From journaling to meditation to yoga, finding time to slow down and be mindful is always important, and has especially been accentuated these past few years. It can be particularly helpful to implement a wellness routine during the stress of event or wedding planning.
I had the opportunity to speak with Molly of Zen Moon Meditation. While Molly has been practicing meditation since 2017, she launched her Instagram and YouTube channel consisting of meditations that she creates in her home in January of 2023. Her goal: to be a source of peace and to provide a space for people to be themselves, despite what may be going on in their day to day. Read on to learn about her process, how she got started, and the positive impacts meditation has.
All images in this post courtesy of Molly of Zen Mood Meditation.
S&S: Why did you start Zen Moon Meditation?
Molly: I’ve found so much comfort and healing from meditation in a way I had never felt before, and I wanted to be part of that community. That's what really drove me to start it, and so my meditations are based on topics that I wish I had access to in other meditations, or maybe meditations that don’t currently exist or are hard to find. I'll create anywhere between five-minute calm down meditations for anxiety attacks to 30- or 40-minute visualization meditations to help ease depression and low vibrations. I want to contribute so that's what I'm trying to do now.
S&S: How would you describe the style of your meditations and Zen Moon’s style as a brand?
Molly: So Zen Moon was chosen after a long name choosing process. I was probably between five or six names and this felt the most right to me. The main reason I seek out meditations is for peace or calming nerves, and the words Zen Moon feel like they encompass that to me.
Zen feels authentic and organic and Moon comes into it because of divine feminine energy. I wanted to use the word Moon to incorporate this air of femininity that I hope everyone can feel connected to despite how they identify. Femininity doesn't just mean women, it's the traits that fall under that umbrella like peacefulness and balance and gratitude. Some of those more instinctual and natural feelings that we can sweep to the side or forget in day to day life.
There's a lot of comfort in falling back into the natural feminine of yourself when everyone, men and women alike, is expected to be so confident and on all the time. You’re safe here, just be yourself and relax. Know that when you’re doing these meditations there’s no one judging you, there’s no expectations of what you have to be. Just be yourself and focus on how you ideally would like to be.
S&S: I’m imagining the words of your meditations wrapping me in a cashmere blanket.
Molly: That's what I want people to picture. I want them to see something in their minds like that, so when they think of Zen Moon or they hear my voice or become familiar with my meditations, it takes them somewhere. They start to associate calm and peace or cashmere blankets with what I do.
S&S: Can you walk us through your meditation creating process?
Molly: I have a big spreadsheet of all of the topics I would like to cover. And then I have a section under each topic for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 45 minutes. I have all of these options, so as I continue to grow my channel, I can pick a topic, pick how long I would like that video to be, and then write a script to fit that mold.
Once I’ve chosen a topic I’ll script it out. Once the meditation is scripted, I’ll record it. I have my own little setup here in my house. Then, I’ll drop it into an editing software where I get out all the background noise and cut it all together at a pace where it makes sense. Sometimes as I'm recording there's huge lulls or spaces where it once felt natural, but when you're listening to it, it feels empty. Or vice versa I’ll have a really short pause and wish it was longer.
I’ll make all those little tweaks and then export it and create the thumbnail. I have a format in Photoshop that I just follow that way they're all consistent. And so I'm thinking about all of that ahead of time making sure they're all cohesive and beautiful.
S&S: What advice would you give to newcomers of meditation?
Molly: I think for newcomers the most common feedback I hear is that it's not for me, I get distracted, my brain doesn't work that way. To be totally honest, when I started my brain didn't work that way either. I started off with 2-, 3-, 5-minutes meditations and it took a while for those to even make a difference. I started doing it to combat social anxiety. That has been something I've been dealing with for over a decade with little to no ways to quell those feelings. Meditation was the first thing to ever quiet those thoughts. It took a while, like a month or two before I started believing the words that I was listening to and saying and repeating, but there is a ton of truth to keeping up with the habit and you’ll start to believe it.
S&S: What do you see for the future of Zen Moon Meditation?
Molly: My plan is to keep up in the way I’ve kept up so far. Keep posting on a regular basis, keep creating unique meditations that provide something new and different to the space. It is more therapeutic than I thought it would be, it helps me stay in touch with my emotions and helps me stay aware of what's going on in my life. It’s given me an opportunity for more reflection. It’s almost like a little therapy session in a way every time I do one of these, because I’m thinking about how does this affect me? It’s a very thoughtful process that you can’t do mindlessly.
I absolutely loved talking to Molly on all things meditation! Unwind and wrap yourself in a metaphorical cashmere blanket after wedding planning all day. Check out Zen Moon Meditation on Instagram (@zen.moon.meditation) and Youtube (@zen.moon.meditation).