So I know that a yoga studio owner is bound to extol the virtues of meditation but I was once what you might term a ‘crisis meditator’.

Rather like when we work all year, get exhausted, take a long overdue rest and then come down with a cold or flu bug.

What do we do? We buy some medicine to get rid of the symptoms and then go back to working just as hard. So I would let the stress and overwhelm of running a business, a home, a social life and keeping up appearances until I crashed and then I would say, “I need to meditate!” Then I would feel calmer and go back to the grindstone. Duh!?!?

Jumping back to November 2014 I had arrived at this very moment again and I had a bunch of things all happening at once. Having grown up in a great British, ‘keep calm and carry on’ way of living I had decided in my not so wisdom that I wanted to manifest the money to attend an intensive yoga teacher training with Tara Stiles in London. I said affirmations, I did a vision board but the money never materialized, (any surprise to those who get this law of attraction stuff?).

Instead, all I manifested was a nasty virus that wouldn’t go away and a trapped nerve in my neck which happened after meditating at a Buddhist monk blessing! As a consolation prize, I bought myself a ticket to her book launch and took a night off from teaching advanced pilates to attend.

I listened to Tara talk about sensitizing to yourself, re-connecting and moving from a place of ease and self-care. I started to read her book on the train on my way home and decided there and then that the only way to feel like a person who meditates is to meditate and I have done every day since then!

Roll on to this week and I have just finished teaching my biggest most successful #selfloveplanunderway workshop. The teacher teaches what she most needs to learn! Without a doubt, meditation is the absolute, cannot get away without it, key to becoming sensitized to your needs.

Start, start now, somehow, someway. 60 seconds a day and go from there.

One of my recommendations is to turn off the negative news to help detox your mind so when researching this article I cringed as I looked for reasons not to meditate but was pleasantly surprised there is not much evidence against out there. The main reason I could find was for anyone who wanted to stay as they are it’s probably best not to try it!

Finally my biggest tip is to treat yourself before you need it! I drink hot water with lemon, honey and ginger everyday so I won’t get a cold. I meditate so I won’t need a crisis cure. I notice myself before my body and mind start to scream at me for attention.

Make a start and be patient with yourself, I promise that the day you experience the feel good chemicals our amazing brains and bodies can produce by themselves is the day that meditation becomes  a non-negotiable part of your day.