Meditation, Soldiers, and You

 Meditation is a proven method for inner peace

Meditation and Soldiers
According to the David Lynch foundation an estimated 30-35% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.

When an event is shocking and severe it can cause physiological changes in the brain. The trauma and stress is still carried around by the soldiers months and even years after their tour of duty has ended, with soldiers re-experiencing the smells and sounds of the traumatic event and creating stress that compounds over time.

Operation Warrior Wellness
Their minds are in a state of heightened activation, stress, and aggressiveness and while medication can alleviate some symptoms, the underlying stress still remains.
David Lynch’s organization is teaching Transcendental Meditation to soldiers in a program called Operation Warrior Wellness and the soldiers report experiencing “resilience, strength, and internal hardiness.”

Stress-Relief
Stress is relieved enabling individuals to talk about and cope with their feelings and to successfully get through their day without turning to alcohol, gambling, or other methods of self-medication that are used in order to escape from what is re-occurring in the mind.

Meditation is an evidence-based approach to provide deep relaxation that is deeper than sleep. During meditation, practitioners experience deep feelings of relaxation and relief from stress. Deep relaxation allows soldiers to sleep better, enabling their daily activities to be performed better. Moreover, it allows the individuals to return to an active and productive life.

During meditation, the mind withdraws from the information gathered from the senses permitting a fullness of relaxation.

Awareness of Self
The Self emerges and you realize that you are not the body, nor are you the mind. This realization of the Self enables discernment to emerge and with it comes heightened intuition.

Relaxation achieved during meditation is profound and the mind and body find the method so beneficial that it wants to keep repeating the experience. Research shows that even after the first session, there are both positive chemical and physiological changes occurring in the brain and that the experience is not merely subjective.

No one has control over your thoughts except yourself. Your hope, wishes, even your imagination are all within your own power to direct their energy in one path or another. The mind cannot discern between what it has actually seen and what it is seeing via your imagination.

Meditation is a simple yet proven method to attain release from acute and chronic stress, even severe stress as in PTSD.

Living a Happy Life
Life is not about what you think may happen in the future. Life is about enjoying the journey of daily creativity and loving experiences, of focusing on the beauty of life, of filling your life with positive experiences through books, music, and the right people who uplift you with their happiness and attitude.

Meditation is a unique practice that provides relief from stress and immediate benefits that will enable you to enjoy life to its fullest.

Releasing Barriers to Peace
Self-inquiry via meditation helps you identify barriers to peace and to see that they are dependent upon the senses for their fuel. You can release all obstructions by permanently taking away the energy source and putting a permanent damper on the obstacles that threaten to ignite when the environment is right. So, what lies buried beneath the ashes in your life?

Affirmations

My thoughts are creating the reality that I desire

My imagination creates what I believe

My affirmations are creating habits in keeping with my objectives

I am now achieving my goals

Finding Your Self: This Is Who I Really Am

Sometimes what we perceive is a mirror reflection of who we are.

Do you like what you see?

As always, thank you to everyone around the world who follows my writing and thank you again for forwarding the blog link to friends.

Happiness and friendship is never diminished because it is shared.

Margaret

Finding Your Self
In the early 1980’s, Dr Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. worked as a family therapist. During his sessions with clients, he began to notice that some clients, those with eating disorders, would have internal dialogues with a pessimistic part of themselves that was either urging them to eat or purge the food from their body. As he explored this further with one client called “Diane”, he discovered that he was not talking to what he perceived as Diane, but to a part of her that was constantly engaged in an on-going war with a pessimistic voice that was constantly telling her that she was hopeless. When he asked her to directly inquire why the pessimist was always saying this, it said that it was protecting her from taking risks and getting hurt. Diane felt that this voice made her life a continuous struggle.

As he explored further, he discovered that there was also an angry voice inside Diane that pushed her to achieve while the pessimist voice told her she was hopeless. He invited her to ask the angry voice to “step-back” and to tell him how she now felt toward the negative voice. He reports that Diane immediately responded gently, in a more relaxed manner and compassionate state, appreciating the negative voice for caring about her, for trying to protect her, and for having to work so hard to make itself heard.

From that point on it was easy for Diane to handle the pessimist and to deal with her situation.

Dr Schwartz conducted on-going research into the inner voices with many of his clients. Upon reaching the calm, compassionate state they all gave, in their own words, the same response;
I am not like those other voices,
This is who I really am,
That’s my Self.

For the next twenty years, he has refined his research into teaching clients to reach their Selves. Likewise, he teaches therapists to also release baggage and perceived agendas and to get in touch with their real Self through his Center for Self Leadership (CSL) which has trained over 10,000 people in this approach since 2000.

