Maureen Garth - Inner Garden: Meditations for Children

Meditation can give us the strength, purpose and direction which we need in our lives. It is a wonderful calming tool which can help us face the day, relieve stress, and feel good about ourselves.

Meditation is a very soothing, relaxing way of coping with the stress and anxiety of daily life. It gives us the opportunity to let go of everything around us. By using this form of relaxation, we can bring stillness and quietude into busy lives. When we sit quietly, we enter an altered state of consciousness where we benefit from going into the silence. Meditation slows the heartbeat and lowers the blood pressure.

Meditation can enhance your daily life and living. It can make you more conscious of your surroundings, more aware of people and their needs, more tolerant of the failings of others, and more forgiving of your own failings. Different avenues open up for you to work on yourself while in the meditative state.

Perhaps your life is always in a state of flux and stress. Meditation can help to change that. When you go deeply into your altered state, ideas and thoughts will surface that may show you how to deal with problems in a different fashion.

If you meditate early in the morning, you will face the day feeling more centered, peaceful and assured. Your aura of tranquility will have a calming effect upon others whom you meet throughout the day. Meditating at night will help you to relax and unwind and rid yourself of the tensions of the day.

You do not have to spend a lot of time meditating. If you allocate ten to fifteen minutes both morning and evening, you will find the benefits far outweigh the time spent. This is a time for reflection and contemplation, a time to go within. It is not beyond the reach of anyone who can take the time and create the opportunity.

Meditation has always been available to everyone, but perhaps many of us thought it was only for those who were different or a little strange. It seemed to belong to those who desired to sit on a mountain top in contemplation of the higher meaning of life and not to the ordinary individual. But it is for all of us, whether we want to sit on a mountain top or in a comfortable chair at home.

Through meditation you can contact your higher self, find your direction in life, bring peace and serenity into your life, into your soul, into your person.

My own belief is that the higher self is an essence or an energy force which has accumulated the experiences of the many lifetimes spent on this earth. The person on this earth at the present time is but an aspect of this higher level of consciousness. Because the higher self has the knowledge of the problems encountered in the past, it has the ability to help one deal with the problems of the present time. Other belief systems have different explanations for this energy force but most agree on the value of meditation. When you meditate, you are able to enter and move through different levels and make contact with this force or energy.

I believe in receiving guidance from my higher self and also from people who exist on a different plane. I refer to them as guides. Sometimes when you meditate you see people in your garden who speak with you and give you spiritual guidance. They may also speak about what is happening in your physical life. The spiritual and physical are linked, and one cannot exist without the other.

Meditation enables us to get in touch with the spiritual depths of our being, in a place where there is peace and serenity. If our inner being is serene, imagine how we can project this serenity into our lives and onto other people.

Meditation can give us stability. We are made up of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual components and we should take the time to nourish our body, mind, emotions and the spiritual essence within, our higher self. My belief is that our higher self has unlimited wisdom and love and is there to help us if we allow it to and if we trust in it. During meditation it is possible to communicate with this aspect of oneself, to listen, and receive guidance and advice.

Meditation is not new. People have practised meditation throughout the ages in many different cultures. It is used in churches, Buddhist temples, ashrams, mosques and synagogues, in homes or communing with nature in the open air. Although each of the major belief systems meditates in a different way, all come back to going within, to listening to the inner self, to becoming in tune with the self and nature. Some people like to meditate to a mantra, to a sound, to quiet music, to prayer. And others require nothing but silence.

Our body is both male and female. The left side of the body is female and the right side male. In the brain it is reversedright side female, left side male. The male, or left, side of the brain is the logical side, the one that dictates order and symmetry in life. That left side of the brain can sometimes be too logical and not allow the intuitive and creative right side much latitude. Meditation brings into use the right, or female, side of the brain and allows it to be creative, to be intuitive, and to create the pictures or images of whom you want to be and how you want life to develop.

Creative people are very right-brained, and their creativity flows because they are so in tune with their feminine side. The logical left side can be very pushy and demand we not be airy fairy and that we think constructively. What is needed, of course, is for both sides to work well together, each allowing the other its own space. We spend most of our waking hours being logical and in control. When we meditate we allow ourselves to experience a beautiful creative energy that we may not have felt before.

I learned how to meditate in my late thirties and I have reaped the benefits of going within, or going into the silence, ever since. So, although it is preferable to learn early, it is never too late for those of us who were not taught the art of listening quietly to the inner self.

I have been using meditation as a tool for some years. It has influenced not only my own life, but the upbringing of my daughter Eleanor. A few years after her advent into this world in 1981 I was worried by a series of nightmares which she suffered. So I formulated, over a period of time, a series of meditations that gave both of us pleasure (which shows we are never too old nor too young to acknowledge that small child within).

Initially I gave her a Guardian Angel with large golden wings so that she would feel protected and secure. I added a garden where we could do many thingsride with the animals, go inside trees, fly with the fairies, board a cloud and drift above the world. I realized that little ones often have worries of which we are unaware, so I added the Worry Tree. I filled her heart with love for all people and all creatures great and small. I gave her the light from a star and helped her to feel her small body pulsating with this beautiful light. Thus began the Star Prelude.

Later, the head mistress of Eleanors infant school asked if I would teach meditation to the second class children. I must admit to a certain amount of trepidation. I was uncertain how a large group of children would react, but I was agreeably surprised.

The feedback from the children was very positive and I felt rewarded by the way they adapted to the meditations. Anything we can do to help children is worth considering and meditation can be very fruitful. Nothing can substitute for the love which we give our children, but we need to reinforce their sense of security within themselves so they are not entirely dependent upon our love and presence.