There are those days were the nights don’t seem long enough and you get up thinking that you can’t wait for the day to end so that you can climb back into bed. This state of exhaustion is often caused by an energy vampire that has somehow gotten into your head and made you a slave to his/her issues. It is easy to tell you to not own their but much harder to actually let it go.

This is where meditation is so useful. I am not skilled enough yet to just start meditating to clear my mind but one day I will be. When I am really overstimulated, I use a meditation CD to help me focus on something that is less negative than the negative energy I have taken on. I don’t seem to be able to calm down the physical symptoms of getting caught up in someone else’s soap opera, let alone my own mental drama.

Sometimes the people in your life that make you feel this way are impossible to avoid and we need to understand why they get under our skin so much. Once we understand why we react the way we react, it is much easier to let go.

We need to create a tool box of skills that help us understand our reactions. Blocking them just builds them up inside and we become like a kettle heating up on the stove about to blow.

Meditation is the tool box. I am not an expert but this is some basic advice to get you started.

Get comfortable and either lie or sit still. Close your eyes and count to 10. As you do this observe your breath and count 1 on the first breath, then 2 on the next etc. Apparently it takes about 5 years of practice to be able to get to 10 without getting off track. If a thought arises in your mind, don’t start to analyze it but let it go. You will find that lots of thoughts are racing through your mind all the time without you realizing it. The goal is to empty your mind of these thoughts and the first step is to recognize this is how your mind is working. The next step is to let each thought go.

This sounds so easy and in my opinion child birth was easier than this. Be warned, it is not pleasant at first but even doing this 5 minutes a day on a regular basis will give you results that will motivate you.

My disclaimer is that I am not a meditation expert and these ideas are just guidelines that I hope will be helpful.