Self-Awareness
We have all heard the inner voices that Dr Schwarz identified; the ones that discourage, ridicule, or worse. There are several clinical methods that can be used to declutter the mind from the constant static and to heighten awareness of the Self.

Just as research into the Self is now accepted and funded in America, meditation has also been researched with even deeper research examining the effect of meditation within the DNA of cells. Today’s technology enables us to see the physiological and chemical changes that occur throughout the whole body.

Self-Reflection
In many cultures, the Self was already known and spiritual and philosophical ideas arose through the practice of being in contact with the Self.

Meditation has been used for thousands of years for self-reflection, self-awareness, healing, enlightenment and connecting with the Self. It draws your attention away from a particular object or illness to an overall knowledge and feeling of inner calmness and peace. The mind concentrates less on individual problems or issues and settles instead on promoting an inward focus, enabling the mind and the body to experience a profound state of restfulness. In turn, the brain becomes balanced, while the mind and body move beyond thinking, to simply being.

Yet many people live their life following the same routines and habits, sometime without remembering why, and don’t know why or how to begin making simple changes that will bring positive transformation to their professional and personal lives.

Meditation
Meditation allows a heightened state of awareness to evolve and with this newfound clarity comes an understanding of needs, purpose, and the ability to implement change with confidence. Thoughts lessen as the mind develops inner vision and learns how to develop single-pointed focus. Like most things in life, meditation takes practice but it can easily be learned bringing with it the rewards of purpose and self awareness.

This increased level of awareness helps practitioners make subtle changes in diet, activity, and other lifestyle choices while improving interactions through enhanced empathy, understanding, and greater perception of life situations.

Affirmation

Affirmations are powerful statements about what you want to create in your life.
Balance your actions with awareness of thoughts and clarity of vision.
Noticing how and when you respond to situations gives you the ability to choose your thoughts and subsequent actions.
Envisage a clear and positive outline for your future by retaining only that which is positive and beneficial to you.

With each inhalation I breathe in ….. (what you need)

With each exhalation I release …..(what you don’t need)

I pay attention to why I think what I do

I pay attention to why I do what I do

I pay attention to how I affect the world around me

I am filled with love and happiness

Awareness Meditation

A bird house is hidden in the asters.

Look deep within yourself and see what lies beneath the clutter of the mind.

Meditation has been used for thousands of years for self-reflection, self-awareness, healing, and enlightenment. Today’s technology enables us to see the physiological and chemical changes that occur throughout the whole body.

Varied health professions now teach meditation as a means of stress management and improving a patient’s overall quality of life in a wide-variety of diseases such as cancer, hypertension, and back pain.

Meditation is also a means of reducing the symptoms and discomfort of depression, anxiety, and anger, as well as increasing energy and vitality. People who meditate regularly are clinically shown to have fewer overall symptoms of stress, fewer cardiopulmonary and gastrointestinal symptoms, less emotional irritability, and cognitive disorganization.

Awareness meditation draws your attention away from a particular object or illness to an overall knowledge and feeling of inner calmness and peace. During this specific method of meditation, the mind concentrates less on individual problems or issues and settles instead on promoting an inward focus, enabling the mind and the body to experience a profound state of restfulness. In turn, the brain becomes balanced, while the mind and body move beyond thinking, to simply being.

Awareness Meditation: An Introduction

• Prepare your meditation room as outlined in previous postings
• Ensure there are no distractions that will disturb you for the next 10 to 20 minutes
• Allow all energy that arises through your meditation practice to flow.
• Be open to all that you may experience
• Simply observe

Sitting or lying down, depending on your physical abilities, close your eyes and focus on creating a rhythmic flow of breath.

• Relax and focus on an object of meditation that you prefer, such as the breath or a candle flame.
• Observe without any judgment.
• If the mind moves away from this object, return to it when you become conscious of it.
• Notice any feelings of relaxation that occur such as the breath slowing down, muscles relaxing,
• Notice the growing space between thoughts and your meditation object
• Stay with your growing awareness of inner peace
• If any other feelings occur, allow their energy to flow through you.
• Notice what rises up through your meditation
• Release what you no longer need.
• Allow the focused attention to dissolve into awareness
• Enter into the space between the thoughts.
• Draw the inner stillness to you and fill yourself with tranquility and silence.

When you conclude your awareness meditation, know that you can return to the feelings of peace simply by returning to the flow of your breath. Awareness and self-knowledge grow with each meditation enabling you to think with precision and act from a source of love.

Meditation:Concentration

Taking control of the thoughts is central to meditation. The world in which we live in is an instant world, which moves very fast. Expectations are placed upon us to achieve what we set out to do very quickly and this only adds to pressure, stress, and worry. The mind gets used to juggling many tasks and when preparing to meditate it should come as no surprise that the mind is still leaping around and thoughts are hard to still.

Your Meditation Practice
No matter what your ultimate aim of a meditation practice is; greater peace, insight, intuition, connection to God, increased spirituality, or relaxation, if the mind is constantly being pulled in different directions following a seemingly endless trail of thoughts, then your meditation practice ends with disappointment and you may even be tempted to give up.

Train the mind
You can successfully train the mind with a few simple steps.

Before you sit down to meditate, teach the mind to concentrate on ONE single task. Given the multitude of things we do every day, ONE object should be easy. Choose one method and stay with it until it becomes so easy that you can enter into a meditative state with ease.

• Practice mindfulness in all activities e.g. dressing, bathing, pouring water, chewing food. Each activity that you participate in should be examined fully and you will in turn experience not only concentration, but an enhanced appreciation and enjoyment of what you are doing.
• Focus on your breath whenever you have to wait on something or someone. Don't sit gazing around you. Draw the awareness inward to the breath and notice its rate and flow. Expand the breath and slow it down.
• Maintain single-pointed focus by studying a word or phrase in a religious or spiritual book. What does the word or phrase mean to you?
• Relax the mind by gazing at nature elements such as clouds drifting by, waves rolling in the ocean, ripples in water, leaves rustling in trees, and any other object where you can allow the mind to relax and follow without any thought.
• Focus on the space between your thoughts. This is more challenging but with practice the space becomes larger and you can truly focus on the highest spiritual energy.

In a meditative state, the mind is not empty, but focused. Each time you prepare to meditate the mind is more and more familiar with what is expected of it and enters into meditation with grace and ease.

If you have any suggestions for meditation articles please write to me from the website (there's a place at the end of each posting to do this) and I'll be happy to write on this subject.
New meditation information is added to the site every week with links to my additional articles on how to meditate, reduce stress, and gain inner peace.

2009 Boston Marathon

Emma aged 12 crossing the Boston finish line.

Today is the 113th Boston Marathon and Emma Stockley is one of over 27,000 runners taking part in the race. Ten years after she ran in a junior high Massachusetts BAA race, she is crossing the finish line as an adult.
Some runners are competing to win while others are raising money for a charity of their choice. Emma is running for Great Kids Marathon Team (which is organized by Goodwill Industries and marks their 5th year participating in the Boston Marathon.) Details of Emma's fund-raising efforts are in a separate link at the end of today's blog.

Runners sometimes have a buddy that they run beside, or stay close to a pack where they pick up on each others energy, but running is predominantly a solitary sport.
It is an extraordinary feat of endurance that requires discipline, dedication, and a focused mind.

As the race continues and the miles go by, the rhythm of the pace takes over. Scenery, houses, trees and people drift by and gradually the thoughts lessen until the mind is focused only on the single step or breath. Mental strength develops and prepares an individual to control their body and thoughts.


Emma has laughingly said that "after a while, you run out of thoughts to think and just notice what is happening in the moment."

Meditation is the same.

With a person new to meditation, during the quiet moments the mind races and distracting thoughts intrude causing some people to give up by thinking that they can't focus enough to successfully meditate. In the same way that runners train alone but get to know their strengths and find their rhythm, learning to meditate requires getting to know your Self.

With continued practice, thoughts lessen as the mind develops clarity and learns how to develop single-pointed focus. Like most things in life, meditation takes practice but it can easily be learned bringing with it the rewards of purpose and self awareness. Allow your meditation to release your drive and enthusiasm and let it add significance to all you do.


THE DAILY EDGE
Helping You Expand Your Possibilities
TODAY'S EDGE:Hello Self

Meditation
In your meditation, practice sitting still and focus on getting to know your Self. Begin by focusing on the breath, finding a gently steady rhythm, and quieten the mind.
You may decide beforehand what you want to discover about your Self, or you may like to see what emerges during your meditation.
Like the marathon runners, stay the course. Know that after meditating regularly, thoughts and distractions will pass and you will be left only with your Self.
Your Self will not judge, but will be comforting and direct you to your life's purpose and help you find answers to questions.
This meditation helps you to know who you are and stay true to your real Self and to use each meditation session to strengthen your ability to bring your thoughts under control.
Each meditation session carries you over obstacles.
Delight in getting to know your Self and as each thought drifts on by you can find out how truly amazing you really are.

Meditation is for life. Practice it daily.