In The Courage Series last month where I wrote about women entrepreneurs, how they started their businesses and dealt with fear, Apol Massebieau, founder of Good Luck Humans, gave these words of advice:
“Don’t let your ideas come from Pinterest or the internet or Instagram. You should be unplugging and figuring out your creative sensibility and what you want to do. Read. Go to museums. Take walks. Go out at sea and swim and look at anemones and fish. Visit street art. And spend quiet time. Shut up and shut the world out regularly. It’s a lifetime of just being able to formulate your own ideas, of not letting people tell you what you should be doing or seeing.”
By regularly unplugging, shutting up and shutting the world out, she’s actually recommending having a mindfulness practice.
The way I practice mindfulness is through meditation and journaling. I’ve already spoken about journaling at length so it’s meditation’s time to shine.
It’s what I do when I wake up, before checking my social media or email. I put on my favorite meditation app (Insight Timer) and meditate for 10 minutes. Sometimes I follow a guided meditation (like Ten Minutes of Mindfulness or Morning Meditation with Music) or I just breathe together with the recorded sounds of falling rain.
Yes, there are thoughts that intrude and I then consciously shift my focus back to my breath. There are also days when my meditation alarm dings and I realize that I spent the whole 10 minutes just following my thoughts wherever they went, completely forgetting about the breath. And then there are days when the call of social media is too strong and I decide to put off my practice for the day.
As you can see, it’s not a perfect practice and that’s the point. When I meditate, I don’t have to try. It’s a moment for just breathing and being. And when you lose that moment, to come back to it over and over again.
Try meditating this month or at the very least, unplugging for 10 minutes a day. Maybe you will, as Apol has, discover your creative sensibility.
Maybe you will pause before you react.
Maybe you will start the day from a calm and intentional place instead of allowing yourself to be swayed by circumstances.
Maybe you will stop taking things so personally.
Maybe you will find the time to listen to your heart’s longings, which you push away in the bright light of day or the logical coldness of your cubicle.
Maybe you will find the courage to sit in the discomfort of our own feelings, when you will know the depths of anger, fear, grief or joy.
And maybe it’s when you will whisper the truth about your intentions: Help me to serve. Teach me to be generous. Help me to give freely and love unconditionally.
This is an excerpt from my monthly Joyful Little Note that I send to subscribers. When you subscribe, you will also receive a digital copy of Your Heart-Crafted Life, a workbook that will give you the clarity to make the changes you want in your life and the steps to make them happen. Subscribe to my newsletter below.
