Mind Calm (2 page)

My encouragement to you is to read
Mind Calm
with an open mind. Read it slowly. Don't race to the end. What you are looking for is on every page, not just the last page. Enjoy the journey. Sandy has filled
Mind Calm
with lots of insights, epiphanies and exercises that are truly enlightening and helpful. Give yourself to the programme Sandy has created for you, and as he says,
‘let the loving hand of the universe guide you.' Mind Calm
is an inspiration, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Robert Holden PhD
Author of
Shift Happens!
and
Loveability

Preface

CHAOS BEFORE THE CALM

Turning points often come when you least expect them. Mine certainly did. Everything was going great. Business was booming. I was on television in 30 countries around the world. My courses and clinics were full. I was running residential retreats at stunning resorts. I had books out with mainstream publishers, was appearing in newspapers, magazines and on radio too. I had a great girlfriend, we were living in an upmarket part of Edinburgh, driving fancy cars and had more money than I thought possible. On paper, I was living what many would deem a successful life. Then one day I woke up to a really scary realization: despite everything going so well, on the inside it was a very different story.

Stressed to the hilt, I wasn't experiencing an iota of peace. I spent most of my days swinging between feelings of frustration and fear. Frustrated because I wasn't quite ‘there' yet and when I did eventually get what I thought I wanted, I quickly moved into a state of fear about losing what I'd worked so hard to achieve. I could feel lonely in
a room full of people, and nothing relieved the enduring itch that ‘there must be more to life than this'. Physically, I found it hard to sleep with the mayhem going on in my mind. I struggled against persistent tiredness and was getting ill more often than I would care to admit, especially as I was working in the field of ‘health detox' at the time. In a nutshell, I felt like a failure and fraud and a million miles from the peaceful happy self that I so yearned to be.

It was around that time that a friend recommended I try meditation. I remember politely declining, saying that I couldn't meditate. To which they enquired, ‘How do you know you can't meditate?' I was perplexed at first as to how to answer because, prior to my friend's enquiry, everyone else had always agreed with me that meditation was difficult. That day, after thinking about it for a few moments, I gave my main reason for why I couldn't meditate: ‘I cannot stop my mind.'

Temporarily happy with my answer, I was immediately thrown back into confusion when my friend joyfully declared, ‘Ah, well you don't have to stop your mind in order to enjoy peace when meditating.' To be honest, her response sounded ridiculous. Everything I'd read and heard about meditation up until then had all pointed to a ‘still mind' being the main prerequisite to peace. However, she was suggesting the opposite. Could it be possible that I could have a busy mind and still be peaceful? Confused yet curious, I knew that all my attempts to stop my mind hadn't worked, so I agreed to learn to meditate.

Soon after learning to meditate, I began to notice that I was experiencing a surprising amount of serenity. So much so, I went on a 10-week meditation retreat to the Greek island of Patmos with the monks who taught me, and then spent a further 14 weeks in the mountains of Mexico, with month-long retreats since. During these times I had the opportunity to meditate all day and night, occasionally up to 18 hours a day, and received great guidance along the way. As you can imagine, diving into such intensive periods of meditation is transformational, bringing with it inner and outer changes both positive and profound.

After graduating as a meditation teacher, I immediately started sharing it with everyone who showed an interest. Having discovered that enjoying inner peace was easier than I thought, it became clear to me that I wanted everyone to experience the calm and contentment that meditation can bring.

Even though meditation is certainly not religious, many of the techniques taught are ancient in origin, and so some of the recommendations and rituals might be perceived from the outside as being religious. Consequently, those disinterested in such offerings can find ‘meditation' in general unappealing.

I'm a firm believer in ‘different strokes for different folks'
.

I'm not here to judge or tell you what you should believe or which spiritual path you should take - or if you should walk any spiritual path at all. The most important thing to me is that you don't miss out on the boundless benefits possible from meditation. I want you to experience the calm and clarity, connection and liberation that are everyone's birthright - when given the guidance and techniques that are right for them.

In my desire to share the benefits of meditation with as many people as possible, I became inspired to offer a form of meditation that anyone can use. With Mind Calm, I'm sharing an accessible way of meditating that draws on what I've learned from thousands of hours of meditation, which anyone can use to make the move from mental chaos to mind calm.

