Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss and supreme joy in the end.
- Swami Sivananda
January 18, 2011 – Meditation
January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Learn to Meditate: Health Benefits of Meditation
January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Anxiety, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, irritated bowel syndrome, erectile dysfunction, migraines, and fertility issues are just a few of the many stress-related illnesses that are becoming more prevalent in today’s society. Stressors suck away our life force like a parasite pilfering our sustenance, leaving us feeling depleted in ways we are often not fully aware of. Stressors are anything that throws your body out of balance. One of the most important health benefits of meditation is the profound effect it can have on your level of stress. Meditation can help you bring your body and mind to a relaxed state, which has a significant impact on the nervous system. By developing a daily meditation practice; be it 5 or 15 minutes; you can learn to identify the stressors in your life and start to neutralize their effect on you.
It is easier to understand the link between meditation, stress, and health problems once you familiarize yourself with the delicate balancing act being performed by your autonomic nervous system. Your autonomic nervous system consists of your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Your sympathetic nervous system is often what is referred to as your fight or flight reflex. Human beings were built to survive in the wild before dinner could be whipped up with a phone call and danger was a subway door closing making us a perilous five minutes later to our destination. Nonetheless, be it tiger or tax time deadline, your body still responds to stressors in the same manner.
When you are stressed, your heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension suddenly increase; blood flows away from your vital organs towards your extremities; brain wave activity becomes intense; digestion is inhibited; fertility is inhibited; adrenaline & cortisol are released; the immune system is weakened, and all because you are stuck in traffic that you are going to be stuck in whether you stress yourself out or not.
Relaxation triggers the parasympathetic nervous system. This system has the opposite functions of the sympathetic nervous system. The functionality of the parasympathetic nervous system is much more subtle and organ-specific than the aforementioned fight or flight system. When you relax your blood pressure and heart rate decrease, muscles relax, brain waves slow down, sexual arousal increases, and your bowel movements become smoother. In order to trigger this relaxation response, one must focus the mind on something repetitive like breath, sound, or movement, and attempt to let go of all other thoughts. The important thing to keep in mind is that the attempt to let go of all other thoughts, however unsuccessful it may feel, triggers the relaxation response. Every time we meditate, we help bring the mind and body into balance.
Meditation can be a wonderful tool for combating stress and stress related issues. The toll all these tiny stressors, stacked upon each other daily, takes on us is often underestimated. Through meditation, we cannot only counteract some of the physical symptoms, we can learn to address the sickness head on and become more aware of what our stress triggers are.
Just the other day a good friend of mine, who had recently begun a meditation practice, told me she was frustrated at the onset because she found great difficulty in bringing her thoughts to stillness. She did, however, find that her self-awareness had become keener. Small things like being aware of the level of her voice in a discussion and taking a deep breath had greatly impacted her daily interactions with both loved ones and co-workers alike. By becoming more self-aware we automatically alter how we relate to the world around us. It is impossible to communicate feelings that you are not even aware of. Conversely, the search for knowledge of true self, on any level, has a calming effect on you and, as a result, the people you deal with on a daily basis. You can eliminate a lot of the stress in your life before it even starts, by bringing your awareness inward and focusing the mind with a daily meditation practice.
Roque L. Rodriguez III is a poet and yoga instructor in New York, NY. He practices meditation with Yogiraj Alan Finger at ISHTA Yoga NYC.
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Morning Meditation: Starting the Day Off Peacefully
December 14, 2010 By 1 Comment
By Dr. R. Puff -
Morning meditation is a wonderful way to start a new day. Every time we wake up we have echoes that resonate in our mind from the dreams that entered during our sleep… Sometimes we even find ourselves awakening in a strange or irritated mood because of these dreams… I highly recommend morning meditation to begin a new day with optimistic thoughts. This can play a key role for starting the day with a positive attitude.
