Clare Josa | Author And Keynote Speaker

UK's Foremost Imposter Syndrome Expert, International Keynote Speaker & 8x Author

Search Results for: mindfulness

Summer Holiday Sanity Saver

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Love your kids but not so sure how to survive the summer holidays?

Need a healthy way to stay sane?

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We all love our kids to bits, but (if we’re really honest about it) sometimes the school holidays drive us crazy.

If that’s you, how about planning ahead and building a bit of self-care sanity into your week?

Want to discover how easily yoga, mindfulness, deep relaxation and meditation could help you? And to feel the difference they could make to your summer?

Join me for 6 weeks of the Summer Holiday Sanity-Saver. Running each Wednesday from 29th July to 2nd September, you get an oasis of calm and battery recharging mid-week.

It runs from 8pm – 9:30pm each week in Colemans Hatch, near Forest Row, Hartfield and East Grinstead in Sussex, UK.

And don’t worry if you’re away and need to miss a week – you can gift your place to a friend. Just let me know in advance, so I know to expect them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][image_with_animation image_url=”21622″ animation=”Fade In” img_link_target=”_self”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]

You’ll get a beautiful and inspirational blend of Dru yoga, meditation, mindfulness, demystified Ancient Wisdom and NLP. So not only do you get to bend, stretch and relax in all the right ways, but we’ll also get to deal with the thought habits that could be keeping you stuck in the stress cycle, all year round.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][image_with_animation image_url=”21625″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” img_link_target=”_self”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]This is your sanity-saving ‘you-time’ to keep you smiling through the summer holidays – and beyond.

If that resonates for you, I strongly suggest you book your place right now. There are only 10 spots available for each session and they will fill up fast. I’m really excited about getting to share this with you.

And the early bird rate (£90 for the whole six weeks) is only available until 30th June, after which it will be £110).

Carve out a little ‘you-time’ each week, to relax, stay calm and recharge your batteries – and stay sane and smiling all summer long. 🙂

And the stuff I’m sharing with you is packed with simple, bite-sized techniques that you can use throughout your week – and well beyond the summer holidays. You could even share some of them with your kids![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Each week, we’ll be covering a new theme, including:

  • How to keep your cool, when the kids are driving you crazy
  • How to magically make more time
  • Simple steps to help you relax, no matter how busy you are
  • Discover your personal favourite ways to recharge your batteries – and how to make these a non-negotiable part of your daily life
  • How to release that old habit of putting others first, so you can better serve from your surplus, rather than your reserves
  • The one 5-word question which could change your life forever – and how it could become your best friend over the summer holidays
  • Practical strategies for handling stress – from the inside out – so that you can reclaim control over that emotional rollercoaster
  • The near-magic-wand mindset shift that turns your ‘to do’ list into a chance to destress, smile and have fun

And, of course, it’s all in bite-sized chunks that are summer holiday-friendly, so you can easily fit it in around your other commitments.

And you’re not alone. You get to share this journey with like-minded Souls in our beautiful private Facebook group.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][image_with_animation image_url=”21626″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” img_link_target=”_self”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”full_width_background” bg_position=”left top” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” bg_color=”#990033″ scene_position=”center” text_color=”light” text_align=”center” top_padding=”22″ bottom_padding=”22″][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]

You get an inspired blend of yoga, meditation, mindfulness & NLP (the ‘user manual’ for your brain)

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Only 10 places available for each session – grab yours now:

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Book Wednesday evenings:

Only 10 7 places left

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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]P.S. If you need to apply for a bursary, please let me know. I will never turn anyone away on the grounds of their ability to pay. However, to ensure that everyone can have a chance to come, please only apply for a bursary if you genuinely need one.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

UK Mastermind Retreat August 2015: Reconnecting With Your Inner Authentic Awesomeness

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]I’m super-excited about this! It’s going to be our first Mastermind Retreat in my yurt – here in East Sussex (UK).

Only just decided the dates, so full details will follow soon. But if you’d like me to send you an email and provisionally keep a place for you, please let me know.

Dates: 21st – 23rd August 2015 (non-residential but includes break time refreshments & lunch)

Topic: Reconnecting with your inner authentic awesomeness – practical strategies that work no matter how busy you are, even in a left-brained world

Cost: £497 – includes pre-retreat mini-course, all course materials & post-retreat follow-up

Reserve your place here – only 12 9 places available.

