Reconnecting to your source

Have you ever tried meditating? If you’re like me busy, busy, busy, you probably feel that you do not have time to meditate; that is sit quietly allowing your head to empty of the millions of thoughts that race around your mind every second and embrace your higher consciousness. Indeed you might feel that all this touchy-feely mumbo-jumbo stuff is just for the happy clapping people who have time to examine their navels. There was a time when I felt that, however, I realise that apart from sleeping, (when I was out of it) my brain never got get a chance to rest, to mull over the deeper questions that I had or to reflect on my day and what sort of impact I had made.

I am a spiritual person in that I believe in a connection beyond myself (what I refer to as my source) and so as part of my spiritual practice I do take time out each day to be still, or meditate or pray. Even without the spiritual dimension there is great benefit in setting aside time to give your mind a rest from the business of your life and allowing space to reflect on your higher purpose and what you bring to the world. Quiet reflection gives you an opportunity to learn from what has gone before; to turn down the negative voice in your head that is always criticising and questioning your knowledge and expertise and to reassess and evaluate the path you have chosen.

Without quiet reflection I found myself repeating the same behaviour patterns, getting the same results and not knowing why. I began to believe my inner critic and I found myself heading in a direction and I no longer knew where was going or why was going there. Meditation and quiet reflection enabled me to get clear and when you are clear you can see the way ahead.

If you’ve tried unsuccessfully to meditate before, here's my strategy.

Set yourself a realistic goal. If you've never meditate before trying to be still for half an hour and an hour for the first time can be quite daunting. Therefore start with perhaps 15 min, long enough to get some benefit but short enough not to become irritated with the process before you have mastered it.

Sit quietly. By “sit quietly” I mean find somewhere as quiet as possible. This doesn't have to be in absolute silence, but in front of the TV or a radio playing in the background doesn't cut it. It has to be quiet and somewhere where you can be undisturbed. If you live in a household where everyone thinks that you are the font of all knowledge and as soon as they encounter a need for information that requires them to think through more than one level of logic they make a dash for you oblivious of anything that you may be doing and they may be interrupting, I suggest you hide in the bathroom.

Note on Levels of logic: 1 level of logic = I can't find x. 2 levels of logic = I can't find x, where did I leave or last see x. 3 levels of logic = I can't find x, where did I leave or last see x; x must be where I left it!

Now that you are sitting quietly allow your mind to play, to do what it normally does, wonder and explore thoughts. When I first tried to meditate my mind was all over the place. If you have a busy life sitting quietly will initially have one of two outcomes. Either your mind will say – “great now I don't have to multitask I can think about all the things I have been mulling over in the background -what were they are yes..” And then your head will explode with millions of disconnected thoughts one after another.

Or your brain will say "wow thank God for that! Some quiet time at last – might as well make the most of it” and it switches off and goes to sleep. For our purposes neither of these two reactions is what we are aiming for. I aim is for our minds to let go and relax. Let go of all the thoughts and get to a place of stillness, of comfort of just being. It's not without any thoughts at all, it's just not full of busy planning your day, arranging dinner, balancing your bank account, planning your holiday, reviewing your customer list etc thoughts.

It's welcoming of the stillness and so if you find other thoughts occurring, then you gently asked them to go away and your mind doesn't react in rebellion. It simply allows the extra thoughts to melt away. It may take some time to get to this point. If at this point your mind opts for sleep don't fight it. Sleep and when you awake simply thank mind and body for the rest. If you get less than 8 hours sleep per night; commit to going to bed 5 min early each day for three weeks until you are getting to bed and hour and a half earlier than previously. By doing this your mind knows that it can get the rest it needs in the time you allocate for sleep.

Practice sitting still for 15 min for at least 30 days. During this time you're aiming to be able to sit quietly in the stillness, your mind relaxed becoming more and more empty of the busy thoughts.

Once you are able to sit in quiet reflection for 15 min as described above, you can start to extend the time. There is no magic number i.e. you don't have to be able to sit in meditation for half an hour or an hour or two hours, it's really what works best for you and you will find your natural equilibrium. I found that if I sit too long, I go full circle and come back to the busy mind again, which is my cue to stop.

Sitting in quite reflection has enabled me to open up to my inner wisdom and to connect to a deeper consciousness and what I call my source. However, if you're not comfortable with this term think of it as a way of connecting to your authentic self, to your inspiration and to your passion.

I hope that you find this helpful, please let me know how you get on. I look forward to reading about your experiences.