First step is to wake up peacefully. Use an alarm to awaken you slowly instead of jolting out of bed in a rush… Many times, waking up with a “rushed” feeling can leave your heart beating at a fast pace and almost panicked in feeling. Try a calm and gentle awakening, and enjoy a refreshing glass of water to begin your daily hydration. You wake up slightly dehydrated because of all of the hours you have slept. As you finish your water, take a moment to pull out a book that inspires you. Read a few paragraphs to begin to fill your mind with peaceful, relaxing and calming thoughts. A simple book of daily meditations can do the trick; but combined with a calm awakening and a refreshing glass of water, you have begun to “rehydrate” both your mind and your body.
Now that your mind is set towards a positive state, it is time to stretch your muscles. Try yoga in the morning to give a positive energy for your body. If you are able, you may also want to try Tae Bo to get yourself on your feet and started off in a positive direction from the first minute of awakening. As you begin your Yoga or Tae Bo exercise, breathe in deeply – saying “I am” and let out your breath with the word “peaceful”. Follow your breath calmly and speak aloud to yourself saying “I am peaceful”, over and over again to begin your day on an optimistic note. Next, open your windows to see the nature outside and when possible let the fresh air come into your room. If you like to pray in the morning this is the time to do so. Meditate about all the creations made by God. You do not have to be religious to see all the miracles that are happening around you, just look at nature and you will see how wonderful it is. Having barely even left your bedside, you have already begun your day in a positive light.
Now it is time to replenish the body with nourishment. Take a light breakfast, perhaps with a fresh green juice made by cucumber, collard greens and tomatoes or even a fruit juice with combined fruits like apples, pears, and bananas. An explosion of vitamins will give you energy for your body. Healthy eating with a variety of fruits and vegetables will provide a natural resource of vitamins and minerals for your body. The fact is that eating more vegetables than meats throughout the day will help keep you from many illnesses, simply by providing ample vitamins and minerals for a healthier you.
As you travel to your work, whether by car, train, subway or walking, take the time to see the beautiful landscape around you and change the direction of your thoughts and concerns to positive ones. You’re already on the road to starting your work day stress free. While at work, if you feel stressed take a short break, even if only for two minutes, and remember how well you started the day. Think back to the positive thoughts and feelings that you began your day with and allow it to refresh your inner self. Morning meditation can help you stay focused throughout the entire day. Give it a try and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you see the difference when you start your day off on a positive foot.
Dr. Robert Puff, Ph.D. is a meditation expert, international speaker and the creator of the weekly Meditation For Health Podcast, available at http://www.MeditationForHealthPodcast.com. He also co-hosts, with Elizabeth Cappellettti, M.A., the weekly TV and web-show entitled The Holistic Success Show, which can be seen at http://www.HolisticHealth.TV. Both the podcast and show are free for listening and viewing worldwide. If you would like to contact Dr. Puff, his e-mail address is DrPuff@cox.net
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Self-Awareness: 3 Steps To Knowing Yourself Better
November 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
“When times are challenging you learn about who you are” – Stephen Green, HSBC
It is important as leaders to be able to lead ourselves. In fact it is important for all of us to be able to lead ourselves. Timothy Gallwey in ‘The Inner Game of Work’ talks about us all being the CEO of our own company, namely our own lives, and its true – if we lead nothing and nobody else, we lead ourselves. How well are we doing it?
The bible also suggests that a man ought to examine himself because if we judge ourselves, we will not come under judgment – it talks in a spiritual sense but is this not true of the natural world as well. If we look at ourselves with an objective and critical eye (or as unprejudiced as we will ever be) we can make changes and improvements before someone else points out our faults to us – potentially an infinitely more painful process.
Self-awareness though is not something that will come easily. Many of us will be overly critical seeing all of our faults. Others of us will be verging on cocky, aware of our strengths and unconcerned or blinded to our flaws. How can we be realistic and tend towards the objective?
It seems there are three keys to becoming more aware of who we are.
Meditation
It’s not easy or quick but absolutely necessary. If we try to look at ourselves in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, all we will see is a busy person struggling to give enough time to the task.
