Beating the Stress and Performing at Your Best – The Benefits of Adopting a Daily Meditation Practice

There are so many benefits to adopting a daily meditation practice, and it can be especially valuable at highly pressured times in our life, such as exam time. Today, I’m delighted to welcome back my special guest blogger, Holly Ashby from Will Williams Meditation who is going to explain all.

— ❤️ —

As we head firmly into Spring, teenagers and young people up and down the country are preparing for some pretty daunting exams. We all face moments in life where our performance is assessed and our capabilities appraised, and whether it’s in school or at work stress can get the better of us. So how do you make sure your nerves don’t become overwhelming and you have the focus, and confidence, to do the best you can?

Continue reading “Beating the Stress and Performing at Your Best – The Benefits of Adopting a Daily Meditation Practice”

How Meditation Makes Us Kinder

Today I have a guest post from the lovely Holly Ashby, who works at Will Williams MeditationLong-time readers may recall that Holly wrote a series of guest posts for me on the subject of meditation in 2015. I’m delighted to welcome her back once gain. In today’s post, she explains how meditation can increase our capacity for kindness and compassion, both for ourselves and for others.

Over to Holly…

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The Science Behind Meditation

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years, and the positive effect it has on people’s lives and well-being has been evident for just as long. However, until recently it could never be proved conclusively that it is truly beneficial. Luckily, with the advent of scientific research, the conviction that it does you good can now be backed up with studies and data.

There are over 3000 studies on the benefits of meditation, and its impact on everything from stress to concentration has been researched. There are far too many findings to explore them all, so here I’ll focus on a few of the key areas in which science has illuminated exactly how meditation can help us.

Meditation Brain Continue reading “The Science Behind Meditation”

Meditation for Children and Young People – The Benefits

Today I’m delighted to bring you the second instalment of our meditation mini series by Holly Ashby. In this post, Holly discusses some of the key benefits of a regular meditation practice for children and young people.

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When thinking about meditation, it’s easy to assume that it’s something only adults would benefit from. To a certain extent, most children are shielded from the stresses and strains of modern life that make it such a useful tool for adults. However, children aren’t completely immune from this stress and have their own unique worries. To help, meditation can be a great relaxation technique for children. Continue reading “Meditation for Children and Young People – The Benefits”

Health, Happiness and Meditation

As most of you will be aware, I am passionate about meditation. I’ve been attending weekly meditation classes for about seven years now, as well as practising alone at home and in the great outdoors. Since 2010, I’ve also been teaching children’s weekly meditation workshops. Along with the shift towards a 100% plant-based diet, meditation has definitely been key in raising my levels of physical and mental well-being these past few years.

Today, I am delighted to share a guest post from Holly Ashby who works for the London meditation centre, Will Williams Meditation. Holly is a super talented writer, and she’s kindly offered to write a mini introductory series on meditation for Bit of the Good Stuff. We’ll be posting one article per month for the next three months. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do

In today’s post, Holly is talking about some of the benefits of meditation.

Meditation

by Holly Ashby

Continue reading “Health, Happiness and Meditation”

Three ways to stay stress-free this Christmas

Today, I am delighted to share with you a guest post from a special friend of mine, Jemima. She’s a yoga teacher and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner, who specialises in stress reduction. Like me, Jemima is also passionate about nutrition and meditation, recognising the positive effects they undoubtedly have on our physical and mental well-being.

In this post, Jemima is going to share some tips on how we can maintain a sense of calm in the busy weeks leading up to Christmas. You’ll also get to meet Jemima as she’s kindly made a short video tutorial for us on how to do a simple breathing meditation. It may be simple, but it’s extremely effective. If you haven’t tried meditating before, I hope you’re encouraged to give it a try!

With no further ado, let me pass you over to Jemima…

Boxing Day Shoppers

 

So, here we are…Christmas lights have been officially switched on in town, adverts are bombarding us at every opportunity and the great race to consume as much as possible before the 25th December has begun.  Many people would rather not be drawn into these manic and soul-less preparations but how do we resist?  How do we avoid the prickling panic sensation of not having bought enough for our families?  How do we banish the temptation to over-eat, over-drink and over-spend when that is the norm at this time of year for so many?

 

Whenever I face a tough question or emotion, I have found it useful to ask – what do you want instead?

 

What do you want instead?

It’s really easy to list all the things that we DON’T want and to become caught in a negative cycle of constantly trying to push things out of our way, creating more problems for ourselves as our brains don’t have the capacity to process a negative.  (Try this – don’t think of a red box, you can’t help it can you?)  So instead of thinking – “I don’t want to overspend this Christmas” or “I don’t want to put on weight this Christmas” – try stating what you DO want.

 

As if by magic your brain will then look for all the ways you can make those things possible, because the brain wants to find evidence to support what it believes to be true… So you could have “I’d like to give heartfelt gifts this year and stay within my planned budget” or “I’d like to eat food that nourishes and energizes me”.  You’ll be amazed at how many solutions seem to appear out of thin air.

 

Stay in the moment

There is a saying that goes “Anxiety is born of living in the future and depression is born of living in the past”.  While I think this is oversimplifying to some extent, I do believe very much in the benefits of tuning into the present moment.  An easy way to do this is to focus on the breath.  Take a quick look at the video below and I’ll show you exactly how to start right now…

 

 

Gratitude

This is one of my favourite ways to feel good when I am in need of a boost.  Take a pen and pad and find a comfy spot.  Make a list of everything in your life that you are grateful for.  No thing is to big or too small, get it all down.  From your house, food in the fridge to the smile your daughter gave you this morning, from indoor plumbing to the love you share with a special person.  Run with it, keep writing even if you get stuck.  This exercise can be very profound and may cause leakage from the eyeballs which is absolutely 100% OK.  After 5 minutes stop and read your list back to yourself.  Relish the feelings that come up, all the sensations, let the gratitude fill you up until it starts to overflow.  Tomorrow, make another list.

 

These 3 specific tips have helped me stay grounded and calm and you may find that they help you to tune into your true nature again and fill up on all the good stuff whenever you want (– not only at Christmas!) the stuff that we can never over-consume and that is truly nourishing, namely love, gratitude and peacefulness.

 

Wishing you all an amazing Christmas and with special thanks to Sharon for asking me to guest blog here.

Love

Jemima x

Jemima jpg

And thank you Jemima!

If you’d like to connect with Jemima, you’ll find her here: Sunshine Yoga Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube.

 

Do you find that your stress levels rise over the festive period? I know it’s the most testing time of the year for me. There always seems so much to do and the days fly past quicker than ever!

Do you have your own methods for avoiding stress at Christmas time? If so, please do share below.

Also, I’d love to hear whether you’ve tried meditation.