Improve Your Day with Mini-Meditations
By Chris Joscelyne
Imagine a page of text with each word joined to the next, with no
commas, no sentences and no paragraphs: just a page full of words with no
spaces. To read the page, to absorb the information and comprehend it,
would be difficult and stressful.
See the example inside the box that follows …
Writteninformationwithnoorganisedbreaksmakescomprehensiondifficult
Wellplannedtextwithgoodsentenceandparagraphconstructionwillaidthe
readersabilitytounderstandtheinformationtherein. |
Now, here is the same sentence with organised breaks …
| Written information, with no organised breaks, makes comprehension
difficult. Well-planned text, with good sentence and paragraph
construction, will aid the reader's ability to understand the
information therein. |
Many people live each day just like the text in the first box. They
rush from one task to the next without even a short pause to prepare the
mind for the next activity. This has the cumulative effect of creating a
loss of clear focus, decreasing efficiency and increasing stress as the
day progresses.
Fortunately, there is a simple and pleasant way to calm your mind and
reduce stress between tasks, or between parts of tasks. It is a
mini-meditation exercise that can help you relax your mind and prepare you
mentally for the next task at hand. It takes very little time and it is
easy to do.
Put some mental "paragraph" breaks in your busy day. Between
each task, pause for a just a couple of minutes and try this
mini-meditation exercise.
1. Stop what you are doing and sit comfortably in your chair
2. Take three slow, deep breaths … in through the nose, out through
the mouth
3. Take your thoughts away from your work and just be aware of your
surroundings
4. Feel the weight of your body on the chair
5. Feel the gentle pressure of the clothes on your skin
6. Feel the air on your face and hands
7. Become aware of the colour and form of your surroundings
8. Become aware the sounds around you … near sounds … far sounds
9. Rest in that quiet awareness for a couple of minutes
10. Now end your mentally refreshing pause and continue with your work.
When you begin practising this relaxation technique you may find your
mind wandering off. This is a normal experience, particularly for
beginners. Each time a distracting thought or image intrudes just let it
go and guide your concentration back to your surroundings and the
background sounds. As you practise this technique, mind grabbing
distractions will lessen and the relaxation benefits will increase.
Important note - Do not attempt this meditation while driving a motor
vehicle, operating equipment, or during any task that requires your
continuing attention and concentration.
If you would like to read more about meditation, click HERE.
About the author: Chris Joscelyne trained as a
clinical hypnotherapist under the tutorage of Margaret Tomko. He was taught
grief counselling by Mal McKissock, and he learned meditation in a course sponsored by the Department of Health. He developed his personal awareness knowledge with
mentors Barbara and Terry Tebo of Lifespring.
For ten years Chris was a visiting lecturer at the
Australian Film, Television and Radio School where he taught personal
development, meditation and stress management skills. Now he shares his
knowledge with a wider community as a speaker, trainer and coach, teaching
people how to live "Life
by choice - not by chance".
| An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator. If you are the system administrator please click here to find out more about this error. | | | | 
