Meditation – Getting some headspace

March 11, 2013 in Body & Mind, Health

So as you saw from my post earlier this week, How to Worry-less by a worrier, I’m giving up worry. But what I found out last week was that giving up the stresses of life doesn’t happen overnight. This is a battle that will have to be waged over time. The good thing is that even old patterns can be changed and you can teach the mind to respond differently to particular situations. For me that’s being able to react differently when a stressful situation comes my way.

My first stress busting tactic that I incorporated into my life last week was meditation every day.

I’ve been doing mediation on and off for about two years now. It first started with a trip to Innerspace in London, where you can attend meditation sessions or workshops on topics like Relaxation Strategies, Creative Mediation and Positive Thinking. It was perfect for me at the time, firstly, because I had to leave the office at a normal time of 5.15pm to attend (it felt like I was working half a day) and secondly, I got to have an hour to myself where I focused on sitting still, listening and breathing.

Next into my life came Andy Puccicombe, from Headspace fame, who ran a session at my work on ‘Wellbeing at Work’ and gave me a whole new perspective to meditation. At the session was all women, about my age, who all had an unhealthy addiction to their blackberry. There we all were, about to start our meditation workshop and we were madly sending off emails as if our lives and jobs depended on it. Andy had his work cut out for him.

Don’t forget there is blue sky above the clouds

After we finished, even the most highly strung of us were chilled out to the max. Our blackberries remained off. I knew that I was onto something good and went back to my desk and immediately signed up for the Take 10, 15 and 20 series which you can download and listen to on your phone or ipod. I actually started to wake up earlier in the morning so I would get some time to myself just to listen to Andy talk us through our meditation for that day.

On my recent travels, I fell out of the habit of meditating each day and really missed it. But last week, I started back into my routine and I’m thankful for the 30 minute train ride into the city each morning. It’s just the perfect amount of time to get relaxed and get set up for the day. I’m currently going through the Creativity Series so am feeling very inspired.

This week, I’ve learned from Andy, that stressful situations will always arise, there’s no way to shield myself from them, but by giving my mind space to take them in will help me to deal with them just that bit better. He’s pretty smart that guy. Try it out and let me know how you go.

Eva x

P.S. My next worry-less task is getting more sleep. Good sleep definitely helps me manage my stress levels. Watch out here for my next article.