Instead we need to step back from life, somehow detach ourselves from the merry-go-round we live and work on and find a place of silence. That might be out on a hillside or it could be in your own front room. The location is irrelevant so long as there is an air of remoteness from the pressures of life; a remoteness that is not in danger of being punctured by incoming phone messages or people clamouring for your attention. So switch off your Blackberry, walk away from your laptop, leave people behind.
Make enough time for really getting quiet as well. We can’t do it simply be sitting down for a quiet half hour. There will be too many errant thoughts still spilling in slyly from your previous concentrations. If you have less than half a day, it will be hard to enter a space of peace and start to think unadulterated thoughts.
Maybe you are the type of person who can focus on things simply by sitting still and thinking through them. Alternatively you might want to be active, doing something that focuses your thoughts. However the thoughts come to mind though, write them down. They might be instantly obvious or you may need to mull them over in the next days or weeks – what do they mean?
Self-assessment Tools
There are many tools on the market ranging from the free to vastly over-priced; from three insightful questions to books of material to wade through. Some of them however will be useful.
How you decide what to use can be narrowed down initially by what you want to find out about yourself. For example if you want a clearer idea of your personality strengths you could use persolog’s Personality Profile, a Myers Briggs Type Indicator or any of the huge range of other offerings available on the market. When you want to know what your style of creativity is, you could try a Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory. To see where your motivating abilities lie, try an xpand Skills Workbook. But these are only the tip of the iceberg to serve as examples. There are hundreds of thousands of know-yourself type products on the market so which do you use?
What have your friends and people you trust used. What can other people recommend? What can you afford or how much do you want to budget? Find someone with some ideas and start from there.
External Feedback
What do other people say about you? We tend to notice the nice things that people say, but often they are not particularly insightful. The other statements that make their mark on our conscious are the criticisms, but how many of these are valid and again, insightful? It is, however, worth delving deeper into both of these sets, because there are probably nuggets of truth in there before they have been filtered by the other persons situation and feelings.
As well as that though, you need to find an objective source of feedback. The people that you trust, whom you referred to in order to find self-assessment tools, are hopefully also people you trust to talk straight to you about your strengths and weaknesses. If they are not, search your list of close contacts and find that kind of person. It needs to be someone who knows you well, that you trust to speak the truth, and whom you respect so that you don’t discount what they say. Likewise, they need to respect you, otherwise they won’t bother themselves and may give insufficiently thoughtful answers. Also be aware of any power imbalance in the relationship before you start. Are you willing for a boss or subordinate to point out your failings? Will a subordinate tend to give you an overly positive assessment and not be critical enough?
Once you have found such a suitable person (or people – different viewpoints will give you a better overall picture), don’t simply ask them bland ‘what are my strengths?’ type questions. Instead, how about getting them to complete the same self-assessment tools that you have already completed and then compare the answers – where are the discrepancies and why have they appeared. Alternatively, simply sit down with the answers you generated yourself and ask your reviewer(s) if they agree with your findings. If your reviewers/critics/mentors have something to agree or disagree with then it makes their job easier so they are more likely to spend time with you on it and you will get better feedback.
Don’t forget to thank them in some way for their time and effort – they are then more likely to help you next time you come to complete a self-reviewing exercise.
If you want some active tools to help you ‘meditate then try the CoachYourself self-coaching ideas found on the Square Pegs Coaching website.
Nick is an Outdoor Life Coach and Trainer. Within his company, Square Pegs Coaching, he uses outdoor experiences to help people develop themselves. To understand better what this means in practice and to take greater advantage of his expertise, go to http://www.squarepegscoaching.com
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Coming From Ground and Center
September 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Val Wilcox -
“Grounding and Centering” is a visualization and meditation exercise you can use to focus yourself on the present. You learn to feel more whole, more aware while being able to balance yourself. This exercise can be used whenever you are stressed, worried or nervous. When you can step into this state of being, it helps you to Live in the Moment. Being Grounded and Centered are essential parts of Living in the Moment.
