04 Aug Write Your Way To Happiness In As Little As Ten Minutes A Day
via Forbes by Nancy Olson
Nearly a day goes by without meditation making the news. The practice has been around for centuries, but seems like the newest fabulous thing, with new apps for making it easier and new books outlining the hows and whys.
There’s no doubt that meditation has numerous benefits, like better health, improved relaxation and sleep, and greater satisfaction in life. So, too, there are numerous types of meditation, from Zen to mantra to Transcendental Meditation, each slightly different in its approach.
There are also movement-type meditations like walking meditation and, one of my favorites, writing.
“Writing can be a powerful meditation practice, helping us to integrate our active mind with the mind of meditation,” says meditation teacher Jane Brunette in the Huffington Post. “By using it as a process of inquiry, it can help us track our progress in loosening attachments and habitual states of mind even as it sharpens our ability to attend to the present moment.”
She says that as little as ten minutes a day can result in benefits. I find it hard to limit myself to under an hour once I get going with a favorite pen.
“Many of history’s greatest minds spent many hours writing things that were never meant to be seen by anyone,” says CM Hamilton in his book Writing Meditations: 36 Prompts to Inspire Meditative Writing.
“Scientists like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, politicians like Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill, artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Ernest Hemingway, and historical figures like Marcus Aurelius and Abraham Lincoln all spent considerable time writing to no one but themselves. They understood that the deliberate practice of writing had significant benefits to their creativity, self-awareness, memory, productivity and wellbeing.”
… keep reading the full & original article HERE