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The Best Thing Ever (yup, meditation)

14/2/2021

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Wellmania, Meditation,  stillness, meditate, mindfulness

I knew it all along.
 
Meditation is the best thing ever (hear, hear!)
 
Travel journalist Brigid Delaney tells us why in her fun-packed travel tome, Wellmania.

Fast lane

A modern girl like us, beset with the usual angst that comes from decades in the fast lane (the years of partying, the drinking and late nights) Delaney was well in need of an overhaul.
 
Exhausted, anxious, a bit flabby (her own words) as well as moody and … well, unhappy.
 
And fabulous at her job. Armed with a backpack and notepad, Delaney toured Wellness in all corners of the world for over a decade. Yup, she put up with the boutique accommodation, the gorgeous settings, the infinity pools… for the sake of her mission: to sort the value from the rubbish.
 

What stacked up and what didn’t?
  
Delaney sampled it all: colonics, paleo, miracle diets, cold-pressed juices, sugar quitting, spas, vitamins, anti-ageing products, fitness, weight loss, healthy eating, purification ceremonies, multi-day hikes, hot yoga, cold yoga, luke-warm yoga, group psychotherapy, mindfulness groups, retreats.
 
She liked meditation best. Why so?
 
Err. Because it … worked.
 
 
What was it like?
 
“After the first meditation a very subtle but undeniable feeling comes over me – I feel slightly buzzed, grinning and happy. ... After a week of meditating I feel a definite effect...
 
“During the week of the course, the anxious feelings immediately stop and my concentration improves. I don’t feel as overwhelmed ... The only issue is getting up early enough to meditate …”
 
 
What was so good about it?
 
Writes Delaney: “the discovery of stillness. Finally! Stillness is the gateway to serenity. Serenity is like one of those wild animals that will only approach if you remain very still and quiet, like a statue. Yet we are so conditioned to recoil from stillness, confusing it with boredom or inertia. We don’t really know how to do it. 
 
All-round sadness
 
“Meditation … is the base that holds everything up. … There’s no point rocking a hot body and having a clean liver and being able to backbend like a sabre if you are unable to control or at least deal with the blows, the bad moods, the existential angst, the disappointments and just general all-round sadness that is sure to come your way.
 
“Of course, meditation doesn’t promise to rid you of these things, but what it does do is give you mental space – and perhaps the ability to hold the line as the waves crash over you.
 
My favourite line
 
“Of all the wellness things I have tried for this book, it is meditation that there is the most love for. .... Finally, I become a meditator.”
 
Did she keep going?
 
“I keep going, doing it twice a day, because I quite like it. My brain starts to crave these regular mini-breaks. As one meditator puts it in GQ: it ‘taps an inner calm we all have, a calm that gives the brain a chance to settle and repair its frazzled neurons’.
 
A bloody good read
 
Okay, I admit it’s not just the subject matter that held me. Delaney rocks a good turn of phrase. In the tagline of Australia’s well-loved journo Annabel Crabbe: “One suspects Brigid Delaney could write about flossing her teeth and be funny and interesting.”
 
Picture
​Brigid Delaney, Wellmania: Extreme Misadventures in the Search for Wellness, 2017
 
Interesting fact: During her Wellness tour, Brigid Delaney campaigned for the release of two Australians on death row in Bali – Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

.

Like it? Hit me up with a like y'all
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Finding Ease

6/1/2021

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Ease.
The very word carries an ahhhhh...
An eease ...
A letting go.


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End 2020 with a big dollop of joy

9/12/2020

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yoga Christmas present
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BUY NOW

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Stuff-up beat-up

1/10/2020

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self-kindness, self-compassion
pic by Eric Ward, Unsplash


​             THE BENEFITS OF SELF-KINDNESS

​What is your stuff-up self-response style?

How do you treat yourself when you get it wrong. You forget to put out the garbage/ yell at the kids/ get the meeting time wrong/ fail on zoom connection/ miss a great opportunity/ can’t find the words …. Etc. etc.?


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MOVE HOUSE, STAY IN BODY

14/6/2020

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MOVING HOUSE

They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do- and perhaps they are right.
​
We were set to put our place on the market in coming months … then, just recently, someone wandered past our place (in the middle of nowhere) and offered to buy it. Fantastic, it has saved us the putting-on-market scenario … on the flip side we find ourselves in a mad scramble with the onward move.

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MOVE BETTER

10/5/2020

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Yoga online, yoga online with Shakti, Shakti Burke, easy yoga, yoga for over-55s
photo: Natalie Grainger
The purpose of yoga is stretch, open and expand our physical boundaries.
 
Boundaries that contract over the years.
 
The tight spine, the creaky knees, achy elbows …. looking over the shoulder to reverse the car is an effort. Forget any wild idea of touching the toes or heading south any further than to peer over your glasses.

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A FABULOUS ANXIETY RESOURCE

16/2/2020

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Anxiety, anxiety relief, gemma correll, soothing breath, anti-anxiety techniques
image by Gemma Correll
​

​If you or anyone you know is suffering from intense anxiety, this short audio from Insight Timer will help.
​
It’s by Jim Malloy, a longterm American meditation teacher (since 1973) with a soothing voice and caring manner.


​ANXIETY BREEDS ANXIETY

Experiencing anxiety is not our fault. It’s not a shortcoming. We’re designed to flip into anxiety when feeling under threat.

The scarier the threat, the greater the anxiety.
Even being anxious about getting anxiety can bring on more anxiety.


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Mindful Breathing Benefits

5/9/2019

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Picture

​
​Have you heard the one about the guy who tries to wake up his son for school?
 
"Billy," says the dad, "wake up!"
Billy groans "I don't want to get up."
Dad shouts, "Get up, you have to go to school."
Billy moans "I don't want to go to school."
"Why not?" asks dad.
"Three reasons," says Billy.
 
"First, because it's so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school."
 
Billy’s father answers: "Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school.
 
First, because it is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old, and third, because you are the headmaster."

 
We all know the feeling. I don’t wanna but I gotta. In the short-term, we can use mindful breathing to ease our unease. (In the longterm, let’s try to change the hated situation!)
​

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My "Rest is Best" picture book!

7/4/2019

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Get inspired to live the good life through the power of rest!

Overwork can leave little room for tasting the joy of life. Wouldn't it be great to find a magic bullet for striking the balance between effort, exhaustion and living the life you want?

The author/illustrator's effervescent verse and images tease you through the colourful pages, in a picture book for adults teeming with joy, warmth and humour.

​The perfect gift for the workaholic in your life!


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STOP BEFORE YOU DROP

21/3/2019

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“People look for retreats for themselves,
in the country, by the coast, or in the hills . . .
There is nowhere that a person can find a more
peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. . . .
​So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”
​


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  • HOME
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