Fabulous combo of NLP, meditation, mindfulness, yoga, demystified Ancient Wisdom and fun![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][image_with_animation image_url=”17751″ animation=”Fade In” img_link_target=”_self”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Discover The 7 Insider Secrets That The EU VAT Campaign Taught Me About Business Breakthroughs

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Discover The 7 Insider Secrets That The EU VAT Campaign Taught Me About Business Breakthroughs

And how you can apply them to your business in the next 7 days

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I’ll be spilling the beans on the unique techniques and strategies that we have used to create ‘impossible’ change. And they might not be what you think… By the end of the webinar you will:

 

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    • Get to try out the personal ‘inside work’ strategies that I used to co-create change that those ‘in the know’ describe as ‘unprecedented’

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    • Learn the one over-arching mindset that opened previously locked-shut doors to us – including the European Parliament & Downing Street

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    • Explore why most people are running their business ‘back to front’ and selling completely the wrong thing

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    • Avoid the biggest mistake I see business people making daily, which would have totally derailed our campaign

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    • Experience the vital ingredient that makes the shift from resistance to action both easy and inspirational – whether it’s in a campaign or with a customer

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    • Figure out exactly how to apply these strategies to your own business – and life – in the next 7 days

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  • Discover how to dive in even more deeply to create mind-blowing breakthroughs in your business performance in the next 8 weeks

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It’s free – so register today to make sure you have grabbed your place.

The replay will be available for one week after the event, but there are some special treats for those who can join us live, including a money-can’t-buy-this competition.

With love, Namaste,

CJ Sig[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

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Don’t know Clare Josa yet?

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Clare Josa

Author | NLP Trainer | Meditation Teacher | Reformed Engineer | Busy Mum Of 3 Young Boys

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Clare Josa is a professional Meditation Teacher, Business Coach, Author, Certified NLP Trainer, reformed Mechanical Engineer and busy Mum to 3 young boys. She has published four life-changing books, including two about meditation and mindfulness, and over the past 12 years she has helped thousands of people to create transformational shifts in their lives.

As an NLP Trainer, she’s an expert on your pesky Monkey Mind and the tricks it plays – as well as how to handle your Inner Critic. And as a reformed Engineer she specialises in demystifying Ancient Wisdom into practical actions you can take today, in less time than it takes for a kettle to boil.

Her highly intuitive, light-hearted approach comes with a generous dollop of humour and a strong BS-filter, so her inspirational work is a fluff-free zone – though she does admit to occasionally wearing pink.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_column_text]

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Is Meditation Stirring The Pot For You? How To Take Your Practice Beyond ‘Navel-Gazing’ Into ‘Life-Changing’

How To Change Your Life

Some people cheekily call meditation ‘navel gazing’. There’s something about sitting around, with eyes closed, allegedly coming up with profound insights, that provokes a sense of the slightly ridiculous in those who haven’t yet tried it.
Although meditation techniques can include looking at your life, your reactions, your emotions, your behaviours and your thoughts, it isn’t about ‘navel gazing’. You’re looking at all those aspects of yourself with a clear intention. Through these practices, you are choosing to set ourselves free from the habitual way we normally live life; to see the truth of how things really are; to reclaim your choice about how we experience life; to reconnect with that divine spark, deep within.

When we are in that quiet, still space of relaxed, accepting, focused concentration, we can find that our habits, our beliefs, our assumptions may come up for questioning. It helps us to have more clarity in life and to be able to spot where we’re telling ourselves ‘stories’, rather than basing our decisions on ‘truth’. And this new level of self-awareness can cause the ‘pot of emotions’, deep inside, to have a bit of a stir.

It’s vital to our happiness and inner peace to really have clarity about what’s real and what’s just our projection.

Regular meditation can bring about focused observation of our own habits and behaviours. It awakens a desire within us to be able to choose how to respond, rather than being at the mercy of uncontrollable auto-pilot emotions and stress, as we react to life. This can mean that when you get good at meditation – when you’re able to access that still point – the old habits, behaviours and beliefs that no longer fit with who you really are can come up for examination. Depending on how you’ve been experiencing life so far, some of that might be quite uncomfortable.

