So meditation for a lot of people can be very involved in that they have a meditation placed in their home. They have specific music they like to listen to. There are many, many apps out there that go along with meditation. And for other people, meditation is really a state of mind. And the thing that I always want people to remember is that the best coping skill you can ever give yourself is your own brain and your own breathing.

There’s nothing fancy about it. There’s no tricks for those of us that maybe are not considered religious. There’s nothing religious about meditation. Of course, if that is important to you, of course, you can incorporate whatever makes sense to you. But meditation is a state of mind.

We use our breath as a way to calm down. I talked about the deep breathing. What I’ve worked with a lot of people about is taking three deep breaths. We know it makes a difference to you physically and emotionally. When I say, take a deep breath, I really am talking about really filling up those lungs, taking as big a deep breath as you can, holding it for a few seconds.

And when you breathe out, I always say to people, think about when you blow out a candle that you’re blowing out and you blow out as much air as you can. You do that three times in a row, you will notice the difference immediately. Don’t do it more than three times. We don’t want you to hyperventilate, but try doing that in a series of three breaths. You breathe in, you hold and you breathe out.

I mentioned that I have a small mantra that I do as part of my meditation because again, I’ve practiced it. It helps me get to that relaxed state even more. As I breathe in. I’m saying to myself, I am, and as I breathe out, calm, your words can be anything, anything that makes sense to you. It can even be counting if you want, you can breathe into the count of three.

You can hold for the count of three. You can breathe out for the count of three, whatever makes sense to you. So meditation is a very ancient form of relaxation. Been around for centuries and centers probably as long as humans have been around. Very, very simple to do.

And like I said, you can really you can have your special candle. You can have your special music or you can have your car and you can have wherever you are. You can have that few minutes. Get yourself into a mental state and of calmness and move on. And that’s meditation perfect.