LIFESTYLE Winter Wellness: The Fund-OM-Mentals of Meditation

Ok kids, it’s time. Meditation programs are now on your friendly local streaming-service behemoth, which means it’s officially the moment to give up that ongoing attempt to avoid meditation forever. Gone are the days of weird yogis chanting and wafting patchouli in your direction while spouting about the elusive nature of Nothingness. No longer the floaty kaftan, jangly beads and tofu-sandal wearing stereotype of yesteryear. 

It’s 2021, and we’ve lived through a full 12 months of house arrest in the company of our own mad monkey-minds. What’s more, Silicon Valley execs, Olympic athletes, F1 drivers and Hollywood heartthrobs alike have embraced the lotus pose and are reaping the scientifically proven rewards. There’s no longer a single excuse remaining to not get on board with meditation, and to track your daily activities.

Hint: it includes our Connected watch collection with our new wellness app.

Let’s assume you’re literate, and therefore familiar with the reported benefits – from mental clarity, emotional stability, improved reaction time, better memory, deeper sleep, and increased productivity to better, er, ‘intimacy’. Let’s even assume you’ve tried sitting still for about five gruelling minutes with your eyes closed, wondering what the heck is supposed to be happening and why you feel so incredibly bored. Perhaps you’re even a novice explorer in the realm of interior worlds, and have paid attention to your breath going in and out for a full ten seconds without thinking about your inbox or a sandwich. Welcome, one and all. And patience, Grasshopper… more will be revealed.

If you’re only just beginning to dip a toe in the deep blue sea of meditation, we’ve got some carefully selected advice for high-achieving do-ers and hyperactive minds to help you on your way. See below for our mediation tips – and don’t forget that in addition to timing your sessions impeccably, you can also track the progress of all your daily wellness activities from exercise to heart rate and calorie-burn with our brand-new TAG Heuer Wellness App and your Connected Watch.

Choosing a concrete amount of time to meditate for is a deceptively simple way of helping an active mind or body settle down.  An indefinite period of stillness is often too much to contemplate, and can even make it impossible to start. The number of minutes doesn’t matter – start with one if that’s all that feels do-able – and stick to it. When your watch alarm sounds, you’re free to jump up and do something (or nothing) again.  Increase your time incrementally, day by day, week by week, or month by month. Softly, softly catchy monkey.

This might contradict everything you’ve ever read on the subject, but anyone who tells you how to do it is just telling you how they did it, whether they are a religion, a tradition, a blog, or a guy in a bar.  The essentials are – sit still in a comfortable position with eyes closed (ok, there are some who do it eyes open but that’s even harder) and “observe”.  Focus points could be anything from your breath to your thoughts to body sensations such as your heartbeat; a mantra, a word, a candle (eyes open), a sound (air conditioners and fridges work fine) – or an audio recording such as birdsong, rain, or a guided meditation. If this selection is overwhelming, start with your breath.

One of the first things most people notice when they start meditating is that there are about a million and one excellent reasons not to meditate. Our minds, for the most part, are accustomed to being constantly active from the moment we wake to the moment we sleep. And even while asleep, all kinds of crazy things are happening in there that make you believe you’re fighting your second grade math teacher with a toothbrush made of jello or reciting your facebook bio while standing naked on stage at Coachella. And this is significant – your mind is a terrific liar. As you attempt to make it through ten minutes of nothing, your mind will tell you that your ankle hurts so much you’re probably going to pass out, you might have left the gas on, you’re definitely starving to death, you have to order socks from Amazon right now or they’re going to run out entirely… whatever it takes to get you to play with it.  Some people call this ‘monkey mind’, but it’s just as accurate to say it’s like a toddler demanding attention: “feed me, play with me, the world is ending, I don’t like it, look – shiny! , don’t leave me (etc. etc).” Ignore the noise, and it gets quieter. We promise.

Stay with us on this one.  If you’re expecting clouds to part, angelic voices to sing, all your worries to disappear, or Twitter to stop making you angry, you might think that meditation isn’t ‘working’ right away.  But that’s not exactly how it happens for most of us.  Think of it like building a muscle.  When you go to the gym and push yourself hard, it’s not exactly pleasant.  You’re not humming showtunes and leaping around like a happy fairy. But keep it up, and you’ll feel stronger. Keep it up a little longer and you’ll see undeniable results.  Stay for a year and people will ask how you got those abs.  Sounds silly, but the parallels are legit.  Your focus, emotional balance, self-awareness, insight, and reflexes will get sharper, stronger, and more defined.  In short? You’ll have a more beautiful mind. 

That’s latin for ‘I’m smarter than you’.  Just kidding- it means ‘A healthy mind in a healthy body’, and it’s an ancient formula for balance and happiness that’s stood humans in good stead for millenia. The root of the word ‘sanity’ means health. And a significant portion of your mental health is physical – that is, your brain is part of your body and can’t be entirely separated from it. Good food, good sleep, good exercise, and good hydration are the building blocks of mental balance and can make your meditation even more effective. Just imagine what your mind feels like when you’ve had sixteen espressos or two hours of sleep. No amount of meditation is going to make up for genuine biological imbalance, so don’t expect it to do the impossible. But if you’ve got your house in order, anything is possible.

Got your TAG Heuer Connected ready and your timer set? There’s no time like the present. We wish you luck on your road to enlightenment…and on your journey, the TAG Heuer Connected is a digital companion unlike any other.

Not just for time-keeping any more, our Connected range excels in keeping time: on the golf course, in fitness training, learning to meditate, optimising heart rate, tracking health goals… it’s designed to help you personalise the way you ‘keep time’.

Whether you’re training for a competitive edge or balancing work and home life, there are a multitude of ways to improve your connection with the Connected watch and our new specially-designed TAG Heuer Wellness App, for an active and healthy lifestyle.