I spend a good part of most days running around in what I can only describe as a very English sort of way (I closely identify with John Cleese’s character Basil in Fawlty Towers when I’m having one of these episodes).

Each race has its own foibles but the English, generally and me among them, sometimes seem to lack that ability to walk slowly and breathe deeply once the sun has risen.

A course in mediation seemed like a good option for me, especially since I’m living here in the east, its birthplace.

Yvette Tee to the rescue (above). Yvette taught me yoga for a while but her classes were a bit too hardcore for me and I flaked out after about five of them.  But we have a ton of mutual friends in common so we’ve stayed in touch…and she’s now running practical, achievable, short workshops in mediation.

The course, called Meditation Made Simple, was for two days a week, spread over just two weeks. Each session was two hours long. Not bad.

Unfortunately I signed up when I really did have very little spare time and would begin my day with a stressed ‘Oh sh*t, I’ve got bloody meditation class today.’ Not very zen.  But each session is interesting and once you get yourself to her house where the classes are held, you just get on with it; everything else can wait (actually that, in and of itself, is part of meditation: living in the moment).

And it was really was simple. You can’t not get it. In my class we were a group of people from all walks for life and not one of us, ever, said, “I can’t do this, I don’t understand.”

We could all do all the meditation exercises. Sure there are 1000s of ways to meditate and we learnt just eight, but it’s a great basis to build on.

And I am more zen?

No.

But that’s because I rarely find the time to practice…but I like that I now know how to meditate, so when I do finally stumble upon a quiet moment, I know how to use it (in fact I should be meditating now rather than writing this).

Oh and one bit of advice: don’t tell anyone your doing meditation classes. When I got furious about something unrelated after my first session, H (thoroughly irritatingly) would smile and said innocently, “How was meditation today?”

Yvette Tee is a certified yoga and meditation teacher. She runs afternoon and evening meditation classes. Group classes available on request. She can be contacted on: yogawithyvette@gmail.com

Image courtesy of Yoga With Yvette