What is meditation?
Meditation is the practice of a number of techniques to quieten and focus the mind. This can be through:
- visualisation, where you focus on imagery, sometimes a single thing or a sequence of events.
- chanting, where you repeat a short word/sound/phrase to act a focus for your thoughts
- breathing, where your attention is brought to different ways of breathing.
What are the benefits?
Most of the techniques guide the mind to being in the current moment, not dwelling in the past or scurrying to the future, and this calms the mind allowing.
There are an increasing number of studies examining what happens to the body for those that regularly practice meditation. The overall impression seems to suggest that meditating:
- reduces stress, fear by altering the structure of the amydalla (part of the brain the deals with fear and stress responses),
- helps to improve memory function and attention spans
- reduces blood pressure. The Psychology Today mentions that meditation “reverses heart disease” (but I’m not certain on that).
- improve the immune system. Possibly due to the overall reduction of stress which can inhibit the immune system.
But if all meditation does is reduce stress and clear the mind, that is something that really helps to make your life better.
What happens in the group?
I lead the group in a short (20-
For example I may lead you on a walk in the countryside to a location (e.g. a forest clearing) let you experience the sights/sounds/smells of what you visualise before leading you back to the room we are meditating in.
I will do my best to make the meditations varied and interesting, but there may be similarities between each week.
Meditation Classes
Day: Mondays
Time: 1pm - 1.30pm
Location: Clerkenwellbeing, 178 Goswell Road, EC1V 7DT
Booking via: Clerkenwellbeing.co.uk