If you’re like me your life is busy, full of to do lists, and pretty non-stop. Most of what you do every day, day in day out isn’t even for you – it’s for your kids, or your parents or you partner. Have you ever stopped and looked at your life to see what you do for yourself and the wellbeing of your physical and mental health? You’ll probably not be shocked to find that apart from eat, wash and possibly exercise you don’t do anything for yourself. Humans are more than a body, we are a soul and a mind as well. All three aspects need to be nurtured and taken care of. In this fast paced, wealth driven society we often forget about the soul and the mind. This is where meditation comes in – meditation can help you step aside for a small period of time, step away from your busy schedule and just be. Just be yourself, quietly and kindly.
I wrote this article to help you locate the resources that will enable you to discover why meditation is good for us, how to build a meditation habit, which types of meditation are out there and how to start out on your meditation journey. There’s no “One size fits all”.
This article is aimed at the complete beginner to meditation. Are you ready to begin?
Introduction
I hear you saying “How am I going to fit this in?”, or “How am I going to keep this practise up?” With any new activity you just need to build up a habit, this will take time and dedication but will be well worth it. I find that things I want to do for myself – like running (couch to 5K) or exercising or meditation, always fall off the bottom of my to do list, there is always something more “important” that needs doing. I fall foul to this way of thinking time and time again. What I have decided to do, not try to do, but to actually do is to make the thing I want to do as important as say “brushing my teeth” because it is important. For example, I wouldn’t not brush my teeth over taking the dog for a walk. With this thinking I believe that I can include the things that I need to do to nurture my physical and mental health as easily as I include brushing my teeth. I’m on a journey with this, and I will stumble, but I keep hold of this thought and slowly but surely I am putting the things important to my health in the important section of my “to do list” and not letting them drop off the bottom.
When I decided to write this article I began by looking at relaxing music that would be soothing to work to. This is what I am listening to as I write:
It is part of a beautiful list of pieces of music that I have found wonderful to relax to and will therefore be gentle and calming whilst meditating.
