The benefits of meditation

DAILY PRACTICE
Establishing a daily meditation practice has been on my ‘to do’ list for quite a while. I have a well established yoga practice for over 15 years, but I struggled to settle long enough for daily meditation. Over the last two years I’ve dabbled with it, and done lots of meditation and mindfulness courses, but as much as I loved it and understood the huge benefits of it, I couldn’t get it to stick. Until last Christmas when my dad, the centre of my universe, became very sick and spent four difficult months in hospital. My yoga practice became my safe haven, where whatever was lurking under my brave exterior could flow, in all its shapes and forms. I practiced with such clarity, and was amazed by how the body knew exactly what it needed to do to support itself. I finally was ready to sit in silence and establish my daily meditation practice!

THE BENEFITS
It’s now three months since I started a consistent daily practice, and as I reflect over what the practice has brought me, I notice they are far greater than the value of the small amount of time required for your daily practice.

Here are some of the benefits I have noticed so far...

• Greater awareness and observation skills

• More self-compassion

• Learning the value of taking time to nourish myself by taking time out

• Less judgemental of myself and others

• Learning to pause before reacting to situation

• Feeling less overwhelmed by busy day

• Learning to declutter my day and let go of unnecessary tasks

• Happier to be me

• Feeling nourishment thrive from every cell

• Appreciation of my health

• Calmer and more attentive to the kids

• Deepening of my yoga practice

• Learning that not everything can be fixed, and sometimes it's not my job to fix it!

And many more benefits I look forward to along my meditation journey...

• Stress management

• Eases anxiety

• Eases tension

• Eases depression

• Improves cognitive function

• Improved attention span

• Builds focus & concentration

• Builds connections with others

• Increases empathy & compassion

• Improves quality of sleep

• Balances nervous system

• Reduces blood pressure

• Slows biological ageing

• Aids pain management

• Increases immune system

GETTING STARTED
All that in just a few minutes a day! If, like me, you find it hard to get your daily practice going, keep chipping away at it - learning, reading, listening to podcasts and playing around with different methods of meditation, until eventually it will stick. Start with just 3 mins a day and build up from there. You don’t have to be meditating for an hour a day to make a difference to you life. Small, regular practices are more beneficial than one 30min practice a week. Remember that the mind will wander, and when it does, gently guide it back to the breath, without judgement. When I feel myself getting involved in internal chatter, I label them ‘stories’ and return to the breath without making a fuss. For people with kids, those 3 mins of meditation are the most important minutes of your day, take it from a mum and her three kids.

TOOLS FOR LIFE
I now look forward to my meditation and to the lovely feeling of clarity I know it will give me for the rest of the day. Meditation is not a miracle fix glue for life – there will still be plenty of life's challenges, but when you do encounter moments of stress, it gives you the ability to pause and observe, before you react. Your mind will thank you for helping it to take a break from the days planning and list making. Ciara Cronin of The Yoga Room runs a continuous Mindfulness & Meditation 4 week course. The studio is a beautiful space and is always warm and welcoming. Ciaras knowledge and guidance of mindfulness meditation help you to cross the bridge safely into the unknown. Before you know it, you’re meditating and you’ve started your new journey!

“Most people are aware that the benefits of mindfulness include relief from stress and anxiety and a calmer state of mind, but it also has a profound restorative effect on all the physical systems of the body; improving our immunity to illness, aiding digestion, balancing metabolism, relaxing the nervous system, and increasing our creativity, empathy and compassion.” Ciara Cronin, The Yoga Room

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

The benefits of a morning practice

ONE STEP AHEAD
There’s a reason why the birds sing in the morning - they know that it’s the best part of the day! When you exercise in the morning, you take back a part of your day from all the phone calls, messages and emails. It’s a peaceful and sacred time, which these days is rare!

If you’re thinking ‘I’m not a morning person’, don’t worry, it gets easier the more you do it, and very soon it’ll be second nature to you! Early morning starts also encourage you to get to bed on time and, as a extra bonus, get a better night's sleep. When you have a morning routine it’s easier to stick to it, with the added benefit of leaving your evenings free. With the best will in the world, a busy day, or other evening commitments, can often stop you from getting onto your mat.

