Merrill Black, who founded the Temperance Center in Eastchester, NY and leads a meditation group there, hears the same question over and over: “How often should I meditate, and for how long?” As most of us have busy lives and are pulled in many directions, Black says, she’s a firm believer that a little meditation goes a long way.

“Not everyone has an hour a day to spend meditating, but we all have five minutes in the day to quiet the mind and body,” she says. “Meditation can take so many forms—it can be taking a walk, listening to the wind, watching a sunset. It’s all about allowing yourself to get totally immersed in whatever you are doing, without judgment.”  

Black admits that she wasn’t showing discipline in meditating, and that’s one of the reasons she began the meditation group a few years ago. “In the beginning it was purely guided,” she says. “At that time I wasn’t channeling yet. I could feel—that was always one of my strongest abilities—and being an empath, I wanted to be able to do more, hear more, see more, feel more. Then one of my favorite longtime intuitive healers said to me, ‘If you want to be able to see and hear intuitively, then you need to meditate.’ The deeper truth is that once I gave up the need to hear, see, etcetera, and just appreciate my abilities for what they were, that is when the other abilities started to open up.”  

It’s like that with meditation, she says. “It’s about acceptance, no judgment—just observing, letting go, finding a sense of freedom. The bottom line is, making the time to meditate means you are loving and valuing yourself.”

The Temperance Center, located at 453 White Plains Road, Suite 201/203, offers a variety of healing services, including guided channeling meditations every other Monday and Friday from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m. The cost is $15.

“Each session is unique depending on who is coming that day and the messages needed to come through for the higher group consciousness,” Black says. “It’s about healing the mind, body and soul.”  

Those interested should contact Black at 914.793.2600 or [email protected]. For more info, visit TheTemperanceCenter.com.