“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone” - French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, 1600s
When was the last time you sat and did nothing? I can’t think of a single time I spent in the past 3 months truly alone with my thoughts.
I’m either on my phone, watching tv, listening to music, working, writing, working out, reading, the list goes on.
To be frank, I’ve gotten pretty good at filling the void with anything else rather than my own voice.
It’s pretty painful to sit and just think. Even with nothing to think about the mind still wanders (how is that even possible). I find it weirdly difficult to concentrate on ‘nothing’ and god forbid I give the voice inside my head a chance to voice its opinion - I might hear some brutal truths from, well, me.
I have tried meditating in the past - 30 minutes right after waking up. I fell back asleep twice and after a few days chose to stay in bed instead.
This time I’m giving it another shot and meditating for a grand total of 1-minute every morning.
The best thing is that I/you can do it in the morning, on the train, at your desk, before a meeting etc.
Here’s how to do the 1-minute meditation:
Sit and close your eyes
Breathe in through your nose
Put all of your focus on that breath
If the mind wanders (it will) focus on the breath again
Timer goes off (if you set one)
Go on with your day
Congratulations you are now a fully qualified monk… maybe.
Why only 1-minute?
Because it’s super easy to do. The biggest reason I failed to pick up meditation as a habit is because I attempted 30 minutes right off the bat.
Plus if you don’t set a timer you are likely to go on for a little bit longer than 1-minute anyway before your mind gives up and you can go about your day.
It can be done in most places. I’ve gone into important meetings off the back of the 1-minute meditation and been more calm and composed.
If you want to practice mindfulness then try this 1-minute meditation as part of your morning routine. Go out there and prove Blaise Pascal wrong.
Increase the duration as you make this a habit and before you know it you will be living on an elevated level of your subconscious transcending reality itself…probably.