The single most important thing for a stutterer to do - please read!

The single most important thing for a stutterer to do - please read! Can we all agree that *most* of the time the most draining and painful thing we experience is the *thoughts* about stuttering and not the stuttering *itself*? In my case and many others, it is the anticipation of stuttering and made up scenarios in our heads that causes most of the pain, the *thoughts*. Thoughts are so powerful, a stutterer knows this more than anyone. The more you worry, the more you stutter, the cycle is absolutely relentless. I have been doing something for a few years now that has brought me an incredible amount of relief and peace: daily mindfulness meditation. A meditation session for me looks like this: 1. Sit down upright in a decently quiet place, close your eyes. 2. Breathe deeply in and breathe out, focus your attention on the breath; the sensation of the air entering your nose, your lungs and chest rising. Don’t strain yourself trying to focus on the breath; apply a calm, easy focus. 3. When your mind wanders (it will) calmly return focus to the breath. Don’t beat yourself up mentally if your thoughts race and you can’t keep attention on the breath. The purpose of meditation is to enter the present moment. How can you worry about stuttering if you are truly in the moment? I do this about 2-3 times a day for however many minutes it takes for me to enter a calm, present state which is variably 7-20 minutes. After a few days of meditation, your thoughts begin to have less of an influence on how you feel. When I think about a stuttering situation, I don’t get sweaty and surge with adrenaline like I used to, the thought passes by and has no effect on me. It is amazing. Meditation is incredible and has made me so much calmer and happier, give it a try! Let me know you what all think.