Towards the end of 2017 I asked my wonderful network of friends to share their most impactful purchase of less than 100 dollars over the past year. Along with the Instant Pots and marriage licenses a few pointed out that the Headspace subscription had been their most impactful purchase.
Around the New Year I downloaded the application and decided I’d commit to the ten free trial days. I enjoyed Andy Puddicombe’s calming British dialect — I suspect if you cannot enjoy his voice then Headspace is a dealbreaker from jump, he guides every meditation in the library— and the simple yet powerful exercises he led me through. The algorithm cleverly found me on social media as my trial was ending and offered a discount for the subscription. I bit.
I’m now 200 days into a resolution to spend at least part of my day, ten minutes if I can, usually in the mornings, often before the coffee, or right after my morning pages, listening to Puddicombe’s soothing baritone and checking into my breath. I’d like to report a calmer, stress-free life as a result of my 30 some hours I’ve spent meditating this year. I can’t exactly do that in good faith — 4 out of 5 meditations I’m spending the time chasing my mind around the room like a puppy who took my socks, trying to get it to return to a gentle focus on my breath for longer than one or two moments— but I also can’t say that there haven’t been subtle, positive changes to my life that may stem from this practice.
If my time meditating has taught me anything, it’s to not look for hard results in this arena, but rather to observe, and to simply practice returning the mind to the breath again and again. And that might be it. And that might be everything.
Happy breathing!