Four Key Steps to Silencing Self-Talk

Scientists at the University of Toronto-Scarborough have studied the important role that the inner voice plays in controlling impulsive behavior.

They examined inner conversations such as “keep running when tired, stop eating even though you want one more slice of cake, or don’t have an argument.”

In one test, participants were shown different symbols on a computer screen and were told to press a button if they saw one type of symbol and to refrain from pressing the button if they saw a different symbol.

There were actually more “press” than “don’t press” examples in order to make the act of pressing the button an impulsive and repetitive response.

Repeating a word over and over in order to gauge any impact on their ability to do the test also blocked the participants “inner voice”. The repetition prevented any self-talk that would aid self-control resulting in impulsive behavior.

Researchers suggest that the correlation between mindfulness and self-regulation is perhaps the least surprising of the findings reported in mindfulness studies, because your level of mindfulness will in fact predict self-regulation in all aspects of your life.

The research shows that it is not possible to control behaviors that you are unaware of therefore mindfulness may increase not only awareness of your own personal behavior but it may also improve your ability to self-regulate your behavior beginning with your thoughts.

In yoga philosophy there are progressively four states of the body and mind that an individual gains mastery over:

• first is control of the physical body
• second is control of the breath
• third is control of the senses
• and finally there is control of the mind.

Conscious awareness of thoughts, feelings, and emotions quietens the internal chatter of imaginary conversations and halts the playback of events based on interactions with other people that did not go as expected or was based on an imagined “sensing” of how other people felt.

The consequence of rising to external influences or emerging thoughts creates erratic spikes in emotions, feelings, and reactions, which in turn affect the energy that flows in waves through each of us.

With awareness, the senses enable us to be mindful of what we are thinking and feeling; whether we are demonstrating empathy for example, or whether our actions or non-actions are appropriate.

Simply put, mindfulness enables you to discern what you are thinking first and to respond accordingly, with no more speaking (or doing) before you think.

This heightened level of awareness also teaches the body and mind to relax by monitoring the senses fully and expanding mindfulness in all mental and physical activities. It allows you to release attachment to outmoded beliefs and use a clear perspective based upon what you actually perceive rather than having living life clouded by bias or emotions.

When you practice the action of awareness you will end up with the results of your conscious choices.

Affirmations
When you are exposed to a specific event, it is how your mind reacts that determines the response, rather than the actual event itself. When you are aware of the power of your intention and how it shapes yourself and the world around you, you recognize how uncontrolled emotions can keep you tied down in the very place you are struggling to get away from.

The past has no hold over me

I am in control of my thoughts and emotions

I make conscious decisions to follow one path or another

My life is brimming with bright choices and overflowing with joy and happiness.

No Pain - All Gain! Train the Brain to Remove Pain

During meditation and yogic breathing techniques, brain wave patterns change.

Scientists from The University of Manchester have found that people who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less. The study was published in September 2010 and showed that meditation reduces the emotional impact of aches and injury.

In the study, pain was administered via a small laser and the threat of pain was also anticipated as part of the research.

The scientists found that the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain known to be involved in controlling attention and thought processes when potential threats are perceived, was more active compared to non-meditators. The experienced meditators also perceived the pain as less unpleasant relative to controls.

The more experience that a meditation practitioner had, the more the individual was able to distance themselves from anticipation of soreness, both reducing the expectation of and the negative appraisal of pain.

Meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and to spend less time anticipating future negative events, reducing the recurrence of depression which makes chronic pain considerably worse.

Other studies have demonstrated that the pre-frontal cortex thickens as a result of meditation and thickening of this area of cortex is also shown to protect a person from sensitivity to pain.


Meditation Reduces Pain

During meditation and yogic breathing techniques, brain wave patterns change from beta waves to alpha waves. In addition, both hemispheres of the brain and the body become balanced. In most people, one side is slightly more active than the other e.g. being left or right-handed, but balanced sides also mean that your creative, physical, and logical abilities are equal and productive.

During the alpha state, the brain produces endorphins, natural pain-reducing hormones that are also responsible for a feeling of wellbeing and calming awareness throughout the body. Endorphins are the “feel good” factor involved in maintaining a positive quality of life, aid in controlling the body’s response to stress and in the regulation of growth and gonadotropin hormones.

When the mind is balanced, the whole body is affected.

