How ChatGPT helped me start a meditation habit to relieve stress

Then I heard a YouTube ad announcing the end of the meditation video. I couldn’t remember any instructions during the session and felt more stressed than when I started.

Learning meditation was harder than I expected.

When I disappointedly reported to my coach that my progress was limited, I felt guilty for not being able to concentrate and embarrassed that I had missed some sessions completely a few days earlier. . Instead of feeling discouraged, I was given empathetic understanding, a long list of strategies to make meditation easier, and a reminder that it’s normal for new habits to feel difficult.

My coach is great, but I also don’t work with a yoga teacher or therapist. It’s a bot. Well, the turning point in learning how to quiet my mind was using ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot. have Mind in the sense that we understand it. strange.

Despite being skeptical of both meditation and AI, asking for help from ChatGPT is like having an encyclopedia and a personal cheerleader at the same time, a great resource and resource for starting new habits. It has become.

I hated sitting still and meditating, but I knew it was good for me.

I was trying to get in, but meditation habits That’s because experts (including my therapist) recommend it and research suggests it’s best for health.of evidence It’s persuasive.

Usually I thrive on intensity (like roller derby competitions or soul-crushing 90 minutes) crossfit ), it’s hard to clear your mind without moving your body, even if it’s yoga or tai chi.

So why does something as simple as sitting quietly for a few minutes seem so difficult?

Still, I’m not the kind of person to give up.If there’s one thing he learned as a health reporter, it’s that Balance is the key to a happy and healthy life — or so I keep telling my readers. As a result, I have continued to strive to make meditation stick.

ChatGPT helped me plan and troubleshoot when things go wrong

I first learned more about ChatGPT and its potential to help you start healthy habits. Running habits using AI as a coach.

The results looked promising (and I tracked it as follows) What running coaches recommend) So I used a similar approach in developing prompts to get ChatGPT to help you love meditation. First, we asked the bot to act as a psychology and meditation expert and create his 60-day plan to fall in love with meditation.

Like the man in Running Story, I was surprised at how slow the process started. I didn’t even meditate for the first few days, just researching the benefits and adding time to my schedule.

Of course, I ignored this and quickly decided to sit down and meditate. I was well aware that starting too many things at once is a common mistake. disrupt healthy habits.

Behold, the results of my own actions. I could barely sit still, let alone clear my head. I was clearly in a bad mood, so I told myself I would try harder the next day, but I soon forgot everything for about a week and a half.

When I logged back in, I was a little embarrassed, but made sure to follow the instructions (and, incidentally, apologized to the bot).

But ChatGPT doesn’t get angry or impatient. She answered all my questions, even the odd ones, provided tips on different types of meditation, and suggested experts and apps where I could find more information and guided videos.

The biggest benefit I found from ChatGPT is these different options, showing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to meditation. I also appreciated the bot’s reassurance that it’s normal to have difficulty starting new habits, and that there are strategies you can use to make it easier.

I still have a hard time organizing my head, but it gets easier each time I go, and I feel like the AI ​​is helping me out.

By working things out via ChatGPT, I realized that one of my biggest challenges with meditation is to make it a little easier on myself. Because accepting your thoughts and letting them flow back and forth is an important part of the process.

At the same time, I stayed accountable by following the laid out plan and continually checking in with the bot. ChatGPT’s answers provided the positive reinforcement I craved as I continued with the habit and encouragement when I took a few days off. And just trying it over and over again made a huge difference in getting my brain used to the new routine (my partner also tried it with me, which has helped me a lot ever since). ) Social connections facilitate healthy habits (to start and maintain).

It seems silly, but this bot helped me make new healthy habits feel productive instead of frustrating, and ultimately helped me be kinder to myself. .

Using this method also helped me avoid many influencers. Wellness Wu Misinformation there. I didn’t have to worry that ChatGPT would suddenly start infusing its meditation advice with conspiracy theories and dubious supplement sales pitches.

As a result, I was able to focus on what works best for me. No, we’re not going to let a chatbot take over the rest of the day-to-day tasks. AI is known to generate information that is out of context, misleading, or completely fabricated, making it difficult to understand what to eat or how to exercise without taking adequate precautions. Asking an AI what to do is dangerous.

I have yet to sit in a perfect lotus position and do a 30-minute meditation on the universe to purify my mind. I don’t do it every day either.

But for now, I’ve been able to meditate (usually 3 minutes at a time before bed) more and more days in recent weeks. It became a bigger part of my daily routine and I started thinking about deep breathing more often during difficult moments in my life. And…do I actually like it?

ChatGPT isn’t perfect, and neither am I, but new habits are hard to form, so it’s nice to have another tool to help you navigate and encourage all the information out there. That’s a good thing.