Gnome thoughts on meditation..

The ancient yogis knew that mediation and calming the mind was an essential practice to improve their lives, in fact, yoga was fundamentally this, the physical poses came much later and even these were to condition the body to allow sitting in a relaxed position to facilitate meditation.

Science now supports the positive benefits we gain from a regular mediation practice; MRI studies have identified changes occurring in the brain with such a practice and there are numerous books on the subject.

In order for meditation to work, you have to do it. Sounds obvious really but there are clearly barriers that we put up, the most obvious that come to mind are that we just don’t have the time and we don’t know how to do it - or if it will work…

"I'm visualising a bird as the image just popped into my head?"

I agree, it may be difficult to find 10 minutes each day to spend quietly, in our own space to calm our body and mind down progressively to a point where everything is still, relaxed and at peace.

Or where we can take a walk and focus entirely on the sensations, the feel of the feet on the ground, wind on the face, hearing the sounds around but only focussing on the moment and not the continuous chitter chatter of the mind.

Yes, time is precious, and we need to use it wisely, how on earth can we free up 10 minutes each day to be so self-indulgent?

The irony is that meditation is a simple, effective method that can help you to improve your productivity. If you are completely relaxed and stress-free, then your mind will also work more effectively, you will probably get a positive return on your 10-minute investment.

The mind is continually churning thoughts, where do they come from, why are they popping up now, why can’t I get this problem out of my head? Even when we sleep the brain is active with REM activity, healing, dreaming.

"Sorry....but I'm just a little preoccupied for meditation at the moment....and I'm not a gnome!"

We owe it to ourselves to give it a break.

There are plenty of resources available to help embark on a course of meditation starting with the breath as primary focus, visualisations, counting, happy place, body scanning. All of these methods are certainly worth trying. We are all wired differently, and some may come easier than others. The objective is the same, calming the mind.

If you can free up some time for a 10 minute daily meditation and stick at it, very soon you will feel the change in yourself, how you feel, how you react to situations, the practice gets easier and you really start to love it and the improvement it brings to your day.

But it will only work for you if you do it.

Not just for frogs and gnomes...