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Building Resilience Through Meditation

19 January 2021

Janie spent time each day listening to ten-minute daily meditations as part of the 10% Happier New Year’s Challenge and was reminded of the many benefits of daily meditation.

Tags: balance, janie read, mindfulness

I’m not someone who typically makes a New Year’s resolution each year, but I do try to start each January with new goals to focus on and ideas about how I’d like the year to unfold. In the early days of 2021, an email from 10% Happier about their New Year’s Challenge caught my eye and I decided to sign up. Mindfulness is not a new concept for me. Several years ago, I read 10% Happier and it had a huge impact on my life. However, over the past year, I’ve gotten out of the habit of engaging in any kind of regular mindfulness practice. Even at my most regular, meditation was never a daily activity for me. At most, I might have meditated three or four days out of the week and only when I felt like I really needed it.

This challenge got my attention because it asks you to commit to 15 days of meditation in the month of January and provides daily guided meditations that are only ten minutes long. I often struggle to fit new things into my routine, but I decided that ten minutes a day for 15 days out of the month was very reasonable, and a commitment I could make.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I’m enjoying these daily meditations. I knew that meditation could be a great tool for managing anxiety and helping to quiet the voice of my inner critic, but I didn’t realize how helpful it could be in building resilience. In the past, I would often do a short, guided meditation if I was feeling really stressed or overwhelmed and needed something to help me push through. With this daily challenge, I’m doing the meditations when they fit best in my day, and not in reaction to something. Telling myself I can fit in ten minutes and working to do so each day has meant that I’ve only missed two days of the challenge so far.

I found that I noticed a dramatic difference in my mood and ability to focus on the two days that I didn’t meditate. I realized the daily sessions improve my temper and my ability to take things in stride. Things that might have felt overwhelming previously feel much more manageable. When I finish a session, I’m calmer and more focused than I was before I began. This renewed focus has allowed me to be more productive and more present in my daily tasks and interactions. My realization that this must be due to my new (almost) daily habit has made me determined to stick with it beyond the month of January. If you haven’t tried daily meditation sessions, I encourage you to check out this challenge before it concludes at the end of January and give daily meditation a try.

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