Meditation Made Simple: Tools for Busy Lives - 8

 In this episode of Lady(ish), we break down meditation into simple, practical tools anyone can use—no matter how busy your schedule. Learn how to create a sustainable and rewarding meditation practice that fits seamlessly into your day, reduces stress, and helps you reconnect with your intuition and inner calm. Whether you’re new to meditation or struggling to maintain a routine, this episode offers actionable tips to make mindfulness a natural part of your life. 

Welcome to Lady(ish)—the podcast where real talk meets whole-self transformation. Hosted by coach, healer, and wellness guide Autumn Noble O’Hanlon, this unfiltered space is for women who want more out of life—but on their own terms.

Each week, we dive into the messy, beautiful, and often contradictory layers of wellness, covering everything from career shifts and body image to energy healing, intuitive living, fitness, burnout recovery, and creating change that actually sticks.

Whether you're chasing a new chapter, healing old wounds, or just trying to reconnect with yourself in a loud, overwhelming world—Lady(ish) is here to support your evolution. Expect honest conversations, coaching wisdom, holistic tools, spiritual insights, and permission to be a little bit of everything (and nothing you're not).

Because wellness isn’t one-size-fits-all—and neither are you.

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Transcript

Autumn Noble (00:02)

Hello my friends and welcome back to Lady-ish. Today we are talking about one of my absolute favorite topics and that is meditation and how to do it and how does it work and why should we do it. But I'm not going to be talking about it in the complicated let's go and sit on a mountain for hours and days at a time kind of meditation. I wanna break it down into something that actually fits into your busy real life.

A few weeks ago, I was training a woman at the gym and we were talking about meditation and she asked me, know, how does it work and what do do? And I was kind of explaining it to her in the way that I'm going to explain it today. And she said, yeah, I just don't think I can do that. I don't think I can sit still for that long. And I looked at her and I said, that's exactly why you need meditation, right? It's a muscle. It's a skill that we have to practice to get better at. You don't come to meditation with the ability to sit still. We use meditation to...

create that ability. So if you've ever thought, I don't have time to meditate or my brain is way too busy for that, I could never sit still like that, this episode is for you. I'm gonna share with you what meditation really is, how it can work for you even if you only have three minutes a day. And I'm gonna give you some simple tools to make it a regular part of your routine.

So let's begin with talking about what meditation actually is and what I mean when I say meditate. First things first, meditation is not about clearing your mind or stopping all of your thoughts. That's impossible. Meditation is simply about noticing your thoughts and gently bringing your attention back to something steady, like your breath. Think of it like hitting the reset button on your brain. When you see your brain kind of wandering off,

We hit that reset button, bring it back to our breath. The magic is not in doing it perfectly. The magic is in noticing when your brain has kind of wandered off and it's decided to kind of chase something, chase that squirrel, know, go down that rabbit hole. It's about noticing when your brain does that and choosing to come back and asserting.

that power and control over where we give our attention. That is meditation in a nutshell.

Why does meditation matter so much in our busy lives? Let's be real honest here. Life is noisy, it's crazy, it's stressful, it's full of distractions, and honestly, this week it feels really full of heaviness and darkness. Meditation can give you a little pocket of stillness in the middle of all of that chaos. It's kind of like finding that calm in the middle of the storm.

Studies have shown that it reduces stress, it improves focus, it helps with sleep, it even boosts our creativity.

For me, honestly, the biggest reason that I practice it is because it makes me feel more grounded and connected to myself and some higher goodness that is above and outside of all of the heaviness that we're experiencing right now.

And here's the best part, and I think it really kind of debunks a lot of things that people think about meditation. The best part is that you don't need a ton of time. You don't need special, sexy cushions or even special music. You can just start with a few minutes in your car before work or while your coffee is brewing in the morning while you're brushing your teeth. It's about finding that space for just a simple, mindful moment to see what your brain is doing.

and bringing it back more consciously and intentionally to what you want your brain to be focusing on. As my meditation practice started, one of the simplest and easiest things that I found that I could do that brought me that peace was to simply shut my door to my office, which, you know, if you're an attorney or a professional, sometimes that's really frowned upon and cause a great deal of discomfort anyway, but I would shut the door.

and I would come and I would sit down and I would just breathe and I would continually tell myself, my life is not this job, my life is not this work, I am so much more than this, there's more to me than what's happening here in this moment. And it was a really beautiful and simple way for me to kind of bring it back to my own value and kind of remove myself from the stress and tension and chaos of practicing law.

as it kind of grew and evolved from there, I did bring a meditation pillow and keep it in my office, not because I needed it to meditate better, but because it was a visual reminder to me to take time to check in with myself. And what's more, if you're someone who's in front of your computer all day long, we know that those little lights showing us that we've got messages and emails, it causes a great deal of stress and distraction.

And so having a pillow to go sit on and move away from my computer allowed me that physical space too, to kind of disconnect and recognize that that person in front of the computer engaging with all of that wasn't the real me. And the real me was the one that could step aside, move away, sit on that pillow for a moment, reconnect and center and ground. So.

Do whatever works for you. Buy a pillow, don't buy a pillow, listen to music, don't listen to music, lights an incense, a candle, it doesn't matter. What matters is that connection with yourself and watching your brain and watching when it runs away and simply bringing it back so that you can find some more peace and groundedness.

