The Benefits of Meditation & How to Get Started

Mimi Bouchard is on the blog today & you should be very excited because she was also recently on GTFOOTS Podcast where we talked about how your energy & mental state affects your appearance, how meditation can give you glowing skin, why she loves lymphatic drainage massage ( just like us !! ) & so so SO much more.

Like, you guys have to listen to her full episode & stay tuned because she’ll also be on The Skinny Confidential HIM &HER  podcast where she talks about the incredible benefits of meditation & how she built her massive brand.

Initially I met Mimi on Instagram & really loved her energy & hustle. She is focussed & I think she has a lot to offer in the space right now when it comes to wellness, meditation & living a peaceful life.

She’s beautiful, approachable & you may have seen her in the UK reality show Made In Chelsea. Mimi also has an app called Superhuman that I use all the time. I LOVE this app – Mimi has the most soothing voice.

My favorite is the Legs Up meditation where you put your feet up the wall to drain fluid or inflammation in the ankles. Plus, it just totally settles your nervous system. If you want to get started with meditation her app is the perfect tool to have in your toolbox. I’m obsessed.

In this post you’ll learn the benefits of meditation, how Mimi likes to meditate, & her morning & nighttime routines that set her up for success.

On that note, let’s welcome Mimi to the blog.

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♡ Introduce yourself to The Skinny Confidential audience.

Mimi Bouchard: Hi! My name is Mimi Bouchard. Where do I start? I’m the founder of the guided meditation app, Superhuman. I also have a podcast, an incredible community of women online & I’m passionate about helping people reach their ultimate potential through my unique approach to personal development. At the ripe age of 25, I’ve lived in 5 different cities & taken countless risks to achieve my desires.

I currently live in The Bahamas with the love of my life, Ben. We met when I was 21, he’s my first boyfriend & my whole heart. Originally from Toronto, Canada, I moved away to London when I turned 18. My life has been a rollercoaster of adventure & finding myself over & over again.

Feeling LIFE has been the biggest driver of my existence, I don’t want to live conventionally. I want to feel it all, experience it all. I’ve been a serial entrepreneur for as long as I could remember. I’m a hustler at heart, always have been & always will be. After dropping out of university with a fire in my belly to do something big, I packed my bags & moved to London. My intuition was strong back then. As random as the decision was, I knew there was something there for me. I ended up leaving 5 years later with the man of my dreams & the version of myself I was always hoping to be.

I could keep you here for days going through all the different businesses & avenues I’ve tried. Creating an online magazine, starring on reality TV, creating & producing a TV show, designing jewelry, podcasting, blogging, founding e-commerce brands, building an online education company, investing, creating digital products, launching a lifestyle subscription platform & now my guided meditation app, Superhuman.

Going through a lot in my teenage years gave me the resilience & drive to continuously work towards a better version of me. I didn’t like the feeling of being a victim, hating myself, hating my body, struggling with disordered eating, feeling depressed & wanting to end my life. I had a tough time between the ages of 12 – 17. Not many understood me & the pressure to be someone I wasn’t had a strong hold over my mental health.

I searched for meaning in all the wrong places. I was stuck in a cycle of not feeling enough & therapy didn’t help my young, stubborn self. It wasn’t until I had a life-changing epiphany at 18 when everything suddenly felt… clear. I felt my true self shine through for the first time in a long time & I became my own healer. Since that very moment I have committed to myself to live a full life. & now, I help others do the same. I like to say that I help people feel ALIVE.

So, that’s a little about me.

♡ I know you like to ice roll. Can you tell us why you love it?

MB: I’m really not just saying this because I’m writing for TSC blog… but I am obsessed with the HOT MESS ICE ROLLER. I use it every morning & notice a massive difference when I don’t.

Like you, I generally run puffy & the only thing that helps my face look refined & de-bloated is ice rolling in the AM ( & doing some facial massage). I used to use a generic brand ice roller & it was okay but when I started using the HOT MESS ICE ROLLER I noticed a bigger difference in the de-puffing –  because it genuinely works better! It stays cold & feels sturdy so it’s easier to sculpt the face.