Some people might find, for example, that they’ve had a habit of feeling irritated or angry very easily and that regular meditation practice can bring that to the fore.

I remember, when I was starting my ‘real’ meditation journey (rather than just doing guided visualisations or deep relaxations) that I often found myself feeling more irritable and angry than usual. This had the knock-on effect that I would beat myself up, because – of course – I was meditating every day and I’m an NLP trainer, so ‘how dare I’ feel irritated? I was supposed to be ‘blissed out’ and happy, not grumpy and snappy. I was ‘supposed to’ know better.

Well, there is no such thing as ‘supposed to’, for a start! And, secondly, the meditation had allowed me to get myself to a place where I was ready to handle the causes of why I was walking around feeling irritable and angry. At some level, I had made an unconscious decision that I was ready to deal with the triggers for those emotions – and suddenly nearly everybody around me became an Oscar-winning actor, helping to ‘press the buttons’ for me. Their behaviour helped me see the games I was playing, the stories I had been telling myself and the habits I had created, to keep me stuck with those emotions, over the years. (Thanks guys!)

This is a very common situation on a meditation journey.

The danger, if ‘stuff’ comes up (and it doesn’t matter which emotion it is), is that you can end up projecting your anger / irritation / sadness / annoyance / guilt / regret onto other people. For example, you might snap at the next person who crosses your path when, in reality, your emotion was nothing to do with them. It’s like your experience of life becomes overlaid with a movie of that emotion, changing your view of what’s really going on.

“Meditation is not meant to help us avoid problems or run away from difficulties. It is meant to allow positive healing to take place.” Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Is meditation 'stirring the pot' for you?Meditation is about learning how to stop being carried away by past pain and regrets – to stop running away from our problems – to stop being lost in despair about the present time or worrying about our future.
Regular meditation practice helps us to realise that we have a choice: to feel angry or to feel happy. It helps to make that choice easier.

If you catch yourself experiencing a strong emotion that is clouding the reality of what is happening, practise your mindfulness.

Here’s a really useful technique for times when you need to process uncomfortable emotions:

Emotional First Aid Technique

This technique is all about using your breathing as an anchor in a storm of emotions. It helps you to rest; to stop; to reflect; to heal.

  1. Bring your focus back into your physical body.
  2. Be present, without telling the story, without engaging with the emotion, without resisting it.
  3. Breathe. Really focus on your breathing.
  4. Breathe out the emotion, breathe in calm and a sense that all will be ok. It works! Keep going, until you feel a sense of relief.
  5. If you need someone’s help, get it! You don’t have to do this on your own.
  6. Be kind to yourself, open your heart, and perhaps ask:
    • “What would love do, right now?”
    • “What would kindness say to this emotion, this habit, this belief?”
    • “What would ‘courage’ or ‘trust’ say or do?”

They might sound like strange questions, but if you let the answers bubble up, without critique, then you might be surprised by your insightful answers.

Don’t judge yourself. Just observe whether it is one of your old auto-pilot programmes that is causing you to react the way you are used to. Perhaps your deepest being is trying to tell you that this is not who you are anymore? You don’t need to keep doing that – which means you’re getting the chance to set yourself free from that old habit.

This short technique can work in under a minute, once you’re used to using it. It will work for you unless, at some level, you’re unconsciously choosing to hold on to the emotion; if you don’t want to let go of the story…
It helps you to release the emotions, so you can move back to a level of clarity that helps you to see the difference between the story; the drama; the projection; and the truth of the situation. It helps you see ‘what’s real’ about whatever has been going on.
If you’d like some more ‘emotional first aid’ techniques, there are links to more in the bonus resources for this book. One is a deeper-acting emotional first aid process, similar to the one above. Another is a guided visualisation, which is specially designed for emotions and memories that keep coming back. It is designed to help you gently, but effectively, release the old story and move towards the future.

Meditation is a wonderful way to reach that still point, so you can see those habits for what they really are: just habits.
Those old habits are not real – you can’t pick them up and wrap them in paper and tie a bow on them. You can let them go.
All you need to do is choose.