Multi-Sensory Meditation which we teach, via classes and seminars, positively impacts your internal and external perception, your awareness of possibilities, and by promoting an optimistic mental state enables you to be free from negativity. In its simplest form, it is your own way of distancing your mind from the hustle and bustle of everyday living. You give yourself permission to relinquish the thoughts, demands, and pressures coming at you from the outside as well as from within, releasing attachment to the familiar path you traveled on before and experiencing the peace of the moment.

Guided Meditation
See previous postings on the website on the basic method of How to Meditate

Train The Brain To Remove Pain
Begin by following the breath from the tip of the nose into the base of the lungs and follow the breath out again.
Notice the body
Begin at the base of the body at the right side
See the right foot then the left
Move slowly over each area of the body, without becoming attached or associated with any particular area
Notice how each part of the body feels
Notice what you sense, smell, touch, hear, see, experience

How does your body feel with your surroundings; do you feel supported by the earth, does your body and heart feel open or closed
Travel with conscious awareness from the feet to the crown of the head
Begin to release awareness of your body, one limb and area at a time
Recognize that you are not your body
As you release awareness of having a body, you release awareness of areas that have pain as well as areas that are pain-free
With practice you learn to disassociate your Self from the confines of the body




Affirmation
Thoughts have their own unique energy. Use the power of your words to create only that which is positive for you.

See yourself as strong and healthy. See healing energy passing into you. See yourself doing all the things that you are now physically able to do. You move lightly, filled with vitality and the knowledge that all is well.

I am filling each cell with light and creating a new body

Affirmations For Following Your Life Path

 Follow your chosen path.

No journey is possible if you don’t believe that you will ever reach your destination.
Even the most rugged vehicle equipped with a state of the art navigation system will keep on driving in circles and weaving its way around the wrong routes if not provided with a clear purpose or idea of which direction to head in. Eventually it will run out of fuel, forced to stay put.

Strengthen your resolve to not let yourself be affected by detractors or to give up following your chosen path by living each moment of every day with purpose and peace.

Use affirmations either as part of your meditation practice or carry them with you and repeat them throughout the day whenever you catch yourself thinking a negative thought.
Over time, your affirmations will have a positive effect and transform not only your behavior but generate an assuredness of self-worth and contentment.

My inner glow is not dulled or discolored by what is happening around me

I do something every day to enable me to stay on my chosen path
 I am a beacon of pure energy radiating on the world

helping others by the brightness and power of my light

I am ever expanding my awareness and opening my senses to the opportunities that surround me

What Thoughts Are You Carrying?

The immune system is not an independent self-directed system; rather it has an actual connection with the conscious mind and the effect of thoughts upon the body.
The brain produces chemicals called neuropeptides which affect the immune cell receptors in specific ways according to your emotional state.

The interaction between your mind and your subsequent behavior affects the immune system of your body, resulting in either health or illness.
People who expect the worst and see everything as half-empty may already be half-way to an early grave. With illnesses ranging from colds and flu to heart attacks and cancer, pessimists do live a shorter and unhealthier life.

Do mind-body techniques such as yoga, meditation or repetitive prayer affect the way the body deals with the activation or repression of genes which can result in cellular damage and consequently disease?
A study by MGH MBI and the Genomics Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center shows that following an 8 week period of meditation, participants’ genes were positively affected demonstrating that thoughts can and do affect the body at a cellular level.

Food and drink contain energy that can work with or against your body.
However, health does not only come from what you consume or apply topically. It stems from the internal and meditation is one of the easiest methods to promote healthy thoughts.
What habits do you keep repeating?
What feelings and fears keep intruding?
A diet of positive thoughts detoxifies the mind and improves your quality of life.
You are what you think.

Affirmation
Negative thoughts draw more negative energy to you; however it is possible to create new and better pathways within your brain with far-reaching consequences. Carry an affirmative thought with you every day to remind you to stay optimistic.

I choose to be grateful I choose to be kind

I choose to give love

I choose to feel joy

I choose to see the good within

I choose to be happy

Creating the future that you want, now!

Paths take many directions and forms

What do you believe about yourself, your relationships, and the world around you?
Where does the information come from that enables you to form these beliefs?

All of your past experiences, and your perception of your experiences, create physiological changes in the brain in response to new information that is received. This occurs on a continual basis via images, words, sounds, smells and a myriad of other information that the brain constantly absorbs, including data received from your own thoughts and emotions.

Creating the right thoughts
In one Japanese study, children allergic to a poison ivy-like plant had a leaf of the poisonous plant rubbed onto one arm and a non-poisonous leaf resembling the toxic plant rubbed on the other forearm. The arm rubbed with the poison ivy-like leaf developed a rash while the other arm had no response.
However, the leaves were purposefully swapped resulting in the non-toxic plant producing a rash and the majority of children experiencing no effects from the actual poison ivy-like plant.