The best thing is that it only takes 3 minutes every AM to see & feel the difference. It’s like a cold shower for your face. You feel so rejuvenated, fresh & energized after using it. I love it because it makes me feel more confident & awake. I don’t look as tired when I use it, & it’s perfect to do while multi-tasking! Often I’ll read an inspirational book in the morning while ice rolling. The ultimate self-care.

Lauryn, you create the best products.

♡ Walk us through your meditation journey.

MB: Believe it or not, I used to be the kind of person that said “I hate meditating. It’s so boring. My mind works too quickly so meditating just makes me more anxious! I can’t do it.”

It wasn’t until I found the type of meditation that motivated me, made me feel ALIVE (!!) & truly on top of the world that this narrative shifted massively.

As a personal growth junkie, I’ve tried everything to keep myself on track with my goals & mental health. About 4 years ago, I began recording these “pep talks” to myself through voice memos on my iPhone. I’d listen to them every morning, & eventually I added inspiring music to the tracks to make them more impactful to listen to.

These “pep talks” really helped set the tone for my day & slowly but surely, they changed my life. I created ones for binge eating – these cured my eating disorder. I created ones for self-love & confidence, for attracting success & abundance… It wasn’t a coincidence that my life was quickly improving. Opportunities were knocking on my door & I was feeling better & better about myself with every day that passed.

3 years later I began professionally recording these “pep-talks” as meditations & offered them publicly, for my audience to try. The messages began flooding in as people were writing to me daily, sharing wild stories about how the meditations changed their life. These people were getting new job offers, finding their soulmates, healing relationships with their bodies & finally feeling joy every single day. That’s when I knew I had to create something bigger – to reach more people with my work. My meditation app has spread like wildfire since it launched, it’s clear that there are a lot of people in the world like me – people that needed a non-traditional & results-driven approach to meditation.

Circling back to my personal meditation journey, I believe the best way to master your craft is to teach it. Creating Superhuman has helped me personally advance & dive so much deeper into my practice. I meditate daily – I do Superhuman’s Seated Meditations in the morning, usually a Walking Meditation in the afternoon, & sometimes a Cooking Meditation or another one of the 12+ categories of meditations we offer later in the day. It changes daily but I love how Superhuman has a meditation for every single moment of my day. I truly never go a day without it.

♡ Talk to us about the benefits you’ve seen since you started meditating.

MB: Everything has changed since I started meditating. Let’s start with the physical changes: my skin & my body. I used to deal with breakouts & dull skin. Since meditating became a consistent habit, I swear my skin has transformed.

Even the skin on my arms! I used to struggle with keratosis pilaris ( those little bumps on arms – aka chicken skin ) & I have truly healed that through doing my skin-specific meditations on Superhuman. It’s not just me – I’ve had a handful of members send me messages sharing that the same has happened to them. I’m a strong believer in the science behind how our thoughts create our material reality. If this sounds too good to be true, I highly suggest reading the books Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza &/or Mind to Matter by Dawson Church. Hear it from doctors & PhDs.

Other than skin – the whites of my eyes are brighter; I have more energy & I feel unstoppable physically. It’s also no coincidence that I’ve lost 20 lbs in a practically effortless way. As I briefly touched on in my intro, I used to struggle with disordered eating & yo-yo dieting. My relationship to my body & food dramatically changed since my meditations became a daily practice. I changed my self-image through these meditations, & it changed my life.

The difference I’ve seen in my life on an emotional level is the most prominent of them all. In the past my insecurities & self-consciousness took over all my thoughts. I was always waiting to get “there,” this mystical world of perfection, to allow myself to feel happy & present. It felt like a decade of waiting around & never feeling good enough. When I began meditating, along with the other habits that strengthened my personal growth, I was no longer waiting around to start living. I started living in the now. I started feeling joy, bliss, abundance & deep emotions of love. & that’s what life is truly about anyways, right?

♡ What is your meditation process? Your favorite one, how long you do it for, how many times a day.

