Meditation is a wonderful way to cultivate a relationship with your Spirit-self and tune in to receive your own wisdom. The claims for the benefits of meditation are vast indeed. Among them are meditation’s healing effects, its capacity to reduce anxiety, physical pain, depression stress and insomnia. Meditation is also reputed to help improve sleep quality, improve physical stamina and slow down the aging process- Whoah! Let’s do it.
Meditation helps us to focus the mind and keep us in the present moment. When we quiet the external stimuli we can draw our attention inward. For me, the ultimate benefit of meditation is Spiritual. I get to experience my essential divine nature and to know that my Spirit can never be absent because it is who I truly am. Meditation has an incredibly calming effect and it directs my awareness inward until the only thing left is the awareness itself of the present moment.
Well that is the aim anyway! But of course we all struggle with the monkey that is our mind which is full of thoughts of the past, what ifs and shopping lists.
In order to achieve stillness, some people choose to focus on a particular sound or a word or an image. Some choose to repeat a mantra like ‘Om’ or simply repeat a phrase such as ‘I am calm now’. Many people focus solely on their own breath in order to find that place of quiet. There are all kinds of ways to meditate and lots of tools to help you create a practice that’s right for you. If one doesn’t seem to work then do try others.
I like to vary my meditation practises and often I like to listen to a guided meditation. I find these a wonderful way to unwind and connect with the Spirit and I find the voice-led nature of the recording as well as the plinky plonk (tee hee) music very soothing. There are lots of guided meditations out there on the internet and I have recorded some of my very own (see above).
One helpful tip for quieting the mind comes from Eckhart Toile who suggests an excercise in his classic book, The Power of Now where you ask yourself, ‘I wonder what my next thought will be?’. Try it now, take a deep breath and ask yourself, “I wonder what my next thought will be?”….
…You may find that you draw an immediate blank – that moment is a moment of the peaceful present and in aiming to extend that moment of stillness your mind will become calmer and your intuition will develop. Don’t beat yourself up when your monkey mind kicks in again and you begin thinking wildly. Just simply ask the question again and see if you can sustain that space a little longer and experience a peaceful nothing.
It’s worth a little time and effort to build a little meditation into your day to connect with your divine nature and embrace the life-changing benefits this tool offers.
Big Love,
Katie x