Researchers have also studied the link between unconscious thought and an individual’s environment which ultimately influenced their subjective view of themselves and their surroundings. This can also positively affect clinical depression by replacing a patient’s unhelpful and negative thinking patterns with ones that promote feelings of well-being, impacting the body right down to the cellular level.

Creating the right changes
Meditation creates neurological changes that help you during your daily activities. The changes are then reinforced each time you meditate, and each time you follow the new behavior.

During meditation, with the mind still and centered on the breath or your choice of focus, the brain works at keeping the breath slow, calm, and steady. As the breath slows, the mind becomes steady and less prone to random thoughts.

With practice and dedication, your chosen path become straight and clear.

Creating the right path
Over time, thinking positively becomes your normal way of thinking. You are able to catch yourself as each negative thought occurs, and change it quickly to a positive one. Eventually you only think good thoughts.

Constantly dragging the past or concerns about the future around with you keeps the body in a negative energy state. Applying the right thoughts, emotions, and behavior comes after creating space within the mind for new patterns to emerge. Aversions and preferences fade away until you remove the patterns of the past to create space for a new present to occur.


Affirmation
When you are exposed to a specific event, it is how your mind reacts that determines the response, rather than the actual event itself. When you are aware of the power of your intention and how it shapes yourself and the world around you, you recognize how uncontrolled emotions can keep you tied down in the very place you are struggling to get away from.

The past has no hold over me

I am in control of my thoughts and emotions

I make conscious decisions to follow one path

My life is brimming with bright choices and overflowing with joy and happiness

As always, thank you for checking out the blog, the hundreds of affirmations, and for passing the blog along to friends.

Are You Living Your Best Self?

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;

the real tragedy of life is when men (and women)

are afraid of the light." Plato

Life is always about choice and the outcome of choosing to live a particular way. The consequence of not living a life following your inner guidelines can lead to a life filled with anguish and unhappiness.

We know we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we know we should feel compassion for all living things, and we know we should respect the challenges that we face without judgment, knowing that we are all at different stages on the journey of life and are each of us doing the best that we choose to do. Living a life free from negative thoughts and behavior promotes love, thoughtfulness, and kindness for all things. Living in the light is possible for all.

Common Desires
Deep down, we all share the same common desires to have adequate shelter, food, and freedom from harm. This truth affirms our need to share in our commonality as fellow human beings and thereby work together to create a better society that brings about the internal and external peace that we seek.

Project What You Really Want
Meditation brings your complete attention to the present, to what is happening at this very moment, and helps you choose to behave in the appropriate way that puts into practice all your acquired knowledge.

This stills the soul, the mind, and the body enabling you to be a positive light in our own life and those you come in contact with. Because you are living in the present, you are always aware of the way people behave and of your responses toward them. You learn with intention to monitor your reactions and to project thoughts free from judgment, criticism, and hostility.

When you recognize who are are, and show it, you are on your way to living your best self.

The Choice Is Yours
Developing awareness in all situations, including your own feelings and reactions, enables you to take control of what you think and therefore do. It’s up to you to determine what kind of reaction, and ultimately reality, you're going to create.

Affirmations
You have the wonderful ability to think positively. It is a conscious choice to ensure that your thoughts and subsequent action are doing their best for you and for others. Whether you call it positive thinking or an affirmation, as long as you believe that it is working then it will have the power to make a difference.
Use whichever words best meet your own needs and purpose each day.

Here are a few to begin with:

I choose to be kind

I choose to give love

I choose to be happy

I am surrounded with loving, caring people in my life.

I am loving and accepting of others and this creates lasting relationships for me.

I trust my inner thoughts to lead me in the right path.

Why Do Happy People Do Better In Life?

Why do happy people do better in life?

A 2009 study from the University of Pittsburgh looked at the role of positive emotions and discovered that positivity was a powerful source of growth and change, predicting desirable life outcomes in many areas including resilience, coping resources, as well as life satisfaction. The researchers investigated why positive emotions were so significant and concluded that optimistic feelings actually helped people build lasting resources.

Encouragingly, the researchers found that negative emotions had weak or null effects and did not interfere with the benefits of positive emotions. So, if you were to experience positive emotions during one part of your day and negative emotions during another, their effects did not cancel each other out. The report highlighted this effect using the acute experience of bereavement as an example. Many people who were grieving reported some episodes of positive emotions amid their elevated levels of negative emotions, resulting in better psychological outcomes.

