International Women's Day just passed.

I hope you, my dear friends, colleagues, and cohort of women who are part of the Self-Made Nation, had a happy, restful day.

Fun fact: March 8 is important in my life for a few reasons beyond IWD. It’s my little sister Martha's birthday.

And it's also connected to a self-care journey for me.

Some of you may remember that a month ago, on February 8th. I shared here a deeply personal mental health story. And as part of that, I talked about the importance of taking care of ourselves.

Because behind every single business is a business-owner, a co-founder. And every one of those is a human being that needs to take care of their whole self.

Some pieces came together for me the past month.

And I want to share a follow-up story

It all begins with a notification

One thing about still being on Facebook is the good notifications! My friend Elizabeth Kilvert, who's also been a guest here on the show twice, is the founder, owner of The Unrefined Olive here in Ottawa, Canada.

I sent her a reminder-aided text message recently to say ‘Happy Birthday’. I hadn't talked to her in a little while and it delighted me to get a quick reply. We love that, right!? Endorphins.

She was in Costa Rica having a “mango and monkey filled birthday” she said.

What a wonderful reminder of self-care for me!

Once upon a time, I took a trip to Costa Rica

I went to Costa Rica in 2018.

It was a women's yoga retreat. A spiritual retreat to truly get away and unplug from the noise of every day.

That was also my introduction to meditation. Meditation remains a very important part of my regular self-care regime till today.

During this trip, where we were staying in at an Eco-Lodge Mountain Resort, one morning, I slipped out onto the balcony of my room, overlooking mountains; the sun rising.

I made myself a pot of coffee.

I sat down cross legged on the floor of the balcony, and I held the warm coffee in my hand.

And I said, “Colleen, we're going to try this meditating and silence thing.”

If you, like me, have a 100 million things running through your mind at any given time, how do you stay on top of the task of settling the mind?

For me, meditation helps.

Meditation can be unnerving to step into

My intro to the world was rather a profound moment that I want to share with you.

Let’s skip back to me, 10 minutes on my timer, warm coffee in my hand.

What happened for me, in that moment in the mountains of Costa Rica, without any music in ears, is that I heard a song.

The Beatles.

Blackbird.

What did that mean?

I don't know.

But I was pretty sure that it was a message of some sort.

This was roughly the time that I was solidifying the decision to host a podcast.

Sitting in silence is very intimidating

I don't think many of us can do it for very long. I have to tell you that the profound moments of silence don't happen for me very often.

But do we owe it to ourselves to get uncomfortable to grow? I think so. So I try.

What I do instead is follow a guided talk to keep me focused. To be better, I have to start self-care from where I can now.

How about you?

Maybe you can't take a retreat for a week.

Maybe you feel like you can't even take an hour.

But can you take two minutes?

Can you just unplug to breathe?

To let go of some of the noise?

Because I think we all need it.

If you think you can try meditation for a couple of minutes, here are a few resources

1. Of course, you probably have heard of the Headspace app. There's also an app called Calm.

2. I know a lot of people who use Beachbody On Demand (BOD), for fitness. Lesser know fact… BOD offers meditation programs within the platform.

3. Insight Timer is a tool I was introduced to more recently, and it has guided meditations as well as little talks. I find the little talks can be very helpful to re-center the brain when things feel like they're haywire.

And know that I'm here. This ‘Self-Made Nation’ community is valuable to me. I’ve come to you via podcast, ‘I’m a Millionaire. So, Now What.’ for nearly 4 years. There are all kinds of other podcasts with zero subscription cost offering wonderful ways to access reflective information.

Needless to say, I'm eager to hear what tools you’re using if you've incorporated meditation into your day.

Drop me a note.