“Coming From Ground and Center”
To practice this exercise, give yourself a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed. It takes practice to accomplish this exercise so be gentle and patient with yourself. Never push yourself, let the feelings flow. Quiet your mind and allow the feelings from your Center come through.
- Begin by standing or sitting comfortably: Place your hand just below your belly button and start deep breathing. Deep breathing involves relaxing your stomach and letting your breath down into your belly. Imagine it flowing down into your toes as your belly expands. Do you start to feel different? Some people find this sort of deep breathing unnatural. To learn it, breathe so that your belly pushes your hand out. Practice regularly, so that it becomes easy and natural.
- Close your eyes: Imagine your breath pushing down through the base of your spine, through your feet, like a tree pushing down its roots. Imagine those roots pushing down through the floor and into the soil below. Imagine they can feel something of the quality of the earth, what grows there, and how healthy it is. Push down through the waters under the soil, down through the bedrock, and down into the center. If there’s still any tension or fear, let that go through your “roots”. For some people, imagining that there is a fire at the center of the Earth and throwing negative feelings into the fire helps to make those feelings dissipate.
- Imagine you can draw some of that fire up: Feel it as the earth’s living creative energy, and bring it up through the rock and the water and the soil. Bring it into your legs and feet, like a tree’s roots would draw up water and nutrients. Bring it up your spine and imagine your spine growing like a tree trunk, reaching up to the sky. Bring some fire into your heart, into any place inside you that needs healing or extra energy. As you imagine the growth and energy flowing into you, raise and open your posture and re-focus on your breath.
- Direct the energy up through your arms and out of your hands, up through your neck and throat and out the top of your head: Visualize branches of energy that reach up to the sky, and let them spread around you and reach back down to touch the earth, creating a protective filter around you. Take a moment, look at that energy web, and notice if there are any places that need to be repaired or strengthened. Send energy in that direction.
- Imagine the energy of the sun, shining down on your leaves and branches: Breathe deep; draw that energy in. Breathe it down through your leaves and branches, down through your heart and your belly and your hands. Take it in, feed on it like a tree feeds on sunlight.
- Imagine your feet have sticky roots: Let them sink into the earth and then release when you start to move. Walk around a little. Feel connected with the ground. Feel the imaginary roots grip and release.
- Stretch your arms out to your sides as you move, as far as they’ll go, until you can’t see your hands if you look straight ahead: Now wiggle your thumbs, and slowly bring your arms in until your thumbs are just visible on the edge of your peripheral vision. Notice how wide your field of vision can be. As you walk, breathing deep, grounded, activate that peripheral vision. Know that you can be aware of what’s going on around you.
- Come back to stillness: As you breathe, feel where it is in your body this grounded place seems to live, and touch that place. Can you find an image for this grounded state? A word or phrase you can say? When you use these three together-touch, image, and phrase- you create an anchor to help you ground quickly in any situation.
Do you notice a difference? Coming from this place of balance may change your perceptions and thoughts when interacting with others. Think of instances in your life where this would be beneficial.
- Remember, the more you practice grounding, the more automatic it becomes. If you take even a few minutes a day to practice, you’ll not only have better energy in your daily life, you’ll be able to ground quickly and instantly when you’re in a tense situation.
- If Ground and Center exercises seem to take too long, you may be trying too hard, or you may be achieving Ground and Center without recognizing it. If this happens, do something else for a while and try again later. To Ground and Center is a skill, like any other, which only gets easier with practice, so practice often.
- Notice whether you are making eye contact with the people you pass. Keep breathing, stay grounded, keep your awareness wide, but now also make eye contact with each person you pass. How does it feel to be this present in a situation?
Are you ready to add this practice to your daily life? Energizing and balancing your thoughts and clearing stress and tension could bring clarity of purpose to your life.
“Everything in life,… has to have balance.”
Donna Karan
To access more posts by Val Wilcox, please visit http://www.valwilcox.com
Stop on over to pick up a FREE copy of my newest book – Change Your Mindset…Change Your Mind
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
Have an awesome day!
