Meditation for Writers (And Everyone Else)

Do you meditate? I started meditating daily about six months ago. It’s something I should have done years before. I don’t handle stress well. Through meditation, I feel calmer most days.

Besides helping me cope with the stresses in my life, I hope meditation will bring back my writing mojo. I lost it in December 2017, and while some of my enthusiasm has come back, I’m wrestling with giving up writing altogether.

My path to meditation started because of my quest to find the “meaning of life.” After four family deaths in the past few years, including two very sudden ones, I suffered a crisis of faith. I started reading books by religious philosophers. One book was Deepak Chopra’s Life After Death. Chopra, who integrates beliefs from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity, focuses much of the book on reincarnation, something I’ve always kept an open mind about. Things have happened in my life that make me believe reincarnation is real. I’m not sure I want to come back considering the state of the world now. I enjoyed Chopra’s book, and like the others, it provoked more questions than answers.

After finishing his book, I decided to see if he has a Facebook page. He does, and I liked it. On his page is a sign up for a two-week free course on meditation given by him and Oprah. I signed up. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning how to meditate. Here’s his Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/DeepakChopra/

When the course finished, I got emails from Chopra and Oprah trying to sell me other programs. I ignored them, and they stopped. The course is worth having to put up with some sales pitches.

I found an app called Meditation Sound. I have it on my iPhone and iPad. What I like about the app is there are about ten music choices, with a timer. I meditate for ten minutes daily, mostly in the morning, but sometimes in the afternoon. I sit comfortably in my quiet office with the door closed. Sometimes a very vocal large cat named Brewster voices his displeasure at being locked out. He cries and throws himself against my office door, interrupting my quiet. But I love him so I try to ignore him.

For meditation I sit in my chair with my palms, upright and open, resting on my thighs. As I repeat my mantra, I breathe in and imagine I’m taking in calmness. When I breathe out, I imagine my stress and worry are escaping through my open fingers.

I alternate my mantras among “Om,” which is the sacred sound of Hinduism and means “It is,” “Will be,” or “To Become.” Another favorite is “Om Shanti Om,” which is Hindu for “I radiate peace.” And “Siddho Hum,” which means “I am perfect.” Sometimes, I say, “I am one with the universe.”

There are days when my stress level is high and meditation doesn’t help much. Other days, I get so into it that I drift off into some sort of semi-conscious state while meditating. I love when that happens.

I’m hoping to find my faith and my writing mojo. Meditation will help me accept whatever happens.

Here are some of the benefits of meditation as found in Huffpost:

1.     Reduces stress

2.     Improves concentration

3.     Increases self-awareness

4.     Increases happiness

5.     Increases acceptance

6.     Slows aging

7.     Benefits cardiovascular and immune health

8.     Encourages a healthy lifestyle

Namaste!

For relaxation, may I recommend two fun reads?

A Groom for Christmas

Fun holiday read.

A GROOM FOR CHRISTMAS is a new twist on the classic Hallmark Christmas movie full of family, humor, love, and a little bit of redemption.

Family pressure just might make her do something crazy...

When a young woman hires her hometown’s former bad boy to be her pretend fiancé for the holidays, she finds she can’t wrap up her feelings as easily as a Christmas gift.

New York jewelry designer Graceann Palmer has two days to find a fiancé to bring home to Pennsylvania for the holidays so her matchmaking mama will quit fixing her up with jerks. The Falcon, a motorcycle-riding, leather-clad former high school crush, helped her out once before. Maybe he'll do it again.

Jake Falco, man of many mysteries, is back in town on a mission—one the people of Spirit Lake most likely won't appreciate. When Graceann presents him with her crazy scheme, it gives him something he's always wanted—a chance to get to know Graceann. It also gives him the perfect opportunity to add fuel to his project of revenge. 

But as Jake and Graceann grow closer, their engagement-of-convenience begins to feel like the real deal—until Jake’s secrets are revealed. 

Can a relationship that began with lies and secrets bloom like a rare Christmas rose into happily-ever-after?

2013 Snow Globes Award Contest Finalist
Winner! 2014 New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Award
2014 Readers' Choice Nominee, Best Couple, Love Romances Cafe
2014 RomCon Awards Finalist

Universal Link:

https://books2read.com/u/4AwNnq

Wedded in Vegas (Gambling on Love Book 1)

A reluctant bride

A hot Hollywood actor
What happens in Vegas...