And if you choose from a position of love and kindness towards yourself, instead of anger and beating yourself up over it, you are much more likely to enjoy the process of letting go of that old habit.
If you find that meditation is stirring the pot for you, make sure you get the support that you need to let go of whatever that habit or emotion is that’s been coming up – and then celebrate letting it go.

arrow-no-bgIf you want to join us and really create a life-changing meditation habit, then you’ll love my online course: How To Meditate

Affirmation:

I choose to set myself free from old habits that no longer serve me.

With love, Namaste,

CJ Sig

Are You Too Tired To Meditate? (Hint: For Most Of Us, That’s A Yes!)

Be, How To Change Your Life

Do you ever find you’re too tired or stressed to meditate?

Back in the days when I was training to become a meditation teacher, I was on the course with my husband Peter. He was famous for his ‘nodding dog’ impressions. You would get 15 to 20 minutes into a meditation technique and suddenly there would be a nearly-silent giggle from the tutor at the front of the room, as they saw him nodding away, falling asleep. As usual, he was too tired to meditate.

 Now that might seem strange, because we might wonder, “It’s meditation: I am sitting still; I’m relaxing; I’ve got my eyes closed, how can I stay awake?”. . . But actually meditation is about relaxed alertness. That’s the difference between deep relaxation – which is intending solely to relax you – and meditation, which is about relaxation with focus and concentration. And it reminded me of my meditation mentor, and a story he once told.

A severely stressed executive came to him, wanting to learn to meditate. It didn’t take long to see that the guy couldn’t sit still: fingers twitching, body fidgeting, fast upper-chest breathing, super-fast talking… You could see his mind was racing and the bags under his eyes told tales of stress-filled sleepless nights. And, once he got to meditate, he would pretty much instantly fall asleep. If anyone ever needed to tap into the de-stressing benefits of deep relaxation, this guy was a prime candidate.

But my mentor turned him away.

“Why on earth would you do that?” we asked him; a stunned class of trainee teachers. He smiled gently as he explained that to be able to meditate there are three stages you have to go through.

 

Meditation is about relaxation, acceptance and then focused concentration.

 

Until you can relax, you can’t meditate.

If you find it really hard to sit still, if you’re finding it really hard to accept your mind, if you’re finding it impossible to manage those pesky thoughts, it could be that what you need most right now is actually deep relaxation and not meditation. It takes a lot of energy to manage and accept your thoughts. It takes energy to concentrate and focus. That’s why we make more mistakes, for example, when writing a message if we’re tired, than if we’re feeling refreshed. So feeling too tired to be able to meditate effectively is a common problem.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution: no, it’s not sleep! It’s deep relaxation.

 

Doing a 20 minute progressive tense and release deep relaxation every evening, even just for a week, can transform your experience of life.

 

I’m not exaggerating!

It can have the most profound effect on your body’s production of adrenalin and other stress hormones, allowing you to relax and recharge your batteries.

Once you are able to relax, then you will find meditation MUCH easier. It might be that you need to go and spend a month doing that, before you come back and maybe re-start the 28 Day Meditation Challenge (I’m not trying to get rid of you!). Or, if you are prepared to carve out the time you could do both at once.

Deep relaxation is absolutely key to our health, especially when we are running on adrenalin. This constant, low-level stress means that – for many of us – our adrenal glands are nearly empty and our mind and body are close to burn-out. We survive on a diet of stimulants – usually caffeine, sugary foods and high carbohydrate foods, to give us the ‘boost’ we need to keep going. But we’re paying a big price.

 

Aside: if this is resonating for you, you might want to check out the best book I have ever found on dealing with long-term exhaustion and adrenal issues. It’s called ‘Adrenal Fatigue’ by Jim Wilson and reading it changed my life – despite the fact I thought that, as a Meditation Teacher and NLP Trainer, I already knew all there was to know about dealing with stress…

 

The other thing that can make a huge difference to being able to relax is your posture – as I cover in detail in my online course “How To Meditate“. If your back posture is activating your sympathetic nervous system (fight / flight) without also triggering your parasympathetic relaxation response, you could end up too tense and ‘fired-up’ to be able to meditate effectively.

Watch out for your emotions

Often, when starting a new meditation or mindfulness habit, we have been feeling tired for a very long time. Our monkey mind drowns out the tiredness with its constant commentary. When we learn how to stop and rest, the old tiredness and even long-suppressed emotions can come out to play. If you’re feeling very tired, do a deep relaxation. If you’re feeling emotional, there are some great techniques later in the 28 Day Meditation Challenge.

 

So what happened to the super-stressed executive?

He went away and spent a few months working on deep relaxation and dealing with his stress habits. When he came back, ready to meditate, he got fast results. His body was able to relax easily, which made it much easier to accept his environment, his thoughts and his physical world. And then the focused concentration was much simpler for him.

 

And, as for Peter?

You can always tell when he’s too tired to meditate, because his now-infamous nodding dog returns. It’s his personal tip-off that he’s been over-doing things and needs to shift down a gear for a while.

 

So my invitation to you today is to think about how you are living, how your body feels, how your mind feels and to see whether deep relaxation and de-stressing might be what you’re secretly craving right now.

Want To Do A Guided Deep Relaxation Today?

There are plenty of good deep relaxation CDs / MP3s out there. And as a bonus, in case you need it, I have included one on for students on my online programme: “How To Meditate“. I hope you enjoy it! If you’d like to join us, here’s where you can get started:

www.ClareJosa.com/how-to-meditate

Affirmation:
I choose to look after my energy levels.

With love, Namaste,

CJ Sig

What Is Your Monkey Mind Trying To Tell You?

How To Change Your Life

I don’t know about you, but most of us seem to have what the meditation world calls a monkey mind. I call it my grasshopper mind, because it can flit from one thing to the next with an amazing level of skill, constantly hopping around, making plenty of noise and rarely still.

When we sit for silent meditation, or try to practise mindfulness, we often find that our biggest challenges, such as knees hurting or back aching, are nothing compared to the chattering of our mind. Yet, although we might not be aware of where the thoughts come from, we can do something about them.

You don’t have to ignore your monkey mind.

And remember the #1 meditation myth? Meditation and mindfulness are not about making your monkey mind shut up!

Sometimes our monkey mind is trying to get a message through to us. It might be worried that we’re going to forget to do something; sometimes it’s telling us about things we are afraid of; sometimes it’s just used to filling in the chatter so we don’t feel lonely; sometimes we have just got into the habit of having an unconscious commentary running of everything we are seeing and doing.

When your monkey mind is shouting and yelling, it’s worth sitting quietly for a moment and asking yourself why. Is there a message it’s trying to get to you? Is there something you need to know?

Often, if you listen without judgement or interaction, the monkey mind can have its say and then relax. Sometimes it helps to jot down the thing it wanted you to remember, so you can let go of it and get on with your meditation.

What Are Some Of The Games A Monkey Mind Can Play? And What Can You Do About Them?

I’m curious: what are the games that your monkey mind plays, when you’re trying to meditate or practise mindfulness?

Here are some of the ways that my meditation students have experienced it:

  • Getting bored
    Your monkey mind tells you it’s feeling bored. It tells you that meditation is boring. It can be pretty convincing.Of course meditation is boring for a monkey mind that is used to running the show, at faster than the speed of sound…But accepting that your mind is playing the ‘bored game’ and allowing yourself to go more deeply into your practice will prove to your monkey mind that meditation is far from boring!
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  • Playing music
    Your monkey mind has usually been trained to be scared of silence. So, even if you manage to accept your thoughts, it might try new tactics, such as playing music or singing a catchy song.Again – just accept this. Stick the music on the conveyer belt or whichever other technique is working for you.Turn down the volume. Slow down the tempo, if it starts yelling for attention.Don’t engage. Don’t get annoyed. Don’t play the game. Just practise accepting it and let it go. It will eventually get the idea.
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  • Reminding you about your ‘to do’ list
    Classic trick, this one! Again – you know it’s not true. It’s VERY rare that something won’t wait 10 minutes.Stick it on the conveyer belt!

A previous student on my online meditation course shared:

“For the first time *ever* in lots of ‘trying and failing’, I got some sense of what it is like to watch thoughts and actually observe them, moving on. I love the conveyer belt.”

 

Another shared a great tip for accepting – and not engaging, with your thoughts:

“I chose to sit outside a cave, in the sunshine, while my thoughts stayed in the cave. They seemed quieter; more distant. And it made it harder for me to interact with them – easier to accept them and just let them be.”

Quick Exercise:

What are your monkey mind’s games? They’re different for each of us.

