Sometimes the simplest things in life can be a meditation that lasts a lifetime.

This is how I felt when I started working with numbers on a daily basis last fall by using a tape measure to cut wood.

Up until then, I rarely thought about numbers, much less their importance. Maybe it was me blocking out all the trauma from 8th-grade Algebra 😂.

Regardless, I took them for granted.

Then I realized that from phone numbers to time and space, to money, to music, to the computer code that allows us to text our friends… numbers are everywhere.

It got me thinking: “Why though?”

Hmmmm…

Numbers bring order, because of their inherent order. 1 always comes before 2, 2 always comes before 3 etc.

Numbers are predictable and reliable and there is no guessing what they mean. They are what they are.

They are low-key ordering and structuring everything in our reality.

Could you imagine a life without numbers? It would be chaos! And music would sound awful.

Thank God we have them cause I neeeeeeed my music. (Here is a 🔥 Bonobo set btw).

We can use numbers intentionally in our life knowing their inherent order, strength, and definiteness.

We can use them as a consistent framework to bring the formless imagination into form.

Their stability can create a limit that creates a sturdy structure to give form to our ideas and creative energy. For instance, a numerically defined goal with a date tied to it.

We can also align our attention to numbers when we are emotionally overwhelmed and can’t think straight: Counting to 10, breathing 4 deep breaths then starting over… or going on a run for 5 minutes. This can help us ground our own energy.

The stability of the number acts as an anchor for when the ocean of emotion gets rocky.

So when life gets chaotic and overwhelming, know that sometimes the simplest things like numbers, breath or Nature can be just the meditation we need to bring us back to the calm found in the present moment.