**morning meditation: east williamsburg sunrise**

I OFTEN HEAR: “I can’t meditate,” but I know you can.

When we first learn to meditate, it’s easiest to anchor our attention in the breath. If we open our awareness too widely, we will get lost, and fast!

TRY THIS: Set a timer for 3 minutes, close your eyes, and bring your entire attention to your breath. Put your mind on it fully - simply, the IN and the OUT - and stick to it (like superglue!). When you notice that your mind has wandered away from the breath (and it certainly will!), worry not the tiniest bit, and simply bring your attention back to your anchor. Both the sticking to the breath part + the noticing when you’ve wandered off track part are equally important in this type of mind training (think: gym class for your brain 🏋🏽‍♀️ ).

WHY THE BREATH IS AMAZING: it’s our life force; it’s always with us; we can control it if we want; it’s ever-changing (like the sky 🌄, like our minds, like life itself); it’s shallower + contracted when we’re anxious or scared; it’s long + full when we’re calm and chill; it connects our minds to our bodies in a very direct way (thanks #vagusnerve) and a plethora of indirect ways; we can use it as a tool for quieting ourselves; it costs us nothing, yet without it, EVERYTHING changes.

This Moon Deck card has been resonating with me in a very deep way this week:

THE RHYTHM OF MY BREATH DIRECTS THE RHYTHM OF MY LIFE.

Perhaps it resonates with you too?