Our annual family trip to the beach was a few weeks ago. It's a week of laughter and relaxation; good food and strong drinks; salty water and sandy children. By the end of the week, I'm exhausted. This year, I was better equipped for it than I have been in the past. This year, my meditation game was strong.

I'll forever be grateful to the person who introduced me to meditation. (If you have family you need meditation. I'm just going to leave that there and let you read into it what you will.) It began me down a path that has completely altered my life. When I have gone a couple days without it, I can feel a difference in my attitude and my thought patterns. I knew going into vacation, that I needed to make time for it daily. So I did. And, honestly, sitting on the beach in the morning, with only the sound of the waves and the seagulls is a perfect setting for the mind to become quiet, peaceful and open to new insights.

Here were the top two that continued to come to my mind each day:

I am very small. As I sat and looked out over the ocean. It stretched forever out in front of me. The sky did the same. The clouds rolled in from somewhere I couldn't see; the dolphins, visible to me for short periods of time, returned to depths of water I would never know; the seagulls took flight on air currents I could not even feel. It was humbling. It was reassuring. If I am small, then my worries are also small. The problems that seem to sometimes consume my thoughts are tiny pieces in a massive puzzle and just as the waves continue to wash away the sand, they too shall pass. Since returning to the "real world", I've found that I have started reminding myself of this concept when I feel my stress level increase.
I am part of something grand. Sitting there, watching everything that was happening, experiencing all that occurs without a single thought, comment or action from me, made me feel the grander design of life. Most people I know are very intent on making things happen. They have a plan and they want to check off the steps to reach the goal. I often feel this desire also. Sometimes, it's nice to take a step back and observe all that happens without our intervention. For instance, have you ever considered all the steps it took to meet someone that turned out to be extremely special to you? Steps you took that you didn't even know were meaningful. Or when a situation occurs and you realize you have all the necessary skills/information needed to handle it and you were never consciously collecting that information? There is a bigger picture than the one we can capture in our personal view finders, of this I am certain.

It's in the quiet moments that I am able to grasp an idea that has eluded me or gain a sense of peace that gets pushed aside in busyness. Meditation allows me those moments. It also helps me to truly enjoy the chaos of life and family and vacations. It helps me to laugh as I'm bounding up stairs with a cooler, beach bag and chair strapped to my back in the pouring rain. In short, it teaches me how to truly live life as it is.

*If you are interested in beginning the practice of meditation, two apps to try are Simply Being and Insight Timer.