Imagine taking time every day to sit in silence and allow your mind to rest, relax and recover from the entourage of daily thoughts and distractions. Having a regular practice of meditation in your life can help reduce stress and bring about inner peace, promoting a level of well being that benefits the mind and body alike.

Sounds like a great idea. But who has the time!

The good news is that you don’t have to move to India, shave your head, give up all your possessions and spend the rest of your life in an ashram in order to benefit from the practice of meditation. You don’t need a special room full of Buddha’s or a sitting mat or incense and mantras to repeat either. Even with your job, family, friends, commute, stress, worry and fatigue, you can become a skilled and successful meditator.

The first step towards your path to enlightenment is to identify a time that you consistently have to yourself every day.

It could be your 30-minute commute to work, or your 10-minute drive to the gym or the walk to pick the kids up from school. It can even be while you’re caught in that long line at the bank or when a traffic jam appears out of nowhere and you find yourself in the middle of it. Start seeing these little breaks as an opportunity for meditation.

Try to dedicate 7 minutes every day to your practice.

During those 7 minutes, make a conscious effort to stay focused in your thoughts. When you feel your mind wandering, stop, let go and get focused again. Over time, it will become easier to concentrate.

How to Meditate in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1: Focus on Gratitude.

To start, focus your mind on the gratitude you have for all of the abundance in your life. Instead of thinking about what you do not have, focus on all the good that you already have. If you like, you may say silently to yourself, ‘I am so grateful for..’ and continue to say that until you cannot think of anything else to be grateful for that day.

Step 2: Focus on Love.

Next, take a minute or two to send love to different people in your life. Just take a few seconds for each person, close your eyes, visualize them in your mind and say, ‘Thank you for being part of my journey,’ to each one of them.

Step 3: Visualize Success.

Finally, spend a minute or two visualizing your day as you would like it to unfold, feeling the accomplishment and success in everything you have planned for the day. See yourself making the right food choices and feeling really good about yourself. Then, spend one last minute on a quick visualization of where you would like your life to be long-term. Feel the feeling that you have already achieved and manifested everything you desire.

Just 7 minutes a day with this practice can bring about amazing results. Watch how much more positive, loving, grateful and successful you become and see how quickly people notice a difference in the new mindful, enlightened you!

This article written by Jennifer Thompson for woman.ca

[wp-blogroll catname=”Spiritual Health”]