Although this book offers many visual analogies to consider, the most important thing to remember in meditation is your nose and the breath that flows in and out of it.
Think of your nose as a lighthouse from which you take all your meditative bearings.
If you get lost in a sea of thought, think of your lighthouse and ome back to your breath.
If you hear a dog bark, come back to your breath.
If you feel uncomfortable, move gently and come back to your breath.
Breathing in and out, nice and slow and steady.
Every day our mind processes up to 70, 000 thoughts, even when we sleep – roughly one thought every 1.2 seconds. With so many ideas buzzing round our heads, it’s no wonder that we need to stop and try to quiet the mind. However, it is difficult to find a way to still our thoughts, when we are constantly stimulated by the world around us – television, the Internet, music, mobile phones and more, keep our minds constantly busy. Quiet the Mind offers a simple way to counter all that activity – through meditation.
Using simple text and cartoon-style illustrations, the author (who has previously written two successful books about depression) first explains why meditation is important and how it can help, before giving a simple step by step rpocess to meditate. There is no mumbo-jumbo, and nothing confronting in terms fo spirituality or religion, making it accessible to people of all beliefs and backgrounds.
For anyone new to meditation, or who has perhaps been put off by difficult mystical concepts, this is an excellent starting point.
Quiet the Mind, by Matthew Johnstone
Pan Macmillan 2012
ISBN 9781742610733
This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.