Month: July 2021

We all know it’s good for us. We know it can calm the mind and heal a heart. Who doesn’t want a bit more peace in this world and it’s there within our grasp. I heard a funny quote that says everyone should meditate for ten minutes and if you haven’t got time you should do it for 20! I just love this, it is such a truism.

My journey into medication has been long and stilted and I am all too aware that one small lifestyle change that impacts my routines frequently knocks it off my list. But as I write this I have been meditating for three weeks solid for either ten or fifteen minutes a day, depends on how much time I have.

I have three children and know how hard it is to get quiet time in the morning when children can be at their peak energy wise.

I know it sounds crazy to deny yourself a few minutes sleep each morning but I tend to wake up and not be able to get back to sleep, so to be quiet I would check my work e mails on my phone – quite possibly the worst start to my day (though this is different for different people). I switched this to running downstairs to lie on the sofa under a heated blanket and enter into a state of bliss for 10 or fifteen minutes each day. What an amazing way to start the day – I feel so blessed. I am then calm when my family arrive in stages.

The rewards of meditation for me are not immediate, it is a subtle change in response to triggers that happens about a consistent daily month in.

I try to get up to give myself 30 minutes, before connecting with anyone else and then I am ready for the challenges the day ahead will bring.

There are many things you can do to change how you feel, sleep, eat, exercise, get outside, connect with people but the least effort way is meditate. It is free – you can download Headspace, Calm, or use one of the thousands that are free through YouTube. You just need a lap top/smart phone (which I assume you have if you’re reading this) and the ability to be still for ten minutes. As a beginner I find it really helps me to have the process explained so I am really enjoying the Waking Up app.

Eitherway, the biggest change you can make to your life write now without it costing you a penny is meditation. You need to stick at it, but even the first go you will feel a relaxed state of calm that you may not have had for some time. 

The things that are good for us are not always the things we want to do, sometimes we have to suck it up and stick with it. Meditation is like going ot the gym you never regret it but sometimes it is really hard to get your self their.

Other suggestions to get meditation into your life are:

Start a small group at lunch time at work, 10 minutes in an office when you know you won’t be disturbed.

10 minutes parked in your car on the drive, before you go into the house at the end of the working day.

After your morning shower, sit and meditate while you are drying off.

Ask for 10 minutes from your household, anytime.

Get your family to do it with you – kids learn about this stuff at school you never know they may be better at it than you are!

Good luck and share how you fit meditating in, so that is a regular part of your life. And we’d also like to hear about how meditating has brought benefits to you and others.

Time, what a confounding thing you are, you are not linear; you have a different impact at different ‘times’. In happy times you fly, in sadness the seconds can seem like hours. Without you we can achieve nothing.
And yet, so many people think they do not have enough of ‘it’.
Let’s take people like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, they all have the same 24 hours in each and everyday as us and yes its true, that they now have a support group of people around them to help them squeeze the most out of every opportunity and everyday, but it wasn’t always like this for them. In the early days they had to make choices, and so, my friends, do you.

Would you rather…

• Watch TV for 3 hours every evening, or go out for an evening stroll and get to know your neighbourhood and some of the people in it?
• Eat whatever you want whenever you want, or restrict your reliance on high-calorie food for sustenance and have a body that carries ten fewer pounds?
• Play Candy Crush, or tick three things off your list to improve your side hustle?
• Buy a cup of coffee every day for ten years, or save well over £10,000 in the same timeframe?
• Look at Facebook, or talk to a real friend/person?
• Buy something, or volunteer to help someone?
• Be kind, or be selfish?
• Work to build someone’s multi-million-pound empire, or work to build your multi-million-pound empire?

I am not saying that a multi-million-pound empire is a good goal; helping as many others as you can is the better goal. Earning money doing that is the best combination

There is limited time in life, it is not infinite. Sleep well, eat well and move well, everything else is a choice.

I hope you are happy with where you are today, it is the result of all the decisions you have made up to this point. If not, change tack, there is time left, until there isn’t.