Hi, this is Monique Rhodes. Welcome to the In Your Right Mind Podcast, where we're learning how to be happier by working with our minds.
If you'd like to know more about what I teach, come to iintendtobehappy.com.
One of the most powerful tools I share is meditation. I even call it my superpower—and it’s at the heart of my course The 10 Minute Mind, now used in 70 colleges and universities around the world.
Why We Turn to Meditation
Often, people come to meditation hoping for escape.
- Relief from racing thoughts.
- A break from anxiety.
- A way to become calm, focused, or more “together.”
And that’s understandable. But over time, meditation reveals something much deeper.
Not About Perfection
Meditation isn’t about becoming perfect.
- It’s not about making thoughts disappear.
- It’s not about fixing yourself.
- It’s not about becoming someone new.
At its core, meditation is simply about seeing what’s already here.
Awareness Without an Agenda
When you sit to meditate, you may notice:
- The tension in your shoulders.
- The swirl of racing thoughts.
- Your constant reach for distraction—food, scrolling, anything to escape.
- How easily you judge your own mind.
The practice is awareness without an agenda. No self-improvement project. No judgment. Just the courage to see yourself honestly, kindly, and exactly as you are.
The Courage It Takes
It’s not easy.
- It takes courage to sit with your own mind.
- To notice your irritations, your cravings, your vulnerability.
- To stop running from what you usually avoid.
But meditation does this with a gentle invitation:
“Come. Sit down. Let’s see what’s true.”
The Transformative Shift
Meditation changes you—not by altering your circumstances, but by shifting your relationship to them.
- You stop needing to fix every feeling.
- You start trusting your own presence.
- You respond with patience, softness, and truth.
Awareness itself is transformative.
The Doorway to Real Change
If you ever sit and think, I’m not doing it right—let that thought become part of the practice.
Notice it. Breathe with it. Then come back.
Back to your body.
Back to this moment.
Back to what’s already here.
Because the real doorway isn’t striving.
It isn’t resisting.
It isn’t fixing.
It’s meeting yourself—gently, clearly, and fully.
That’s where true change begins.
I hope this has been helpful. As always, be kind, take care, and go gently in the world.
