Sunday, 6 May 2012
Meditation: How To Reduce Stress.
Today we are going to look at Meditation: How To Reduce Stress.Meditation will help you to relieve stress, anxiety and worry by training your mind. Some of the most well known methods of using meditation to decrease anxious thoughts aremindfulness meditationTranscendental Meditationmantra meditationguided meditationMeditation has been practiced for thousands of years. Meditation originally was meant to help deepen understanding of the sacred and mystical forces of life. These days, meditation is commonly used for relaxation and stress reduction.Meditation is considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine. Meditation produces a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. During meditation, you focus your attention and eliminate the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. This process results in enhanced physical and emotional well-being. Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that benefits both your emotional well-being and your overall health. And these benefits don’t end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and can even improve certain medical conditions.Meditation and emotional well-beingWhen you meditate, you clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress.The emotional benefits of meditation include:Gaining a new perspective on stressful situationsBuilding skills to manage your stressIncreasing self-awarenessFocusing on the presentReducing negative emotions Original story at Mayo Clinic
Meditation Techniques For Quick Stress Reduction
Today we are going to look at Meditation: How To Reduce Stress.Meditation will help you to relieve stress, anxiety and worry by training your mind. Some of the most well known methods of using meditation to decrease anxious thoughts aremindfulness meditationTranscendental Meditationmantra meditationguided meditation
Understanding meditationMeditation has been practiced for thousands of years. Meditation originally was meant to help deepen understanding of the sacred and mystical forces of life. These days, meditation is commonly used for relaxation and stress reduction.Meditation is considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine. Meditation produces a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. During meditation, you focus your attention and eliminate the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. This process results in enhanced physical and emotional well-being. Benefits of meditationMeditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that benefits both your emotional well-being and your overall health. And these benefits don’t end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and can even improve certain medical conditions.Meditation and emotional well-beingWhen you meditate, you clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress.The emotional benefits of meditation include:Gaining a new perspective on stressful situationsBuilding skills to manage your stressIncreasing self-awarenessFocusing on the presentReducing negative emotions Original story at Mayo Clinic?
To create relaxation and peace of mindImagine a peaceful place where you feel completely safe and secure. Imagine you are there now and use all your 5 senses to make this visualization vivid in your mind. You will feel calm and secure and even happy if the place you choose makes you happy. This technique enables you to recreate an earlier experience whenever you want for stress relief.Feel an emotion vividly to create more powerful and positive inner statesThink of something that makes you smile. Feel that smile spread through our body filling you with your smile. Imagine how you look with a big smile on your face and how you would stand, sit and feel. You can do this with any positive emotion. For example think of situations, people or things that make you feel love or joy and spread it through your body.
Reprogramming your response to stressful situationsThis technique brings together the lessons of positive thinking and the meditation for relaxation to make it easier to change your behavior. This technique will work as a simple positive thinking exercise and you can combine it with the meditation practice to make it a powerful self-hypnosis technique. First – choose a stressful situation that you want to change. I.e. something that you wish you would react to differently or handle with more calm and confidence.Second – Imagine/Visualize the way you want to act and behave in great detail. If you want to feel calm, alert and confident then imagine how your would act in a previously stressful situation where you now have the ability to remain calm and confident.Third – Step into the scene you have created. Imagine you are actually in this situation you have created. Feel the calmness and confidence you would feel in this visualization of how you would like to behave and act.I hope this article gave you some great ideas on Meditation – How To Reduce Stress ? http://meditationtechniques.co/-how-to-reduce-stress/We are building the best collection of Meditation Techniques For Every Challengeat www.MeditationTechniques.co
Best Price Meditation Course
Lots of people are looking for the the best price meditation course these days.
Taking a meditation course is becoming more and more accepted:
teachers are learning and teaching meditation to deal with stress scientists are studying meditation to uncover hidden health benefitsour military is using mindfulness meditation courses to deal with PTSDmany doctors are using low cost meditation courses to improve our health care systemIn the excerpt below, we see how physicians at McGill University are using an affordable meditation course that teaches doctors some valuable coping skills.
Learn more about Dr. Kilstein's low cost meditation course by clicking the image above
It’s not easy to work with critically ill children and stressed-out parents. Doctors who work in pediatric-palliative care do it every day. Conversations with parents are often tense; frustrations can boil over – on both sides.
Pediatrician Stephen Liben knew he needed to figure out how to cope better with the stress. The director of pediatric-palliative care at the Montreal Children’s Hospital was finding himself angry or defensive in heated moments with parents.
A calm doctor is a better doctor. He knew he could do better as a physician.
So he decided – reluctantly – to try mindfulness meditation.
McGill University offers such a program for healthcare professionals, and colleagues had spoken highly of it. Liben was skeptical, but willing.
“If you’re finding yourself reacting out of anger or frustration and it has brought neither you nor others around you any happiness or understanding, you start asking yourself: Is there any other way to be in the world other than this reactive way?” Liben said.
Read the original article here
McGill University has discovered that the doctors get so much benefit from learning meditation that they are now providing a mindfulness meditation course as a 4th year elective for medical students.
Patricia Dobkin, a clinical psychologist tenured in the Department of Medicine at McGill University, is responsible for all mindfulnessbased meditation programs in Whole Person Care, which offers a fourth-year elective in which mindfulness is taught to medical students.
Dobkin says that one-onone contact with patients is not always the main stressor, but that interactions between colleagues and changes in the health-care system also contribute to workplace stress.
Before entering the program, physicians and students are gauged for depression or burnout. After the course, they’re tested again. The results routinely show a significant reduction in both ailments and stress in general. Dobkin says feelings of self-compassion and well-being also rise. See original article here.
Most people looking for the best price meditation course won’t be able to take a meditation course from the Faculty of Medicine at McGill.
That’s why well-known meditation teacher, Dr. Harlan Kilstein created a low cost meditation course that you can try for just one dollar. It’s called 10 Minutes To Bliss.
Learn more about this very inexpensive guided meditation course by clicking here.
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Martial Arts Healing
As we get closer to 2012, the energy field of Mother Earth is changing. The energy field is lightening and quickening. As the energy vibration of the planet changes so too does the energy field of each individual person need to change. As the energy vibration grows lighter and moves faster it is like being in a tornado: all those who are able to change with the energy vibration will move towards the center of the energy vibration. The space in the center of the energy vibration is quiet and peaceful. All those who are not able to change and is heavy and dense will move to the edge of the energy vibration field and experience the intensity of the energy at the outside of the energy vibration field.
I suspect that most people would rather be in the center of the energy vibration field, where it is quiet, peaceful and calm. In order to be in the center, it is necessary to change our personal energy vibration fields that surround our body. Therefore, the question is how do we change our own energy fields to go along with the changes that are occurring in the energy vibrational fields of Mother Earth?
One way to teach our own bodies energy field to vibrate along with that of mother earth is to work with the sacred energy sites on the planet. These sacred sites hold the keys to learning how to change our energy vibration fields.
There are sacred sites all over Mother Earth. Some of them are well known. We know they were used in the distant past, because the peoples of those times left monuments at these sites that still exist today. The pyramids of Egypt, the Sphinx, the Mayan Pyramids, Stonehenge, Mesa Verde, etc., are just a few of the well-known sacred sites. These sites hold knowledge, energy vibration and information that is still accessible today.
When Mysteries School members do sacred ceremony at these sites at specific times of the year it opens their nervous systems to previously unavailable information. Just as the frequencies and intensities of solar energy affect and change the leaves on trees at specific times of the year, solar frequencies at the vernal and autumnal equinox and summer and winter solstice affect and change our nervous systems, allowing our energy vibrational fields to match those of the planet. These changes lead to greater connection with our universe, world and people on the planet, which are also vibrationally changing in this time of change. This greater connection to Cosmic Consciousness leads to greater knowing, which is a form of Intuition: knowing from feeling.
These changes in our nervous systems may initially be profound or subtle, but are always manifest. They manifest in unique ways in each individual depending on which physical and/or psychological blocks are present. As the blocks clear over time, a relationship with the greater consciousness becomes manifest for the individual. The individual begins to know beyond their current time frame or belief system. They come into Cosmic Consciousness.
These sacred sites hold information built into them in many ways. Buildings, temples and pyramids at these sites were constructed in certain patterns using sacred geometry to help activate the higher nervous system. Drawings and glyphs on pyramidal surfaces also represent sacred geometry as well as a form of record keeping. Mystery School meditation with sacred geometry can help the individual reawaken their body and nervous system to that of higher consciousness. As Hunbatz Men says, “Information is stored in stone and bone.” We can connect with that higher information in these sacred sites that hold that information.
Each site may have different guardians or spirit keepers who protect the site but also assist appropriate, respectful seekers. When asked for help they may help the individual bring information held at that site into their nervous system, which affects change and evolution.
The information available at these sites is not limited to any one group or Mystery School. It is truly ancient and beyond time. The New Age is really a return to Cosmic Consciousness. An opportunity to reconnect with that that is greater then the small Self, the separate Self, the Ego.
Wouldn’t you like to be reconnected to Cosmic Consciousness, to Cosmic Wisdom? Connecting with a Mystery School will help you make the shift in 2012.
The following emails from the Grand Maya Itza Council explain the 52 Full Moon Project. Please let us know if you are participating so we can add you to our list of places around the world where the meditations and ceremony are occurring. We are sending out emails with information each Full Moon so please sign up for the email list and keep us informed of your events so we can inform others as the Feathered Serpent of Light marches around the world!
Please share this information with everyone you know.
You will be part of a Global Transformation!
Cosmic Brothers & Sisters:
The GRAND MAYA ITZA COUNCIL feels proud to distribute this list of sacred sites to all the Initiates and Workers of Light from all around the world. These sites must be used to do the work of returning of the Great Spirit in order to prevent our mother Earth from the unfortunate events foreseen to happen in the year 2012.
We the MAYA ITZA people are very aware of the bad news and disasters that are going to occur in the year 2012 as foreseen by many people. According to many of them, the world will come to an end due to phenomena like the ones mentioned in the Apocalypse of the Christian Bible.
We the Mayans who have not been cultured by the Western Culture do not agree with all the negative things our sacred calendars have been involved in. That is the main reason why we are distributing this list of sacred sites where we are planning to do our spiritual work.
Every Full Moon we are going to make a spiritual journey to every one of the sacred sites on the list, starting our first ceremony on November 13, 2008, and continuing that way until carrying out the last ceremony on December 28, 2012, which is the actual date when our Sister and Mother Moon is going to perform the big change on the mankind’s mentality.
In our next communication, we are going to explain you how the ancient Mayas used to make these spiritual journeys to the ancient ceremonial centers in order to activate all the sacred sites from all around the world. This will be the best to contribute to the salvation of our Mother Earth as well as the sacred human race and all the living beings.
Please pass this information onto all your contacts and acquaintances
Cosmic Brothers & Sisters:
I feel very grateful to our Mayan Creator Hunab K’u for having let me reincarnate to gather again with my siblings of the Maya Itza Tradition. This way, we will be able to get together as we used to do long time ago in these sacred lands where the cosmic wisdom of the Itza Light still reigns. Every Full Moon we are going to gather together in spirit at the sites of the list we previously sent to you so that our Sister Moon can remind us of the time when we stopped understanding her and the mankind got lost in the lunatic illusion we are living nowadays. This initiatic work will be done in 52 moon cycles and after we complete the whole cycle we will be able to remember our cosmic past again.
The rituals of these spiritual journeys will be held in the following way: the rituals and journeys will be held by 5 initiate people; then the sacred site where the ritual is going to be held must be selected and then 4 of the 5 people must be placed on the four cardinal directions, one on the east, another one on the west, another one on the north and the other one on the south; the fifth and last person must be lying face up with his or her head pointing to the north. The ritual is going to be held in a Full Moon night and will last a little more than an hour. The 5 initiates could be male or female and must be adults. They should also wear white clothes. When they do the ritual, their bodies and spirits must be in complete harmony.
During the ceremony, both the ritual conductors as well as the whole humankind will be asked to keep their minds clear so that our understanding ability can be illumined and we can understand the wisdom of the universal intelligence.
#of Full Moon, SACRED SITE, COUNTRY, DATE OF FULL MOON
ANGKOR, CAMBODIA, NOVEMBER 13, 2008ASTRAKHAN, RUSSIA, DECEMBER 12, 2008BASRA, IRAQ, JANUARY 11, 2009BLYTHE – CA, UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 09, 2009BUNDOOMA, AUSTRALIA, MARCH 11, 2009CAHOKIA, UNITED STATES, APRIL 09, 2009CARNAC, FRANCE, MAY 09, 2009COBA, MEXICO, JUNE 07, 2009COPAN, HONDURAS, JULY 07, 2009CUNAGUA, CUBA, AUGUST 06, 2009CHACO CANYON, UNITED STATES, SEPTEMBER 04, 2009CHICHEN ITZA, MEXICO, OCTOBER 04, 2009DEBRECEN, HUNGARY, NOVEMBER 02, 2009ESFAHAN, IRAN, DECEMBER 02, 2009GRAN PIRAMIDE, KEOPS, EGYPT DECEMBER 31, 2009GUAYAMA, PUERTO RICO, JANUARY 30, 2010HATOR DENDERA, EGYPT, FEBRUARY 28, 2010HELFRANTZKIRCH, GERMANY, MARCH 30, 2010IZMIR, TURKEY, APRIL, 28, 2010JIBHAFANTA, MONGOLIA, MAY 27, 2010KALACMUL, MEXICO, JUNE 26, 2010KRAPINA, CROATIA, JULY 26, 2010KURUMAN, SOUTH AFRICA, AUGUST 24, 2010LATAKIA, SYRIA, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010LHASA, TIBET, OCTOBER 23, 2010LUBAANTUN, BELIZE, NOVEMBER 21, 2010MACHU PICCHU, PERU, DECEMBER 21, 2010MALAKAL, SUDAN, JANUARY 19, 2011MAORI, NEW ZEALAND, FEBRUARY 18, 2011MEXIANA, BRAZIL, MARCH 19, 2011MIXCO VIEJO, GUATEMALA, APRIL 18, 2011MOUNDVILLE, – AL, UNITED STATES, MAY 17, 2011NAMPULA, MOZAMBIQUE, JUNE 15, 2011OLLANTAYTAMBO, PERU, JULY 15, 2011PARANA, ARGENTINA, AUGUST 13, 2011PIRAMIDES DE GUIMAR, SPAIN, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011SERPENT MOUND, UNITED STATES, OCTOBER 12, 2011SILBURY HILL, ENGLAND, NOVEMBER 10, 2011SIPAN, PERU, DECEMBER 10, 2011STONEHENGE, ENGLAND, JANUARY 09, 2012SURAKARTA, INDONESIA, FEBRUARY 07, 2012TAJ MAHAL, INDIA, MARCH 08, 2012TANGER, ALGERIA, APRIL 06, 2012TAZUMAL, EL SALVADOR, MAY 06, 2012TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO, JUNE 04, 2012TIHUANAKU, BOLIVIA, JULY 03, 2012TIKAL, GUATEMALA, AUGUST 02, 2012TONGARIYAMA, JAPAN, AUGUST 31, 2012TUCUPITA, VENEZUELA, SEPTEMBER 30, 2012UXMAL, MEXICO, OCTOBER 29, 2012VAASA, FINLAND, NOVEMBER 28, 2012VIJAYANAGAR, INDIA, DECEMBER 28, 2012
Ten tips for setting up a meditation practice
The benefits of meditation come with regular practice, and that means making it part of your life. That’s one of the great challenges of learning meditation, so here are ten tips for establishing a meditation practice.
1. Get some instruction
You can learn the techniques of meditation from books and CDs: there are some good ones around (check out our shop). But it helps a lot to learn from a real person.Take a course – or go to a class where you can ask questions about the issues. In time, it helps to have friends or even teachers who are more experienced meditators than you are.
2. Settle on a practice that suits you
On an MBSR course there are three main practices – the mindfulness of breathing, the body scan and mindful movement, and there are many others out there. It’s worth experimenting a bit and then settling on the practice, or combination of practices, that work for you.
3. Find a regular time for practice
You might start off thinking you’ll just try fitting meditation into your day somehow or other, but establishing a practice means finding a time that works for you. For many people, first thing in the morning before the day starts up is a good time; others prefer the evening. There are pros and cons with either so you’ll need to experiment.
4. Set up a meditation place
You can meditate anywhere, but if you sit down amid clutter it has an effect. So set aside a space that evokes the feeling of meditation. Some flowers, a candle or an image on a table can be enough to encourage the feeling that you’re leaving aside the usual preoccupations. It also helps to set aside the cushions or chair that need for meditation, and it’s worth thinking about getting some meditation cushions or a stool.
5. Talk to your family or housemates
To avoid people barging in or turning up the music just as you start to get settled, talk to the people you live with and let them know what you are doing. Don’t worry if they thing you’re weird: if they notice you’re calmer and happier they’ll soon change.
6. Meditate with others
It’s hard to keep anything going on your own, at least to start with. We all need encouragement and guidance. Many people find a setting where they can meditate with others: Buddhist centres, sitting groups, follow on courses.
7. Go on retreat
Retreats are a chance to get away from all the things that usually fill up our lives. They vary in length: you can find day retreats or residential retreats for a weekend or longer. Just being quiet and meditating several times a day lets everything settle down so your experience can go deeper. On an intensive retreat you don’t do much apart from meditate, but there are less demanding options as well.
8. Take your practice off the cushion
If you think of meditation as something that only happens in the formal practice time, it will be hard to maintain. So look for ways to keep the thread of mindfulness and meditation alive through the day. The Three Minute Breathing Space gives you time to stop and connect with mindfulness, and you can find many more, informal ways to do the same.
9. Reflect on your values
Most of us get enthusiastic, every so often, about a certain kind of exercise or studying a particular subject. But, looking back, we only maintain a few of these. They are the ones that touch on the values at the core of our lives. If you can make the connection between something that is a deep-seated drive like helping others or understanding the truth, or a pressing concern like not getting depressed or being more effective as a parent, then you’re much more likely to be able to sustain it.
10. Be patient … and persistent
Establishing a regular meditation practice is a long-term project. You may miss days, get discouraged or just forget about meditation for a while. The key thing is to keep going. If you force yourself to meditate when you really don’t feel like it, you’ll probably have a reaction to the whole idea; but if you wait until you do feel like it before you pick your practice up again, it may never happen. But with time,
Finally, if you have learned meditation with me, do keep in touch and come to the Practice Sessions. I’d love to hear how you are getting on.
Coming home to the sacred
The word “sacred” has two kinds of meanings. First, it can refer to something related to religion or spirituality. Second, more broadly, it can refer to something that one cherishes, that is precious, to which one is respectfully, even reverently, dedicated, such as honesty with one’s life partner, old growth redwoods, human rights, the light in a child’s eyes, or longings for truth and justice and peace.
Both senses of the word touch me deeply. But many people relate to just one meaning, which is fine. You can apply what I’m saying here to either or both meanings.
I think each one of us – whether theist, agnostic, or atheist – needs access to whatever it is, in one’s heart of hearts, that feels most precious and most worthy of protection. Imagine a life in which nothing was sacred to you – or to anyone else. To me, such a life would be barren and gray.
Sure, some terrible actions have been taken in the name of avowedly sacred things. But terrible actions have been taken for all kinds of other reasons as well; the notion of the sacred is not a uniquely awful source of bad behavior. And just because some people act badly in the name of something does not alter whatever is good in that something.
Opening to what’s sacred to you contains an implicit stand that there really are things that stand apart in their significance to you. What may be most sacred is the possibility of the sacred!
If you’re like me, you don’t stay continually aware of what’s most dear to you. But when you come back to it – maybe there is a reminder, perhaps at the birth of a child, or at a wedding or a funeral, or walking deep in the woods – there’s a sense of coming home, of “yes,” of knowing that this really matters and deserves my honoring and protection and care.
How?
For an overview, notice how you feel about the idea of “sacred.” Are there mixed feelings about it? How has the rise of religious fundamentalism worldwide over the past several decades – or the culture wars in general – affected your attitudes toward “sacred”? In your own life, have you been told that certain things were sacred that you no longer believe in? Do you feel you have the right to name what is sacred to you even if it is not sacred to others? Taking a little time to sort this out for yourself, maybe also by talking with others, can clear the decks so that you can know what’s sacred for you.
In this clearing, there are many ways to identify what is sacred for someone. Maybe you already know. You could also find a place or time that is particularly peaceful or meaningful – perhaps on the edge of the sea, or curled up with tea in a favorite chair, or in a church or temple – and softly raise questions in your mind like these: What’s sacred? What inspires awe? A feeling of protection? Reverence? A sense of something holy?
Different answers come to different people. And they may be wordless. For many, what’s most sacred is transcendent, numinous, and beyond language.
Whatever it is that comes to you, explore what it’s like to open to it, to receive it, to give over to it. Make it concrete: what would a conversation be like, or what would your day be like, if you did it with a sense of something that’s sacred to you?
Without stress or pressure, see if there could be a deepening commitment to this something sacred. How do you feel about making sanctuary for it, in your attention and intentions, and in how you spend your time and other resources?
Then, when you do sustain a sense of the sacred, or involve it in some way in some action, sense the results and let them sink in to you.
However it shows up for you, the sacred can be a treasure, a warmth, a mystery, a light, and a profound refuge.
Distinct ‘God spot’ in the brain does not exist, researcher says
Wildmind Meditation NewsApr 25, 2012
Scientists have speculated that the human brain features a “God spot,” one distinct area of the brain responsible for spirituality. Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed research that indicates spirituality is a complex phenomenon, and multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual experiences. Based on a previously published study that indicated spiritual transcendence is associated with decreased right parietal lobe functioning, MU researchers replicated their findings. In addition, the researchers determined that other aspects of spiritual functioning are related to increased activity in the frontal lobe.
“We have found a neuropsychological basis for spirituality, but it’s not isolated to one specific area of the brain,” said Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology in the School of Health Professions. “Spirituality is a much more dynamic concept that uses many parts of the brain. Certain parts of the brain play more predominant roles, but they all work together to facilitate individuals’ spiritual experiences.”
In the most recent study, Johnstone studied 20 people with traumatic brain injuries affecting the right parietal lobe, the area of the brain situated a few inches above the right ear. He surveyed participants on characteristics of spirituality, such as how close they felt to a higher power and if they felt their lives were part of a divine plan. He found that the participants with more significant injury to their right parietal lobe showed an increased feeling of closeness to a higher power.
“Neuropsychology researchers consistently have shown that impairment on the right side of the brain decreases one’s focus on the self,” Johnstone said. “Since our research shows that people with this impairment are more spiritual, this suggests spiritual experiences are associated with a decreased focus on the self. This is consistent with many religious texts that suggest people should concentrate on the well-being of others rather than on themselves.”
Johnstone says the right side of the brain is associated with self-orientation, whereas the left side is associated with how individuals relate to others. Although Johnstone studied people with brain injury, previous studies of Buddhist meditators and Franciscan nuns with normal brain function have shown that people can learn to minimize the functioning of the right side of their brains to increase their spiritual connections during meditation and prayer.
In addition, Johnstone measured the frequency of participants’ religious practices, such as how often they attended church or listened to religious programs. He measured activity in the frontal lobe and found a correlation between increased activity in this part of the brain and increased participation in religious practices.
“This finding indicates that spiritual experiences are likely associated with different parts of the brain,” Johnstone said.
The study, “Right parietal lobe ‘selflessness’ as the neuropsychological basis of spiritual transcendence,” was published in the International Journal of the Psychology of Religion.
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