Close Your Eyes
October 22, 2008
Ainsley MacLeod, author of THE INSTRUCTION, told me this summer that his Spirit Guides want me to meditate. I've fallen off the three-month old habit -- at least the kind where I sit quietly for at least ten minutes and just breathe -- Sorry Guides!
So I picked up HURRY UP AND MEDITATE. Actually, the title is a lot cuter than the content, but it serves its purpose -- explaining how meditation alleviates stress, lowers blood pressure, even heals. Author David Michie describes how he was a hard-pounding PR guy in London with daily headaches -- and now his life is lucrative, his health superb, and he's even become something of a gym rat. There are psychological benefits as well as physical improvements.
I appreciate that Michie doesn't hold just to the sit-there-quietly-and-breathe form of meditation. Mindfulness is the type of meditation I like -- the smooth surface of plates as I wash them, folding the warm clothes just pulled from the dryer, dancing Zumba or step or hiphop, petting and gently rocking one of my cats in a baby-position. It all serves to calm me and soothe me.
And sometimes there is magic.
Several times this summer, as I meditated, I burst into tears for no apparent reason, and in that clearer space within, suddenly there was a bright light. I stayed there, floating in that calm bright space.
Until the alarm went off and shocked me back to planet earth.
Those few moments of sublime clarity were so perfect, I am going to slide the mouse over Publish Post and click -- and now I go sit quietly and bliss out.
Ainsley MacLeod, author of THE INSTRUCTION, told me this summer that his Spirit Guides want me to meditate. I've fallen off the three-month old habit -- at least the kind where I sit quietly for at least ten minutes and just breathe -- Sorry Guides!
So I picked up HURRY UP AND MEDITATE. Actually, the title is a lot cuter than the content, but it serves its purpose -- explaining how meditation alleviates stress, lowers blood pressure, even heals. Author David Michie describes how he was a hard-pounding PR guy in London with daily headaches -- and now his life is lucrative, his health superb, and he's even become something of a gym rat. There are psychological benefits as well as physical improvements.
I appreciate that Michie doesn't hold just to the sit-there-quietly-and-breathe form of meditation. Mindfulness is the type of meditation I like -- the smooth surface of plates as I wash them, folding the warm clothes just pulled from the dryer, dancing Zumba or step or hiphop, petting and gently rocking one of my cats in a baby-position. It all serves to calm me and soothe me.
And sometimes there is magic.
Several times this summer, as I meditated, I burst into tears for no apparent reason, and in that clearer space within, suddenly there was a bright light. I stayed there, floating in that calm bright space.
Until the alarm went off and shocked me back to planet earth.
Those few moments of sublime clarity were so perfect, I am going to slide the mouse over Publish Post and click -- and now I go sit quietly and bliss out.
Labels: Ainslie MacLeod, book review, dance, David Michie, healing., HURRY UP AND MEDITATE, THE INSTRUCTION
posted by Diana Page Jordan @ 9:01 PM
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