I discovered meditation quite recently, and though I’ve tried it multiple times before, it didn’t stick as a routine until I read in a book that to start, you have to listen to your breath. That's it.

Simply listen to your breath.

That clicked for me, and since every morning I was doing wrist exercises to get rid of my wrist pain from typing too much (homework from the hand therapist), when I was graduated from exercises and healed, I suddenly had a pocket of 10 minutes every morning that I could fill. 

I decided to try and mediate. 

I can’t recommend it to you enough. It’s done miracles for my writing. My brain would buzz with a gazillion things I had to do that day, and all the versions of my story, and all the characters, and who knows what else, but after about 5 minutes of simply listening to my breath my thoughts faded, and faded, and faded, until all I could hear in my head was my breathing, and the feeling I got was euphoria. 

I was listening to myself live. 

I was witness to myself being in the moment. 

I simply was. There was nothing else. 

Suddenly everything seemed perfect. Life. Breath. Silence. 

And after the 10 minutes were over, I was grinning from ear to ear, and wrote with an energy that astounded me. 

I only regret I haven’t stared meditating before. 

Now I want to expand 10 minutes to 20. And then to 30. It’s addicting, this feeling of peace and bliss and presence. 

Try it. It’s only 10 minutes, but it’s worth 10 hours of incredible lightness of being. 

Illustration by Christopher DeLorenzo