Change in resilience mediated the relationship between positive emotions and increased life satisfaction, suggesting that happy people became more satisfied not simply because they felt better but because they developed resources for living well.

What was also interesting was that it was not enough to simply express gratitude or appreciate your life in a general way, it was the “in-the-moment” lived experiences of joy and interest, rather than the more general positive evaluations, that started the process of exploring, learning, connecting, and building new resources and ultimately formed the link between happiness and desirable life outcomes.

A mindful, happy moment!

Savoring The Moment

Increase your own life satisfaction by fostering behavior that triggers a cascade effect of positive emotions, increases resilience, while providing you with tools that give you a constructive and optimistic outlook on life.
Savor the moment. Awareness of wonders, such as a rainbow after a storm, the giggle of a child, the sweet flavor and juiciness of a summer fruit all contribute to memories that not only make you feel good but you can later draw on during challenging moments to sustain you. Pay closer attention to what is happening around you. Think about creating happy memories from good situations, however small and transitory they may seem, and notice how quickly they build up.

Something Else To Celebrate

Altruism, empathy and acts of kindness not only make you feel good, but they make a difference in the lives of others. Your actions don’t have to be major ones; they can be as simple as a smile, opening a door, to something larger such as organizing a food drive or driving someone to and from the hospital. It’s the cumulative effect that makes you feel good about yourself and life in general while enhancing your connectivity to the world. As an added bonus, you will see your kindness reciprocated.

Isn’t that something else to celebrate?

Affirmation
Create a positive feedback loop and boost your life satisfaction through consciously monitoring and choosing your thoughts and actions. When you are aware of the power of your intention and how it shapes yourself and the world around you, you recognize how uncontrolled emotions can keep you tied down in the very place you are struggling to get away from.

The past has no hold over me
I am in control of my thoughts and emotions
I make conscious decisions to follow one path or another
My life is brimming with bright choices and overflowing with joy and happiness.

Be Kind to Yourself Too!

Integrating loving-kindness into your everyday life can provide quick results that benefit yourself, and others.
It's often easier to extend a helping hand or a thoughtful word to a friend or even a complete stranger, but what goes on in your head? What recurring thoughts do you have that you don't want and how can you get rid of them?

Loving-kindness directed to friends, family, yourself, and even strangers fosters self-care and improves connections while extinguishing doubts, anxieties, and even anger.

You can learn to express loving/kind thoughts and actions but it is also important to permit yourself to receive love/kindness in return.

A new perspective
This open-hearted way of living permeates all aspects of your life and interactions with the world around you; from what you eat, from your loving respect of animals, to caring about the environment, and embracing non-violence.

When you interact with another person, or even a group, your intention will show via your thoughts through the language that you choose to use, to your tone of voice. Building and living your life upon the strong foundation of love and kindness provides a steady stepping-stone to increase your well-being, happiness, and self-compassion.

When you catch yourself in the throes of another self-depricating thought, replace it with one or all of the following affirmations instead.

Meditation
The following meditation helps to bring positive changes to the area of your heart and can be repeated as often as you wish throughout the day.

When seated in your meditation pose you can focus on the phrases by repeating them.

If concentration is challenging, you may like to try repeating them when walking and synchronize them with each step that you take.

In addition, one or more of the phrases can be written down and placed where you can see them often.

With continued use, you clear away the clutter of thoughts and emotions that you do not want and act instead from a clear place of kindness that was within you all along.

May I be safe

May I be happy

May I be well

May I be at peace

Positive Affirmations

I am Love and Light and my energy is limitless. There are No limitations to my possibilities.

What do you believe about yourself, your relationships, and the world around you?

Where does the information come from that enables you to form these beliefs?

All of your past experiences, and your perception of your experiences, create physiological changes in the brain in response to new information that is received. This occurs on a continual basis via images, words, sounds, smells and a myriad of other information that the brain constantly absorbs, including data received from your own thoughts and emotions.

Your beliefs create your life! They form the foundation of all that you think and do. Your beliefs are believed by the mind whether they are real, or true, or even false.

The beliefs that YOU hold are what you use to lead you whether you are aware of them or not.

Meditation helps with self-inquiry to understand who you are and to gently peel away the layers to uncover who you really are and what you actually desire in life, rather than leading a life that is flowing in a direction that leaves you dissatisfied and unhappy. The beliefs that you hold about yourself are what contribute to shaping and molding your personality, self-worth, and your self-image.

