by Michael Leong

I’ve been meditating again recently; 10 minutes a day is a relatively low cost for a sense of having dedicated time and space to take care of myself. One exercise I’ve always struggled with is visualisation – imagining a ball of light at the top of your head, sending warm, spacious sunlight through your bones, down to your feet and rising gently up your body. Sometimes I manage to bring up that feeling of lightness, to channel the warmth through my body, and other times I lose focus and almost fall asleep. But one thing that’s helped me is to bring back memories of me just sitting and leaning back in my favourite café, trees swaying in the sun outside, my breathing deep yet light, giving myself the space to completely relax – no expectations, nothing to do but let the warmth and joy of being flow through me. Bringing this image back, along with those feelings of ease and relaxation, has helped me focus my meditation – the visualisation is easier and my body is flooded with spaciousness. So if you’re stressed out or bothered by something, it might help to find one of those memories – those memories of joy, ease, comfort – and direct your focus towards the warmth and your easy state of mind; it can be surprising how much of our reality we construct.