Meditation for Makers 🧘♀️
Hello makers,
I started meditating because I typically find myself lost in thought. It's been this way for as long as I can remember. I could be listening to someone in a conversation, but meanwhile, my mind is wandering away to think about the side-project I'd been toying with over the last few days, or worrying about that project that I need to get done tomorrow.
My friends used to call it Phares-world. Obviously, people noticed that I wasn't present. It's not healthy behavior.
I was exceedingly skeptical of meditation when I first decided to try it. It sounded too magical, like some hocus pocus can bestow superpowers just by sitting in a lotus position and chanting.
Now that I've been meditating almost daily for close to two years, I realize it's none of those things. It's not a silver bullet, but it is absolutely a useful tool. Phares-world is still a work in progress, but I'm much more present than I was two years ago.
I'm by no means an expert, but feel it may be helpful to know how I meditate, how I got here, and what it means to meditate as a maker.
Guided meditation
I highly recommend some type of guided meditation to get started. I've been through almost all the free content on every meditation app in the market. Headspace is a good one to learn the basics.
There's a lot to understand about meditation, but the main things I needed to learn were:
Just the act of sitting still for 5-20 minutes is enough
Focusing on your breathing is the easiest way to start out. Your mind will wander, and that's okay. Just acknowledge and bring it back to the breath.
There's no need to sit in a specific position, or to chant anything at all. You can sit in any comfortable position.
It's not a brainstorming session, but ideas will come to you. Just note them and go back to the breath.
Finding time
I heard an insightful quote once, in reference to finding time to meditate every day:
You find time to shower every day.
It's our perception of time. It's the non-essential things that we don't have time for. If we consider meditation as something essential, like showering, we will find time for it every day.
Consistency
Meditation doesn't work right away. You may not even feel like it's doing anything for a long, long time. For me, I didn't feel any different until about 2 weeks after starting out. Then I started to look forward to my meditation time. After meditating, I felt relaxed — less stressed, with a calm mind. Not sleepy — just rested.
I try to meditate first thing each morning. And I find I'm able to just come back to my breath at any point in the day whenever I feel my mind start to race, or I'm not present among the people around me.
What works for me
This year, I started doing unguided meditation. I start a timer, sit for 20 minutes, and let my mind be, bringing it back to my breath, or no thoughts, as needed. Inevitably ideas crop up, but that's not the goal. The goal is to clear all that out of my head. To keep my subconscious calm. In the end, I feel I have more control over my own mind — which really can be a superpower.
I use Insight Timer, and set regular chimes to signal different points in the session. Here's what I'm doing currently:
For the first 5 minutes, I focus on my breath, starting with 5 deep long breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth. This resets my brain to focus on one thing until it's able to let go.
For the next 10 minutes, I continue to be still. If thoughts crop up, I acknowledge and let them go, coming back to the breath if needed.
At minute 15, I let my mind wander completely. Anything that's been nagging at me throughout the session, anything I've been focused on lately - it's all on the table. I allow for one minute of this, and then at minute 16, it's back to stillness.
At minute 19, I start focusing on my surroundings. This helps to ease the transition back to the world around me, and at minute 20, I'll open my eyes for the end of the session.
Generally, not much comes out of a meditation session for me, other than an overall feeling of calm. But every so often, I have a new idea or a solution to a problem emerge. Again, that's not the goal of these meditation sessions, but it's nice when it happens.
My own meditation practice is still a work in progress. I'm definitely closer to where I want to be in staying present. And it's helping to stay focused on the important work I'm doing as a maker, instead of the scatterbrained racing mind jumping from idea to idea.
If you meditate and have any tips to share I'd love to hear all about your experience. Or if you're just starting out and have any questions, reply and let's talk about it.
Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌
Hit reply to tell me what you're making. I'm looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you'd like to appear in Serial Maker. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. Check out the past editions if you missed them, and don't forget to continue the conversation on Discord!
Until next week,
Craig 👋