Since I don’t live under a rock I’ve definitely noticed that meditation is having a little bit of a moment these days. I’m reading stories that all of these major athletes and celebrities are big time into meditation, it’s like when I learned how to knit thinking I was literally the only human doing it, and then found out that everyone else already knew how to do it, just no one talked about it!

But now I’m seeing regular articles and different bloggers writing about the benefits of meditation. Personally, I’m a huge fan, it’s transformed my life.

I grew up around meditation, but never officially ‘learned’ how. Were you just supposed to sit down and try to empty your brain and have no thoughts? I could never do that! Or just focus on breathing? b o r i n g. Then serendipitously one day I walked into a neighborhood store and discovered that meditation was something you could actually learn how to do {they happened to teach meditation classes there too}, and I’ve been in love ever since. And no, my meditation style has nothing to do with mantras, or chants, or trying to sit still and have no thoughts in some hopeless quest for unattainable zen. It’s more about connecting with your own energy and being able to have more of what you want in your life. So what’s so great and what do I love about it? Without further ado, here are some of my most favorite things I’ve gotten out of my personal experience with meditation over the last few years.

You find your awesome.

Ever notice that when a new trend hits, everyone starts copying it, whether said trend is right for them or not? Companies do it with products, people do it with literally everything. As much as the world around us might be telling us how amazing it is to fit in, or how risky it might be to not fit in, the truth is, you are an amazing unique spectacular being that really isn’t like anyone else! Meditation helps you connect with and bring out that uniqueness that makes you amazing, that isn’t like anyone else. No more fitting in or toning yourself down to keep everyone else comfy, you get to be seen for the things that are just you, that everyone else finds magical and magnetic.

You find stillness, and space.

Life is busy. We have more demands on our attention and time than ever before. Meditation helps you be able to easily grab all of your attention and energy that you have on everyone and everything else, and bring it right back into your space and back with you, where it belongs. You can do a super quick reset on your space at any moment. Feeling spread thin or like you can’t focus? You just need to get your energy back, the difference you can experience in just a few minutes using a few simple tools is unbelievable.

You learn how to set the tone for yourself.

No matter what is going on in the world around you, in your immediate world or on a global scale, you can set up your own space and your own energy to be able to have what you want. What do you want to have in your life, in any area, in any moment. From setting the tone for an entire area of your life like work or love, to just setting the tone for a meeting or a weekend, you learn how to really influence the energy in your world and how things flow in your life in this way.

You have more movement.

With meditation you learn how to let go of anything in your space (or life) that isn’t working anymore, much more quickly than ‘normal’/without meditating, hence there is more space to move on to the new thing and create more quickly. You don’t get stuck in what isn’t working, or in the ickiness of letting things go {we do tend to wallow a bit, us humans} you are able to quickly clear it out of your space and move into what is right for you, what you want, what is validating. More movement feels really good.

Finding your own truth.

This one is near, or even at the top of my list of favorite things about meditation. What’s right for you might not look like anything anyone else is doing. And that’s perfect. We tend to look around at other people having success and doubt ourselves, maybe we should do what they are doing if we want to ‘make it’. Meditation is a tool that helps you clear out all of the extraneous noise, everyone else’s ideas and visions, doubts and fears that might be interfering with you figuring out and owning what’s really right for you, in every area of your life, and being able to have what’s right for you, whatever that looks like!