Sole Response Reflexology and Reiki

Meditation- Relax, breathe and get to know your inner self

How often in this day and age are we told about the importance of relaxation and that meditation is a great skill to develop? How many of us actually take action to develop the skills required for meditation?

We have grown up in a culture that has actually encouraged us to always be active in body and mind. We tend to constantly keep our minds working in overdrive and thinking all the time, using our energy resources continuously without allowing ourselves to re energise by having some “no thought” time. To clear our head as it were.

Recall back to how many times a simple thought has entered your mind, which has led you to another thought and then another thought etc, until your mind has created a scenario that hasn’t even happened yet. Sometimes this scenario may have a happy ending, other times we may have unnecessarily upset ourselves. Our ego and mind love to play with our thoughts to see what they can create. Nine times out of ten it is our imagination that is running wild creating unrealistic situations and “what if” or “if only” scenarios. These take us out of the present moment.

So how do we manage this egoic mind? Start by developing the skill of meditation. Meditation is a learned process of calming the mind and not becoming attached to the dramas and thought streams it wants to create.
It is a process of concentrating on the breath and being the observer of our thoughts, rather than becoming attached to those thoughts and allowing them to anger or upset us.

It is common for people to say “they haven’t got the time to spend meditating” or “why would I waste time sitting and not doing anything, when I achieve so much more by staying active?”

I find this very puzzling. Is it any wonder that people are suffering ill health, anxiety and stress related disorders in the western countries? simply because they feel that they need to be constantly doing or thinking about something. Not taking some time to simply sit, relax, breathe and unwind has been proven to have detrimental effects on our health.

If you are one of those people, please acknowledge that aspect of yourself. It’s never too late to learn meditation. There are a variety of meditation techniques available. You just need to find one that suits you and spend some time practising.
Think of it as part of your daily health plan. Even 10-20 minutes per day is all you need to get started. Give yourself time to practice and persevere. You will definitely feel better for having incorporated some meditation into your daily routine.

For further information on Meditation please visit the Links page at  http://www.soleresponse.com/links.html

 Meditations/Relaxation music CDs available click here

Good health !!

Marita Reynolds. © Copyright 2009