Can a monk change my perspective on tofu? Can a monk help improve your health and build resilience?

Have you ever tried tofu? Have you ever tried Headspace?

Sceptical? Quite right I’d normally agree.

Headspace or similar are basically simple meditation Apps available for free (lite/limited) use, but free enough to give you an understanding of how it works. Before you buy. Yep meditation!

They can give you guided meditation sessions and mindfulness training. Ten minutes a day or so, is all it takes initially.

I gave it a try last week. Well inexplicably – Netflix was buffering, so I thought why not.

I had been offered mindfulness training or a seminar or such like, in my office late in 2016 but thought it wasn’t for me or I didn’t have the time. But seemingly that is a fairly normal excuse. With hindsight it’s one of those support mechanisms which you have to consider. We try other stuff we believe to be beneficial such as running, walking and dieting. So why not meditation. It can benefit your wellbeing in the long run or can it?

We’re all in a rush these days, rushing here, rushing there and rushing back from there to here. Clearly logic tells us that this momentum can’t be healthily sustained unless you’re resilient.

I decided to try it on the back of a recent test I underwent in regard the human personality. Let me me just say that the process was a shock to the system. Not the findings or conclusions but more the square relief afterwards. It was like finding a square sachet of brown sauce in one pocket, and a roll n square sausage in the other. Yep I know, who has those staple items in their pocket?

Reflecting on my personality and how I perceived and reached conclusions opened my mind to other areas. Not tofu, one step at a time, please. Of course being the only introvert in the team adds another coat of paint to the canvas. At very least my wife laughed at my MBTI type. Oh how she laughed.

I suppose reflection not only provides you with a door to mindfulness but more importantly delivers openness. Where your eyes open to stuff you never thought were on the scale of consideration. Such as tofu.

Being at one(ish) with oneself allows that openness, so I thought I’d look into meditation and I found the Headspace App through an advert on social media.

I tried it late at night. A kind of ten minute demo. Level 1 Foundation Course on the mobile App. What a very pleasant surprise. The beginning of a journey! As for Andy (Ex-monk, the voice and the developer) the guys calm voice could chill chilli. I noticed aches I didn’t know I had and relaxed in under ten minutes like never before.

My mind cleared and emptied of all the noise. It was refreshing and exhilarating to find belief in something I’d previously misguidedly turned my nose up at. It provided an opportunity to improve wellbeing. So who turns that down these days.

Its simple and the App, mobile, website and the rest of the entourage are all funky enough for this hipster environment. It’s early days for me and I don’t know if meditation contains all nine essential amino acids or is low in saturated fat but a healthy mind has to be good for your wellbeing. Right?

Building resilience into to your private and work life is a must in this day and age. Whether it’s developing coping mechanisms or proactively implementing ways to deal with or reduce stressful situations it’ll help your long term wellness.

Meditation might be one such support mechanism. Give it or similar a go. No not tofu, one step at a time. I’ll try that next week, unless I get offered sausage first.