MEDITATION PRACTICE

Hi everyone, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about the benefits of meditation. For me, meditation is the key to a successful and peaceful day. Many of my clients say they don't have the time to meditate, I can only say that I don't have the time not to!

Each morning I try to take at least fifteen minutes to quiet down my mind and just go to a special place (inside). When I teach meditation classes I encourage students to take out a piece of paper and a pencil or crayons and draw out that special place. It can be anywhere that sets a visual reminder for you that this is where it all slows down.

My place is a little strip of beach (that really exists) it is called Hug Point and is in Oregon. I take this piece of beach with me wherever I go, I imagine it so well that I can almost feel the sand in my toes. I can hear the sounds of the sea, which for me can be any sounds in my environment when I meditate, I don't need absolute silence - although it is lovely when you can get it!

Your place could be a ski lodge, or a waterfall. Many of my clients choose natural destinations, as they seem to feel more calm when remembering them. I also have an extra place for times when I want to go somewhere else and it is a pretty set of steps at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. Again this helps me to slow my whirring mind down and focus my attention on the present moment.

I begin by breathing naturally and normally, and when I feel ready I close my eyes. I then begin flexing and relaxing all the major muscles from my forehead down to my toes twice; I scrunch my forehead and then release, I sqeeze my eyes tight and then release working down to my shoulders, pulling them up to my ears tightly and then releasing. This I do with my arms on both sides, my chest, my stomach and each leg, gently and naturally breathing all the time.

After tensing and releasing my body, I visualise a white marble stairway, with ten steps down leading to my secret place. I can feel the cool marble on my feet as I slowly make my way down one step at a time. Breathing naturally and peacefully, calm and relaxed in the full knowledge that I can stop at any time and return to full awareness.

At the tenth step, I take a nice deep relaxing breath, and step onto my 'beach', and there I sit feeling the wonders of nature and breathing in the calmness and serenity that only a quiet mind can truly find. I may focus on an important issue, or just allow my mind to wander, gently and calmly.

After a period of quietness there in my secret place, I know it is time to leave, to return...and I am not sad, for I know that I can come back here any time I need. I feel calm and confident, recharged internally and ready to take the ten marble steps back up to my life.

I take them slowly and steadily, gently and naturally breathing all the time. When I reach the top, I am pleased to return to my daily life relaxed and renewed.

This excercise is just one of many ways to meditate, there is no right or wrong way. I see meditation as such an amazing tool to our own self esteem and self renewal. So many answers exist in the secret place, in the quiet of our mind.

I hope that you will try meditation, it is free, it is always available and for me it is a little bit of heavan every day. All the best, Annie