My Secret Weapon

In my recent quest to de-stress myself (this lasting a few weeks now), and find a way to stop worrying and being so high-strung, I decided to try meditation. Again. I've tried it a million times before, and it's just not something I can stick to because it takes too long. I have been doing mini-mediations when I can feel myself get overwhelmed, but that's about it. Before I moved on to something else, I wanted to do a little research. I checked out zen, which is kind of like Buddhism, but without the religious aspect. I've always loved the spiritual (again, not religious) part of Buddhism. I feel like it's important for everyone to connect with their inner peace every now and again, as often as possible in fact. As I was stumbling through and reading some things, I learned a few tricks to keep myseslf under control. I also found a lot of guided meditaion on the internet. The only problem with guided meditation is it puts me to sleep. I don't mean that in a bad way, but it literally makes me sleepy to focus and be still for that long, and I would find myself waking up after an hour and a half when I was only supposed to be down for 20 minutes!
At any rate, let me get on with what this post is really about. I was having trouble one night. Trouble with getting Ally to go to sleep. Her bed time is very early because we have to be up very early to make the 35 minute ride to her school. Sometimes all her energy isn't gone by that early in the night, so she was giving me a very hard time, and I was getting pretty frustrated. Because I was frustrated, I instantly thought, "I should meditate", thinking that this was really the time to put this to the test. Then I thought again. What if I had Ally meditate? It might make her calm down, and maybe even sleep like I do. I flipped the computer on faster than I ever thought I could. We listened to a guided meditation, and within 10 minutes, we were both out like a light.
Needless to say, it worked! Now, I make her do it every night she is with me. It helps her sleep and makes her focus, and she seems to wake up easier in the morning. It is something that I would recommend to any mom with a child over the age of 4 who has to be in bed by a certain time. It's also a good way for both of us to calm down and get rid of some stress, as well as spend some quality time together. Here's the link to the guided meditation that I use: here. It's called the secret garden, and I found it on Facebook, of all places! Good luck with this, and if you check it out, let me know how it goes!