Do you have trouble quieting your mind when you meditate? If so, no worries, each time your mind goes wandering off you have the perfect opportunity to experience a magic moment, and I will tell you how!

I have been reading a lot about meditation lately to help deepen my own practice and to prepare for my vinyasa & meditation classes at Yoga Bliss Akron and more Hang Ten Meditation videos. I’m a sucker for fun book titles, so when I saw the book Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation by Sharon Salzberg, I had to check it out. I already know meditation can cultivate happiness, but I wanted to tap more deeply into this power that Sharon talks about.

One of the hardest parts of meditation is keeping the mind from wandering off to other thoughts. I’ve always been told that it is the mind’s job to wander. I loved it when Sharon confessed in her book that even the most seasoned meditators still struggle with this.

The key to managing a wandering mind is to not beat yourself up when your thoughts meander during meditation, but rather to simply acknowledge each thought and then let it go just as easily as it came as you refocus on your breath.

According to Sharon, when you realize that your thoughts have wandered, this is a truly magic moment because it grants you the opportunity to come back to your breath and back to your meditation practice. And, it gets even better – you can have as many magic moments as you like during a practice!

The magic moment really resonated with me, and I’ve started to employ the concept it in my meditation practice. Now when the chatter in my mind starts taking me on a tangent during meditation (and some days my mind is on a quest to rack up as many frequent flier miles as it can) and I come to that realization, I think to myself, “Oh cool, it’s magic moment time.” I return to my breath and start my meditation practice again. This magic moment brings me a sense of lightness and ease, and at times it makes me feel downright giddy. It fills me up with a sense of warmth, acceptance, and love, and that is the magic we should experience when we meditate.

I encourage you to give this cool concept of the magic moment a go the next time you meditate. It has been a game-changer for me.

If you have always wanted to try meditation, Sharon’s book is a perfect guide to getting started. It discusses how to sit, how to breathe, and how to start and maintain a meditation practice. One of my favorite parts of the book is the CD that Sharon includes to provide several audio meditation exercises. Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation is a straightforward guide to finding more creativity, peace, and balance (aka happiness) through the practice of meditation.