Peace of Mind – Take A Moment

As I sit watching my first sunset of 2013, I wanted to share something with you. Through the second half of the past year, I have been on the move a lot. Being in different places every day without your routine and the people that you are used to can make you feel ungrounded. So I have taken extra care to develop a morning practice of writing, yoga and meditation to make me feel grounded and present in every moment no matter where I am and who I am with.

I have been practicing yoga for over ten years now, but I have noticed that in my London life especially over the past few years that when I get the busiest it is often the first thing that I cancel in my diary to make more work time. I have realised that although this is easy to do, it is really destructive. The time I spend doing yoga whether I am busy or on holiday is vital me time, which helps me to feel balanced and helps keep my body strong.

Over the past few months I have started to build in some great routines into my life that help me to feel great and get the most out of each day, from my monthly jain fast, to the thrice weekly two hour yoga sessions to regular fruit fast. But one of the most important things is my daily mediation. A friend of mine asked me recently why I had started to meditate now, and the answer I gave which made us both laugh was that I have been meaning to get round to it all my life.

It has helped me to feel peaceful, more focussed and more joyful. All good things and brilliant to know that you can get them without spending a penny. The greatest gift that I get from meditation is that it keeps me in the present moment, not thinking about the past or the future but enjoying and living fully in each moment as it unravels.

The reason that we meditate is to be in a state of complete stillness of body and mind. If you think, even when we are sleeping, our minds are still on. When we are able to still the mind, we invite Sattva which is light and spirit into ourselves. This is one of the Three Gunas, which are our three energy sources and it can only be felt when in mediation. The other two Gunas are Rajas (movement) and Tamas (rest/ignorance) which we can access as we go about our everyday lives. I have found recently, that lots of people that I come across have asked me if I meditate and how I do it. So in this blog, I wanted to share with you a few of the people that inspire me and the writers/thinkers that I like to learn from. This is by no means a definitive list, you will ind that there are many books and teachers and different schools of thought to explore. But here are a few of the ones that I have found useful.

Artwork by Illustrating Rain

How to Meditate:

I love this simple guide from the DJ Mr C. He is down to earth and takes you through a great daily meditation, teaching you how to do it for yourself.

+ Listen and download here

This is a meditation that focuses on the Crown Chakra, you can do this one twice a day or you can mix it up and do a daily one that focuses on the chakras. It is recommended by Indian teachings that you do a weekly root chakra mediation to ground your energies. You could also use your morning meditation to set and release your intentions for the day.

If you choose to do the chakra (these are like wheels that flow the energy throughout your body) mediations than follow these instructions:

Do the mediation as usual but follow this guide which was given to me by a spiritual teacher in India, for which one to do on what day and what colour to think of, area of the body to focus on and manta (sound) to make.

Friday: Mooladhara/Root Chakra – Colour Red – Mantra Lam – Location between the spine and pubic bone (including the genitals/reproductive area)

Saturday: Swadhistana/Sacral Chakra – Colour Orange – Mantra Vam – Location two fingers above the root chakra

Sunday: Manipura/Solar Plexus – Colour Yellow – Mantra Ram – Location above the naval

Monday: Anaharta/Heart Chakra -Colour Green – Mantra Yam – Location heart

Tuesday: Vishuddhi/Throat Chakra – Colour Sky Blue – Mantra Ham – Location pitt of the throat

Wednesday: Ajna/Third Eye – Colour  Indigo – Mantra Om – Location in between eyebrows and a cm up

Thursday: Sahasara/Crown Chakra – Colour Violet – Manta (No) Silence – Location top of head

To find out what each chakra represents in your physical, emotional and spiritual body, check out my blog post here.

Mailing lists:

The Daily Love – I always enjoy this popping into my inbox every morning from Mastin Kipp and his team in LA.

Life By Me – Always interesting meaningful insights from a different person every day.

Podcasts (search on itunes):

Oprah.com Spirit Channel – In depth interviews with some of the leading thinkers in spirituality today.

Gabrielle Bernstein – Positive, and motivational and a full on believer in miracles. She has some great free mediations on her podcast too.

Marianne Williamson’s Miracle Thought – A short thought every day to keep you inspired and thinking.

Deepak Chopra Blog Talk Radio – Varied and interesting talks on spirituality and science.

Hay House Radio: For a variety of shows including Wayne Dyer and Gabrielle Bernstein shows.

Books:

Ekhart Tolle – A New Earth

Marianne Williamson – A Return to Love

Toltec Spirit – The Four Agreements

Gabrielle Burnstein – May Cause Miracles

Deepak Chopra – The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

Robin Sharma – The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist

Also check out Rumi’s quotes and poems for ancient wisdom.

Tv Shows:

and I also love to watch Oprah’s Sunday morning show – Supersoul Sunday which you can watch online worldwide.

Facebook and Twitter:

Search for all the people listed above and sign up for their facebook and twitter feeds to inject a bit of inspiration into your days.

Breathing:

Breathing slowly, deeply and with intention is one of the most powerful things that you can do. You can do this when waiting in line, in the bath, or before you go into a big meeting. If you just have a minute than try this calming breathing exercise that Amma (the living saint and hugging mother from Kerala, India) teaches in her yoga practise. Take a moment and just breathe in the world MA (which means the universal love) and breathe out OM (which means the universal light), you should immediately feel more relaxed and more connected.

Enjoy!