The Secret To Successful Meditation When You Can't Sit Still
When we first learned that the original intention for yoga was to actually prepare the body for meditation, it was a game changer. For so many of us, the practice of sitting still is simply unimaginable. And as we like to say at Pebbl HQ, knowing what DOESN'T work for us is just as important as knowing what does. And by the way, meditation isn't necessarily about making the mind OR the body still.
Meditation is a practice that settles the mind and body and at the end of the day, that process of settling is about de-stressing, and that can manifest differently for each of us. Two of the most common ways of that de-stressing however is having lots of thoughts and physical itches and twitches. Our bodies are energy, and that energy needs to move in different ways for each of us, so sometimes a bit of physical activity before we meditate is ideal.
If this resonates for you, explore some of the tips below to help get your body in a more receptive state to welcome your Pebbl sit.
1. Meditation add-on: If you already have a daily exercise routine or yoga practice, try just adding on 5-10 minutes of simply focusing on your breath or listening to one of our guided meditations at the end of your session and see if that helps.
2. Shake it out: Fair warning, this will feel super awkward but also invigorating. Simply stand with your feet hip distance and a soft bend in your knees. Then subtly start to bounce. Begin to imagine the energy traveling up through your feet, legs, hips, torso, shoulders, arms. Then begin shaking the right arm for at least 10 shakes. Relax that arm, and then the left arm. Then the right leg, left leg, etc. And then just let the whole body shake. It helps to have your favorite tunes on and this naturally leads into tip #3.
3. Dance party: That's right, we love a good dance party and no better way to get the energy flowing than dancing to one of our favorite playlists. Or better yet, take an actual dance class and again, just try tacking on 5-10 minutes of sitting after.
4. Gentle yoga: Explore a few gentle yoga poses. We love Yoga with Adrienne who has a variety of practices to prepare the body for relaxation and meditation, like this one.
5. Plank challenge: This is way out of our comfort zone (literally), but for those of you who are drawn to the TikTok plank challenges, that is a great thing to do before a Pebbl sit.
You got this!