Bartending in Las Vegas is the means to an end for Analisa Barbero. As soon as she finishes school she can get her dream job as a teacher. With her hard-working single mom temporarily disabled, money is tight and the hours are long. Who has time for dating? But when a sexy nerd asks her out, Analisa does what everyone else in Las Vegas does: she takes a chance and says yes.

Some people come to Sin City to gamble. Some come to start over. And some come to hide out. Cole Lassiter is Hollywood’s hottest property. Fed up with phoniness and paparazzi parasites, he just wants to be an ordinary nobody for a while. But when his deception causes a pretty bartender to lose her job, he makes her the kind of offer that can only happen in the city of make-believe: Marry him for one year in exchange for a house, money, and all-expenses-paid tuition for school. If she agrees, maybe the tabloids will finally give him a break.

Neither Analisa nor Cole thought love was in the cards for them. But what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas. Is Analisa willing to gamble her future on a man who already deceived her once? Everyone in Las Vegas knows one thing: You have to roll the dice if you want to hit the jackpot. And love is worth the risk.

Universal Link:

https://books2read.com/u/bpWd5J

Two Queens & a Bandwagon ~ By Rose Anderson

I read a study once regarding Oprah's lasting effect on books. Before Oprah shared her love of reading with the world, book sales were pretty much standing still. Why read when TV gives you visuals?

Here's an interesting parallel. Years before Oprah started her famous Book Club, another study done in the Netherlands revealed from 1955 to 1975 (which just so happens to be the years television sunk its roots into their households), reading dropped to just three hours a week while TV viewing rose to ten hours.  By 1995, Dutch reading had gone from occupying nearly 30% of their time to just 9%.

On a personal level, my husband and I strictly limited television for our kids. Yes, they balked at the time. Our kids are grown now and both are readers - my son an avid informational reader (like his mom) and my daughter a voracious reader of everything (she is the most well-read person I know). Would you believe they say things like "TV won't be in my house when I have kids" or "TV is pointless, no one needs it in their house."? Children don't come with instructions, a parent just never knows if their muddled choices will come back to haunt them. In this case we did OK. Whew.

There's no doubt Oprah played a role in our renaissance of the written word. She did so by using her Book Club as a challenge. We Americans love a good bandwagon and will lean toward anything with mass appeal. Throw a challenge in there and you're in. Do it enough and you've created a habit. 

According to a report on CNN, during the 14 years of Oprah's Book Club, fans bought millions of copies of Oprah's selected reading suggestions. A book picked by Oprah guaranteed additional printings and whopping paychecks for publishers and authors. Nice.

Just the other day, I read about Indy romance authors raking in 6-figures for ebook versions of their works. Though new studies show paper book sales are down, they counter that by saying ebook sales are booming.  

With all those ebooks flying off virtual shelves, no one mentions the glut of freebies on the market, nor the 45,000 free ebooks to be had through Project Gutenberg. People are reading those too, but they're not counted as sales. If you're unfamiliar with this resource, give it a look.  www.gutenberg.org. I think it's great to put literature into people's hands and Project Gutenberg keeps the old classics alive. The motto of this ambitious project: to break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy. 

If you aren't familiar with Johannes Gutenberg, he's the guy who invented the moveable type printing press some time in the mid-1400's. His goal was to inexpensively put bibles in the hands of common people. Up until this inspired invention, books were painstakingly written out by hand and as such were too costly for most people to own. It was a short hop to go from bibles to everyday reading materials. 

The fact the wealthiest people owned them, made books very appealing to those less fortunate in the same way people buy cheaper reproductions of things owned by wealthy people today. Can you imagine what cheaply had books did for the psyche of the common man? Books told you anything was possible. Including a better life. I think this is one reason why romance is so popular. In a world of war, bad news, and struggle and strife, what could possibly be more appealing than happy ever after?

An interesting sidebar ~
Before the inexpensive books arrived, sharing them was common. A reader wouldn't dream of damaging a rare book by bending a dog ear to mark the page. It didn't take long before someone came up with the idea of a small piece of parchment as a placeholder. Voila -- the bookmark was born. They became quite fancy as the fashion caught on. Ribbons, cords, feathers on cords, tabs on cords, you name it. If it was flat and could mark a page, it was used. One of my favorite things to find in old books is a pressed rose.

Queen Elizabeth I was an avid reader. She had bookmarks made for herself and those close to her. Of course this made them even more popular. I'm thinking Queen Elizabeth was that era's Oprah. Queen of England - Queen of Talk, people emulate those they admire.

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About Rose
Rose is multi-published award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and discovering interesting things to weave into stories. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper Midwest. 

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Sample them for free!

Love Waits in Unexpected Places
Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971