MB: Oh my, what a question. I go through phases with the meditations I listen to on repeat. Kind of like how I listen to a song or an album on repeat, I get obsessed with a few Superhuman meditations & listen to them until I get hooked on the next one. The good news is that there’s an abundance of new content on the app – we release a new meditation every single day of the week. It takes my audio engineer about 4-6 hours of work per meditation, so you can imagine how high quality & epic they are. At this exact moment in time, these are my go-to meditations:

+ Breathe Through It (5 min Seated Meditation)

It’s crazy how quickly my state changes with this one. It’s like WOW. I get the full body tingles every time I do it. It’s great for a pick-me-up in the afternoon.

+ Limitless + Expansive (19 min Walking Meditation)

This one is more of an advanced Walking Meditation but the emotions it brings up within you is powerful.

+ Clean Away Any Stress + Anxiety (18 min Cleaning Meditation)

I’ve randomly been loving this one, it makes cleaning such an enjoyable experience & it really shifts my mindset. I felt so clear & organized after doing this while organizing my closet the other day.

♡ I’m obsessed with your legs up wall meditations. Can you tell everyone to do it because it’s so MAJOR. Tell us all the benefits too!

MB: I’m honored that the lymphatic drainage queen herself loves my de-bloat meditations! For the readers, laying in a “Legs Up Wall” pose has some major health benefits & I created a whole category of meditations surrounding it.

Putting your legs up a wall for 5-15 minutes will drain excess fluid in your legs, making you feel lighter & leaner. It improves circulation, reduces inflammation & boosts your lymphatic system. You’ll notice your stress & anxiety levels will go down too, especially if you’re doing a Legs Up Wall Meditation at the same time. It also helps sore muscles post workout! There are SO many benefits.

Let’s be real – it’s way better to meditate while in this pose instead of scrolling aimlessly on social media. I like to call it the ultimate mental & physical reset. These are the most popular Legs Up Wall Meditations on Superhuman:

+ Calming, Grounding + Stress Relieving

+ Chill Out After a Long Day

+ Mid-Day Reset

+ De-Bloat + Improve Self Image

+ Restorative Post Workout

♡ What is your morning routine that sets you up for success?

MB: I love a good morning routine. I always say that your mornings are the most sacred part of your day because your mornings create your days, your days create your weeks, your weeks create your months, your months turn into years, & your years become your LIFE.

If you think about it from this perspective, a bird’s eye view, you’ll begin seeing the impact your mornings have. High-level, my morning routine consists of this:

1. No checking my phone for 1 hour after waking (this alone will improve your morning significantly)
2. Hydrating with a lot of icy, filtered water
3. Journaling on how I’m feeling, my goals, & what I’d like to achieve that day (typically I’ll freestyle this but if I’m needing to write prompts or guidance I’ll pop on a Writing Meditation on Superhuman to help guide me)
4. Doing a Superhuman morning meditation on my balcony (fresh air + meditation = bliss)
5. Some movement like stretching, Pilates or going on a walk

Some days I’ll spend an hour on my morning routine, other days I’ll do it in 20 minutes & skip the movement portion. It doesn’t need to be perfect every single day, it just needs to be consistent. The more consistent you are, the more these positive habits will compound over time to propel you into a better & more fulfilling life.

♡ Do you have a nighttime routine that helps you wind down?

MB: Yes! I must admit I don’t do this every single evening, I’m a lot more consistent with my morning routine, but when I do it I feel on top of the world.

My ultimate nighttime routine is turning my phone (& all technology) off 1 hour before I go to bed, making some tea & reading a good book. I’ve been loving these sappy fiction romance novels lately – don’t ask me why. It’s such a nice escape after being in business-mode all day.

On a perfect evening, I’ll light a candle & get into freshly washed sheets. I love the little things in life. If I had a long day & really need to unwind, I’ll do a short guided nighttime meditation & relax that way. My nighttime rituals are a lot more intuitive & a lot less structured compared to my morning routine. I go with the flow & it really works for me.

♡ What wellness practices do you do every single day?

MB: I regularly use my tongue-scraper in the mornings, before brushing my teeth & drinking water. We detox so much in our sleep & it’s a cool health hack to do this. I also love drinking my greens powder drink in the AM, I use Organifi’s green juice powder & I mix it with the juice from ½ a fresh lemon. It really tastes delish.

