Have you thought about defragging your mind lately? It is strange how we never think about protecting our mind. We all suffer from information overload and attacks from all kinds of free radicals that invade our peace, disturb our equilibrium and cause havoc – in our work, in our family life, our relationships and ultimately our sense of joy and contentment.
These free radicals can take many forms – negative thinking, excessive worrying, tension, stress, anxiety, fear … all of which ultimately cause some type of malfunction – Insomnia, chronic headaches and migraines, depression, anger, frustration, fatigue, panic attacks, phobias, high blood pressure and more.
Why is it then that while we take every care to protect our PCs and all our electronic gadgets, we seem to care so little about our mind? We all know what would happen if there was no defragging, or anti-virus software – slow systems, even slower processing of information and our worst nightmare – a crash! These same things, can and do happen to our mind!
Is it because we can’t see our mind? Out of sight out of ‘mind’ kind of thing. Or is it because we don’t know how? Certainly, over the last 30-40 years there has been a plethora of advice and techniques on how to train our mind to be better, faster, smarter, more productive and more efficient. All of which require more work for the mind!
What if there was a simpler, easier answer? We rest a sprained wrist or ankle, why not our mind? Sure, it’s not easy (it’s impossible really) to bandage it and protect it from unexpected bumps and knocks, but when you think about it, it makes sense.
This is what the renowned Melbourne psychiatrist Dr Ainslie Meares hypothesised when he introduced his very specific Stillness Meditation for the relief of stress and anxiety and the many accompanying symptoms that can make life difficult and overwhelming. He believed that if the body has the remarkable capacity to heal a broken arm or leg it must be able to heal more than that! Based on his medical training and expertise as well as extensive research into how other cultures and traditions deal with pain, he introduced Stillness Meditation as a way to rest the mind from any cognitive activity and therefore restore balance to the central nervous system.
The benefits are many: better sleep, relief from tension headaches and migraines, clarity of mind, less stress, less tension and anxiety, a sense of ease in every day life, increased confidence, productivity, creativity and resilience.
Dr Meares’ stillness meditation, is an effortless, natural way to defrag our mind and help us put back together the broken pieces of data that have gone astray, making us anxious, overwhelmed, tired and fatigued. It helps us free up space in our mind, so that we can more easily access what we already know and allow us to enrich our capacity even further. And most importantly, it’s easy!
Let’s pause for a while each day to give our mind a well earned rest and find our way back to a sense of ease and calmness in all that we do.
Get in touch if you would like to learn more about Stillness Meditation for yourself or your workplace.
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Living in bliss 