More great reasons to meditate plus a free meditation MP3 to get you started

In my Top 5 productivity tips of 2006, I wrote that mindfulness meditation can be an effective way to derail self-defeating thoughts and chip away at perfectionism.  This post over at Pick the Brain helps extend the case for meditation by pointing out the following benefits:

1. Improved concentration
2. Less worrying over trivial things
3. Better health
4. Increased knowledge of self

The article also makes the helpful point that meditation doesn’t have to be a spiritual practice and that anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs, can do it.

Give it a shot

The article has some good tips on how to meditate, but I think it’s a bit challenging to start from scratch on your own. The one thing that really helped me get in the groove was a CD of guided meditations prepared by the the instructor of a stress management program I attended at Princeton last year. Each track contained enough instruction for the beginner to jump right in and seemed to last just the right amount of time — not so long that I got bored, but long enough that I felt like I had truly experienced the practice.

I contacted our instructor, Robin Boudette, and she said it was no problem to post her recordings on Jim Gibbon.com. I decided to post the track that I’ve used the most, mindfulness meditation, because I think it’s a great introduction not only to meditation, but to a principle that carries over well into daily life. (UPDATE: My slow connection is preventing me from uploading the track, so I’m linking to an almost identical track on Robin’s site.)

Download the MP3: Mindfulness Meditation (10 min.)

Robin also let me know that she has more meditation MP3s on her website, and I encourage you to check them out.