Book Summary: Get Some Headspace
Andy Puddicombe’s Get Some Headspace is the essential beginners guide to meditation and how we can benefit from it. The author puts the teachings he learnt while becoming a Buddhist monk to work in this book and makes the case that everyone has at least 10 mins a day to spare for meditation.
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Quotes
When it comes to meditation though, the goal and the journey are the same thing.
The kind of happiness that I’m talking about is the ability to feel comfortable no matter what emotion arises.
Get Some Headspace Book Summary Notes:
- Meditation is about being aware and mindful of what you are currently doing. It can also be combined with your life much more easily than most think.
- The concept of a clear headed state, one free from excessive worries and distractions is what the author means when he says ‘headspace’. The easiest way to achieve something like this is through the practice of meditation. Meditation can help you to push your brain back to a more natural, relaxed state and achieve some headspace.
- Meditation, in this sense, should be thought of as the ability to sit back and relax while watching your thoughts go by. Not reacting to each of them, but simply observing that they are there and exist, then letting them pass you by.
- Some of the simplest ways to begin the practice of meditation is by sitting quietly and simply observe your thoughts and let them pass by. Don’t let becoming distracted, discourage you. It’s all about practice and simply bringing your mind back to the present. The more you do it the better you will become.
- Your approach to meditation is a large part of how you will become successful. Don’t judge the emotions you feel as they pass, you don’t need to control your thoughts just let them pass by whole you focus on the present.
- 10 minutes a day is all it takes to begin to see benefits from meditation. Meditation doesn’t need to involve sitting quietly either, just being mindful and present while you go for a walk can be enough to help you, so long as you apply the same principles.
- Regular meditation practice can help with things like stress, anxiety, trouble sleeping and even eating disorders.
