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
Raising Vibrations
What I like about this handy, simple and effective gizmo, the Health Mark VF8 Platform whole-body vibration therapy machine is its the compact size and storage ability. Obviously its not so light to travel with, but its ideal for the home or office … as you can place it wherever the mood takes you and just start your ‘work-out’. Meanwhile all your friends and colleagues are getting their gym kit together and stressing about paying for a membership they are not taking full (if any) advantage of.
And no-one understands wild abandonment better than Leonard Cohen, with his deeply resonant liquid gold vocals, the poetic lyrics, Eastern European sounding string instruments, the warm musical tones and his gorgeous backing singers. And although its very well documented as to what led him getting ‘back on the road’ … I think he’s loving it too. When I saw him none of the kids around me knew his music, by the end they were wowed!
There seem to be different names for Pose of a Child as the Iyengar class I began Yoga with (8-yrs ago) called this posture by another name. And their Pose of a Child was the one where you take your arms to the side and towards the back of you where your hands are somewhere by the sides of your ankles. 
This is usually applied in conjunction with the Down Face Dog and is found to act as a pause, or punctuation to the Down Faced Dog movement. 
I first bought some Rose Quartz on recommendation from a hypnotherapist friend some time ago. She told of their calming ‘grounding’ quality that takes you out of your head and into your heart … And my experiences have shown this.