GET MOVING
Life is more static than ever before. In the past people were used to daily manual labour and physical activity. These days we have cleverly designed electrical devices to do all the work for us, and we’ve replaced this ‘free time’ with sitting at our desks. To every action there is a reaction, and physical labour has been replaced by overworking our poor brains in a very static environment. Businesses are starting to see the detrimental effect this has on the health of their staff, and are beginning to encourage more activity and mindfulness. In return, they reap the benefits of staff who feel cared for, more alert and productive throughout the day. The physical and mental benefits to your health are well-documented and a hot topic in the media.

THE BENEFITS OF YOGA
Yoga has an abundant range of benefits at any time of day – from an early morning stretch to a lunchtime de-stress or an evening wind-down. The time of day that works best for me is early morning, before I start my day. It resets my system and prepares me for whatever is in store. Starting your day with movement gets you ready for the day and, for those with desk jobs, helps you sit with ease for the rest of your day. Yoga breath awareness helps you use the breath throughout the day to cultivate calm and combat moments of tension in the workplace, with your children, or whatever your daily challenges are, reminding you to pause before you react to situations.

Because of the variety of movements yoga offers, it stretches and strengthens your whole body and helps alleviate morning stiffness. It lubricates and stretches all the connective fascial tissue, which supports the entire musculoskeletal system. It also helps to build a healthy spine - a spine that has been well oiled first thing in the morning is less likely to pinch or tweak during the day. All the supporting muscles have been switched on, and are ready to support the spine for the day. Yoga also improves balance and coordination, building spatial awareness which helps prevent injury.

We are all beginning to understand the importance of good digestion to all-round health. A morning practice wakes up the digestive system. Twisting, stimulating and massaging all our internal organs, it alleviates bloating and helps with a good morning elimination! It also raises the metabolism and keeps it elevated for hours afterwards.

Putting aside some time for yourself is the kindest and most nourishing gift you can give to yourself. This kindness encourages you to make healthy choices for the rest of the day by starting as you mean to go on. Set an intention or a focus and revisit it throughout your day. It’ll bring you back to your mat, your ‘happy space’, and give you renewed strength for the day.

The illustration below shows the huge variety of the benefits yoga offers. If we could start our day with even one or two of the benefits wouldn’t it be worth that little push to roll yourself out of bed and onto your mat to the tune of the early birds?

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

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Practise with distractions

THE PRACTICE OF PATIENCE
Summertime can offer some challenges to your yoga practice. Trying to find a quiet space to roll out your mat on summer holidays without too many onlookers; the draw of the sunshine in the longer evenings or, like myself, having a gang of little ones on school summer holidays that seem to rise with the birds!

In an ideal world we’d all have our own little yoga studio where we could immerse ourselves in daily practice, with a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door. A very tempting thought! I’ve often looked at my modest garden and wondered if I could fit in a trendy German Huf Haus. But unfortunately most of us have to find a quiet space in a busy house with a lot of traffic from early morning.

After the initial period of panic and uncertainty, I realised the practice of yoga for my summer was going to mean the practice of letting go of expectations and accepting the distractions when you do manage to get on the mat. My summer routine always starts with a walk or run at around 6:30am, to clear the head of chatter and list-making before finding my way onto my mat, which I roll out before heading out so I can slip back into the house and onto it with as little noise as possible. Inevitably the household is in full swing, with rumbling tummies and list of requests, before I’ve managed to find my way into Savasana. Depending on the moods and hunger levels, I can sometimes finish my sequence with three little onlookers, who even join in for a quick Savasana at the end. They’re beginning to recognise that when they give me a few minutes to find my balance, I’m more chilled out and it’s a win, win situation!

ME TIME
While it is recommended to practise in a quiet, clean and uncluttered sacred space, sometimes this just isn’t possible. So think of your summer yoga as the ultimate challenge of being creative with where you practise, cultivating inner focus and lots of patience! Whether it’s for 5 minutes or an hour, such are the benefits of yoga that it’s worth practising with acceptance of all the distractions that life throws at you.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru