We had our Introduction to Meditation Session at CRG Events Company Meeting yesterday.  The title of this presentation is called Stopping for the Light.   Most of us lead very busy lives in which we try to be as productive as we can.  It’s really easy to start living at pace the burns our inner resources too quickly.  We keep going as fast as we can through all those green and yellow lights.

In fact we often don’t see the yellows until it’s too late. These are the little warning signs we get in our bodies, in our minds and in our relationships with our families, friends and coworkers.

Meditation or mindfulness practice is a way to wait at the yellow lights – to pause and just take a few moments to breathe and really become aware of what is happening right now – in your body, your mind, your heart, in your environment – at home, at work, at play and in between.  I think you’ll find developing a mindfulness practice will give you the ability to think more clearly, respond more effectively in challenging life situations and even access more creativity and resilience in bouncing back from disappointments.

We had thirty minutes in which to explore the how, why, when and where you can use meditation to:  1)  build concentration, enhance memory and mental clarity; 2)  manage stress; 3) incline your mind toward happiness and 4) maintain more harmonious relationships.  A tall order eh?

We jumped right in to a Mindfulness of the Body practice.  The instruction may sound simple but it isn’t so easy.  This requires that we stop, be still and move our awareness systematically to different parts of the body.  This technique actually helps you to enlist the right brain hemisphere which largely supports intuitive awareness and spacial perception while quieting the left brain hemisphere which is involved with reasoning and the inner language we hear inside.  As we attend to our bodies settling, our mind calms.

We tried another Concentration Tune-Up exercise.  This is a way of enriching the stimulation we are focusing on in order to sustain our attention.  There’s a natural range of strengths and weaknesses as the brain balances the three primary activities of attention:  keeping information in awareness; updating awareness with new information and seeking right amount of stimulation.  Everyone has different tendencies with regard to their abilities to focus, filter distractions and inclination to seek stimulation.  Each person has their own profile.  It’s compassionate and sensible to both adapt your work, home life and contemplative practices to your profile and improve attention over time.

We talked about ways to bring Mindfulness to Life including:   1) Mindfulness of the Body, 2) Refilling the Well, 3) Entering the Threshold & 4) Self Compassion.  These are everyday practices that only take a few minutes.  As you incorporate little moments many times you gradually begin to build more resilience in your brain.

You can find the outline which describes these practices in more detail at:

CRG Event Planning Company Meeting Intro to Meditation – Class Outline

You can find additional “homework suggestions” and informational resources at:

Stopping for the Light! Homework Suggestions

I like to think of us stopping at the yellows, breathing deeply and smiling.  Maybe we can respond to the light in a different way:  change our mindset from waiting to relaxing.  We can give ourselves a break!