Some General Benefits of Meditation
Its New Year and here’s to a successful and happy one to you all … I brought mine in by spending it at a local cafe-bar Googies a recent discovery in Folkestone’s developing Creative Quarter … Its run by a couple of friendly guys who clearly love hosting, so the place always has a real buzz about it. The evening was fun …
The next day I was up early to take a walk with my brother who was over from Manchester – he’s in his mid-70’s and is a gym enthusiast of many years which keeps him very fit and happy. So we had a long walk along the coastline here, which was lovely, he treated me to a spot of breakfast and as we headed back it started to snow. And wow did it! The flakes were so thick, beautiful and transient of course. And on Friday I put a line on Facebook to say it was like being in a Crystal Glass Shaker – Winter Wonderland 
… it really was … Why is it that everything looks so heightened and beautiful when coated with a layer of snow …
So what has all this got to do with Meditation … well I think this demonstrates how meditation can simply help you appreciate life more … At least that’s been my experience.
2010 and the Changes you Plan to Make
I hope the year has got off to a good start for you too … Perhaps alongside any plans, ambitions and goals you are setting yourself throughout the coming year you are also planning to schedule in a little ‘me time’ or perhaps that should say ‘you’ time …
We often forget the importance of spending some down-time … And we often confuse a little ‘down-time’ with time out … spent on a hobby, reading, watching TV, playing on the computer, etc. They aren’t the same thing for the purposes of this article, because these pastimes all involve using the mind.
Improving the Brain
What I’m referring to is sparing a few minutes of your day doing absolutely nothing, to ‘chill’ if you like. Some people meditate and its being medically proven to offer some stirling physical and emotional health benefits as in simple terms it allows the body and mind system to temporarily shut down each day (twice a day if you can manage it) and it prevents the system from going into overdrive, and helps us become more centred to run our lives more efficiently.
We often just keep motoring through the day no matter how much we have set ourselves to achieve and we have often forgotten how to listen to the body/mind connection. So when we get some like aches and pains we often just pop a tablet without considering what lies behind the signal we’ve been given by such a complex system as the human body … More on that another time.
Meditation improves Decision-making
One of the things you may tell yourself is that you don’t have time to meditate and that’s all very well for other people who aren’t as busy as we … I can only tell you from experience that the quality of the day that includes meditation vs the quality of a day without has far-reaching differences in of itself. The best thing I can share at this point iand you may already be practicing so you’ll know too) is that meditation allows you to come from you best self where you’ll make better decisions and experience a better mood than a regular day allows …
Next time I’ll bring some statistics to the table and share with you some of the specific benefits that meditation and other meditative based forms of exercise provide.
For now though and here’s to a fantastic year !!!
Jane