When I was a kid and my mum tried to serve me food that I didn’t like, I would, of course, say “I don’t like it”.
Her standard reply was “Have you ever tried it?”
Anyone else get this as a kid?
She knew perfectly well that I had “tried it”.
And, irritating as it was, it must’ve helped as there’s nothing I don’t eat now.
And a similar approach with my kids has turned them into great eaters.
Because, as with many things in life, we are prone to only trying things a fairly limited number of times before ‘writing them off’.
Meditation being the prime example.
There are absolutely tonnes of studies that show the benefits of meditation on the mind and body.
I don’t think anyone would deny them.
But when I speak to people who express, shall we say, that their “headspace” or mood isn’t where they’d like it to be…………..
And I talk to them about meditation………….
They usually reply with “That’s not for me”.
Or “I’ve tried it”.
When we delve a little deeper into how much they’ve tried it, it’s usually once, if at all.
Always a low single digit number of times.
For a few minutes at most.
So a total of somewhere between 0 and 20 minutes total.
Our of the last however many million minutes (there’s half a million minutes per year).
Arguable the equivalent of trying a few grams of broccoli many years ago.
Sure, maybe we didn’t like it.
But we’re never going to get to the point we do (or are, at least, ok with it) if that’s all we do.
And we’ll never get to the point where meditation works for, and benefits us, if we’ve done it for 0.00003% of our lives, are we?
Like many things, meditation is a skill.
We start rubbish at it.
Practice ourselves through mediocre, to “ok” and, maybe, on to “all right”.
But only if we practice.
Getting put off because we aren’t in a state of buddha style, zen like calmness the second we start, isn’t going to get us anywhere.
Getting annoyed because our head isn’t instantly empty and serene (when it isn’t for anyone who mediates), won’t help us achieve those benefits.
Get an app like Calm that guides through meditations.
Do it daily for five minutes for a month.
If, at the end of that month, you don’t think that use of 0.3% of your time was worthwhile, then let me know.
I’m not going to offer to eat my hat as I don’t have one.
But I will be very surprised!
Much love,
Jon ‘I reply to my kids with “I didn’t ask if you liked it”‘ Hall
P.S. I’d also be very surprised that, if you gave our ‘Great in 8’ Programme a good go, then found anything but you absolutely loved it. But that’s what the money back guarantee is there for. So you can be confident in finding out. Check www.myrise.co.uk/apply for more info and, tomorrow, I’ll cover all the people that have ever asked for their money back.
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