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Happiness Today – Easy Ways to Find Joy and Happiness Naturally
September 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Valerie Querns -
There are many ways to bring joy into your life naturally, without spending money on therapy or prescription drugs. Look for ways to be happy through your experiences, instead of material things. Here are a few life changes you can make now to brighten up your days.
Sunshine
Sunshine is the best way to get your daily amount of Vitamin D. A lack of Vitamin D is linked with depression. 15 minutes a day is all it takes. If you live in a cloudy part of the world, a natural sunlamp is effective too.
What are you listening to?
Music is an important part of life. It doesn’t matter what genre of music you listen to — if it makes you happy, you need to make it a part of your daily life. Turn up the volume while you are cleaning the house or listening to the iPod on the way to work. I also like personal development audiobooks. Look in the bookstore in the Self-Help section for authors such as Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay.
Media Overload
Step away from the Blackberry! Set specific times throughout the day to check email. Morning, afternoon and evening works best. Turn off the notifications. How much news do you watch or read on a daily basis? Try going on a news fast. Limit how much news you are exposed to everyday. And one more suggestion: turn off the computer at least 2 hours before going to sleep.
Meditation
Create an alter as a sanctuary with objects that make you happy. Pictures of loved ones, a souvenir from a fun trip, religious symbols. Meditation takes practice and there is no immediate or calculated result. In my own words, meditation is about sitting down and shutting up. Yes, your first few attempts at silence won’t be successful. Your mind will be flurrying with what’s for dinner and what you forgot to put on the to-do list. But maybe that’s the point. Sit down and listen to the sounds around you. Be present. The more you practice meditation, the more peaceful it will seem. There are many different types of meditation. Find one that works for you and that you feel comfortable with.
Positive People Energy
Who are you spending time with? Limit time with friends or family that consume your energy or give off negative energy. Find friends that inspire you, make you laugh and have positive energy. Make them an important part of your life.
Laughter is the Best Medicine
Now I know this may seem silly, but if you’re reading this article, then you need to bring some more silliness into your life. Rent a season of the TV show Will and Grace. Or choose another favorite sitcom. Purchase a couple of DVD sets and pull them out whenever you need a pick-me-up.
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Making Tough Decisions
August 9, 2010 By 3 Comments
By Irene Conlan -
I was recently faced with a very tough decision that affected not only myself but someone else. A “no” would be good for me but not for the other person. A “yes” might be good for me but, then again, in the long run might not. It would possibly be good for the other person. I couldn’t see it clearly and wrestled with it. I spent time in meditation and I tried to look at it from all sides. I realized I was operating from “ought to” and “should” and was feeling guilty for potentially letting someone down. A decision based on guilt is often not the best decision for anyone. So I tried to take guilt out of the equation and look at it again.
Then I asked the simple question: “Is this for my best and highest good?” The clear answer was “no.” I asked the next question “Is this for the other’s best and highest good?” and the answer wasn’t so clear. It was, “I don’t know.”
What I do know is that I am the only one who can make decisions for me. I have to be an advocate for me because I am responsible for the decisions I make and the actions I take. No one else is or can be. Nor am I responsible for anyone else’s decisions and actions.
The dilemma for me involves the decision that seems to be a choice between selfishness and compassion. When is it o.k. to take care of me first? When is it all right to say, “I just can’t do that right now” ? When is it o.k. to say “no?”
It is not an easy question. There is not an easy answer.
In the Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom, he states:
“If you think only of yourself, if you forget the rights and well-being of others, or, worse still, if you exploit others, ultimately you will lose. You will have no friends who will show concern for your well-being. Moreover, if a tragedy befalls you, instead of feeling concerned, others might even secretly rejoice.
By contrast, if an individual is compassionate and altruistic, and has the interests of others in mind, then irrespective of whether that person knows a lot of people, wherever that person moves, he or she will immediately make friends. And when that person faces a tragedy, there will be plenty of people who will come to help.”
We all have to make troubling decisions now and then – decisions that are complex and involve others – decisions that involve the heart as well as the head. Sometimes “no” is the more compassionate answer.
