Meditation is the key stone to a happy, for filling and peaceful life. The only true battle we will ever do is the one with self, overcoming the tyranny of our all-consuming mind, separating the truth of us from the overwhelming ego.

Meditation is all at once the simplest and most confronting of disciplines. To commit to sitting cross legged on the floor for a small amount of time each day sounds easy. And it is, I guess, if you sit there slouched with your eyes open and your mind wandering. But if you commit to sitting upright, allowing energy to flow along the length of your spine, closing your eyes gently so they have to look inwards, a very different twenty minutes will be experienced.

The beginner meditator will encounter much frustration and time will seem to drag. They will give up and start over again many, many times. But if they are committed to inner peace, if they value this more than anything and are determined in their seeking, they will keep coming back until the edges of stillness start to appear. Slowly they will learn that it is OK to be restless in both mind and body but to continue to sit, to watch and wait. They will get completely lost in their thoughts and forget what it is they have purposefully come for. But with time, and the mercy of grace, there will be, always, an intercession. A moment of peace, a gap in the monologue where the observer can see that they have been completely lost in a world of thoughts, an imaginary world that doesn’t exist. They will be jolted back to their corner on the floor and with a bit of luck, they will have just enough space to become aware of their body and the sensations it is carrying, to become aware of the sounds outside, the feeling of the air on their skin. And then it will be gone, even quicker than when it was offered. But now, for the astute, those who are willing to listen and learn, they know that there is an existence beyond thought, or perhaps better described, under thought. A place that now has the potential to be found and expanded, offering the heart the opportunity to rest in a lake of stillness.

For the committed seeker who keeps coming back to that lumpy cushion on the floor, life is going to change. It won’t happen instantly; it will be a year or two down the track of committed practice, but it will happen. And when the seeker looks back what they will see is that life that hasn’t actually changed, but rather, they have. Life still happens around them in its same raucous tumultuous ways, but it no longer has the ability to push them around.

Meditation has been a part of my life now for such a long time that I can’t remember when it wasn’t. It has changed my life completely. It has accompanied me in the easy times and helped them to shine brighter, then walked alongside me in the darkest of times, times I’m convinced I wouldn’t have found my way through without it. It has got easier to go to the floor and sit. There are days, sometimes many in a row, where I meditate in nothing but blissful stillness, but then there are other days where I bear witness to the ramblings of a neurotic mind. And that is OK, it is part of the continual journey into a deeper truth.

It has also been my constant companion and inspiration for my work as a craniosacral therapist. Without its education and ongoing reminder of the place of stillness, my work as a craniosacral therapist would be impossible. It is the perfect companion to craniosacral work.

If you would like to explore the gifts of meditation, Halcyon Days is running a meditation class on Monday afternoons from 4-5pm. Whether you’ve been practicing for years or you are just starting out we would love you to join us. The barn at Halcyon Days is the perfect place for exploring that wonderful world of stillness.