Taking time from the rat race of everyday life and sitting in a quiet room with your thoughts might intimidate some, but for Heather McLeod it's just a part of the job.
McLeod is the owner of Bound Lotus Meditation and Yoga Centre in North Vancouver and says there are a lot of misconceptions about meditation, but the only way to get past those misconceptions is to try it.
"You don't have to be on a spiritual path to be able to benefit from meditating because basically you can work with the physiology in your body. You can look at this as a complete spiritual practice or just a complete health practice, it doesn't really matter," she explains. "It's all about changing your brain and releasing old energy patterns in your body to bring about a calmer state."
For those just starting out, McLeod suggests trying various types of meditations, (anything from mantra meditation, which involves chanting, to walking meditation, which involves a particular type of breathing while you walk) to figure out which one they prefer.
"I'm very partial to kundalini meditation," says McLeod.
"Especially for the person who's never meditated, you're given something to do, it's not just a guided meditation. You're given something to focus on."
Kundalini meditation is taken from kundalini yoga tradition and involves chanting, as well as holding the eyes and hands in a certain position, while sitting cross-legged, or in an easy pose. Once a desired mediation is found, having the right surroundings is important.
"You want a clean and clear space," says McLeod. "If you can find any space you can carve out where there's going to be no noise, this is optimum."
Body posture, stimulating the spine, and grounding yourself are also important. "When you're meditating, you want to keep your spine straight," says McLeod. "You want the energy to be able to move freely from the base of the spine to the top of the skull."
Using a cushion or foam block, if available, can be helpful in maintaining the proper posture.
Meditation is all about focusing the mind, and reprogramming and remapping the brain, says McLeod. "You start to develop a mental strength."
She says meditation has become more common and grown in popularity.
"People are far more aware of it, as opposed to it being something kind of obscure," she says. "I think that's only going to grow."
