Meditate: Anywhere & Anytime for Inner Peace

Meditate: Anywhere, Anytime

By Stacie Dooreck

I often hear from my yoga students that they need to get focused and clear. Feeling scattered and ‘all over the place’ mentally creates an ‘inner world’ of chaos and prevents peace. The good news is that regardless of your outer circumstances, no matter how chaotic things may appear, you can still find inner peace and calm. And even better news that you can find this anywhere, any time, with a simple slow deep breath.

When I hear my students and friends speak of their need to ‘focus’, I think well, that is in fact in a way the very definition of ‘yoga’, or union. To unite the breath with the mind and body creates a ‘one-pointedness’ they speak of in yoga to reduce the ‘mind fluctuations’ or thoughts as spoken of the yoga sutras.

Meditation is a simple tool to use, without needing a certain environment or level of health and fitness to practice. In fact the busier the mind and the more stress one may feel, is more the reason to try it, right her and right now!

Try these simple steps to meditation. You can even sit in a chair, or on a bench. You can meditate outside too, and even on a lunch break. Sit tall in your chair or cross-legged on a cushion. Close your eyes and take a deep inhale as you sit taller, exhale to relax into your seat. Feel your body just using our awareness. Sense the feet they touch the floor (or shoes or socks). Observe the belly and torso move as you breath. Notice where you hold tension. Soften the eyes and relax the jaw. After this ‘body scan’ observe only the breath. Then observe the thoughts without holding on to any one though.

Even if you feel the mind is busy, you still will reap the benefits by helping your mind to focus, concentrate and become more effective and relaxed when you open your eyes to return to your day. Try it for a minute a day for a week, then build up to 3 min, then 5 min, etc. In no time you will have a daily meditation practice to ground and center your mind in the busy world.

By Stacie Dooreck, Author of SunLight Chair Yoga and Yoga for Everyone! books www.sunlightyoga.com

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