This short article is for people who want to meditate but can’t or are too busy to meditate. Jeff explains how it is possible.
Really…what is meditation?
People get hung up on meditation and the various techniques that are out there.
A friend of mine, a massage therapist said recently that he “can’t do meditation at all”
“Why?” I asked.
There’s nothing to it really. He said he just can’t.
He was seeing it as some complex idea that had built up in his mind and put these barriers up so he thought he couldn’t do it.
If any of you have seen my videos I talk a lot about the importance of meditation and quietening the mind.
In summary…Meditation is just letting your mind drift in a quiet space, possibly doing a repetitive action such as weeding the garden, mowing the lawn or even hoovering.
Not such a quiet space.
But when I say a quiet space I mean somewhere where you don’t have chattering and conversation from other people or the TV.
Some have described meditation as a space where we are not thinking, keeping our mind still and calm for a period of time.
I tend to focus on a candle flame and breathe slowly.
Often I count my breath in and out.
These methods help me to still my mind, then to let my thoughts drift away.
Becoming the master of your mind and not the slave to it can feel like coming home, in such a way that you are rediscovering something that has always been there.
Possibly you did it naturally as a child, whilst playing.
A young child in the main does not have lots and lots of worries about mortgages, jobs, relationships, or if they’re too fat or not fit enough.
Children have simpler minds and are not caught up in the complexities and emotions of teenager and adult years.
As an adult, we still have periods of mind stillness/meditation where we are doing something that we enjoy and feel calm.
Hiking on your own, baking, cooking dinner, sewing, knitting, planting vegetables, trimming hedges can all be activities where you experience such times.
Where your mind is relaxed and calm.
People who work with their hands such as carpenters or gardeners are often good at meditation and have a
calmness to their personality and character that others do not.
They have that space to ponder and think, filter out the distractions many of us experience on a daily basis.
We can use our daily activities to our advantage to meditate; sitting on a train to work or in a car commuting in traffic can be used to still our mind and have a period of meditation.
Even listening to relaxing music during your travel to work can support you in a state of meditation.
So you see more than likely you are meditating more than you think.
Everyone can do it.
It is not so much a ‘thing’ but a natural state of mind people have.
Even before you drift off to sleep or as you wake up, we have a softer period of being awake, where we are neither awake or asleep.
I spend a lot of this time letting my thoughts drift and meditating on positive feelings and intentions for my life and events.
Are you a creative person?
Being creative as you’ve seen above can be a brilliant time to meditate.
Cooking, gardening, art, pottery, can all be brilliant times when you are not necessarily thinking, thus allowing the creativity to flow through you and just happen.
Think to yourself… Am I consciously creating or do I allow it to just happen?
Hopefully and more often the answer is that you allow it to happen.
Get in touch with your creative self.
Again everybody has some type of creativity with them.
You don’t have to be an artist.
Cooking some biscuits or model making can be creative.
Sometimes doing a creative activity can help our mind switch off better than sitting somewhere for 20 minutes a day ‘meditating’.
But I’m too busy to meditate…
Yes, aren’t we all.
As you can see above even busy people can meditate whilst commuting to work, or cooking tea, or drifting off to sleep.
Most of us do these activities within a busy day.
The main thing is that you need to see parts of your everyday life as meditation opportunities.
Meditation should not be a difficult chore. Or something that you dread doing.
It should be something you look forward to.
A space where you can relax.
A space for you.
You should not have to change your life in order to start being a person who can meditate.
Like me, you will find that meditation is useful, you may take it further and dedicate a special time for it, but when you start out this is not necessarily needed.
For example, many people find it difficult to actually sit down and meditate in a set time period, many people have difficulty switching off the chattering mind.
I like to call it the chattering monkey.
Constantly yapping on about what I have to do or what I should be.
Consisted meditation helps to reduce this, with regular practice.
Once you start using creative activities or mundane chores such as hoovering, to practice meditation then you will have the baseline to know when you feel relaxed.
How you feel whilst in a relaxed, meditative state.
When you have this blueprint for how you feel and what it feels like you can start to repeat that experience and feeling.
For example, you may choose to expand the activities you use to meditate.
Once you start to feel the benefits of meditation then you’ll want to take it further.
That calmness you feel after you have been in a state of meditation will enter into every part of your life.
As I said before it is like revisiting something you already know, and you’ll soon start to improve your ability to access meditation at any time.
How will I know I have been meditating?
First of all…keep it simple.
Do not think to yourself “right I am now meditating”.
Let it flow.
For example, be aware of how you feel when you are doing a mundane chore.
Instead of seeing the hoovering as boring.
Change your thoughts a little and see it as an opportunity to clear your mind.
And that’s all.
Let your mind drift whilst doing the chore.
Don’t forget to breathe regularly.
Allow your mind to flow whilst doing the activity.
Then notice after you’ve completed the activity what happened.
I used to do it whilst in traffic on the way to work.
I had put on a relaxing piece of music or some type of self-help guru type person on You Tube.
My mind would clear, and I would not be thinking about the stresses of the day ahead. I’d often get to work and not be conscious of the journey there.
It was like my body was on automatic pilot, I was safe, but my mind was in a state of nothingness, relaxation, a state of wellness.
Conclusion:
Is that it?
Yes.
For beginners to meditate, that is it.
You don’t need much more than that.
In later articles will be talking about the benefits of meditation and some more in-depth techniques.
But for now, do not get hung up on the complexity of it all.
Meditation is not a special science or a complex spiritual mystical process that only special people can do. We are all born with the ability to do it, and it should be as natural as breathing, eating, talking.
Start doing it today.
Re-train your mind to think differently about meditation and you will succeed.
Maybe you have other ideas about habits we can adopt for success, please leave your suggestions below we would love to hear them.
If you want to read more of my musings and articles have a look here on my blog on the Think Your Happy website.
So,what else can you do to change your life around?
What are you changing in your mind to create change within for success in your life?
Leave your comment below and let me know.
The Think community would love to hear your thoughts.
Take back control.
Create Your Own Success.
Jeff James.
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