Getting a little headspace

If I had seen this post 7 months ago I wouldn’t have believed I wrote it, I was depressed, overweight and had pretty serious health issues that have been with me most of my adult life. During this time I have worked with bepure.co.nz to improve my gut health and overall wellbeing (see previous posts for more details) since then I can’t believe the transformation, I am the lightest I have been for over 15 years, I am 6 months alcohol free, have more energy, and my aching joints and bad back are virtually gone, this all sounds amazing and it is, but during this time and up until recently I was still struggling with anxiety and mild depression, I was diligently cooking healthy and gut healing meals for my family and concentrating on my whole physical well-being, improving my mental state was something I thought I could fix with food, this is still a huge part of eating well, but it wasn’t until I was introduced to Headspace.com, by a good friend of mine, that I started to unlock another part of my quest for optimum health. I was familiar with the app, and had tried meditation on and off for many years but never really grasped the whole sitting still for a period of time with my thoughts, to be honest sitting still and listening to my thoughts was something I had tried to avoid, like many of us, our thoughts are not always pleasant, and most of the time hectic, so spending more time with them seemed daunting and often scary. If you’re not familiar with Headspace it’s an amazing app by Andy Puddicombe, an ex-monk who has simplified meditation and brought us an incredible app to help even the sceptic of people to appreciate and demystify the practice of meditation. When I was sent the link by my friend I was in a really awkward place, questioning myself constantly about my current mental health status, I was full of negativity, self-doubt and lacking in self-esteem, so without really giving it much thought I gave it a try, you get 10 days free guided meditation with some awesome animated videos explaining and simplifying the practice of meditation, for the first time in 25 years of trying to get some headspace I was hooked. It became a challenge, a dedication to achieve a stillness I had never experienced, for years I thought meditation was about ridding your mind of negative thought and trying to push out the chatter we endure on a daily basis, about 50-70,000 thoughts a day is what the average person has, quite staggering really, so when I finished my 10 days free trial I instantly signed up for the very small monthly subscription. I soon started to understand that I was to listen to the chatter, but not to engage, instead to move back to the breath and continue with the practice, it’s not easy, but I’m now on a 65 day streak and it’s changing my life, it’s still very early days and I’ve barely got my feet wet, but already I feel so much calmer and present each day, I understand my thoughts better and no longer let them control my mood and outlook on life, and the reward is unbelievable, my confidence has grown, I feel better about my life and the future, and the day is filled with more focus on what I’m doing and want to achieve.

With this new tool, I have also started to introduce my daughter to meditation, Headspace has a kids section so kids can do simple meditation practices, ranging from 1 minute to 5 min depending on age. To give our children the tool of meditation at such a young age is an amazing gift, imagine giving them a tool that can help them deal with all the mayhem and emotional baggage they endure on a daily basis, it will set them up for life, I only wish I had this app as a teenager (so much emotion lol)

I believe now that anybody can meditate and everybody has 10 minutes, no excuses! If I can do it, anyone can do it, so go and get some Headspace, you will thank yourself for it.

Andy