It's Ok If Your Child Can't Sit Still & How Yoga Helps New Habits Stick

This might be hard to believe, but sitting still for a 2 minute meditation or staying still in savasana (relaxation pose) at the end of yoga class was a massive challenge for me not too long ago.

Sitting still for 2 minutes to meditate might sound so simple, but this has been a habit I have been working on since 2018!

Yesterday, after completing my now 30 minute morning meditation, I took a moment to reflect on how far I had come and I felt really proud.

• Proud of not completely giving up.

• Proud of persisting with something I knew was so beneficial.

• Proud of not listening to the unhelpful stories I had been telling myself.

The first time I ever tried meditation was in 2012. 

I had gone through a difficult personal life experience and was looking for ways to manage stress. 

I tried a drop in meditation class, but eventually made up some excuses about time and money and stopped going to class.

I tried meditation again in 2018 with the HeadSpace App when I had an injury and couldn’t practice yoga.  

I gave it a good hot go, but just couldn't seem to make the habit stick consistently.

Then in 2019, I travelled to India for yoga teacher training and remember feeling deflated and frustrated in meditation class.

Why can other people meditate so easily, but it’s so hard for me?

Why can't I sit still without fidgeting or feeling uncomfortable?

In the end, I decided that I couldn’t meditate... 

Then I kept hearing research about the scientific proof that meditation changes the neurons in our brain.  

I heard about the benefits it has with memory, attention, stress, sleep and not to mention overall happiness.

I am now proud to say that I can attest to the research from my own personal, consistent meditation practice.

And you want to know the irony of all of this?

The only thing that kept stopping me was my MIND!  

I often hear people say...

"I really need to do yoga."

"I’d like to meditate but I don’t have time."

"I can't sit still".

"My mind is too busy."

"I'll think about it"

The truth is, we don’t need to think about any of it.

The more we think about things, the bigger it gets in our mind and the more reasons and stories we tell ourselves not to do it or why we can't.

The scary thing is, these unhelpful thoughts don't start in adulthood.  

Children have them too!

I can’t do it.

I don’t feel like doing x, y, z.

It’s too hard.

I’m too tired!

Can we just do this instead of that today?

The truth is every habit we now have, we probably thought we once could not. 

The great thing is, when we learn that these are just made-up stories in our mind, we can empower ourselves to re-write the narrative and bring positive changes to our lives.

This is why I love the power of yoga & meditation.

Through mindfulness, we get to discover that we aren’t our minds.

As adults, we have such a gift to model to our children that sometimes we don’t think we can.

Sometimes we don’t feel like doing it.

Sometimes choosing the ‘easier’ way feels better, but if we let these unhelpful thoughts run our lives, we don’t get to do what we really want to do or feel how we want to feel.

We love that yoga and meditation helps us see our thoughts (mindfulness), so we can let go of the unhelpful ones and grow into the brightest version of ourselves.

”The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa’ steady effort in the direction you want to go.” ― Sally Kempton

Have a great week!