Why busy minds benefit from Meditation

Meditation did not stop my busy AD/HD mind, but it helped me understand it. From beginner yoga classes to helping run meditation retreats for nearly a decade, I discovered that meditation is not about having no thoughts, it is about patiently bringing yourself back to the present. Over time, it became a practical way to find calm, stillness and peace in everyday life.

Meditation Group Class with Jaya

19 years ago, I discovered Meditation. It started when I was attending Integral Yoga classes and we would do the “quieter” breathing parts at the start, and the deep Yoga Nidra relaxation at the end. I suspected Meditation might help my busy mind.

I attended a 8 week “beginners’ course”, then started meditating for 10 mins a day. At first my husband would say “what you are going to practice that again”, then it quickly changed to “…….. you haven’t meditated yet have you, off you go”!!!!

I then tried a Meditation weekend retreat, and I swear I came out a different person. I had “never felt” that level of calmness and inner peace, despite the fact that my brain still jumped around many times during the “meditation slots”.

With their patience and guidance, I was quickly realizing that the goal is not to STOP all the thoughts, that only happens when we have a general anesthetic or when we die (maybe!) it is learning and practicing to slow the thoughts, catch ourselves when we notice our focus has wondered off and then patiently, kindly, calmly bring our attention back to our focus.

The volunteer organiser’s of the weekend retreat got tired of me bugging them for when the next one was, and I found myself on the little “committee” and helping run these weekends, 4 times a year for 9 years. What a journey it was.

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One time about 8 years in, my husband spotted a poster outside the yoga center, with a picture of me on it, sat in Meditation, advertising the next course. He started to laugh, I asked “what’s so funny?”, he said well you know, it’s you! I asked him, well, do I meditate? Yes. Do I meditate regularly? Yes. Do I help run meditation retreat weekends? Yes, so why shouldn’t there be a picture of me on a poster advertising Meditation? He said, well you have such a busy mind……………..my response was “precisely, that is why I meditate, can you imagine how I might be these days if I didn’t”!!!

I got the last laugh, because he said “well it’s not for me and you wouldn’t catch me doing Meditation” and I said, well when you go off on your own, in the mornings, rowing at 6 am with no one else around, what do you think you are doing then???

We have so many “preconceived idea’s” about what and how we should Meditate, yet perhaps this all a diversion?

Distraction from actually just finding the way that works for us, trying different methods, practicing regularly, and then before you know it, one day you realise that it is part of your life, and brings you a “way and place” to gain some stillness, some peace and calm by simply “sitting in meditation”.