Spot Meditations

There is a common belief that in order to meditate effectively you need to spend at least twenty minutes sitting in a quiet place with your eyes closed. While meditations of this kind are certainly useful it's equally important to be able to meditate throughout the day. This allows you to relax in the midst of the activity, busyness and stress of daily life. Have you thought of meditating:

whilst travelling to and from work
at the gym
at meal times
at your work desk
while waiting in the supermarket queue
in the shower or toilet
whenever you walk somewhere
when you're put on hold during a phone call
when you're irritated or upset
during the ads on TV
whilst waiting for pages to load over the internet

If you take the time to take a few seconds or minutes out during the day to do 'spot' meditations, you'll soon find that you're racking up 20 or more minutes of meditation without having to discipline yourself to get up early or find that extra time.

In every day there are countless opportunities to focus on sensory things - such as the food you're eating, the air you're breathing, a passing sensation, feeling or emotion, or a song on the radio - and by doing this you'll be moving into the present and away from the thoughts that stir you up and keep you more stressed than you need to be. This is all that you're required to do in order to meditate.

'Spot' Meditation Instructions

The following spot meditations, developed by Eric Harrison at Perth Meditation Centre, are short meditations that you can do throughout the day, wherever you are - at traffic lights, in queues, whilst you walk, or at your desk. They're designed to strip away some of the physical tension that we tend to acccumulate over the day and to slow down our mental chatter.

For best results:

Give your full attention to the meditation for its duration
Remain alert to what you are doing and don't allow yourself to day-dream, fantasise or fall asleep
Choose one exercise and practice it several times. Once every day for a week should see it committted to memory
Ssome practices are more useful than others. Choose the ones that work for you.

Select from:

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