My guest blogger today, Stacey Mayo, is one of the many wonderful women helping me celebrate Too Much On Her Plate Week, by generously offering you a gift to help you get rid of some of those things that are overwhelming you. For more information on Too Much On Her Plate Week – go here.
In less time than it takes you to read this article, you can learn to access a sense of inner peace– a place of stillness that is free of mind chatter, stress and anxiety.
From this place of stillness, intuition can be heard more clearly and brilliant ideas are born. Creativity gets unleashed when there are no interfering thoughts. Connections to higher guidance are remembered and strengthened when we are not busy trying to figure things out.
The vast majority of people are almost always in the past or the future in their minds – ruminating about what did or didn’t happen or what might or might not occur in the future. That is not where peace lies. It is great to set goals, but if you can take a just a minute here and there to bring yourself back to the present and into your body, you will be more peaceful in the now while moving towards your dreams.
I am not suggesting that you recline on the couch eating bon bons or that you sit on a mountain top all day contemplating the meaning of life.
It doesn’t have to take long to quiet the mind. I have proven that it can be done in just one minute. And if you are like other human beings, you probably waste more than a minute in every hour of the day.
Many people have asked me how the One Minute Meditation™ (OMM) came about. As with most things, it got developed because of my own need to find ways to quiet my overactive mind which tended to over-react in stressful situations or worry about things beyond my control
Over the years I’ve learned many different techniques and meditative practices to help me deal with stress and quiet my busy mind. All of these techniques were and are helpful.
What was missing was what to do in between those longer meditative sessions or classes when life came up and threw challenges my way, such as my computer crashing, a web designer shutting down my website, the phone company representative putting me on eternal hold with that lovely Muzak, or the mortgage company not crediting one of my payments. Those moments brought me out of the quiet place. . I found myself reacting to things in a way that was not helpful or pleasant to me or others. Can you relate?
Additionally, I found that sometimes I would take the time to do practice these longer meditative techniques and other times in my life I would not.
The combination of these two reasons factors prompted me to create The One Minute Meditation. It is important to understand that The One Minute Meditation is more than just stopping and pausing or stopping and breathing. The first part of the OMM actually gets you out of your head and into your body. When you do it slowly, it actually instills a sense of peace and calm in your body. When done over time, this calmer way of dealing with life’s stressors becomes more and more natural. Don’t worry because it does not interfere with any religious beliefs.
Now, I am calmer when challenging moments occur even without doing the OMM when stress arises. It is as if my brain as been re-trained.
Some people use the OMM by itself, others use it in conjunction with a longer 6 minute meditation that I provide or as an adjunct for your own meditation practices. People who have do longer meditations have told me doing the OMM first helps them drop into that stillness quicker.
You can try it for yourself. Join the 30 day Stillness Experiment to get audio directions for both the OMM and a longer 6 minute meditation along with support and suggestions for putting it into your life in a way that works. Because as good as the OMM is, it’s nothing if we don’t remember to do it.
For now, The Stillness Experiment is still free. You can check it out and participate here: http://TheOneMinuteMeditation.com
Stacey Mayo, The Dream Queen is a highly successful business coach and career coach, founder of The Center for Balanced Living, creator of the Peaceful Entrepreneur and author of the award winning book, “I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This!” She works with people to make a bigger impact and a bigger income through the creation and growth of their own business.