Quick Tips for Balanced Living

A selection of engaging essays where everyday people share their methods for stress reduction, relaxation, meditation and more. Excerpted from Yoga International magazine.

Concentration is the prelude to meditation. Unless we cultivate the habit of concentration in other areas of our lives, progress in meditation will come slowly or not at all. Simple, everyday tasks are a good place to begin. Experiment with focusing on brushing your teeth when you’re brushing your teeth, for example. If you find your mind rehashing an argument with a friend, or jumping ahead to fantasies about the party tomorrow night, gently but firmly bring it back to the task at hand. Focus on the bristles moving against your teeth, the way the toothpaste feels on your tongue, how the brush handle contacts your hand. There are plenty of opportunities to train our concentration in the course of routine tasks—washing the dishes, making the bed, walking up the stairs. Choose several, and each time you find yourself engaged in those particular tasks, form the habit of keeping your mind centered there, taking hold of it as it wanders off and bringing it back to rest on what you have chosen to do here and now. Buddhists call this mindfulness; yogis call it dharana (concentration). Practice it in more and more areas of your life, and notice its effect on your meditation pose.