Meditation was like a mental massage for my knotted mind

Like many things in the last 12 months, it was triggered by coronavirus.

I was in New Zealand – about as far from Scotland and home as I could be – when lockdown hit and the world as we knew it was no more. With money going fast and unsure whether to stay put or try to fly home in the midst of the pandemic, severe anxiety began to take over and, before I knew it, I wasn’t sleeping at night. Eventually, when sleeping pills weren’t doing the trick and I was feeling overwhelmed, I decided to try meditation as I’d read it could help and had friends who swore by it.

I downloaded the Headspace app, a 30-day programme designed to help with sleep and anxiety. I lay down for 20-minute intervals once or twice a day and listened to the instructions, including relaxing visualisation and breathing techniques. Within just a couple of days, I slept normally again.

I wasn’t sure if it was a fluke, but the longer I continued to meditate – teamed with a bit of exercise – the sleep just kept coming and the calmer I became. Other worries were quashed by the fact that when I was focusing on the visualisations within meditation, I had no room to think of anything else.

I started to look forward to my daily meditation. It was like pressing a reset button on my brain, a mental massage for my knotted mind. With tips and advice also relaxingly narrated in the programme, I learned it wasn’t that the meditation had made me sleep, it was that it had calmed my mind enough to not really care whether I slept or not. This meant I was more relaxed when it came to bedtime so then nodded off easily. Now, I don’t need to meditate every day but as soon as I find myself getting a little overwhelmed with lockdown worries or I can’t sleep, I simply do the meditation exercises I have learned, and let the anxiety melt away.