Reinforce your daily meditation practice with powerful positive affirmations.

Affirmation
All that I perceive about myself is positive.
My success does no harm to others
I am able to help and encourage people around me
I face challenges with certainty that I will find solutions and overcome all obstacles
I am successful in all that I set out to do

Peace

POSITIVE POWER

Sign in Sri Swamiji's Bonsai Garden in Mysore, India

Our present is the result of all our yesterdays, and the future depends on how well we live today. Sanskrit Verse

What’s stopping you from achieving what you want?
Do you know what you are trying to reach?
Sometimes it’s our own self that keeps getting in our own way.

Each one of us has a unique power that extends far beyond the physical body and our finite minds. This power is never-ending and unlimited in its ability to manifest change and propel you to where you need to be.

All too often, we encounter difficulties when we attempt to reach for goals and aspirations. We self-sabotage our efforts by mantras that replay statements that we wish we hadn’t said.

Yet when we live consciously with our thoughts, our words, and our actions, then the past no longer is something that we want to rework or do over.

The present is no longer something that we want to hide from.

The future is no longer something that we dread.

As a prized and unique individual, you have the skills to be a blessing to others. Your beauty shines from within and people sense when you are being genuinely helpful to them. They respond positively as your intentions show through your actions.

You do not act alone.
Meditation enables you to tap into the source of this inner power and achieve whatever you truly desire.
This gives you the confidence and determination to say to yourself “I will not give up,” and “I will make the right choices.”

Progress is not dependent upon how good you have been up to this moment in time. What matters is how you proceed from this point on in turning your life around from failure to success and sharing your divine dreams with others.

AFFIRMATION

• My efforts are recognized positively.
• I am successful in all that I do.
• I see the best in people and work to help them
• I am always connected to the source of Divine Love
• My inner vision is always clear and focused.
• I am loved

Peace, Light, Love

  A dragon holding a golden key.  What will it unlock?

Many thanks to Flo for sharing the dragon with us. I've photographed it on my yoga mat in my yoga studio.  Note the dragon's breath as it protects the key.

Last week I posted an article about dragons and while they don’t exist except in our imaginations, there are real things that can create fear and anxiety in each of our lives, if we allow them to.  Inner Happiness

These fears prevent many of us from exploring and seeing the potential that lies before us every day. If our imagination can project fear, then it can also project happiness.

Instead of allowing the fears to burn away your hopes, desires, and potential, meditation and affirmations help you to take control of your thoughts and actions and overcome any internal and external obstacles.

Unlike stories where a knight will arrive and slay a dragon, the only person who can eliminate the dragon breathing down your neck with it's fiery breath is YOU.

Meditation and assertive affirmations remove all feelings of helplessness and of being lost.

The inner light of meditation connects you to the Universal Source that infuses you with peace and love.
When you are connected to the source of Love, there is NO PLACE for fear to reside.

Period.

It's that simple.

When you are learning to meditate there will be times when you feel positive, only to have doubts later on.  Love is stronger and each time that you meditate you will REINFORCE your strength and the power of Love.
This power exists within you and you can tap into it every time that you meditate and bring it into all your activities.

Assertive affirmations are a great way to keep you focused on the wonderful individual that you are.  They act like a shield to block unwanted thoughts that will harm you if permitted to continue.

Holding a positive image in your mind during your meditation practice helps you to stay focused.  Following your meditation, you can concentrate on this image whenever you experience the mind wandering from a peaceful state.

One image that I like to focus on is the face of a person that I love.  I invite this person into my heart and see their divine qualities.  Slowly, I fill my mind and body with love until it is overflowing.

During my waking moments, I can re-experience this loving feeling whenever I draw this person into my mind's awareness.  It's a simple yet effective method of developing concentration and awareness of Love.

Use the strength and power of your meditation practice to chase away any dragons and seize the golden key that will unlock the door to health and success in all that you do.

Peace, Light, Love

Meditation of Love

Swans are a Symbol of Love

Over the centuries there have been tales of the fountain of youth; a fountain whose waters impart healing or prolong life. Today’s scientists are looking for cures into many diseases and have uncovered cells and receptors within the body that promote feelings of well-being while increasing the protective factors that prevent diseases from occurring in the first place.  Much is also known about optimism and its subsequent benefits to the body.

For thousands of years, meditation has been known by practitioners to promote happiness, peace, and love.
This brings with it numerous advantages to not only spiritual health and happiness, but improves overall health and well-being too.


