I was teaching a group of busy executives the morning before their conference last week and the first group came into the room set aside for meditation tentative, but excited to try something new.  All participants were brand new to meditation and one asked “so are we going to sit crossed legged this whole time and hum OM?”  This is a very common question and often many folks think this is the only way to mediate.  While this is certainly one way to meditate there is literally an infinite amount of ways to enjoy this ancient practice.

You don’t need to be a monk in order to reap the numerous medical, physical and emotional benefits of meditation.  In fact you can close your office door at work for 10 minutes a day and start down the magnificent journey of increased awareness, focus, happiness and relaxation right now.

My favorite definition of meditation is from Levey, J. & Levey, M.’s book Mindfulness, Mediation and Mind Fitness.  They define mediation as “Classically referring to a broad spectrum of methods, disciplines, and practices for training our minds and reducing our neurotic tendencies and misconceptions while cultivating or strengthening our capacity for living with great wisdom, compassion, patience, balance, mastery of attention and other virtuous qualities of mind.”

Let’s now debunk some common myths around meditation!