As you’d expect by now, another big wellness practice of mine is that I meditate daily. This has single-handedly impacted my well-being more than anything else. I eat pretty clean, low gluten/low dairy & a lot of veggies. I take my supplements every day – magnesium, zinc, probiotics, etc. I love doing my ice rolling in the mornings, along with gua sha & some facial massage. I spend a lot of time in nature, too. This is a free wellness practice that everyone reading right now can benefit massively from. I also journal a lot & spend much of my time being introspective & working on my personal development.

Those are my top wellness practices!

♡ How do you clear your energy? Do you clean your space, organize, sage, palo santo- what do you do?

MB: My #1 energy clearing practice is organizing & cleaning my space. If my home is messy, my brain is messy. I try to make it a habit to keep my space clean & “clean as I go” (as my mother often says).

I once heard someone say that the best way to keep your place clean is to always put things in the right place when you’re done with them. It’s that simple! Avoid the “I’ll do it later” mentality. So that’s what I try to do, but I’m not perfect & of course I struggle with being super organized & clean 100% of the time.

As I said, I do notice a huge shift when my place is clean. I don’t sage or palo santo – I’m not opposed to it, it just never became a habit. I like to keep it simple. If I need some mental clarity & my space is physically clean, I’ll do a Walking or Running Meditation & it always helps. Movement + meditation is the ultimate combo for clearing your mind.

♡ What is the secret to being a peaceful person?

MB: Loving yourself. When you love yourself, you love the people around you. Happy people are at peace with the world; as they know we all have individual control over our emotions & feelings of joy.

Unhappy people generally do not like themselves, & that’s why they project. They seek attention & validation outside of themselves. They lack peace because they aren’t at peace with themselves. My “secret” to being a peaceful & happy human is working on myself, so that I can show up as the best version of me to the world every single day.

♡ Tell us about your app & what meditation you would start with.

MB: Superhuman has helped hundreds of thousands live their future now. It’s not magic, it’s science! 95% of people feel a big shift within one week, from just a few minutes of meditation per day. We are pioneering a new approach to guided meditation, powered by neuroscience. Just like how Pavlov’s dogs salivated when he rang the bell, Superhuman meditations connect new thoughts with everyday actions to help you live your future now.

The meditations are set to epic music to inspire, calm & motivate. Plus, there’s a Superhuman meditation for nearly every moment of the day; from grocery shopping to working out & everything in between. Superhuman also has intention-setting morning meditations & relaxing bedtime meditations to bookend the day. We offer a 14 day free trial & a money-back guarantee, so it’s 100% risk free. You can see the 2 minute Superhuman trailer video here!

The meditations I would start with are the following:

+ Remember Who You Want To Be (8 min Seated Meditation)

+ Feel Unlimited + Level Up Your Life (3 min Seated Meditation)

+ Manifestation, Abundance + Self-Love (27 min Walking Meditation)

+ Prep For a Productive Day (9 min Seated Mediation)

+ Live Your Healthiest Life (23 min Chillin’ Meditation)

+ Decide What You Want + Create Clarity Around Your Goals (21 min Writing Meditation)

Also, we release a new meditation every day so there’s always new content to try & choose from.

♡ What’s a book, podcast or resource you recommend?

I’m a big bookworm so I’ll give you my top 5 personal development books to read:

1. Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza
2. The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
3. Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
4. The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest
5. Atomic Habits by James Clear

♡ Where can everyone find you? Pimp yourself out!

My Instagram is @mimibouchard & my podcast is MIMI. If you’d like to try Superhuman for free head to www.superhuman.app or get it on the App Store. Thank you so much for the opportunity Lauryn!

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Meditation has been SO MAJOR for me. Life-changing really. Do you meditate? How has benefited your life? Tell me below.

Be sure to checkout Mimi’s epsiode on GTFOOTS Podcast where she talks all about how meditation helped her have beautiful, glowy skin. And enter her giveaway! Mimi is giving away 15 monthly memberships & all you have to do is follow @mimibouchard & @superhumanapp on Instagram. You guys will love her app, my favorite is the Legs Up Meditation, try it & trust me.

x, lauryn

+ check out why & how I stayed sober for 70 days.

++ stalk the benefits of connecting with nature.

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