So this Monday, Tony is talking about stress and meditation. Meditation is good for stress as we all know and in 2019 Tony resolves to do a lot more meditating …
Good day to all moaners. This the last Moan until the New Year. I’m committed to the following:
- meditating
- publishing my next novella
In the 1960s, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi purchased Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, not far from where the Great Train Robbery took place on 8 August 1963. He established a world centre for the Transcendental Meditation Movement (“TM”) with the express wish to create world peace.
He met the Beatles in 1967: John Lennon later said: “TM was like dipping a cloth into gold.”
I was living, at that time, in Leighton Buzzard quite near to Mentmore Towers. The Maharishi’s followers started giving classes and I enrolled. We were taught all about TM and eventually there was a ceremony which concluded when the leader whispered a word into my ear. This was my personal mantra from the Maharishi. I had previously given my word that I would never reveal the word and I never have.
The actual technique we were taught was to make available, each day (ideally twice) a twenty-minute session, close one’s eyes, allow two minutes to pass, and then to silently keep repeating the mantra. More often than not it led to a deep, unconscious state of mind. On one occasion I returned back to my first ever flat in Birmingham and flew round the rooms.
Stress and Meditation
The health benefits of meditation are said to include lower blood pressure, relaxation and spiritual wellbeing. At the time I was commuting into London and the journey from Leighton Buzzard to Watford was twenty-minutes. It was ideal for TM.
The initial enthusiasm finally wore off but I have continued to use the technique if I experience any stress.
On that subject I sometimes wonder why I decided to become an author. Alcoholism (not me, I’m relieved to state) is rampant amongst writers and I’m not surprised. Every step is fraught with tension. The editors are so rude to me. One once suggested I should stop writing and read “some decent authors”. The world seems against you and, even when the day of publication arrives, the reviewers then get their teeth into you.
I counter these challenges by remembering I am here by choice. Nobody asked me to write. I am therefore happy to submit my work to you, the reader. The joy of a good review is indescribable.
We are developing a Novella Nostalgia series which I have written about before. Remember Gloriana? Well novella number six will be published on 1 January 2019.
Here’s the cover of my new novella ‘A Search For The Truth’ which has been inspired by the film ‘A Gentleman’s Agreement’.
Over the next four weeks we will be planning the marketing of our title. The City Fiction team comprises ten of us and they keep the faith: I am so grateful.
So, until 2019, may I please wish you and yours a great Christmas and a healthy New Year.
