Meditation — How to sit down, sit still and silence the mind

Six simple steps to start practising meditation today

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Meditation is a tool that cannot be underestimated.

“Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

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FIRST, THE FACTS

If you are a logical person like me, statistics and science help. In 2011, Dr. Sara Lazar and her team at Harvard University found that mindfulness meditation could actually change the structure of the brain.

• In just a few days of training, they found there was an improvement in concentration and attention

• After eight weeks of meditation, it was found to increase learning and memory

• Long-term, people who practised meditation had better-preserved brains than non-meditators at their age

• People who had been meditating for an average of 20 years or more, had more grey matter volume throughout their brain

• Meditation formed new connections in the brain allowing people to snap out of previous thought patterns, like mind-wandering typically associated with being less happy and worry about the future

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MY STORY

Yes. I am of Indian descent. But I was born in and grew up in England. I was more fish and chips for dinner than a spiritual human being, so don’t take my physical appearance as a given — “oh, another Indian person talking about the benefits of meditation”! I used to be a corporate Type A personality, and it was actually listening to business leaders that convinced me of the benefits of meditation!

I am no purist, and it did not come naturally to me — I had epic fails, and it took me over 15 years to figure it out! Now, I know how to make it as simple as possible to achieve success, and that’s what I want to share with you.

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