I create lots of guided meditations for my clients. Guided meditations are great for people like me, who have a very hard time focusing on their breath, but can more easily get into the flow of mental imagery.

What do you do though when you just can’t relax enough to focus on the story?

I have a couple of different ways of dealing with this. One of them involves talking to that part of you that doesn’t want to calm down. I teach clients this exercise a lot because it’s so useful!

But there’s also another way, which is just to go wherever your mind wants to go, and to incorporate that into your meditation.

Back in September, I was meditating on my resistance to being successful in my business. I was trying really hard to let go and allow my mind to create a story to help me, but all I could think about was Orange is The New Black. No matter how many times I brought my mind back to the meditation, it just kept wandering back to my current favorite TV show.

Finally I just decided to let my mind go where it wanted, BUT to use that as part of my meditation. So I imagined I was in a conference room with Taystee, Poussey, and Suzanne, the Orange Is the New Black characters who wouldn’t get out of my head. I decided to make the characters board members of my business, and one by one, I let them each tell me one of my mental blocks and how I could remove it.

Suzanne told me that I’m too boring and I need to work on coming out of my shell. She gave me a specific exercise to do which was to act out monologues on my own as a way of releasing emotions. (Sidenote: This turned out to be surprisingly fun.)

Poussey told me to pick something on my bucket list that doesn’t cost money and to make it happen. I still haven’t done that but I’m thinking on it.

And Taystee told me that I need a role model who understands my business AND family goals. Specifically, she told me to learn more about Leonie Dawson. Having only read one or two of her blog posts in the past, I immediately went to her website, signed up for her newsletter, and ended up joining her online membership program.

That membership program ended up being the inspiration for taking my dreams of a retreat center and instead creating The Goldilocks Movement as a virtual retreat. And that completely changed my business model, which helped me to create a business that is in better alignment with my needs as an introvert and a work at home mom.

Moral of the story?

Next time you’re trying to force a meditation and your mind just keeps wandering off, let your mind off that leash and see where it goes. Your subconscious might not take you where you want to go, but it will always take you where you need to go.