I have peace knowing that I looked at all sides. I know I was making the best possible decision I know to make at this time with the awareness I have right now. If the situation changes and/or my awareness changes I can make another decision.
Life is filled with choices, decisions, uncertainties, and no guarantees. The best we can do sometimes feels like it is not enough. Looking at “the big picture” I know that I have an attitude of compassion for others and at times the decision has to be made to take care of me, too. Peace lets me know it was a good decision.
Why Forgiveness is Important to Your Health
July 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Bianca Tora -
It is easier to bear a grudge against an enemy, easier to build walls than to let them go. Far easier it is to bask in righteous indignation than to admit that perhaps in the larger scheme of things, we are not all that right; perhaps we might even be wrong. Sam Keen once said,”Our problem lies not in our technology, but in our minds, in our ancient tendency to create enemies in our imagination.”
This is the function of our ancient reptilian brain, the stalker and enemy maker that lies curled up in our “amygdala.” Our ancient brain builds fortresses and moats, dredging reptilian memories from mud and walling them within our cerebellum as conditioned reflexes, unthinking, unconscious and primitive. But thanks to our prefrontal cortex, we have the ability to reign in our emotions, view the situation with equanimity and perhaps even go as far as forgiving our enemy.
According to the Mayo Clinic, forgiveness is good for our health. Studies show that anger creates a whole host of nasty effects on our bodies. It suppresses the immune system; it suppresses thyroid function, slowing down the body’s metabolism; it impairs the brain’s thinking ability and it jeopardizes our ability to sleep. Anger stalls the body’s normal processes of repair and recovery. It contributes to the clenching of the jaws and eventual problems with teeth and jaw joints. It increases tension headaches and joint pain.
Most of all, anger elevates heart rate and blood pressure; it increases muscle tension as the body contends with a sense of losing control. Cases of people literally dying from anger are not unusual. Anger can constrict heart muscle and vessels and trigger a heart attack.
Studies also show that men have a more difficult time forgiving than women do. Women have been socialized into being more empathetic than men. Women also find it easier to talk problems over and move towards a common resolution. Women have learned to network since kindergarten; they have learned to build on the basis of cooperation rather than vengeance.
What happens to our body when we release anger and welcome forgiveness?
Our muscles relax. We breathe more easily. Our blood vessels open up; more oxygen enters our bloodstream. We feel as though a load has been taken off our chest. We sleep more deeply, more peacefully at night. Our body processes achieve equilibrium again and our energy fields become unblocked. We are no longer pouring energy into building walls; we can now re-direct energy towards building relationships, coherence and love.
We can all learn to forgive by concentrating on the present. Live in the moment and let past wrongs go; let go of all future worries. Regular meditation sessions can help us redirect our mind and body to the present moment.
All spiritual traditions emphasize the importance of forgiveness because healing, both personal and communal, cannot take place without forgiveness.
Bianca Tora is a writer interested in the relationship between lifestyle and the brain, specifically the area of emotional regulation and control. She has published a book on anger management for children. Visit her at http://www.help-your-child-with-anger.com
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What is the One, Single Most Important Self Improvement Tool?
June 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Irene Conlan -
The other day someone asked me what I considered to be the single most important tool for self improvement. Yikes! What a question. “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” I responded, knowing that I would need to wrestle with it for awhile before I could answer. I will work on it here and if you have any thoughts on it, I would love to hear them. (There is a comment box at the end of the article).
So what is the single most important tool to use when you are seriously committed to self improvement?
Is it meditation?
I consider meditation to be an absolute must when it comes to self improvement, but is it the only one you need? I don’t know. Meditation helps you get acquainted with the “inner you.” It helps calm your body and your mind, enhances your creativity and intuition and makes you more receptive to Divine guidance. I opens your subconscious mind and your spirit and allows the work to continue long after you finish meditating. There are many books written about the value of meditation and how to go about doing it. There are videos of guided meditations on YouTube so give it a shot so you can experience it first hand.
Is it Journaling?
Journaling allows you to express your thoughts, desires, pain, disappointments, likes and dislikes, etc. on paper. If done in a relaxed state where you simply allow the words to flow, it can tap into the riches of the subconscious mind. It allows you to express anything on your mind and have a record that shows you your progress. It enables you to see patterns and develop ideas. It is, indeed, an outstanding self improvement tool.
Awareness and Self Awareness?
Can there be any self improvement if you are not aware of who you are, what you want and need, and what changes are taking place? If you are not aware of your strengths and weaknesses, can you develop a plan for improvement? Being aware means you notice and understand what is taking place around you and self awareness means you notice and understand what is taking place within you. I seriously doubt if any progress can take place in the self improvement arena without awareness and self awareness. In fact, I doubt if you would even be on a self improvement path without awareness. But is it the most important? I really can’t say.
What About Positive Thinking?
For most people who are interested in self improvement, a key to lasting improvement is changing their thinking from negative to positive. If you gain insight into what makes you stressed, for example, and a major stressor is your job, then you may need to change your thinking about your job, your boss and/or your co-workers. Letting your mind dwell on how much you hate your job, how you dread going to work in the morning, how tired and stressed you’re going to be before the day is over, how your boss is a total dork and your co-workers are incompetent slobs will increase the stress level that you’re trying to relieve. If you can’t yet think of something positive about the job or the people, then think about something else in your life that makes you happy – your boyfriend if you’re single, or your husband and children, a walk in the park, sitting at the beach – or whatever it may be. In the meantime you might start looking for another job, but before you do, be sure it isn’t your negative reaction to the job and its people rather than the job and the people themselves. Make a point to get to know them better. You know the old adage about not judging until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.
These are big four when it comes to self improvement tools.
Which one is best? I still don’t know that answer. We are holistic and we are unique. What works for one person may not work for another. What works for you right now, may not be as effective next week.
What I do know, is that if you begin to employ each of the tools on a regular basis – if you
- practice meditation
- journal your thoughts about the area of improvement you are working on
- work at becoming more aware of what’s going on around you and within you and
- work to change your thinking from negative to positive
you will begin to see some of the positive changes that you desire. If you have an opinion on one best tool, I would love to hear it.
The Health Benefits of Meditation
May 20, 2010 By 2 Comments
By Michelle Spencer -
Just to be more relaxed each day is enormously valuable for our health. Meditation takes us one step further. Hundreds of.medical surveys support the contention that meditation is good for health. These are the most common findings.
Meditation releases muscular tension. This automatically relieves pain, increases mobility and lets the body relax.
The breath, the body fluids and the nerve impulses can flow more freely.
Meditation lowers high blood pressure. The release in muscular tension makes the body more pliable. The heart doesn’t have to pump as hard to force the blood through the veins and arteries. When stressed, our blood becomes thick with cholesterol This thins out when we relax.
Meditation stimulates the immune system and the production of white blood cells. The immune system winds down when the body is stressed. The healing process works best when the body is relaxed or sleeping.
Meditation speeds recovery rates after illness or surgery. Meditation opens constricted air passages. It is particularly good for asthmatics or hayfever sufferers.
Meditation increases blood circulation to the digestive tract, the skin and the brain. When we are stressed, our digestive system shuts down. The blood supply is redirected into the big muscles for the “fight-or-flight” reflex. Meditation reverses this, and the digestive system can function efficiently again.
The flow of blood to the skin and the extremities can be directly experienced as a pleasant tingling when you relax. Improved circulation means the entire body is better fed with nutrients and waste products removed more efficiently.
Meditation dramatically affects hormonal activity. This is a complex finding that still needs interpretation. Obviously, the stress hormones diminish during meditation. However it also appears that a mediator’s pattern of hormonal secretions is generally typical of someone five or ten years younger than themselves. This suggests that the physical stresses of age do not weigh so heavily on a meditator. Meditators are like people who are very fit.
There are many reasons why people learn how to meditate, but the health benefits of meditation are probably higher up most people lists than anything else. Find out how meditation can impact your life today.
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