Meditation for Mothers

By Dana Sullivan for Your Baby Today

Whether you're a mother of one or of five, surely you'd be more relaxed if you had just a few minutes to call your own every day. One easy option: Meditation.

By definition, meditation is an activity (or non-activity!) during which you consciously relax your body and calm your mind. The goal is to quiet your mind's tendency to sift through the demands of daily life --over and over again-- and to promote a more peaceful and serene approach to life. Most meditative techniques have origins in the religious practices of people in countries such as India, China and Japan, but even Christian prayer, such as saying the rosary or repeating the Hail Mary, is a form of mediation. You can meditate in the shower, or in bed before you get up in the morning. Believe it or not, relaxing your body and quieting your mind-- even with children underfoot-- isn't impossible. Here, some guidelines on how you incorporate meditation into your daily routine:

Sit in a quiet place, and focus on a single thought, such as love or peace, or a physical sensation, such as your breathing. You may also find that repeating a word (called a mantra) such as "one" helps quiet the mind. Give yourself 15 minutes to just sit quietly, repeating the word over and over again, or focusing on your breathing, until you've driven all distracting thoughts from your mind and are "thinking" about nothing at all. If meditation doesn't feel right for you, here are a few books that will give you something to contemplate:

• Meditations for New Mothers by Beth Wilson Saavedra (Workman, 1992)
  
• Motherprayer by Tikva Frymer-Kensky (Riverhead Books, 1995).

Dana Sullivan is a frequent contributor to Your Baby Today.