Year 2015

I meditate 30 minutes every morning when I wake up and right before I go to bed,” she said to me. “Would you like to join?” I hosted a woman traveling around the world on a meditation journey. She had already been to Bali, India, and New Zealand. She met a friend of mine who referred her to me. I happily hosted her in my house for a few nights. It was her first night in Taiwan and my first introduction to meditation. I had heard of it before, and I knew what it was, but I had never done it.

I said, “Okay, what do I do?” 

“You just focus on the breath,” she told me, “How your body moves up and down as you breathe. When you feel something in your body, focus on that until it goes away and then go back to the breath.” “Okay…” I replied sheepishly.

I sat there thinking, “What am I doing? Is it supposed to be like this? Okay, breathe. Okay, now my foot feels sore. Okay, don’t think about that, think about breathing. What the hell am I doing? This is so stupid. Keep breathing.” A thought pops up. Immediately I don’t know what to think. It hadn’t been on my mind for some time. But it came up and surprised me. I think, “Maybe there is something to this.” Then the sound goes off. The minutes that once felt like forever went by so fast. She asked, “So… how was it?” I replied, “It was interesting.”

I sat with her again in the morning and a third time in the evening before she left. From there, my meditation journey began. The first thing I noticed was that I slept well at night. I sometimes had trouble with insomnia; the mind would go down rabbit holes and replay conversations late into the night. So much that I would get up and write things down just to get them out of my head. Now, I could close my eyes and go to sleep. This was a major benefit for me. It is the reason I stuck with it. Thirty minutes turned into twenty and sometimes into ten, but the most important thing was that I stuck with it.

The journey has not been a straight line. Sometimes I meditate every day and other times months will go by without a single sit down. But it comes up in my life in other ways. When I feel nervous, I tell myself to breathe. When I feel anxiety, I tell myself to breathe. The single most important thing we can do is slow down our breath. Meditation taught me that.

Fast Forward to 2023

The simple act of asking me to join her changed my life. Mindfulness makes me react slower, think twice about my actions, and stop myself from spiraling with doubts. It is still a choice I make to sit down and dedicate time to focus on the breath. I use a mix of meditation, visualization, and journaling when there is something difficult going on in my life. It helps me to slow down and take the bird’s-eye view of my thoughts and actions. I have to constantly remind myself that it is a journey and that it is not linear. It takes many twists and turns. I will be distracted. I will fall asleep. I will notice things that are difficult. But I will always make the conscious choice to sit down and practice.

Don’t just take my word for it

I encourage you to try it for yourself. Each time you sit down to reflect and focus on your breath, you’re tending to the garden of your mind, fostering growth and cultivating a deeper understanding of yourself. Learn about the power of your mind. Each person’s mind is different and each reaction is totally normal.