Making meditation a part of your daily routine

When Gandhi was leading India he had a practice of meditating one hour everyday. His associates said, well if you have a very busy day, what do you then ? And he said, well, ever y morning, I meditate for 2 hours. Now, I am not suggesting that you follow his practice but meditation is a wonderful tool for relaxing the left side of the brain which is we overuse from thinking, being linear and analytical and allowing the creative side of your brain to open up to possibilities. So, here are some strategies for curving out some time in your busy schedule. First, you always honor the commitments of others by scheduling in their meetings. Well, schedule in a meeting for yourself. Whether its first thing in the morning when you get up or when you arrive at the office , the inner place where you will not be disturbed or distracted. Allow yourself at first, 5 minutes. Five minutes to set and allow your mind to just relax. You maybe looking out the window. You maybe concentrating on the letter A or the number 1 and youre just saying it over and so youre focused on one particular thing. If that doesnt seem to work then there is a second strategy and that is turning off all your electrical equipments from cellphones, laptops, whatever you may have and on your ride into work and back home, that is your meditative time. Meditations comes in all different ways and forms. One of which is being very present in what youre doing at the moment. So, when youre driving, you are concentrating on what is the weather like, what is the traffic like, what are the cars next to me are doing, what am I doing in the car, the feel of the steering wheel, the feel of your foot against the break or the accelerator. Youre very very observant as to what youre hearing, what youre seeing, what youre feeling . That can be very effective. Another strategy would be when you get in to work and youre ready to prioritize your day , journal for about 5 minutes and that journaling is what is your intention for that day. I wanted to be of purpose. I want to be able to get these three things done today. I want to do all these various things and have it come out without conflict. I want to be able to deal with this challenging customer in a way that is a win win for us both. Whatever it might be, get it all out. Get out the bad stuff. Get out the good stuff because journaling is another form of meditation. You see, you have a variety of different ways of getting in the zone, relaxing your linear side of your brain and being more creative. It allows you to relax. Another way, a fourth and bonus for us strategy is taking frequent breaks at least once a day and in that break , you are going to focus on a particular thing. It maybe walking to the coffee pot, it maybe looking out of the window to give your mind a break and let it zone out. You may see all these different things coming in to your mind, all these thoughts. Just observe them and then let them go. Concentrate on your breathing, breath in, breath out. All kinds of ways of dealing with curving out in your day even if its for a minute, a time to meditate.