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I Tried Meditating Every Day for a Week

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Cabrini chapter.

Meditation has proven benefits of improving your overall mood and well-being. I myself carry around a ton of stress and anxiety in my everyday life. To counteract the more negative aspects of my life, I tried meditating every day for a week.

I’m not an amateur when it comes to meditating though. I learned how to properly breathe and clear my mind around six years ago. I would meditate every so often, but it was never done consistently.

For anyone who is trying meditation for the first time, keep an open mind. Just as a heads up, some people have a harder time than others emptying their mind of all thoughts. Others may get bored doing nothing for an extended period of time. Regardless, I would highly recommend everyone try meditating at least once in their life.

I chose to do a week of chakra guided meditation before bed. I always like ending my day on a positive note. I’ve noticed that going to bed more relaxed paves the road for a more positive morning. Although I tried this particular type of meditation at a certain time that doesn’t mean you have to.

There are a bunch of different types of meditation. The best thing to do is sample each kind. Give each type around 10 minutes. If you aren’t feeling it after that try a different kind. Play around with the time too; you’ll quickly learn what is best for you.

The results I had were almost instant. The first morning I woke up much happier than I ever had. I am not a morning person by any means. Usually no one can talk to me for the first hour or so I’m awake. However, I was cracking jokes and smiling from almost the minute I woke up.

Throughout the day, the positivity stayed close by. For example, living with two sisters almost guarantees there to be an argument once a day. Sure enough, when my two sisters started fighting and tried getting me involved, I was able to just walk away and tune them out where I usually would join in.

By the second or third day of meditating, I started looking forward to it. If I had a bad day I knew that, through meditation, whatever the issue was would almost heal itself. I also found myself a tad bit less anxious each day. If I had to rate my anxiety on a normal day from one to 10, it would hover between eight-and-a-half and nine. When I would meditate, my anxiety would be around a seven-and-a-half. Although it’s not a drastic change, I feel that if I were to continue meditating every day my anxiety would slowly diminish.

Meditation is just overall amazing. The way it makes you feel and all the benefits that come from it can almost change who you are. Not only does meditation help you mentally, it can help physically as well in ways such as improving heart rate, blood pressure and can decrease the risk of health issues.

In times where everything seems so go, go, go, it’s so nice being able to set an hour or so aside a day just for myself. Oftentimes we get so involved in things around us we forget to take care of ourselves. Meditation is a great way to essentially get to know who you are and who you want to be in life.

I'm a huge lover of writing! As long as I can remember I've been writing. Through lived experiences and my writing I hope to make an impact on the world.
Erica is a senior at Cabrini College, majoring in communication with a minor in Spanish and is a Campus Correspondent of Her Campus' Cabrini chapter. She loves writing and hopes to make a career of it one day. Despite being a commuter, you can most often find her in her second home: the newsroom. In her free time, you can find her catching up on the latest episode of "Pretty Little Liars" or "The Bachelor," writing about trending and entertainment topics, as well as obsessing over the latest news from Imagine Dragons.