I Thought I Was Too Busy to Meditate

How I fit mindfulness practice into my 80-hour workweek

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I don’t have any time! My days are nothing but go, go, go, go! Meditation seems like an unnecessary luxury anyway.

My full-time, pays-the-rent job is in the film industry. I average 60–80 hour work weeks on my feet, fully focused. I’m not a celebrity, I’m not even a department head.

I’m a grunt, a do-whatever-needs-to-have-been-done-20-minutes-ago kind of worker.

My life is entirely dictated by work, from when I wake up to when I go to bed, with constantly shifting schedules that I’m at the mercy of. I may report to work at 7AM on Monday and by Friday I’m pulling in at 6PM for a full overnight.

What’s a circadian rhythm anyway?

And I’ve payed for that lifestyle dearly in the forms of chronic stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, the list goes on.

But the single most effective and least expensive method I’ve found to combat the effects of that stress on my mental health has been meditation.

The art of being present.

Meditation is no longer a practice shrouded in sage smoke and singing bowls. It’s coming out of the shadows as a powerful tool that anyone who wants to reduce stress, improve focus and take care of their mental well-being can weild.

And it’s being utilized by everyone from A-List celebrities to CEO’s.

For example:

Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn

Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO of The Huffington Post

Joe Rogan, UFC Host and host of The Joe Rogan Show podcast

Russell Simmons, Oprah, Katy Perry, Madonna, the list goes on.

Now, all these people run multi-million dollar, global brands.

And they find the time to just, stop.

There is no reason that the average human cannot utilize this tool.

There was no reason I could not utilize this tool.

It costs nothing. It requires no equipment (though meditation apps are very handy). All it requires is your mind and your time, and very little of both.

“If you have time to breathe, you have time to meditate” -Ajahn Chah

I laughed at this at first. I do a lot of breathing, but with that breathing comes a lot of thinking and doing.

There didn’t seem to be an hour in a day to just breathe.

As my stress levels skyrocketed and my mental health declined, however, I knew something had to give. So I downloaded the Calm app, specifically because they had 10 minute daily guided meditations.

Since 10 minutes was at least as much time as I would spend every morning staring at the ceiling and attempting to will myself out of bed, that seemed a reasonable amount of time to incorporate into my morning routine.

It was rocky at first, as all new routines are.

I would do one session, and then the next few weeks I would get swept up as I always do, in thinking and rushing around. When I’d get home, going into a vegetative state in front of the television sounded far more relaxing than sitting in silence for 10 minutes.

Finally, I committed myself to a full 30 days, no excuses.

The benefits started to show slowly.

First, as I was sitting, I’d feel my heartbeat slowing down and my muscles un-clenching. I’d end the session feeling lighter, less weighed down by life.

Then, I started noticing small changes in my daily activities.

I could slow down more at work, was less reactive, and had greater focus on my tasks instead of being pulled in every direction every moment. I started to notice how much my internal narrative was pulling me around just as much as the external stressors were.

Then came a huge anxiety test for me.

I needed to buy a new car. At a dealership. Alone.

I had moved to Georgia from New York City. Cars had not been a thing in my life for years, at least, not ones without a taxi license.

As I sat and waited for the salesman to bring a car around for me, I felt all the anxiety bubbling up. The chest clench, the racing mind, the shallow breathing.

But this time, a new option was present.

Without even closing my eyes, I began to simply focus on my breathing.

I let every anxiety-inducing scenario my mind tried to concoct dissolve like an Avenger after the snap.

The symptoms dissipated. It was probably only a couple minutes, but by the time the salesman returned, I was calm and focused in a way I’d never been able to in this kind of situation.

All that was after less than a month of 10 minute meditations every day

Ten little minutes a day, just over an hour of meditation against my 80 hours of work stress each week.

And I could see it working.

Meditation continues to open things up inside me. A greater sense of self, boosted self-esteem, and better time management to name a few.

I stand firmly by the belief that if I was able to achieve those benefits in just 10 minutes a day with my 80-hour schedule, anyone can.

And I found by making time for meditation, my whole perception of how much time I had changed. I began to see how much could be achieved in those little spaces in the day, if I was able to quiet my mind and focus.

That was a literally life-changing discovery.

I also gained a stronger sense of myself, someone I had paid far too little attention to in the midst of all the voices internally and externally trying to dictate who that was.

So do yourself a favor for yourself.

Grant yourself that time to be still, and watch how you grow.