Meet the New Year mindfully!

2016 is coming to a close — thank goodness! It’s been a challenging year, with political upsets that the pundits hadn’t predicted — from Brexit to Donald Trump’s election as US president — leading to fears of rising nationalism and racism and deepening rancorous splits in our already polarized societies. And that’s not to mention the loss of beloved celebrities such as David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Harper Lee, Florence Henderson, and Leonard Cohen, to name but a few.

I don’t know what 2017 will be like, but I think we should prepare for further potentially traumatizing events.

A major tool for keeping your head when all around are losing theirs is meditation. My own meditation practice hasn’t exactly kept my life stress-free, but it’s definitely helped. Just last night I arrived at a meditation class I was teaching feeling rather anxious about some financial matters, and left, after leading a number of meditations totaling about 70 minutes, feeling calm and clear.

Here are some of the benefits of meditating regularly:

• Improves attention span
• Decreases stress from multitasking
• Improves memory and learning
• Enhances will-power
• Prevents relapse into depression
• Reduces anxiety
• Improves immune function
• Reduces inflammation
• Promotes weight loss
• Decreases feelings of loneliness and isolation

If you haven’t yet taken up meditation, there’s no time like the present, and Wildmind’s 31-day online course, Sit Breathe Love, is starting today. It not only teaches two meditation practices that will help you calm your mind and improve your emotional states, but is designed to help you establish a rock-solid daily meditation practice, since we know how hard it can be to establish a new habit.

Sit Breath Love will take you right up to the end of this appalling year, and leave you perfectly placed to deal with whatever 2017 is going to throw your way!

If you’re interested, you can learn more and enroll on our Eventbrite page.