Meditation & Mindfulness - what’s all that about then?

Are you always on the go, running a busy household, kids, pets, jobs, hobbies? Do you find it difficult to switch off when you finally do get time to yourself. Are you always looking for another job or task to do? Do you over think? Do you worry excessively? Are your thoughts never ending?

If you are like me you probably love the idea and all the benefits of meditation and being mindful but the reality for you feels like an impossibility right? You’ve maybe tried, dipped your toe in the water and failed. You’ve maybe never tried it thinking it’s not your thing, it’s too difficult, it’s for hippies and people that are into that sort of thing?

You have probably already meditated or been mindful and didn't even know it. Have you worried about something so much that you have been unable to think about anything else? This is meditation but in a negative way. If you can focus your mind constantly on something negative you WILL be able to focus it on something positive.

As you can see neither meditation and mindfulness rely on an empty mind but instead a focused one. You may (like me) have been striving for something that was always going to fail. If you’ve tried and failed it maybe looked like this......

Scenario 1: You can’t get comfy in that crossed legged position on the floor. You put some cushions down to help. It helps a bit but after a minute or two you feel like the blood supply to you lower legs is slowly being cut off. You try and sit upright but as the minutes (seconds) pass the burning sensations start to creep in and you have to keep re-adjusting your position and remind yourself why you’re doing this. At first you try and clear your mind but you can hear your inner dialogue start to creep in as well as the traffic outside. You try again to clear your mind but thoughts of what to cook the family for dinner start to creep in. Your feet are now actually numb and your back is screaming. You end up more frustrated than when you started and its not even been 5 minutes yet!!

Scenario 2: You decide to lay down because surely its more comfortable. You fall asleep.

Any of that sound familiar?

Good new! There’s a better way!

I remember the first time I realised that my mind had been truly clear and I hadn’t even been sat down.

I’d practiced yoga for many years (in my own way, no standing on one hand or bending over backwards before you get the totally wrong impression that I'm a lot more flexible than I really am). I’ve always looked around the internet for new routines, trying to keep my interest sparked. Then I saw a headline that caught my attention ‘Qigong - Moving Meditation’. Well why not? The cross legged option was clearly not working for me!

30 minutes later I knew I had been moving because I remember moving - but that’s about all I could remember. Mind totally absorbed in the moment and what I was doing, that’s when I realised truly what mediation was. Fully awake, fully alert, fully participating, and yet time seemed to suspend like some kind of magic. The best part about it was I hadn’t had to cut the blood supply off to my legs!

I’d finally found something that allowed my mind to fully relax, giving it a break from the relentless chattering and babble. I can’t properly describe what that bliss felt like, a clear head, a lightness, relief, peacefulness, clarity, eerily calm, but non of these word do it justice.

It didn't just happen that once, it happened again, and again, and continues to happen. This is when I realised that this was definitely a thing I should do, could do, wanted to do everyday.

Qigong is truly absorbing, the flow of the moments are so graceful, the intention of the flow focuses the mind. The breath connects each movement adding another layer relaxation that not only focuses the mind but switches the body out of fight or flight mode, calming the nervous system triggering our self healing mechanisms and taking us into total relaxation.

Moving meditation is every bit as beneficial as seated meditation. In fact the benefits are more numerous because during a qigong session we

• Warm up all the systems of the body

• Activate new energy

• Purge old energy

• Strengthen & Tone muscles & organs

• Flow gracefully

• Relax the mind & body

• Energise

• Self heal

Does this resonate with you, do you want a slice of that mediation pie? If you haven’t tried it yet then I urge you to give it a go.

If you have tried it you’ll probably know what I’m talking about, you may have even had a chuckle at the memory of contorting yourself into that cross legged position!

Please look at my pricing plans to book a free taster session now.