This week we tried meditation. I’ve never meditated before, because I always understood it was something that required controlled, deep breathing. As someone with asthma, nothing about my breathing is controlled or deep and attempting to do so is usually panic inducing.

The first few days I tried to do meditation without guidance. At night it effectively put me to sleep, and in the morning I ended up having my mind wander into all the things I had to do that day — not very relaxing.

So I decided I needed guidance. I did the college thing and googled “5 minute meditation” and found a website titled just that. All it does is lead you through five minutes of calm breathing using a pulsing circle, with suggestions to focus on your body. I was very calm and alert after using the website.

From this experience I learned that meditation can be very helpful for getting the right mindset, but you have to know that the type of meditation changes depending on what outcome you want. Relaxing meditation is different than meditating on an issue. It also isn’t as simple as just sitting on your own and breathing.