Having found calm and contentment in my life, I know that if it is possible for me then it can be for you, too. Mind Calm is a modern-day meditation technique that can help you to still your mind at will and be at peace with the mind you've got. You will discover that peace with mind equals peace with life - which is not only a very delightful way to be but also the secret to a truly successful life.

Sandy C. Newbigging
December 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘Be still' is the simple yet profound message shared by great sages, spiritual masters and enlightened teachers from countless traditions. The recommendation to ‘be still' isn't about learning concepts or ideas about stillness, but an eternal invitation to experience it directly and discover the relationship between stillness and knowing the beauty and magnificence of who you are. To all of the sharers of this universal message, I honour and thank you deeply. Without your courage, clarity and commitment, I might not have discovered the delights of stillness in my life.

In relation to this book, I would like to thank the Hay House team who believed in me and this message, including Carolyn Thorne, Michelle Pilley, Jo Burgess, Amy Kiberd, Julie Oughton and, of course, Reid Tracy and Louise Hay. Big thanks also go to my excellent editor, Sandy Draper, for the improvements you made during the edit. And to Robert Holden for writing a fantastic foreword.

I wrote the first draft of this book during a seven-week trip around California with my girlfriend, Laura. I want to thank you, Laura, for being there when I wrote the first word, all the way through to when I sent the final manuscript to Hay House. You bring joy to my journey and I feel blessed every day. Special thanks go to Sasha Allenby for your friendship and allowing me so freely to share our Reawakening Protocol within this book. I would also like to thank my family for their unconditional love and unending encouragement, and my wonderful friends Bryce Redford, Calum Murray, Suzi Gibson, Sue Masters, Richard Abbot, Lee Johnson, Micci Gorrod, Andrew Pepper and Narain Ishaya for being a constant source of fun, love and inspiration in my life. I would also like to thank the family of Mind Calm Coaches from around the world for sharing this meditation with joy and clarity.

Finally, infinite gratitude goes to my spiritual teacher MKI for being my guide in this lifetime on the bright path of joy that is stillness.

 

Be Still.

Introduction

THE SILENT SOLUTION

How do you know you have a mind? You are aware of it, right? By that rationale, within you now exists a mind and something that is aware of your mind. This book is about becoming much more interested in, and attentive to, the conscious awareness that is aware of your mind, instead of going to any great lengths to fix, change, manage, manipulate or improve it. Mind Calm gives you a new relationship with your Self, which can be the determining factor in whether you experience what can be described as a hellish life, full of stress, struggle and suffering, or quite literally nirvana now.

Conscious awareness is still, silent, spacious, peace-filled presence; it is not otherworldly, but as real as you can get. Consciousness is the calm context of every thought, feeling, action and circumstance in your life - whether they appear to be positive or negative. Knowing and directly experiencing the conscious awareness that is present within you is the silent solution to any stressful situation
that you may be facing and the secret to enjoying a truly successful life; free from fear, problems and limitations.

Full of potential, creativity, happiness, and grace, getting to know the conscious awareness residing within you offers the ultimate love affair – oneness with your Self.

Contrary to what you may have been taught to think and believe, you will discover that being at peace with life is the master key to engaging a truly success-filled existence. Rediscovering the inner reservoir of calm residing within your conscious awareness - always - transforms your relationship with your thoughts, emotions, body and life. No longer needing to work so hard to perfect your mind, emotions and external circumstances, you become at peace with who you are and how life is.

One of the main reasons why so many people miss out on the exquisite experience of their conscious awareness is that they're having an identity crisis. Quite simply, they think they are someone or something they're not. They think they are the voice in their head and, as a result, rely on what it says too heavily for defining who they are and what they're capable of. They think they are what they are feeling emotionally. They think they are their body, having identified with it from an early age. Or they think they are their relationship status, job title, religious affiliation or the long list of other labels that they've found to help define who they are.

Wanting to ‘know thy self' is part of being born human. It is normal to be on the search to find meaning from all of the potential sources listed above. Whether aware of it or not, there's a big chance that you, too, have been exploring the answer to life's big question:
Who am I?
Without guidance it is extremely easy to fall into the understandable assumption of thinking that you are the temporary and transient traits that so many others think they are, too:

• I must be the voice in my head because it sounds like me.
  
• I must be my emotions because I feel them inside me so intimately.
  
• I must be my body because it's been with me since I was born.
  
• I must be my job title because that's what I tell people I am when asked what I do.
  
• I must be my relationship status because my marriage certificate says so.
  
• I must be my religion because it is what I believe in so strongly.