This Is WHY You Need TOOLS For Meditation!

The second most popular area in which New Year's Resolutions setters sought improvement last year was personal improvement and happiness (21%).

A common tool that seekers of personal improvement and happiness turn to is meditation.

Meditation is a great way to aid your soul in realizing the highest purpose in life, and can help you to improve concentration, reduce stress & anxiety, alleviate depression and generally improve your mental wellbeing.

But while sitting down for a short meditation session is comparatively easy, making it a daily habit, on the other hand, can be tricky.

Without a clear purpose on WHY you force yourself to sit down every day, you'll easily lose interest and start to skip sessions.

Without the right TOOLS to help you stay focused during meditation, and on your goals, your meditation cushion will soon start to feel lonely.

Even Zen Monks need help to stay focussed!

Meditation doesn't come naturally and doesn't happen simply because you want it to.

Common tools used in Zen monasteries are:

• Their beautiful gardens, which can be used for contemplation.
• Koan riddles to trigger the mind and give you a problem to turn your attention to.
• Colorfully illustrated mandala images to spark visual experiences.
• Mantra chants or sutra recitations to focus your energy on reproducing sounds.
• Walking meditations to trigger the body with movement, meanwhile training the mind to stay immobile.
• And yes, even cleaning and garden work are used as tools to fuel a meditative state.

In our Western idea, meditation means that you should sit down, don't move and shut up.
Kids in school are told the same, but it doesn't result in meditation!

In reality meditation doesn't need to be an unpleasant, highly restrictive and painful thing to do.

In the end, the aim is to become a happier and better person, isn't it?!
You won't get happy from something that doesn't make you happy, do you?

Look out for my next post about what is perhaps the single most enjoyable and inspiring tool to implement a long-lasting meditational practice in your life! You'll be surprised.