Be Still; be in the moment

Meditation is not just for the times when you are able to sit down undisturbed.

The most important aspect of learning to focus on your breath is to learn to centre your mind and calm yourself to the point where you attain an ability to concentrate that allows you to clear your mind and be in the moment at any time.

It is that gradual expansion of presence from the moments you spend meditating into your daily life that is the path towards truly freeing yourself from the confines of the constant chatter of "you".

Be still. Be in the moment, and you will pick out the individual voices of your mind.

They are all you, together; yet no one voice is you alone.

Be still. Be in the moment, and you will pick out the individual voices of your mind.

They are all you, together; yet no one voice is you alone.

This can not be repeated often enough. Too often we fall for the illusion of a singular self, and assume that when that little voice tells us something, it is you talking, rather than just one impulse, driven by one singular motivation or another.

As a result we fail to question impulses even when we know we will regret them later.

We let ourselves get caught up in drama, or give in to emotions or drives we know will leave us annoyed with ourselves afterwards.

Even if you have not explicitly recognised it, almost all of us will at some point have been present enough to feel like we have observed ourselves from the outside, helpless to stop ourselves from doing something we know then and there is stupid, that we are still doing.

But we will also have had moments where we feel perfect clarity about the present and a sense of calm.

Being present lets you be the mediator between the variety of impulses coming from different aspects of yourself. It lets you address bad habits.

It lets your check yourself when you're about to do something stupid, before you do it instead of recognising it after the fact.

It lets you see where your anxieties come from so you can address them.

It is one of the most powerful things you can learn about how to know yourself.

Meditation often focuses on the traditional aim of Buddhist practice of detachment and realising the illusion of the ego. And while that in itself is beneficial, the benefits you get from simply being able to "catch yourself in the act" and stop to consider what you are doing and why are worth it irrespective of your religion (or lack of) - it is universal.

Try it whenever it springs to mind: Take 30 seconds to slow your breath, clear your mind, and be present, and quickly survey what you see, what you feel, your physical sensations.

Try it whenever it springs to mind: Take 30 seconds to slow your breath, clear your mind, and be present, and quickly survey what you see, what you feel, your physical sensations.

The more you do it, the more often you will become aware, and eventually you will find yourself falling into the habit of doing this automatically whenever you can.

So many of the challenges of your day to day life will start falling away, because they stop mattering when you actually scrutinise the underlying behaviours with detachment instead of just reacting.

Even now, after many years of meditation, I regularly need to remind myself of this, because it is so easy to push it aside, get caught up in whatever is happening, and decide you are too busy to sit down and do nothing.

But meditation is not doing nothing. Meditation is self-care. It is introspection. It is learning. It is healing.