January 2026

Lately, my stress has been leaking into places it doesn’t belong. I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night with my mind racing and once I’m awake, that’s usually it. No scrolling. No phone. Just laying there thinking about work until the alarm goes off. During the day, I’ve noticed I’m more irritable than usual, snapping at small things that normally wouldn’t bother me. Everything feels rushed, like I’m constantly behind even when I’m not. Most of it is coming from work. Right now, I’m juggling a lot at once. My responsibilities at work have expanded quickly, there are several high-stakes initiatives moving in parallel, and I’m effectively operating across multiple roles. Add in a global team spread across time zones, and it’s been hard to ever fully shut my brain off. I don’t love admitting this, but it started to feel unsustainable. I know what chronic stress does over time: to health, relationships, and overall life satisfaction. So instead of trying to “power through” like I usually do, I decided to experiment with something different. I decided to try meditation and see if it could actually help. Understanding the Challenge For the next 21 days, I committed to meditating every single day. This wasn’t about becoming enlightened. It was about seeing if a small, consistent practice could quiet my noisy mind. Clarify Your Intent The “why” here was simple. I’ve heard for years that meditation helps manage stress. I also know that chronic stress leads to a long list of negative health outcomes and slowly chips away at how much you actually enjoy your life. If I could get my stress under control, even slightly, I figured I’d: That felt like a worthwhile, low-risk bet to make (if only I could find the odds on Kalshi). Set Your Personal Baseline I hadn’t meditated a single time over the last several years. That said, I wasn’t starting without some experience. Nearly 12 years ago, I participated in a 3-month yoga and meditation study. The study participants did yoga for 20 minutes and meditated for 10 minutes every day. I remember feeling happier, calmer, and even having vivid, lucid dreams. I always wondered how much of that was meditation and how much was having few real responsibilities (I was in university at the time). Well, it was time to find out. Here’s my 30-day averages before starting according to Whoop: Finalize Your Plan Consistency mattered more than perfection. Because most of my stress came from work, I intentionally scheduled my meditation during the workday, typically at the start of lunch (which for me is about six hours into my day), when Slack messages, calls, and general chaos are usually peaking. On weekends, I meditated shortly after waking up. If I needed to move the session around, I didn’t stress about it (smart, ay?). The only hard rule was don’t skip the day. I also made a point to pause after each session and briefly reflect on how I felt, both mentally and physically. Establish Accountability I shared the plan with my fiancée, and she decided to join me for many meditation sessions. Having someone else in it made it easier to stay consistent, especially on days when my motivation was low. There were even days where I came close to forgetting my meditation and her nudge made sure I didn’t miss a single session. How the 21 Days Actually Felt Meditation wasn’t consistently peaceful. Some days were calm and grounding. Other days were filled with distractions, background noise, interruptions, travel, alcohol, sickness, and classic “monkey mind.” Thoughts about work, business ideas, workouts, and random daydreams constantly tried to take over. A few patterns stood out: By the end of the challenge, one change was undeniable: I stopped waking up in the middle of the night from stress. What Happened to My Metrics? I tracked my Whoop data throughout the challenge to see if meditation would show up in the numbers. Here’s the honest answer: There was no clean, linear improvement across all metrics. HRV and recovery fluctuated heavily day to day, often driven more by: That said, a few things stood out: The biggest improvement didn’t show up neatly in a chart: I wasn’t waking up in the middle of the night stressed anymore. The takeaway: Meditation didn’t override bad inputs but it did seem to raise my floor, especially mentally. Final Reflections Meditation didn’t eliminate stress from my life. That was never realistic. What it did give me was space. Space between stress and reaction, between thought and spiral. That space made me more patient, more present, and better able to downshift when things felt overwhelming. Five to ten minutes a day turned out to be a small price to pay for better sleep, improved emotional control, and a calmer baseline. I’ll be continuing this practice and specifically retrying this challenge over a more representative timeframe (not the holidays). Want to Try This Yourself? Here’s the challenge: For the next 21 days, meditate every day.Start with 5 minutes. Use a guided app if needed. Don’t aim for “peace”, just commit to showing up. Your mind is already loud.This is how you teach it to breathe again.