“And that it’s all about eating right, doing yoga and meditating?” – One of my acquaintances asks contemptuously. I could have kept my mouth shut so I wouldn’t have to give myself away, because I am all those people he obviously doesn’t approve of. But if I could keep quiet, it wouldn’t be me. And I certainly wouldn’t be a blogger writing about how to be a healthy parent and raise healthy kids.
So I didn’t keep quiet. And I gave away all the medical evidence that I knew about a healthy lifestyle. But I couldn’t say much about meditation of intelligible, except that it is very useful. It is good that there are friends of bloggers united in a secret group of graduates of Varvara Lyalagina. That’s where we met Leah, who lives in the UK, and is currently working as Adrian’s mother full-time.
Leah also has a blog, Littie Buddha, where she writes about conscious parenthood, meditations for mothers and adventures of little fairytale characters. (Fairy tales are also written by Lea herself.)
Meet Leah with a guest post about how, and most importantly, why mom meditate. By the way, I suggest that all participants of the “Healthy Company” study the issue in depth! I am preparing a task for us next month.
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about meditation?
If you’re as rational a logical skeptic as I was 5 years ago, then perhaps you’ve imagined a Hindu sitting in a lotus pose for half a century or an esoteric phytoniac with a perfect figure and a green smoothie broadcasting positive energies, the discovery of chakras and love around the world. In both cases, this is not about you, is it?
So why read on? And if I say that meditation (at least, meditation of consciousness or Mindfulness) has nothing to do with denying life and its joys, sitting in a lotus pose, relaxation and chakram?
What is meditation of consciousness?
I came to meditation through yoga. Sometimes the class ended with a short meditation and I was interested in the phrase left by the teacher that all yoga classes were meditation preparation.
I started to meditate myself (or at least I thought so), then for several years I studied different traditions and types of meditation in search of my practice, went to seminars and retreats, got acquainted with different teachings.
Contemplative practices are found in all spiritual traditions from Christianity to Buddhism and Hinduism and to the shamanic traditions of the Latin American Indians.
While it was fascinating to learn about these traditions and their connections, I often felt uncomfortable with not being able to accommodate them in my logical world, where everything requires proof.
Logical understanding was not required to benefit from the practice.
I slowed down, and yoga and meditation became an oasis of calm in the mad pace of the City of London, and although I didn’t stop acting outwardly as I climbed up the career ladder and travelled, I began to notice my life more, to realize what was valuable, to treat myself with more kindness.
And when I got pregnant and tried to juggle with stressful work, the desire to create a harmonious environment for the baby and reading a lot of literature about motherhood, meditation was a breath of fresh air.
As I have already mentioned, I did not immediately become acquainted with the secular (secular) practice of consciousness (Mindfulness), but coming to it, I believe that this is the easiest and safest way to start meditating without deepening into incomprehensible terminology and based on scientific basis.
Mindfulness or the practice of consciousness is usually defined as the intentional direction of attention at the present time, with curiosity and equality (without criticism or condemnation), observing the feelings, thoughts and sensations that arise here and now.
The practice of consciousness is immediately aimed at the development of consciousness in everyday life, and it is this type of meditation that I will continue to talk about and tell you more about the best practices to start with. I will make a note that I am not a meditation instructor and I just share my personal experience.
Meditation is not a magic pill, it works only with regular practice, even if it is 10 minutes a day. In this regard, it can be compared to physical training – a ten-minute run every day is more effective than an hour of training once a month.
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