Clear your mind

I mentioned to my class today that I did a meditation class yesterday and the response? "you don't look like the type who would do that". That pretty much sums it up - I really am not the type to go for this. I'm always running about, always got something to do/ think about and basically never sit still or take time out to reflect and chill out. Well, my headspace is getting a little crowded these days - a terrible-two toddler (who takes absolutely no notice of anything I say), a 3 day a week office job, personal training clients to plan for and new-business admin/ marketing work to do. So, after a frenetic weekend I made the decision to try and clear away some of that clutter and see if I can get that headspace in order.

I headed to see Christina who was working at North London Yoga studio to see what meditation is all about. I've listened to lots of podcasts recently where fitpros have sung the virtues of their meditation practice, so why shouldn't I try it out myself. I am a complete beginner - the only vaguely similar thing I've done was a relaxtion bit at the end of a pregnancy yoga class. There was lots of calm speech and requests to visualise yourself on a sandy beach etc. What did i do? I was thinking about my shoppig list or my dinner that evening. I could not switch off that internal chatter. So, with this in mind, I really wasn't sure meditation was going to be something I could take to!

8pm and I turned up to the class. We had some warm up breathing, some gentle movement, some diaphagmatic breathing (very interested in learning more about this!) and 10 minutes of pure meditation. I had invisaged us sitting cross legged for the full hour, so what we actually got was much better. I actually suprised myself at being able to do it and only once did some internal chat appear (which I promptly got rid of) and Christina told me I did well for a beginner.

As with everything, practice makes perfect, so to get the full benefit of meditation, you need to assign some time every day (or 5 times a week) to sit down and focus. Is that going to be possible? We'll see. Hopefully I will get the chance to fit it in, as the results you see and the way you feel definitely seem to be something to strive for.