay wow yeah I really went on a tangent here, back to meditation.

If you’re not ready to drop fully into meditation, a simple life change you can make is making a conscious effort to balance the amount of input and output in your life.

When you’re driving or walking, instead of blasting music, throwing on a podcast, or downloading irrelevant opinions to your subconscious, you have the option to choose mental output.

Output = letting your mind think. Letting your thoughts run free. Sitting with your silence and noting your feelings.

Over the years I’ve found this output, this space to process, incredibly valuable for my mental health and you will too.

Of course we have a mental health crisis in the US when most people are constantly hooked up to portable slot machines we call phones and in states of sensory overload.

The more you take a step back and choose to give yourself space for mental peace free from interruption, the more easily you’ll be able to navigate and deal with your anxiety or other mental health issues.

Next up is yoga, and boy oh boy do I love yoga.

YOGA

In my opinion, yoga’s easier than traditional meditation because “iT’s A mOviNg mEditAtion.” I know, I know… so cliche. It’s true.

But really, yoga is insanely good for you. The less tight you are physically the less tight you are mentally. Countless studies have proven yoga's significant positive impact on your mental health.

I think a huge part of this is because you’re breathing into different muscles of your body, and releasing pent-up tension from the recent argument you had with your boss or uncle.

Plus, you’re forced to be off your phone and present for an hour and if you go to a studio you’re able to build a community of people that are mental health conscious.

An active yoga practice was one of the key changes I made that completely turned my mental health around.

Getting Started With Active Meditation

There are several ways you can go about this. You can download apps like Headspace and Calm to your smartphone, find local places in your community that host meditations or utilize one of my all-time favorite platforms, YouTube.

When you’re starting out I want to remind you of what it feels like to start going to the gym. It’s not fun at first. It’s not easy at first. However, a few months later when you’re sleeping better, feeling happier, and looking sexy, you realize starting was an amazing decision.

You don’t have to lift heavy weights right off the bat. You can actually just sit in silence for one minute. Literally, I mean that, one minute of mindfulness has been proven to reduce your stress and blood pressure levels while improving your sleep and mood.

What I mean by “watch your thoughts” is to take a back seat perspective in your mind. Instead of reacting to every thought or feeling you have, you just practice observing what’s going on in your mind, and labeling thoughts or emotions.

For example, let’s say you’re sitting for your one minute of mindfulness and you’re having a bunch of stressful thoughts about work. You would label this as “stressful thoughts about work” and let it float by.

The more you practice mindfulness, the better you’re able to respond to situations in real life because the less reactive you are to your own thoughts and feelings.

Longer Meditations + My Favs

The longest I’ve ever meditated for was around four hours. I have a wild story about this experience but for the sake of keeping this post short for our warped attention spans I’m going to leave it out this time.

I’ve found my personal sweet spot to be meditating anywhere from 10-30 minutes.

Since beginning meditating, I’ve gone through phases where I’ve been consistent and phases where I’ve given it up completely.

Every single time I start meditating again I can’t imagine why I ever previously stopped.

As you can imagine, right now I’m in monk mode. Meditating every day, loving it.

My favorite time to meditate is the last thing before bed. I find meditating at night helps me relax and clear any unresolved tension from my day, so I wake up feeling rejuvenated and calm instead of wondering what in the world is taking Sam so long to respond to my proposal.

I’ve realized over the years I prefer guided meditations and have tried countless variations on YouTube.

If you have a specific ailment or issue you’re working on resolving, I recommend you search on YouTube (I promise, YouTube didn’t sponsor this post, sadly) “meditation for _________” and inserting what it is you’re trying to overcome.

The Following Are Three Of My All-Time Favorite Meditations:

I really enjoy alternating between these three meditations because combined they incorporate gratitude, visualization, forgiveness, and some inner child work. Pretty epic combo right?

1. Gratitude

2. Forgiveness

3. Visualization One & Visualization Two (I know, I know… I said three, and there’s four, forgive me)

I hope you learned something from this post and it was valuable to you one way or another. There’s a link below where you can easily share with your friends, family, or people you know could really use a chill pill.

If you have any questions about meditation feel free to drop me a note.

If meditation has also changed your life, feel free to reach out as well, I’d love to hear your story.

With love & gratitude,

Chris