Meditation is the path to enlightenment, so sayeth the sooth sayer… it’s also the path to aching muscles, itchy noses, strange unpronounceable mantras that make me chuckle when intoned incorrectly, (they always send my mind off at a tangent of silliness), navel contemplation and more. But, joking apart, I’ve just heard that we all have a treat to look forward to, new meditations from Magical Marta are coming our way soon. Yippee! Every time I listened to my favourites, I would always hear something I hadn’t noticed before which kept them fresh, but I can’t wait to hear the new ones… I’m striking the pose in readiness.

I have had many years dipping in and out of the practice, experiencing different styles, positions, bongs, chimes and bells, and have been brought back into regular meditation thanks to the Happynesshub.

I recently downloaded Oprah & Deepak’s 21-Day Meditation Sessions on the iPad App – this style is chanting a short mantra every time your mind wanders from the breath and concentration. Listening to his dulcet tones I was having trouble with the exact phonetics of the sentence, until after three sessions I realised that it was written on the introduction!

On the bright side I have been on some visualisations that have taken me to mystical places, crystal caves, waterfalls, mountain tops, outer space (oops got a bit carried away, just seen the Star Trek film – awesome). I digress… almost like an adventure, for someone like me with a vivid imagination, this type of meditation suits me well.

But, I hear you ask (or not if you haven’t read this far), “Has she had any benefit from all of this?” Yes actually, to my surprise, I have. Why am I surprised? Well, it sort of crept up on me a couple of weeks ago: the feeling of contentment, the ability to let things go much more easily, annoying times just washing over me, and generally taking more pleasure in the simple things. And to my delight feeling my Happyness levels rise up the scale to 10 quite a few times. YAAAY!

So, find those 5 minutes and enjoy the journey – any time, any place, anywhere… Gosh sounds like the old Martini advert!