Carol, one our members,  says.

I wondered how you do it ? Class, book, video, coach ? So I started with google and I soon found out there are as many opinions about meditation and mindfulness as there are people on the planet. And then a few more if you consider how many people seem to have multiple personalities 🙂

So I said to myself ,

• therefore it doesnt matter,
• any method will work.
• Try some.

I tried to learn to meditate using youtube.

I searched for ‘How to meditate’. I tried a few videos and then I stuck with one.

I had read that to have any effect you need to do it regularly and you need to do it for 4-8 weeks.  So, I watched and followed instructions. It was pretty random. I suppose you could say he looked like some kind of yoga guru. What he said and how he said it was believable. It was breathing focus meditation. I persevered for a while. Gave up. Tried another. Gave up. Thought I didnt get it. I knew I didn’t get spirituality so this might just be another thing I didn’t get.  

Then I developed early arthritis in my hands. I was in so much pain that I had to do something about it. There isnt a lot you can do other than learn to manage the symptoms – mainly pain and the stress that pain causes. The hospital ran classes and I went. We learned many things including 2 surprising ones. Chanting and meditation.  Chanting is a kind of breath control and awareness exercise – just one with a kind of deep vibration from the rythm of the chant. I learned that you can manage pain with meditation – in the sense that you can learn to let it go – learn to stop it always taking over whatever I am doing.  I was introduced to guided meditation and I have been doing it for years. People say they dont have the time. I say – you will save time – when you are not stressed. Meditation is one of the strongest resilience tools there is. Its amazing how easily I seem to deal with all kinds of stressful situations these days.