The chapter from The gifts of imperfection that I am studying at the moment is ‘Cultivating Calm and Stillness, letting go of anxiety as a lifestyle’. A couple of days ago I explored the whole idea of living brave, but yesterday I spent a lot of my day thinking about the art of meditation.
A powerful and well trained mind, impacts our creative output exponentially.
When I think about meditation, I am not emptying my mind as eastern religion would tell me too, scripture shows me to fill my mind with that which is good;
‘fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable.’ Philippians 4: 8
What is the content of your thoughts?
If you could document the tone and tenure of your daily thoughts, are they mostly negative or positive?
Life building or life depreciating?
Stressful, anxious, or calming and peaceful?
As a creative mum of a toddler, it is so important that I regularly refresh my thought patterns and practise calm parenting.
The ability to breathe deeply before responding in haste.
Finding ways to practise the art of meditation so it is a lifestyle, a habit.
Last night before I went to sleep I listened to a meditation from The Liturgists, that a friend forwarded onto me recently. To take time listening, meditating and refreshing my mind before falling asleep on these interesting and lovely thoughts, rather than mindlessly scrolling through facebook.
I spoke on radio this morning about this very thing and in the midst of my research for my interview I found a global campaign called Mindful in May.
I am going to join this movement and take time each day, even if it is just 5 minutes to consciously meditate. Ideally I would like to start and finish my day this way.
Here are some great tools I have found to listen to;
http://youtu.be/27NUXE9_DE4
Albums;
(I listen to all of these through Spotify)
The Liturgists
Bethel released a great album last year called without words
Riverview’s album Whisper last year has whole sections of meditation tracks
Parachute Band’s last album matins and vespers
A life that is meditating on helpful and life giving things, can only reproduce of its own kind.
Here’s to a month of mindfulness from this desk.
How about you?
What helps you meditate?
Speak tomorrow
Amanda
Interesting comments about meditation. I think it boosts your creativity by giving your mind a break from all the normal day-to-day things that occupy it; and sometimes the concept of ‘meditating’ is wrapped too much up in secrecy…making it seem to hard to tackle. I have a free e-book that I would like to share with you and your readers on ‘How to Meditate’ – showing just how easy and simple it is. It is a free download, if you go to http://www.onlinemeditation.com.au
What helps me meditate? Guided meditations, with someone else’s voice making me focus completely on whatever imagery is being described – being totally absorbed and focussed on that for the 5,10,30 minutes that I meditate.