Why Make Meditation your New Year’s Resolution?
At this time of year, you’ll encounter a deluge of suggestions and advice about making resolutions and how you should approach the new year. As we all know from previous experience, most of these resolutions are started with good intent but then rarely happen because “life gets in the way”.
Goal setting (or effective resolution making) is a delicate balance of being realistic and going for something which is attainable, but it will need some effort on your part and will require both putting time aside and being particularly mindful in order to achieve the result you want.
If you’re going to pick just one resolution for 2018, my recommendation would be (yes, you guessed it) to start meditating. The benefits are wider reaching than you might think, and the changes you’ll start to see will impact all areas of your life.
Here are my main five reasons to start meditating…
1. Science backs up the benefits of meditation
I’ve been meditating for 45 years, and can certainly wax lyrical on the benefits I see in my own life… but you don’t just have to take my word for it. There are a multitude of scientifically proven benefits to having a regular daily meditation practice. If you’re wanting to get a handle on stress and anxiety, increase creativity and energy, sleep better and wake refreshed, increase productivity, improve relationships, feel healthier and happier, de-clutter your mind, stay calm and relaxed, and enhance and maintain focus then meditation is for you.
2. Meditation helps with productivity and action
Both in your professional and personal life, meditation helps you fine tune your perspective and gain insights that are often evasive. When under pressure, you develop the ability to work quickly and accurately, becoming more productive and gaining time to do other things. Additionally, you develop a greater reliance on your instinct, and less on the ego and intellect.
3. Meditation promotes clarity
Over time, with regular meditation, you’ll develop the ability to hold several thoughts in your mind at the same time and then see the connections and differences between them as well as subtleties that were not apparent before. This leads to greater clarity, contentedness, and awareness.
4. Meditation gives you valuable space
Practicing Vedic Meditation gives you two moments every day when you can turn away from the busy-ness of the day and take time for yourself. This is not selfish – far from it. Meditation creates ease and grace which help you re-connect with yourself and the world.
5. Vedic Meditation is easy to do, and enjoyable
Vedic Meditation is effortless, enjoyable, simple, and natural, and is hugely beneficial both in terms of what’s going on inside you and how you behave and interact with the world. Being self-sufficient and not dependent on an app or teacher, as well as being totally portable, means this is a meditation technique for everyone.
How to stick to your resolution to meditate
The way to ensure that you stick to your meditation routine is to honour your intention, and plan your meditation week.
The first meditation of the day, usually just after rising, and always before taking any food and drink, is easily achievable. The second meditation after lunch and before dinner, needs more planning.
Spontaneity and time management are the best guides for the second meditation. When looking at how the day is playing out be prepared to be flexible: the time and location of your second meditation can be spontaneous if the moment presents itself, but it really helps to block off the time in your diary, much as you would any meeting or event in your day, and then stick to it.
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If you have any questions about MindMojo or Vedic Meditation in general, email us at info@mindmojo.co. You can also book your place on one of our free introductory talks in London here.