Meditation is truly transformative. The sense of peace and the joy of “being” cultivated through a regular meditation practice will bring gifts and qualities into your life that you never would have imagined possible.

1) CLARITY

One of the most valuable gifts that meditation brings is clarity of mind and this can affect the choices you make moment by moment. You start to take more notice of your behaviours and attitudes and with this awareness, you can actually make small changes that eventually affect your life in big ways. How many times have you made poor food choices, stayed in negative, draining relationships or frittered away hours of time on meaningless activities simply because you were operating on auto-pilot? Meditation gives you the clarity to decide what is and is not working in your life.

2) PRESENCE

Meditation helps you to cultivate a sense of presence, and I believe that being present in the moment is fundamental for creating loving relationships. When you are present with your loved ones, or indeed anyone, magical changes in how you relate to each other take place. So many times someone may be talking to us and we are not really there, we are caught up in our own train of thought, or too busy judging what they are saying to really hear them. When we cultivate presence we not only truly listen to another human being, but we give them the freedom to be who they are without our limiting prejudices and judgements getting in the way. In the present moment, we allow each of our relationships to be begin afresh, free from past grievances or future expectations, and we see the beauty of each human being unfoldin a new light. Being present also allows you to take in life in all of it’s beauty right now, instead of being “lost” in thought.

3) FOCUS

When the mind is scattered, we start to think of all of the things that need to be done, or worse we try to do everything that needs to be done all at once, and end up overwhelmed and exhausted. Meditation cultivates focus, so that you can zoom in laser-like on one task and complete it with ease without running off in different directions like a bunch of crazy monkeys. This sense of clarity and focus actually allows you to get more done in less time without the stress and drama.

4) PEACE OF MIND

Fear, stress, anxiety and worrying are frequently based on the illusory concepts of past and future and have very little to do with what is happening in this moment, right now. And yet so often we taint the present moment with these unreal imaginings. Meditation helps you to get real  and tune in to the present moment, the only place where peace resides.. Inner peace will never come once everything works out perfectly some day in the distant future, inner peace is a choice and it is always here, now.

5) ACCEPTANCE

So often we reject the present moment because it is not how we want it to be. We have our own small agenda and opinion of how life “should be”, as well as our personal goals, desires and expectations. As soon as the present moment doesn’t measure up to what we think it should be, the sh*t hits the fan, and we literally check out of the now. We fall into patterns of victimhood, pessimism, despair or anguish. We resist life’s natural flow and get caught up in our mental fantasies of should have/could have/it’s not fair etc. The greatest gift that meditation can give, is the awareness that despite the seeming chaos, despite life not going how you think it ought to, when you step back and experiencethe joy of just being, you come to the realisation that all is perfect, right now.