It’s never too late to do nothing – Zen saying

It’s not easy to sit still in a society that wears working 24/7 as a proud badge of honour, and blogs, twitters or downloads data every few seconds, but sometimes “doing nothing” brings us everything.

My favourite way to “do nothing,” i.e., to stop, breathe deeply and shut down the mental chatter is through meditation. Meditation, a few moments (or hours) of silence and stillness, allows us to clear our heads, listen to our hearts and calm our minds in order to go deeper.

When the mind is quiet we create a space where we no longer “hear ourselves think” and can open to receive higher guidance and wisdom.

When we are silent, we are listening with intent.

Deepak Chopra describes meditation as one of the best ways to get beyond our noisy internal dialogue to a state of pure awareness sometimes called “the gap,” a place of silence and stillness between our thoughts where pure consciousness exists. He says this is the ideal state in which to the plant seeds of intention for whatever you want to create or manifest in your life.

This week at my meditation class, in a state of deep of relaxation and inner calm, I “planted” my intentions for what I’d like to manifest in my life this year. I believe much of the abundance I have created in my life has been enhanced, guided and aided through regular, focused mediation. Although I’ve meditated on my own for the past 15 years, I began attending weekly meditation classes (and several weekend workshops) at Aromansse in Winnipeg about seven years ago.

Aromansse (which also offers aromatherapy, reiki, yoga, spiritual readings and more) offers meditation through Hemi-Synch, a program of specific sounds and tones, developed by Robert Monroe, that produces a focused coherent mind in various (deep) states of consciousness. Find out more about the audio technology of Hemi-Synch in this video.

Meditation and periods of silence, even brief ones, allow us to shut down the mind chatter and connect with higher energies or spiritual guides. But we need to create a space into which answers, clarity, creativity and even genius can flow. As Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said: “Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything has a purpose.

If you want to bring in higher guidance and create your life with intention, start by sitting quietly. When the mind stops, feelings, dreams, visions – and answers – rush in.

Don’t just do something – sit there.