Gisele Bundchen shares an Instagram photo of her and daughter meditating.

I started my meditation practice a year ago. There’s a part of me that wishes I had started sooner, but then the bigger part of me knows that I wasn’t ready for it yet.

What I learned when I first started meditating is that you call it a meditation practice… practice being an important word. Practice because every single time you sit down to meditate you are practicing, and every single time you practice, you get better and better.

Whenever I mention to people that I meditate, they usually respond with “Oh, that’s really cool… I wish I did but I’m not really that good at it.” Or, “I know I’m not doing it right!” It bugs me that this is the response because there is no such thing as meditating wrong or right. So let’s discuss what the goal of meditation is.

The goal is to quiet your mind, to sit and be still…to sit and just BE. There is no doing in meditation. So you can never be “doing” it wrong. The intention behind meditation is to just exist for a little while, to just be.

A good friend of mine had her own meditation practice in place for five years. She said that when she was learning to integrate her practice, her teacher told her to think of meditation as a child having a tantrum. Perfect! We put the child in time out. They go to the corner kicking and screaming and within a few minutes, they start to calm down. They begin to relax and release their pent up energy that caused the tantrum to begin with.

This is how your mind works. You meditate by putting your mind in the corner for a few minutes. Your mind will kick and scream, thoughts racing, maybe you even feel guilt for taking time out for yourself…but within minutes, you are starting to calm down. The thoughts are starting to slow and you are practicing the state of being.

Moms need to meditate. Everyone needs to meditate, but moms in particular are stressful, chaotic, rattled creatures. My daughter dropped crackers on the floor this morning and I just about lost it.
I needed to meditate. Probably still do!

I know what you’re thinking… I’m a mom… I know.

I don’t have TIME TO MEDITATE!

Actually my friend, you do!

A meditation practice doesn’t have to be this holy ritual, perfect posture, perfect state of being in the right yoga clothes. You can meditate anywhere. When I worked my corporate job, I used to go into a conference room, lock the door and meditate. It was so helpful.

What I find is that guided meditations are good for me. There are thousands of these available on sites like YouTube and SoundCloud.

Another helpful way to meditate is to meditate yourself to sleep. If you find a nice guided meditation on YouTube, and set your phone up to play that as you wind down for the night, that is perfect. You can even just find some nice meditation music. Again, it’s the intention. There is no right or wrong way. I notice that when I meditate myself to sleep, I sleep restful, I remember my dreams, and I wake up happy and more fulfilled.

One of the most influential meditation teachers for me is a man named davidji. He has TONS of guided meditations and teaches us that you can really meditate anywhere and at any time. If you meditate and just focus on your breath for 5 minutes when you wake up in the morning…or before you get out of your car to go into work…that is so helpful.

It’s all about the intention.

Many moms are full of stress. We are…but we don’t have to be.

We absolutely, 100% deserve to have some time to be alone and just… BE. I want you to really soak that in because it’s true. And here’s the best part! When you begin to just let yourself be, and exist… parenting and raising happy, self-sustaining children is just an added bonus. Your kids will see you as an example and follow your lead.

So if you are a mom that only does things because of how it impacts your kids, take my word for it… you taking 15 minutes a day to meditate will only bring good things to the life of your children and help you BE a better mom.

I promise.

Sarah van Rijsewijk is the owner of Natural Peace Life Coaching in Glens Falls. She is the mother of one daughter.