How Juggling Became My Meditation

I may not have any research to back this up, but one thing I’ve personally found is the meditative state juggling gets me into.

As a full-time traveler, a husband and a work-from-home dad, my plate is often very full. Traveling can feel very stressful, and life itself offers plenty of opportunity for stress.

When I first began to juggle, it was just a fun thing to do, something that only a few people could do and something that challenged me.

But after a little while I realized I also began to turn to juggling when I was feeling stressed, upset, overwhelmed, angry, and even when I was feeling depressed.

I would grab my juggling balls and head outside for half an hour to an hour, sometimes even more if it was a really rough day. And everything else would just go away as I juggled.

I have to have full concentration on what I’m doing, so my mind isn’t going anywhere else. It just got me out of my head and into my body. It’s hard to even describe.

I’ve always found it difficult to find ways to meditate or center myself.

Juggling seemed to help me to burn off the emotions or the adrenaline and get my blood flowing and my oxygen levels up.

I would get into a zone, into the moment really, and everything would fall away for awhile. All the stress and the negative feelings wouldn’t matter anymore…it gave me the time to just breath.

If I was feeling frustrated with my son or wife, I can work through my frustration with my own juggling “meditation”. If I’m overwhelmed with something I was working on, I can take a break and have fun. If I’m feeling like crap, I could practice a new trick and feel accomplished in what I was mastering.

Just like people say about yoga or meditation, after I juggled off the stress, I could go back into my day feeling clear, and energetic and get myself back to where I want to be. My days go smoother and I’m able to handle things better when I’m juggling regularly.

I’ve even used juggling to handle difficult decision-making; it gave me time to feel focused and clear, before I went to deal with a really hard choice. I could feel how that meditative state helped me turn a bad situation into a positive one, just because I felt myself again.

I may not be able to “prove” it with science, but I know juggling has given me a healthy way to handle stress and my own emotions. It’s become an important part of my life, and it’s why it’s something I am passionate about sharing with others.

Like I said, I’ve always found it difficult to meditate or find ways to feel balanced or centered.

I know if this works for me, there are others out there it can work for too.

At the beach in Pensacola FL.