The Beginners Guide to Meditation

Mindfulness, eh?

Maybe your idea of zoning out is popping on a few good tunes and staring at your ceiling. Or maybe it is putting on your favourite TV show as you crunch down on a tasty snack. Whatever it is that might soothe your soul, mindfulness meditation is by far the easiest and most effective way to regain control over our automatic reactions to the world around you, help you tune into your own physical and mental needs, and give you that awareness and presence that you need to be a better human.

Here are two techniques that are useful for starting a simple mindfulness practice, that don’t involve sitting in meditation:

• Body Scanning: Sit or lay comfortably. Take a few deep breaths to start. Beginning at your feet, tune into the feeling of your arches and toes. Are you holding tension anywhere? Are you able to breathe into it and let it go? Continue up to your calves, are they sore? Try to relax the muscles that surround your shins. Work your way up your legs, around your abdomen, into your shoulders, arms, hands and neck. End at your head by relaxing your jaw, unfurrowing your brow and taking one more deep breath to end your body scanning practice. Try this daily, your body will thank you!

• Cat/Cow Exercise: A simple but highly effective exercise adapted from Yoga, get on your hands and knees. Inhale to let your belly sink to the floor, as you look up too the ceiling. Exhale and curl your back up like an angry cat, dipping your chin to your chest and relaxing your neck. Continue this for at least five deep breaths.