 The number one reason why people don't meditate is because they say they can't do it. Well, here's a news flash for you. People as young as five years old are being taught meditation. So if a five-year-old can do it, you can do it too. So in this video, we're going to talk about why people think they can't do it, why it's wrong, and why you need to start yourself a meditation practice. So stay tuned. What's up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And I'm making this video for a variety of reasons, but my heart just swells up every time somebody comes up to me and they're like, Chris, I started meditating and oh my God, it is decreasing my anxiety, it's decreasing my depression, it's helping me with cravings. When they say it, I'm just like, yes, yes, why can't I get more people to do this? And trust me, like I'm trying to push meditation on so many people. For me, it took me three years of working on my mental health to try meditation. And once I did, I was like, why didn't somebody tell me about this sooner? Like why? It's so beneficial. So this is why I am just so adamant that you need to try it now. Before I try to get somebody to try meditation, I get this excuse all the time, all the time from so many people. They always tell me, I tried to and I couldn't stop thinking so I don't do it anymore. And that is the biggest myth about meditation in general. Let me put it to you this way. The human mind on average has 50 to 70,000 thoughts per day. If your goal is to stop your thoughts, then you are running a fool's errand. It is impossible to stop your thoughts. Like we're talking like even the highest level of Buddhist monks who have been meditating hours on end every single day, their entire lives, they can't even stop their thoughts. So for you to think that you're going to try meditation one time and stop your thinking, it's impossible. Meditation is not about stopping your thoughts. It's about not being carried away by your thoughts. What I tell everybody, what I'm teaching them about meditation like I teach it to all of my clients is this and please if you get nothing else from this video, remember what I'm about to say. If you sit down for a five minute meditation and you have 1,000 thoughts one through your head and you noticed every single one of them, you had a perfect meditation practice. That's right. Meditation is not about stopping thoughts, it's about noticing thoughts. So when it comes to meditation, the practice that I use is called mindfulness. It's a form of meditation. It's very informal, which is why I like it. I have a mind that goes a million miles of minutes. Sometimes it's hard for me to sit, but I'm getting better at it. I've been doing this for about two years, but anyways, mindfulness can be done anywhere. So for example, one of the first mindfulness meditation practices that you get is focusing on your breath and you can start with as little as a minute a day. That's what I did. I started with 60 seconds. So if you want to do that, try it. I highly suggest you try more five minutes or 10 minutes. But if you're sitting down and you're focusing on the breath, whether it's the air coming in through your nose and out your mouth, or it's the rising and falling of your chest or your abdomen as you're bringing in, every time you get a thought, you just notice it and bring it back to your breath and you're breathing, you're breathing and you notice a thought and you bring it back to your breath. That's literally all it is. That's all it is. And what it's like is, I don't know how many of you are dog owners out there, but I use this analogy a lot because my mom has this like half German shepherd, half black lab, she's a big girl. And when I used to walk her on the leash, she would drag me around all over the place. And when we were training her, you know, you yank on the leash and after a while of yanking on that leash, then my mom's dog started walking right next to me. It's almost like your brain. The more you keep training it, the less likely it is to keep trying to run off because you start noticing these things and you bring your attention back. This is why they're teaching meditation to children because it helps train the part of the brain responsible for attention and focus. So just remember, they are teaching this to children in elementary schools. So if they can do it, so can you. I just wanted to make this quick video explaining this misconception about meditation because just like any other skill that you have to develop, like, I don't know you whoever's watching this. I don't know you, but think about one skill that you have that you're really good at, think about how long it took you to develop this skill. Probably took you a while for some people. It takes years typically after practicing meditation for at least seven days, you see results, you begin to see results within seven days. Okay. For some people, it's two weeks. For me, it was almost instantly like I got hooked. So do me a favor, make a commitment to me right now that you are going to try this for seven days. If you need to check the info card up here, I always make videos about different free apps that you can try to help you out with guided meditations, but here is my question of the day to you. Leave a comment down below. What is stopping you from picking up a meditation practice? Give me your best excuse down in the comments below. All right. But if you like this video, if it helped you out, please give it a thumbs up, share it with a friend, get them to start meditating too. But if you're new here and you haven't yet, hit the little round subscribe button because I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental and emotional health and click or tap on one of the thumbnails right over there and check out some of the other awesome videos on this channel. Thanks for watching everybody. I'll see you next time.