The Challenge of Taking One’s Mind On.
How many times do I hear someone saying they can’t meditate – it was too hard? I am sure this will resonate, many of us have had that beginners initial experience where we couldn’t still our minds and instead of accessing an expected nirvana of bliss, were still running through another ‘to do’ list. Meditation is supposed to be where you think about nothing? Right?
Wrong. I smile and share my own experience. Everyone comes to meditation and thinks thoughts during a practice. I did, I still do. And that is ok. It is said that ‘the mind thinks a thousand thoughts in one blink of the eye. All we can do when looking at our own brains and minds, is to accept and allow, and gently bring ourselves back to awareness that we are thinking about the ‘to-do’ list again, and again, and again.
A great master of kundalini yoga, Yogi Bhajan said that meditation was like dish-washing your brain so that you keep your thoughts clear.
Meditation is your first habit. Meditation is the cleansing of the mind so that mind can tell you who you are.
Here are my Top Tips To Encourage A Meditation Practice
Tip 1. – Start with baby steps. I suggest to my students try only 3 minutes a day. This is to encourage them NOT to give up trying to cultivate a practice. The way to sow that seed, is to keep it manageable. Three minutes whizzes by and after mastering 3 minutes, you find you may allow yourself the luxury of 6 minutes?
Tip 2. – Say a mantra to help banish those pesky thoughts (I love Wahe Guru which means ‘Wow God’) and a mantra can keep you away from thinking about what to cook for supper or what you are doing at the weekend.
Tip 3. -Try and make the practice a ritual. It is best to sit up, elevate hips higher than knees also helps, and perhaps wrap a blanket or shawl around your shoulders and light a stick of incense or candle to light. You can have a meaningful photo here with you too.
As you grow this habit (it is said that 40 days starts a habit, 90 days to confirm the habit, 120 days to make the new habit new, 1000 days and you have mastered the new habit) you may find unexpected benefits sneak into your life. Let me know if they do?
The suggested mediation times and possible benefits are:
3 minutes effects the electromagnetic field, the circulation and balances the blood.
11 minutes begins to change the nerves and the glandular system
22 minutes balances the three minds (positive, negative and neutral) for harmony
31 minutes allows glands breath and concentration to affect cells and rhythms.
62 minutes changes the grey matter in the brain.
There’s always a chance that meditation may work for you, but only by giving it a chance (maybe a second chance if you have tried only once) and then making it a habit for some days, can you answer the question. There maybe a ‘gift’ waiting for you. I hope so.
