Let's talk about meditation....

Here I share my conversation with the wonderful Jillian Lavender of The London Meditation Centre.

When I look back to 2016 and I was in the midst of gruelling chemo I can almost pinpoint the time when I began to get my head around what I was going through. It wasn’t that everything was suddenly alright but just that I began to feel able to ask myself some of the harder, more painful questions I’d been trying to ignore. And it was meditation that helped me in more ways than I can explain to look into the darkness and subsequently showed me the light at the end of the tunnel.

Since that summer day when I was given my personal sound, or mantra, it’s been like a faithful friend; as important as the twice daily brushing of my teeth, as synonymous with putting on my shoes each day.

Jillian, a native kiwi, has been a meditator for over 25 years and long with her partner, Michael, she founded the London and New York Meditation centres and between them they have taught literally thousands of people to meditate.

During our chat she talks us through the incredible benefits the simple technique she teaches can give whether you are going through a serious illness, feel mentally or emotionally wobbly or simply want to enhance your creativity or find some moments of calm and stillness in your life.

This is such an important conversation for me to share and as ever we talk about some additional practical tips to get you through some tricky times. We recorded this just before Christmas before the UK went into another lockdown.

London Meditation Centre

https://www.londonmeditationcentre.com/learn-to-meditate/

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3 practical tips to get you through some tough times:

*sip hot water throughout the day to hydrate the whole physiology and flush out toxins

*rather than holding mental tension up in your head find ways to release that. Favourite thing to do is Morning Pages from Julia Cameron's book The Artists Way. Write for 3 pages and do a bit of a dump - don’t analyse or re read just get it out

*even if sleep is hard, find ways to rest. Rubbing herbalised oil on the feet very grounding and for removing toxins. Massaging feet and the tummy button will settle the nervous system and marma or energy points.

Book recommended to Jillian: A Woman's best Medicine by Nancy Lonsdorf - great intro into Ayurveda from a feminine perspective

Book(s) Jillian would recommend:

Why meditate....because it works by Jillian Lavendar (due to be released Spring 2021)

Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch where the author and film maker shares his perspective about creativity

A sage piece of advice Jillian has received:

"Its not the unknown we need to be afraid of.Its the ever repeating known that we need to be worried about"

If we are not keeping things innovative and not embracing change then things will get a bit rocky. Being able to embrace the unknown and embrace change is where we want to be in life because change is the one constant.

A sage piece of advice Jillian would give to listeners:

"Relax and enjoy"

Perhaps when we are taking things too seriously.

We get a bit tight and caught up and finding those ways we can be easier on ourselves and easier on people is a good reminder. Very easy to get serious about stuff and when you get serious you tend to get attached and rigid and you hold on tight and it doesn’t serve us well. We need to be looking for more of that happiness as that's what life is about.

The Sage Space Podcast

Let's talk about meditation....