a) it’s nearly impossible to find a moment when nobody wants anything from you during the day, morning or evening b) when you’re so sleep deprived that you just doze off as soon as you sit still for a minute or
c) you have a 1 million things in your mind that you feel you need to do or think about.
Can you relate to any of these challenges? They certainly all apply to me!
During our last yoga teacher training session we did a 20-minute meditation, not a guided one – just sitting in stillness. I think these must have been the longest 20 minutes of my life! I always thought myself to be a calm and balanced person and before I had children I had a daily meditation practice but since I’ve had my kids I just haven’t had many moments to myself in peace in quiet. So when we were sitting in stillness for 20 minutes at my yoga teacher’s house boat (perfect place to be calm and relax) my mind was racing like crazy! So many ideas, so many things to do and so many things to think about! I think this must have been because for the past two and a half years I just haven’t had time to just be.
I have to say that this has gotten a lot worse since I started blogging because I’m constantly thinking of new ideas for blog posts, how I can improve my website, how many things there are to do to connect with other bloggers and improve my skills.
Why is it important to take some time to meditate? We and therefore our minds are always rushing around from the minute we open our eyes in the morning to when we go to bed at night. Most of us live more in the future (what do I have to do, what is happening tomorrow etc) than in the present. Meditation can help us to come back to the here and now, clear our minds and kind of reset them. With this process come enormous benefits:
Benefits of meditation
- helps to prevent and release stress
- can help to lower blood pressure
- can relieve tension in the body and help when suffering from headaches
- improves immune system
- improves mood and behaviour
- increases ability to concentrate
- increases acceptance and therefore happiness
- makes you look and feel younger
All of these are good enough reasons for me so I took the decision to take 15 minutes every morning to just sit and meditate. Obviously the usual challenges still come up i.e. being interrupted by the kids (it doesn’t matter at what time I get up – they just seem to know that Mummy wants to have some quiet time!), by my husband asking important questions (“where is my blue shirt?”) and my morning sneezing (for some reason I always have to sneeze three times at some point in the morning). And even when I have moments to myself I’m often still not able to empty my mind completely…
When I came across Megan and her blog Chocolate and Pills it came as a Godsent! She is currently sending out daily tweets to remind her followers to practice mindfulness and is adding a guided meditation (audio files on which someone is taking you through the meditation) each day to her post 30 Days of Mindfulness. You can see we are not even halfway through so there are more of them to be added. I have tried a few of them and I find it so much easier to listen to someone’s voice rather than to just sit with myself. Ultimately this is obviously what I want to be able to do and just come back to the present moment without outside help but in the meantime I find these very useful.
There are various audio files from 5 minutes to 20 minutes long so you can pick and choose whatever suits you on a specific day. There is even a chocolate meditation (yes really!) so do have a look.
Have you ever tried meditation? Do you find it difficult or does it come quite naturally to you?
I am finding meditation to be one of my best survival mechanisms with a teething baby! Switching my mind off for even 5 minutes and concentrating in my toes, knees, etc to actually achieve the switch off really helps me recharge. I try and do it several times a day and the benefits are priceless.
Definitely would like to try Meditation , I am glad that I came across your blog , lots of tips and advice 🙂
Dear Christine,
I haven’t tried pure meditation yet but when I do my Yoga or Pilates exercises slowly and concentrate on my breathing, it feels like meditation for me.
I might start sitting five minutes still though and increase the minutes of meditation each time.
What do you think? What is the bonus of meditation on top of Yoga or Pilates?
Kind regards
Teresa
I completely agree with you! It is like a meditation. The mind is still more active however than when you’re sitting still so I would try it just to notice the difference. It’s a great idea to start with 5 minutes and slowly increase. Good luck!