by Venetia Moore
Have you ever thought, ‘Stop the world—I want to get off’? Meditation can help you to do just that: give yourself a welcome, peaceful breather. You may be saying to yourself, ‘How would I ever find the time to meditate?’ I’ll explain more about the theories and practicalities of practising meditation, why it’s so great for us and why it’s worthwhile to find the time to do it; I’ll also explain a relaxation technique you can try today to start you off. Not only can meditation greatly help you to find some inner peace and stability during periods of change and adjustment, but it can help to raise your inner spirit too!
What is Pure Meditation?
Sometimes relaxation practices and visualisations are called meditations; these are valid for helping you to reach a meditative state, which is good for being mindful and for feeling more relaxed, and below I’ll give five steps for this practice. However, the kind of meditation called Pure Meditation helps you to go beyond mindfulness and relaxation to a much deeper place of peace, love and connection to your true essence. Your essence is the inner you, your true nature—not what others feel you should be.
Pure Meditation is an ancient art and science that is passed on by trained teachers. In a teaching session you’re given practical life techniques and breaths to help you to still your mind and body, and a meditation practice to help you to go deeper into peace. In a one-to-one session with a teacher, you can discuss any personal thoughts and questions you have about meditation, find out the best way to put a practice into your day, and have ongoing meditation support.
How can meditation help you?
Research from the neuroscience department in the University College of London shows how certain parts of the brain are stimulated during meditation, resulting in a marked increase in the production of a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin has been labelled the ‘feel good’ hormone; it’s sometimes called the ‘love’ hormone. This hormone is naturally produced when we fall in love and when intimately bonding with loved ones, whether other humans or animals. As a mother you naturally produce it during pregnancy, during labour, and when breastfeeding, and it gives your baby a wonderful start to life. Meditation is a way of naturally increasing this hormone on a regular basis.
Meditation can help you to:
- Adjust to change, not feel so overwhelmed or unsettled
- Deeply recharge—it’s like plugging in a rechargeable battery
- Relax mind and body, find an inner sanctuary and bring about some inner peace and stillness
- Unwind, releasing physical tensions—your body gets a chance relax and let go
- Get some valuable ‘time out’—stopping the whizz of the world for ten minutes
- Connect to yourself, finding and getting in touch with who you really are, your true essence
- Get a different perspective on problems, a fresh viewpoint on challenges
- Bond with your baby—helping you to become more relaxed about motherhood and increasing the ‘feel good’ bonding hormone, oxytocin
- Lift your spirits, raising oxytocin and your inner spirit
- Nurture yourself
- Be more mindful—with better focus and concentration, jobs get done faster, helping to free up more time
- Have a better relationship with yourself and others—feeling more love inside helps us to feel more for others.
Five steps to stillness
This relaxing practice is not Pure Meditation, but it’s a lovely way to start to teach your mind and body to be able to come to some peace and stillness.
- Stretch out your body in whatever way suits you, paying particular attention to areas of held tension, for example, the neck and shoulders.
- Get into a comfort position. For maximum comfort make sure your back is straight and supported and then, if you wish, close your eyes.
- Take a couple of deep breaths. Breathe in deeply through the nose and then sigh the breath out through the mouth. When you have done two breaths just breathe normally.
- Feel peace. With every new breath feel, or just know, that peaceful light is filling your whole body and flowing out beyond you. Let go of any tensions into the light the best you can, and let yourself enjoy this time of stillness and rest.
- Ground yourself. When you have finished relaxing, take a couple of deep breaths and rub your hands together then your legs to ground yourself before getting up.
When do I do it?
Both the relaxation technique above and Pure Meditation can be practised anywhere to start your day off well, refresh you in the middle and relax you before bed. Going to bed more relaxed and less stressed means you’re likely to get more benefit from the hours you sleep.
Finding the time!
If there’s a will there’s a way. When my two sons were very young and exhausting, someone introduced the concept of meditation to me and suggested I try doing five minutes a day for a week. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. However, the meditation benefits sounded good and I was curious to see if I could manage it. Unbelievably, I could! Instead of doing the washing up or watching the television, I tried meditation. What a difference it made—there was some quality recharging time just for me. Even if you have a new baby, you could try it during those precious times when your baby is sleeping, is happily snuggled up with you, or is being looked after by others. It may seem like an impossibility, but give it a go; you may find it’s possible after all.
A practical and straightforward meditation practice can take just five to ten minutes. Once you begin to feel the benefits, those ten minutes could become an essential part of your day.
Learning to stop the world for a while to be able to sink into some timeless space and peace is something that can help you throughout your whole life. What a gift for your children too, as they get to grow up with a meditating, super mum!
About the author:
Venetia, a meditator and mum, has been a complementary health practitioner for over 24 years and holds adult and baby clinics and classes. To combine her personal and professional knowledge to help others, she wrote Surviving Baby Colic. Feeling strongly that parents need empowering information and support at this time, as ‘The Baby Colic Coach’ she now offers an online service to help do just that. As a qualified Pure Meditation Foundation Teacher Venetia teaches one-to-one sessions and also provides an online meditation teaching service.
