Something is Better than Nothing: Meditation and Stillness

As a neurodivergent, meditation is one of the hardest - yet most critical - practices for me to engage with. I joke that my brain is filled with bugs, but I find them incredibly potent while attempting stillness. My foot is tapping, I am thinking about breakfast or the errands I need to do or the screaming of car horns outside. Still, Maggie, be still. Nothingness is the only option if you want to get anything out of this.

Now, I have every respect for the practice of meditation and the people who've mastered the art. Even in my youth, I was fascinated by it all. I'm not certified in anything or the result of days long silent retreats or anything like that. I'm just a regular person who....tries.

Here's what I've found: setting unrealistic goals for ourselves can often lead to burnout, failure, and an unwillingness to begin in the first place.

Read that again.

Depending on how your brain works, it can often times feel like a checklist -

I wake up at 7am. I get dressed, brush my teeth, and wash my face. I make my coffee. I read the paper. I do my ten minute meditation.

Or -

I don't wake up at 7am. I don't get dressed, brush my teeth, or wash my face. I don't make coffee or read the paper. I don't do my ten minute meditation.

Maybe in that second scenario, though, you didn't do your 10 minute meditation because it was 5 minutes. You didn't sleep well, or you have a presentation that's got your adrenaline rushing.

It's not that you didn't do ten - it's that you did do five.

So instead of telling yourself you don't have time, use the time you have.

Instead of sitting perfectly still in silence, turn on some instrumental trippy music that keeps that itch scratched. Go for a walk, without distractions. Sit with your coffee while you watch the birds. Wiggle your body around in and out of stretches.

Stillness can and will serve you even if you accommodate the person you are, with the needs you have, exactly where you are right not. You deserve peace, safety, awareness, grounding, regulation... all the things. Everything. Allow yourself to be worthy and capable in your own way.

Even if you are destined for enlightenment, you have to take the first step either way. Just take the first step, and check off your todo list.

You've got this.