Meditation. A small step. A small breath.

Meditation is described as clearing your mind and concentrating only on your breath. It’s hard to stop thinking about everything that goes through your head, but to begin someone once told me that thoughts will come into your head (at least at first) but you don’t follow them. If you close your eyes, take a deep breath and remember you didn’t do your laundry, you have the thought and let it go, instead of following it into “I get home, I’ll have to divide the laundry, do I have enough quarters, can I do it before I go food shopping, I don’t know what I’m fixing for dinner tonight, I forgot to take ingredients out of the freezer….” We could keep going, and usually do. Instead, let it go. Another thought comes in and let it go, too.

The second thing is to start with one minute. We can try anything for one minute. It’s not as daunting. After one minute, maybe try a second minute. Work your way up to 5 or 10 or 20, but start with one. Some people meditate for hours or days. You do one minute, sometimes much more and sometimes not, but one minute is more than nothing, and it’s a first step. We can always do it.