As this month is our time to do some clearing out, what better place to start than with that space under your hat?

In order to create some lasting changes in our lives then we could probably do with some mental clarity, and one of the best ways we know of, is to take some time each day to really clear your mind. Yes, we’re talking about meditation.

With the amount of information out there about its benefits, you already know you should be making time to have a daily practice of meditation, but let’s face it: who likes doing things you should do?

The keys to moving from “should” to “would like to” are:

1. To have a reason that is bigger than all of the other things that are vying for your attention, and

2. To make the first step REALLY simple.

So many times we fell the first hurdle on mediation because we don’t know either why, or what do to. This week in the podcast we will share our favourite (and easy) ways to meditate but for now we would love you to think about the big why.

In 2011 Sara Lazar and her team at Harvard found that mindfulness meditation can actually change the structure of the brain. In just eight weeks of meditation they found:

• An increase cortical thickness in the hippocampus which affects learning and memory.

• A decrease in brain cell volume to the amygdala which is responsible for fear, anxiety and stress.

Possibly two of the most important things that hold us back from having the life of our dreams…In just eight weeks.

So if you were to start meditating today, by Christmas you’d be well on the way to being smarter, and less stressed. That sounds like a pretty big pay off to us, for something that’s simple, free and actually really enjoyable to do.

This week, we would love you to look at your diary, and schedule in five minutes of meditation every day. You can choose when, and listen to the podcast for some suggestions of how. It’s that simple.

Let’s clean up some of our monkey mind. Are you in?