Linda Holman

  "Never believe that body is permanent. Body is like a water bubble. Mind is like a mad monkey." - Sathya Sai Baba   When I first heard the phrase "monkey mind" I immediately understood what it meant! I was a few years in to my meditation journey, and mostly this had consisted of making huge resolutions to meditate for impossible amounts of time, followed by disappointment that I was never able to "empty my mind" or stop thinking.  But learning that the nature of our minds is to be like a monkey - jumping from thought to thought as a monkey jumps from branch to branch - this was very freeing! That's just my mind being the best mind it can be. It's been running the show for a long time now and absolutely expects that any idea or notion that it flings at me will be given my full attention. I leaned that I didn't need to try and stop the thoughts, I just had to stop being carr...

    "Go within every day and find the inner strength, so that the world cannot blow your candle out."      –Katherine Dunham    Meditation seems super interesting to you, but yoga.. not so much. Is it possible to get benefits from meditation without having to do yoga? Yoga and meditation are often practiced together; in fact there’s a school of thought that the main point of yoga is to get the body ready to sit for long periods in meditation. The word “yoga” is often translated as “union”, and the uniting of the mind and the body is a common way of thinking about it, so in that regard they can work well together. But there’s absolutely no requirement to do yoga along with a meditation practice - and especially when you are new and working on building a habit you want to have as few barriers to practice as you can . I think it’s easy to get caught up in how we think something should look, or focus on having all the perfect conditions before starting so...

  “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”  –  Arthur Ashe Sometimes people get pretty excited about the benefits of something they've recently tried and get quite evangelical about it. I've definitely been guilty of this over the years, even though I find it annoying when people do it to me. It can have the opposite effect and put me off trying new things just because someone tells me I "should" try it!  Another barrier to trying something like meditation is wanting to have all the conditions right to begin - that's basically impossible, so it's best to just start as soon as you can, even if things won't be perfect. You don't need any special clothes or particular types of cushions - you can meditate in a chair, sitting on a train, or even walking !  There are many, many different types of meditation, and most groups want you to meditate in a particular way as their experience tells them that's the "best" way to do it....