It’s been a hot minute (to borrow a phrase the kids use these days…) since I wrote a post about mindfulness / meditation.
You may recall from my previous posts on this topic, that I was reluctant to consider using meditation thinking it was a little too “woo-hoo” for me. My interest was piqued though after reading several studies indicating the effectiveness of mindfulness techniques. My own investigations into biofeedback ultimately led to me trying the Muse EEG headband mediation system some time ago!
You may be wondering, “how is that working for you Mike?” … Well, recently, I checked my Muse App – it showed that I had crossed over the 1100 session mark during which I had meditated over 10,000 minutes!
I can definitely say that taking a few minutes / day (9 minutes if you do the math using the numbers above) has made me a much calmer person more inclined to stay in the current moment rather than focusing on things that may have happened in the past or might happen in the future!
But rather than take my word for it. consider reading Emily Fletcher’s book “Stress Less, Accomplish More – Meditation for Extraordinary Performance”.
I first ran into Emily Fletcher on the Muse App. If you purchase the Muse premium content, there are hundreds of guided meditations. Emily is featured on a number of them in the “performance” section in which she covers such areas public speaking, job negotiation, taking exams, Interviewing, and two of my favorites, a general pep talk and sports performance. Having performed on Broadway for a number of years, she knows a thing or two about performance under pressure!
When I realized she had authored a book, I knew I had to have it! In the book, Emily does not promote practicing meditation to get good at meditating, rather she espouses practicing meditation to get good at life! This is a real practical guide for real people covering how to implement a meditation practice to make you better at what is truly important to you. She lays out a three-step mediation program encompassing the three “Ms” – mindfulness, mediation and manifesting. She recommends spending about 15 minutes / session 2x per day using her technique. The book is not just a teaser – all of the information is provided that a beginning mindfulness student would need to get started including free downloads from her site of audio tracks to use in the process. Of course, she also offers more advanced materials in her on-line and in-person classes that the interested reader could pursue at additional cost.
So, if you are on the fence wondering if mindfulness / meditation might be for you, I can whole-heartedly endorse starting by reading Emily’s book. It is available on Amazon at the following link: