Often on the weekends or over holidays, my kids want to teach yoga to me, their dad, and anyone else who might be at the house. Of course, I always gladly accept the free class, and take great joy in being led by them, in seeing what they have picked up from watching me and participating in my kid yoga classes (even if their sequencing could use some more practice) 🙂

My daughter has also meditated with me a few times. When she leads yoga at home she usually calls it “Mix Match” theme, I think because she knows that she is has a stream of consciousness approach to her teaching. (My son prefers to lead Yoga Sculpt classes and get out all the various props.)

Recently, in one of my daughter’s flows she said, “And now we will do something very calming.” She proceeded to find an easy seat, and put her hands on her knees. “We are going to meditate.”

And we did.

She led my son and me through a meditation, encouraging us to count inhales and exhales. I then heard my five-year-old son on his mat quietly counting (one, two, three, four). It was only a few minutes (maybe four or five), but it was my favorite meditation of the week. I smiled when she cued me to slowly open my eyes. She was beaming. I was beaming. The meditation “magic” had occurred, and she knew it. She had successfully led us in a meditation, and we basked in the good energy.

I was also smiling because it just reiterated to me that anyone can meditate. My daughter is nine years old; my son is five, and it has never occurred to them that they can’t meditate, are too young to meditate, or any other reason that adults would use to suggest that meditation isn’t for them. They just do it and move on. And that is just what they should do.

They don’t judge whether they did it well or “correctly,” just as we all should refrain from doing. And yet, we tend to judge our practice, see any distraction as a sign that we failed at our meditation practice, that we didn’t stay perfectly still, didn’t maintain lotus position, etc. As adults it seems we tend to find reasons we didn’t meditate well enough and maybe shouldn’t keep up the practice, whereas my kids sat, meditated, and moved on, taking the benefit with no judgment on the practice itself. Oh, what we should learn from them!

The easiest way to move from wondering if meditation is for you to finding out that it is for you is to start meditating, to tap into that child-like confidence that you will be successful at everything you try and just go for it.

If you want to get started, there are several ways, including a couple of ways to try it out with me.

First — there are lots of apps and podcasts related to meditation, even YouTube can help you out. You can find a mixture of styles and voices to try this way. Sometimes there are ads to skip, but these are usually free or for a small fee. 

OR – even better, if you live close to Kirksville, MO, where I teach, join me for a meditation series to really kickstart a routine or add some fresh energy to an already well-established practice. Each series includes five consecutive days (Monday – Friday) of meditation, over lunch where no change of clothes is required and each participant receives a journal and pen for thoughts and ponderings before and after meditation, and additional prompts related to each day’s meditation theme. I offer these an average of three or four times a year. Contact me to find out when my next offering will be and how to join in (or check my Facebook page events to see if a series is listed! And click here and here for some testimonials of those who have joined me in a series. 

OR, also amazing is to jump right in and join me online for a seven-day meditation series. The course includes the informative “getting started” handouts and content as well as seven days of meditation — a 20-minute, downloadable, ad-free meditation with accompanying journal prompts and thought-provoking quotes. Check it out by clicking HERE.