Wealden Times | WT163 | September 2015 | Education supplement inside

Pure
Calm
Josephine Fairley smoothes forehead
furrows... the natural way...
Illustrations: Susanne Hayes
Botox, Faux-Tox, Whatevertox… You won’t catch
me signing up for any of them. But it’s true: a
furrowed brow is one of the most ageing features
on a face. So have you considered a low-tech way to
banishing forehead furrows – through meditation…?
Now, I know myself that the very act of meditation can
be stressful. Seek to empty the mind, and instantly it fills
with To Do Lists, becomes preoccupied with a dive-bombing
bluebottle in the next room – or one’s limbs simply develop
a bad case of Lotus position-ache. As a result, potential
meditators often abandon a tension-banishing technique
which, when practised regularly, can keep at bay a wide
range of complaints including headaches, migraine, asthma,
eczema, PMS, hypertension and even heart attacks. (One
London study of meditation and relaxation training for men
and women at risk of coronaries found that, four years on,
not only did members of the meditating group have
lower blood pressure readings, but showed fewer
symptoms of heart disease, less angina and a lower
number of deaths from heart attack. Can’t argue
with that.) More meditative bonuses: zapped
stress and the ability to cope better with
forthcoming activities or problems. And
yes, that brow will be less furrowed.
Now, I’ve always meditated. Off
and on. Well, more off than on,
in truth – but it’s something I’ve
always turned to, to restore calm in
troubled times. I’ve done walking
meditation, washing-up meditation
(yes, really!), and even for a while
turned a little corner of a spare room
into an altar – which just gathered
dust after the first few days.
But a few months ago, I decided to
check out an App that several people
had recommended to me lately, and
give it a go: Headspace. I’d actually
downloaded it months ago but hadn’t got
round to using the App (which is actually a
shameful admission). I started with the Take
10 programme: 10 days of guided meditations,
interspersed with little films at the start about how
meditation works on the mind, and tips and tricks.
And it flipping well worked. Like a treat. All it took was
10 minutes in the morning, listening to the middle-England
tones of Andy Puddicombe, the founder of Headspace
(unlikely-but-true: he briefly trained at Moscow State
Circus and has a degree in Circus Arts), and I had already
become a much, much calmer person. By the second set
of 10 sessions (nudged up to 15 minutes, from the initial
10 days of 10 minutes), any stresses began to seem like
small bumps on life’s road. The key seems to be that the
meditation focuses on breathing: counting the breaths, up
to 10, and starting over. (No risk of losing count, then.)
I’m now over five months in and I think I can put my
hand on my heart and say I’m going to be carving out
10-20 minutes for Headspace for – oh, the rest of my life…
I’ve done the ‘Balance’ series, and completed a fantastic
30-day programme on ‘Sleep’ which worked from Day
One, almost spookily – because it really made me think
about my attitude to sleep, and make some real changes
to my days and evenings. Just by doing a single day of
the meditation, I felt I’d committed to improving my
sleep – and had a ‘eureka’ moment in which I realised that
what was keeping me awake was sitting at my computer
too late into the evening, which can work on circadian
rhythms and make it hard to fall asleep. (It also works
counter to my own natural body clock: I’m way better
getting up early and being at my desk with the lark, rather
than struggling to complete tasks far too late at night.)
Actually, I find it addictive – and on the rare day when
I can’t start the day with the meditation, I get that old
feeling of wading through treacle. But I will admit to
a slight bending of the rules: I do it in bed. Headspace
121 www.wealdentimes.co.uk