What is Meditation?  Meditation is setting aside quality time to be with yourself in a quiet, peaceful environment, taking care of your mental and emotional health; taking care of yourself.

Everything starts with a first step.  Meditation is one of the simplest and best ways to calm down your mind and body and to invite more clarity into your life.  In our fast-paced world, too many distractions clog our minds and thoughts that make it easy to forget what is truly important for our health and well being.

Why Meditation?  When you meditate you are clearing your mind of the information overload that’s in our system, thereby making it easier to focus and concentrate on what is important to us.  The demands of everyday life produce pressures, anxiety and stress on our body which in turn cast a heavy burden not only on our heart but on our daily lives.  When we do not pay attention to our own health, our overall well being, eventually our bodies will break down and we become sick.

Are there benefits to Meditation?  You bet there are.  Meditation brings you a sense of inner peace and that peace keeps you calm.  When you are calm in mind and body you think and act in a more rational manner. Meditation enables you to unload and to let go of the stuff that’s weighing you down, feeling stressed and overwhelmed.  Meditation not only helps you to get through your day in a more organized fashion, overall, it improves your health.

Here are some emotional benefits of meditation.  When you meditate

• You get rid of negative emotions
• You focus on the present
• You build skills to manage your stress
• You increase self-awareness
• You gain a new perspective on stressful situations
• You learn to appreciate what you have
• You learn to live in the moment.

Caring for a loved one (my spouse) forced me to look and to think outside the box.  I had to find coping strategies that enabled me to maintain my positive outlook, no matter what circumstances I am facing.  I learned to take care of me, first.  For me, there’s nothing better than sitting on the bank of a river and simply let my mind go blank as I listen to the ripples of the stream.  Good things happen here for me; my experience is like mystical.  There’s something so calming, so powerful, so tranquil and relaxing about this simple act of kindness for myself.  Meditation is a cherished activity in my life; it brings me freedom of mind.  It enables me to maintain a sense of peace and I am able to cope with grace and calm as I continue to give my best efforts.

The beauty is that you can practice meditation anywhere, wherever you are at any given time; at work, at home, walking, and doctor’s office and so on.  When you meditate you are simply trying to clear your mind.   When you think of meditation like a fast, easy and inexpensive way to relieve the burden of stress that’s weighing you down, you realize meditation is worth trying.

As you practice meditation on a regular basis you’ll experience many benefits.

• Your inner peace of mind will be restored;
• Your mental and physical health will be enhanced, and
• Your life will take on a whole new meaning.

History tells us that Meditation has been practised for thousands of years.  Originally, meditation was meant to help deepen one’s understanding of the sacred and mystical forces of life.  Today, meditation is used as a coping strategy to help eliminate stress and to teach how to have and maintain a healthy, peaceful mind and body.