And how do you deal with them?

What has worked for you?

What could you do differently, to make peace with your monkey mind?

Do You See What’s Going On?

Often we’re not even aware of the fact that we’re living our life according to the whim of the monkey mind. It is triggering our emotions and filtering our experience of life, without our conscious permission. Sounds scary? Yet this is what we have spent many years training it to do!

And we have spent a lifetime, learning to ignore its behaviour and pretend it isn’t there.

The mind’s ‘default setting’ is thinking, not awareness, peace, stillness or being. So it’s no wonder that it objects, when we dare to suggest it might quieten down for our meditation time…

How to tame a multi-tasking mind

Many of us have trained our mind to need to think of many things at once. It’s a real skill. But it doesn’t help you to relax, de-stress or learn to meditate. An interesting question (that sends your mind into a spin!) is:

“What won’t happen if I don’t think of three things at once?”

What won’t happen if your mind doesn’t chatter three conversations at once? Just let an answer bubble up for you, without analysing or judging it. This can help you unlock the key of why you have been feeding your monkey mind. Are you scared of silence? Are you scared things won’t get done? Are you trying to avoid thinking about something else?

Usually the answer to that question contains hints on how to set yourself free from that old grasshopper mind habit. If the answer feels uncomfortable, don’t dive into the drama.

Thinking isn’t ‘bad’.

But an out-of-control mind produces thinking that is ‘unconscious’, ‘unaware’. This feeds our love of drama, creating painful emotional states and keeping us stuck worrying about the past or stressing about the future.

So it is ‘untamed’ thinking that is the issue, not the presence of the thoughts.

It is our attachment to the thoughts that causes the pain, not the fact that they exist.

Be gentle, but firm, with your monkey mind.

Remember that with every breath we can choose to make a fresh start. Anything the monkey mind is telling us about our past belongs just there.

Having chosen to go on a meditation journey, you’re already taking positive steps towards creating a new future.

Meditation and mindfulness can really, really help calm a monkey mind, but you need to be careful which kind of meditation you pick. For example the types of meditation where you sit silently for hours might not be the best place for you to start, if your monkey mind stresses you out.

Mindfulness, which we are looking at next week, is about being fully present and aware of the moment – including your thoughts. It can be a lot easier for somebody who’s running a strong monkey mind pattern.

Practical solutions for today

You might like to experiment with some subtle tweaks you can make to remind your grasshopper mind who’s boss and calm it a little. You are the boss of your monkey mind, whether it accepts it or not!

If your thoughts are mainly words:

  • How about telling your thoughts to slow down? Cutting the speed at which your mind is speaking can help cut your stress levels dramatically.
  • And when you have played with that, how about changing the volume, making it quieter?
  • You could experiment with changing the tone of the conversation that you are hearing in your head and making it sound kinder and softer.

If your thoughts are mainly pictures:

  • How about slowing down any movement in the pictures? This can really help you relax.
  • If the pictures are bright and colourful, you could tone them down a little.
  • If they are big, you could make them smaller.

All this – and plenty more – is possible. You just need to play with the techniques.

Don’t wait till you’re meditating – practise these techniques at any time of day when you want to quieten your mind and de-stress.

If your monkey mind is a bit rebellious, there’s something you can do to get it to help you, instead of hindering your meditation journey:

Give your monkey mind a job to do, while you’re meditating!

For example, it could be ‘in charge’ of reminding you, when your attention drifts. Or perhaps it might like to be the ‘boss’ of letting you know how your big toe on your left foot is feeling. The job doesn’t have to be serious!

Your mind is used to working very hard and, like any workaholic, it finds it hard to switch off. It deserves your compassion – but not your sympathy! It’s time for you to get back in the driving seat….

So my invitation to you today is to play with understanding what your monkey mind might be trying to tell you – and then to remind it who’s boss – lovingly, but firmly.

Want to tell us your Monkey Mind’s favourite games? Or discover how others are handling theirs? I’d love to hear from you, via the comments!

Affirmation

I give my monkey mind permission to let go, just for ten minutes.

And if you’d love to make meditation – even just 10 minutes – part of your daily routine, then you’ll love my 10 week online programme: How To Meditate. I’d be honoured to share the journey with you.

With love, Namaste,

CJ Sig

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