Meditation can be beneficial at any time of the year. When we’re living through a pandemic, it can be extra useful to add a bit of meditation to your day.

Incorporating meditation has consistently been proven to be beneficial. For some, it reduces stress and creates a sense of inner peace. For others, it improves sleep and increases feelings of calmness.

It’s not about adding hours of meditation to your day, it’s about finding little moments to take a breath and be in the present. Finding a style of meditation that works for you is the key to creating a new habit, so we have come up with some ways to add meditation to your day.


1. Sit in Stillness
Meditation does not have to be complicated. You don’t need to study it or go away to a meditation retreat to get started. Meditation is as simple as breathing - when you are consciously breathing and focused on that breathing, then you are meditating. Taking a moment of your day to simply sit still and breathe is a great way to get started on this journey.


2. One Minute at a Time
You can start by meditating for one minute at a time, several times a day. If you schedule one-minute windows throughout your day or simply seize opportunities, you’ll find that those minutes add up. Set a timer for 60 seconds and focus on breathing with deep inhales and slow exhales. If you find this to be too much, then start with even less. Some people add moments of meditation to their day by taking two deep breaths before any activity.


3. Start with One Week
Learning a new skill or incorporating something new into your life can feel very daunting. If you break it down to smaller chunks, it will feel much more attainable. Try to add meditation to your day for seven days in a row. Look at it like you’re doing a simple experiment to see if it is right for you.


4. Meditate with Your Family
While the whole family is home 24 hours a day, it can be a good idea to all take a deep breath together. Schedule a 5 or 10-minute slot into your family calendar to all meditate together. It is a great skill to pass down to your children, and a great moment for the family to recoup from the day. Instead of sitting in silence with your kids, consider listening to a meditation recording together.


5. Use It as a Transition
When school and work take place outside of the house, there are obvious transition moments throughout the day. Heading out to school or the office, taking a lunch break, heading home from work, etc. These transitions help set the pace for the day but are currently lacking in a lot of our lives. Taking a meditative pause to set a transition can help establish the start of the workday or the end of the school day.


6. Incorporate it in Your Activities
Meditation is about being mindful. It doesn’t need to be in a certain room or done a certain way. Any repetitive chore or activity can be turned into a moment of meditation by focusing on your breathing and tuning out the noise in your head. Let your thoughts rest and simply focus on what is in front of you and how your body is responding. You can meditate while folding laundry, washing the dishes, or going for a walk. This can be a good way to add meditation into your day if it feels difficult to incorporate it another way.


Using a guided meditation can help get you into the meditative zone. You can also opt to repeat mantras in your mind, count to ten as you breathe, or imagine you are in your favourite place.

Meditation practices are very personal, so add it to your day the way it works for you. Let’s all just take a moment to breathe!

Make your meditation space your own: