Easy Meditation

By Liz Nierzwicki

So you want to begin a meditation practice or maybe you really don’t want to start meditating for fifteen minutes per day, you just want the benefits of this peace giving practice. Well, I might just be able to show you a way that could give you exactly what you’re looking for.

In my day-to-day life, I’m running a busy yoga studio with eleven teachers, a full 7-day schedule, workshops, doing all the social media and marketing, and the list goes on. In addition to that, I run an online business called figureFIT! With this company, I’m creating online videos; podcasts, writing, and talking to my members every single day helping each one of them get unstuck and create their best life, body, and mind. Outside of both of those, I’m a single mom, I workout and take the time to take care of myself, I write, I have a home to take care of, and I travel doing seminars, speaking engagements, and yoga & fitness workshops nationally. With this crazy schedule it’s important that I have something to turn to, in order to help me balance my mind and keep my stress levels in check, otherwise I will go crazy. I’m sure that many of you reading this can relate to my schedule and you wonder how you’re going to keep it all together. 

So how do we escape or better yet, deal with this hectic life in a sane, productive, and focused way? Meditation. That’s right, meditation. Meditation has become my BFF, my assistant, and my personal companion. Let me explain more…

I talk to people all the time, who say, “there’s no way I can meditate, my mind is simply all over the place and I can’t slow it down; plus I’m too busy.” Well I hate to burst your ego bubble, but so is everybody else’s. Most of the human population is dealing with the exact same struggles; crazy schedule, children, multiple jobs, bills, running all over town to get groceries, running Vincent to soccer practice or Suzy to ballet, the fact is we’re all busy and we all have simply to much on our “to do” list. Add to the list the blessing and curse of technology, always being connected. Simply put we are all over the place physically and mentally and we need a practice that will reel it in for us.

In yoga land we call the racing of the mind, “monkey-mind,” because like a monkey, it’s all over the place jumping from tree to tree, thought to thought. So how do we get this incredibly powerful and rambunctious mind to slow down and long enough to focus and meditate?

I like to teach two schools of thought around meditation. 1) Setting a time and place every day to meditate and/or, for the super busy; 2) Teaching people the ability to drop into meditative awareness at any moment without making it another “to-do” item on their schedule. So let me break these down for you.

1.) Meditation as a daily practice. Sure you can (and I would recommend it) set a time and place every day to meditate but many simply will never bring meditation into their lives if this is what it takes, because remember, “they’re too busy.”  But let me encourage you to think about adding this as another “to-do” item for yourself, and here’s why: when we set a time aside each day to meditate, we begin to create a powerful practice in our life, mind, and body. When we meditate at the same time each day, we begin to hardwire the serenity and peace of mind that the practice brings into the biorhythms of our body’s energy. When we keep the practice consistent, our body will begin to remind us daily, as it will begin to yearn for this practice, like a friend saying, “do it, do it.”  This practice begins to allow for clarity of mind, you begin to understand what deserves your attention and somehow you feel as if you have created more time for yourself. In reality, you’re just focused and grooving.

2.) Meditative Awareness. Ahhh just this phrase brings me peace and I want you to get there too. Regardless of your “religion” we all have a universal soul/energy within us and many great sages, philosophers, and spiritual leaders say that we are all “one” and connected via this universal spirit. Whether you call it, spirit, God, Holy Spirit, intuition, we all have it and many have become very adept at tapping into this at any time. Meditation helps us get there, but let me show you a way, that you too, can experience peace in any moment.

I want to you take a moment to think about something that brings you extreme peace. Maybe it’s the beach or perhaps it’s reading, praying, dancing, or hiking, or simply following your breath. When you are in those moments, you feel free and I’ll even go as far to say, connected to something greater. Why is that? Because we got out of our head and into the moment, into our heart, and into the universal energy that keeps everything evolving and moving. With enough practice, you can begin to feel the feelings of peace at any moment and that is my goal for you. So when you begin to practice meditative awareness, the key is to breathe into it, and invite it to enter your current space, your body, your mind, your whole being and then invite this energy to move to those around you and then you will be surrounded with this sense of peacefulness. This might sound a little “who-who” to you, but before you judge it, I invite you to give it a try for the next thirty days and see what changes in your life.

One day when I was thinking through what I am grateful for, I realized, in that very moment, I felt connected to this universal spirit, this place deep within myself that is peaceful, quiet, and divine. I instantly grabbed my iPhone, and jotted a reminder; “Gratitude connects me to spirit.” Set the reminder to alert me everyday at 3:00pm. (Ha, nothing like stopping a good thing to add more crazy.) This, however, was an intentional thing. I didn’t want to forget this moment. I wanted to drive this in to my hardwiring and I knew that if I reminded myself of this daily and ADD the act of “gratitude thinking” into this reminder moment, I would begin to hardwire this into my daily existence and make it a habit by the simple act of repeating. And I have done just that, so I wanted to share this gift with you. 

Please let me know via Facebook or my website if this practice helps you. I'd love to hear from you. 

~Namaste (The light within me, recognizes the light within you).

Liz Nierzwicki, BS, ACSM-CPT, E-RYT elevates personal growth as a lifestyle, as an entrepreneur and life coach. She is the founder of Solace Yoga Studio and creator of the online lifestyle program called figureFIT! (figurefitlife.com). Liz is the personal trainer, yoga teacher, and lifestyle coach to many clients all over the globe via her online figureFIT! program. She spends most of her time in Mishawaka, Indiana either running the business and teaching at Solace Yoga Studio or creating content for her online community. As a passionate advocate for mind, body, and spiritual health, she is writing her first book, "figureFIT! The Keys to Health and Happiness" detailing the figureFIT! program and how to balance our lives to be truly happy and healthy.

She is a frequent contributor to Paleo Magazine, Sassy Magazine, and Family Magazine. You’ll find many of her articles on the following blogs; GoFITTY, Mind Body Green and The Huffington Post. Liz leads annual yoga and fitness retreats around the globe and also runs Solace Yoga School programs twice per year.


For more from Solace, please sign up for our newsletter at solaceyogastudio.com. For more from Liz, check out her figureFIT! lifestyle program to become your best self; or sign up for her newsletter at: www.figurefitlife.com. It’s only via her newsletter where you will receive exclusive video blogs, podcasts, workouts, yoga videos, and meditation audios.