So practically speaking, how should we go about incorporating meditation into our daily lives? Let's keep this very, very simple. Here's a step-by-step guide that you can kind of try today. Number one, just find a spot, sit in your chair, on your couch, even at your desk, but just find a spot where you can be comfortable and feel secure that you're gonna have a moment alone to engage in this practice. Two, close your eyes or simply soften.

your gaze. Some people will light a candle and just kind of gaze at that candle. That's absolutely acceptable. Some people will close their eyes and they feel comfortable doing that. Do what works for you. The goal is to just reduce the distractions. So if gazing in a candle lit flame kind of helps you reduce that distraction or closing your eyes is what works for you. That's what I recommend going with.

Three, to get started, just take a few deep breaths to ground in and just let your body settle into that moment of quiet and peace.

Four, focus on your breath. It's as simple as that. Notice the inhale, notice the exhale, notice how it feels in your body, notice the sensation on the tips of your nose, how your chest rises and fall, your belly expands, just focusing on that breath. And again, when your mind wanders, you just bring it back to that breath. So that's number five, watch your thoughts. When your mind drifts, and it will because we are human,

just picture those thoughts like floating by like clouds in the sky or leaves kind of drifting by on water. There's no need to grab them. Just let them pass by knowing that they will be there waiting for you when our time here is over. So just gently come back to your breath without judgment, without frustration, just noticing, today I'm having a really hard time focusing on my breath. I really want to chase that worried, scary thought. Okay, interesting, coming back to my breath.

Six, just rinse and repeat. That is the whole practice. Watching that brain wander off, bringing it back, focusing on the breath, and again, and again, and again. Some days it'll be very easy, some days it'll be very challenging. It's all about checking in and noticing kind of where are you today? Is that monkey mind taking over today and making it really difficult for you to stay grounded and centered? Interesting. That's good information for us to have.

I also want to offer you some tools to make it stick. It's easy to kind of get started and do it once and that was interesting and kind of forget about it. So I want to offer you some tips and tools that can make it easier for you to continue this practice and improve this skill.

First, start small, even if it's just two to three minutes. Consistency matters a whole lot more than length.

Use a timer or an app. A meditation timer is gonna kind of free those worried thoughts about, how long have I been sitting here? It hasn't been two minutes yet. And meditation timers are gonna have a much more gentle sounding noise at the end than the traditional alarms on our phone, which can be really, really jarring. There are a lot of really good free meditation apps out there. So I would encourage you to find one, set a timer for two minutes and just get started.

Third, try pairing this new habit with an existing habit. So maybe you do it right after you brush your teeth or before you turn on your computer, the second that you sat down at your desk in the morning. Make it a habit that's easy to remember by tagging it onto something that you already do every day. Maybe you make your coffee every day and you're alone in the kitchen while you do it. Maybe that's your moment to sit down and meditate for two minutes while the coffee is brewing.

The more we can tack it onto something that we already do, the easier it is to incorporate this into our regular and delete routines.

Fourth, try and find a way to make it your own. I talk a lot in coaching about kind of romanticizing our lives. And if I'm gonna meditate, I'm gonna make it as cozy and warm and yummy as possible. I'm gonna light some incense, I'm gonna light a candle, I'm gonna turn on some music. But I'm gonna do something that makes it really appealing and as enjoyable as possible. So I get excited about doing it, even if it is just for two minutes. Light a candle for two minutes, grab a cozy blanket.

or keep a journal around your meditation spot to kind of jot down any thoughts or anything that you notice afterwards. But create kind of a vibe and a habit that feels supportive, but also really appealing for you.

Lastly, and I think most importantly, being really kind to yourself. Some days your mind is going to wander a lot and that is normal. It's called a practice for a reason and it's a lot like lifting weights. You're not gonna be good right out of the gate. We have to build that muscle and build that strength and build that muscle memory. It's the same thing with meditation. We have to practice it and build and develop the skill and allowing yourself to fail and allowing days to not be as good as others.

is part of that and embracing that and just letting it be okay, but committing to continually showing up for yourself. That's what's most important.

In closing today, I just want to emphasize that meditation, doesn't have to be, and it shouldn't be just another thing on your to-do list. That doesn't feel good. So we're already starting out of the gate as if this meditation was something that's just annoying, Just one more thing that I'm supposed to be doing to be a good person day to day. That's not what this is about. We want it to be a tool that you can use anywhere, anytime to just reset.

and connect with yourself. So think of it as giving your brain just a few minutes to rest and chill out because you deserve it. It's not something you need to do. It's something that you owe it to yourself as part of your regular self care.

So if you're listening to this and you've been waiting for a sign to start meditating, this is it. Try two minutes today, just notice your breath, notice your thoughts and come back again and again to yourself.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me. I would love to hear if you try it out. So share your experience with me on Instagram or send me a message to autumn at the uncomfortable dream.com. Until next time, remember even in a busy life, you can always take a breath and come back to yourself.

If today's episode resonates with you and you're ready to take this work deeper, I do offer a six month life transformation coaching program. It's designed to help you create real lasting shifts in your career, your wellbeing, and your sense of overall alignment. If you're curious about working together, just reach out. I love to connect and see if it's a fit for where you're headed.