Relax the mind
In the summer of 2004, I found myself slipping into an anxious and depressed state, and feeling overall not happy. Besides the stress from work, I was dealing with being an almost "single Mom" looking after an active 8-year old boy, while my husband out of town. It was the hardest time in my life. I found myself emotionally easy to anger and crying all the time. I started to suffer from shortness of breath, sleep difficulties and chest pain. This really scared me. I tried to find various things to get rid of this seemingly overwhelming feeling. So I registered and joined a gym club, where I took Yoga classes, aerobics and biking. I also took family short trips out of town on the weekends and read various books, etc. However, those activities only relieved the pressure for short periods of time, once the curiosity of the new activity disappeared, the mental and physical suffering came back.
The first time I heard that meditation would help relax the mind, was in a book called, Developing Intuition by Shakti Gawain in 2005. It is a book that teaches readers how to be aware of their inner knowledge and how to use it to enhance their lives. This book also taught me the lying down method of meditation. Having taken various meditation classes since then, I found the TWDD style help settle my mind and became more peaceful and calm since starting the practice in October 2007. Within these two months, I haven't experienced being pain free yet as I have seen with others practicing this style, but I have noticed considerably for myself to be less anxious, able to sleep more easily and have found a "cooler" way to deal with my hectic and busy life. The next step for me is to bring this meditation into my day-to-day life.