More benefits of meditation are being discovered every year and cover numerous areas from psychology, stress-reduction, and reduction of medication, to name a few.  One aspect is the ability of meditation to increase the thickness of the frontal lobe of the brain (it thins as we age) that is responsible for attention, sensory input, and emotional processing and well-being. This means that with repeated practice, the adult brain can alter its structure. The brain is more able to concentrate on what is truly important and not be drawn astray by thoughts that keep leaping about from one topic to another, it feels happier more often, and with practice it experiences deep and true Love.

When people experience profound happiness, like the kind they experience through love, they not only feel happy and exhilarated but exhibit increased levels of the hormone DHEA, which is known to prevent aging.

When you meditate, you gain similar benefits.

When you are in love, or feel love, your body produces hormones and receptors that increase your ability to fight infection and reduce the spread of diseases, while at the same time lowering the damaging process caused by stress, anxiety, and unhappiness.

Meditation helps you to improve your health, manifest a conscious shift in your relationships, and even how you feel about yourself.

How?

By increasing the depth of your Love.

Love is often described as an ocean, with unfathomable depths and breadths. We may think that we are able to love fully, but as our frequency of meditation increases, the depth of our experience intensifies as Love flows freely through an expanded heart and mind.

Everyone wants to love and receive love, and this is made possible through meditation as it unites you to the source of all that is Light and Love.  Open the subtle energy that surrounds and exists within your heart and let it flow freely.  During your meditation, you will know when your heart is open because the surge of Love through your body is like a dam being opened.
We are all capable of Loving and we may say that we are in love, but it is not until you experience the overwhelming flow of Love through you that you can experience your relationships in a different light.

How is it done?
Through preparation and regular meditation practice.

Preparation means awareness of thoughts.  Removing critical and disapproving thoughts on a regular basis until you see only the goodness in life, rather than focusing on what is broken or diseased.
This does not mean that you should view the world through rose-colored glasses. It means that you endeavor to see the beauty and potential of life.

In your relationships with others, focus on the love that united you, think of them often through the day with love, rather than on petty differences.
Monitor your thoughts and if you find that a less than loving thought has arisen, stop it in its tracks from going any further and replace it with thoughts of kindness and affection.
Practice thinking of others with love; extend kind thoughts to strangers rather than critical thoughts.

When you say that you love someone, love them without restrictions. Learn to swim in the ocean of love. As soon as you risk taking the plunge into the ocean of bliss you envelop yourself in it and recognize your true Self.

Loving Affirmations

The breath has power not only on a physical level, but on a subtle level too. As you meditate every day, develop loving awareness in rhythm with your deep and steady breath. This will become your normal state of being. Cultivate a state of Love in all your thoughts by drawing this understanding to all your activities.

I choose to be grateful
I choose to be kind
I choose to feel joy
I choose to see the good within
I choose to be happy
I choose to give love
I choose to be loved
I am Loved
I am Love

Positive Thoughts

Meditation helps stop the endless stream of thoughts.

One of the biggest problems that people who are new to meditation struggle with is intruding thoughts.
When the mind tries to release attachment to the outside world by focusing inward, thoughts, emotions, and conversations creep in and leap around, refusing to go away and leave you in peace.

What happens in the brain when thinking takes place? First, we have to go back to the mid 50’s, where the Nobel prize winners for Neuroscientific Research, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel of Harvard Medical School explained how the brain cortex receives and interprets impulse messages via the eye.

Roger Sperry, who also received a Nobel Prize, showed that the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for logical thinking and the right side of the body, while the right hemisphere is responsible for creativity and imagination and controlling the left side of the body, for example writing with a dominant left hand.

Neurobiologist Walter Freeman of University of California at Berkeley conducted research on the olfactory sense and using EEG, he was able to identify the specific area of the brain that identified with smell and taste. In addition, he discovered that the area of the brain that identified with a smell was different than the first time the brain perceived a smell.  The memory of a particular smell is located within a specific part of the brain, but we now have to ask ourselves about the role of emotions and feelings associated with a scent.

We use different language to express our feelings of preference, likes and dislikes, even happiness associated with what the smell represents.  Our thoughts are influenced by so many things that we are often unaware of their impact upon us until we attempt to quieten the mind during meditation.

Brain mapping has helped us understand what happens to the brain when we participate in or experience a particular event. It broadens our comprehension of physical and mental disorders as we recognize that there are a variety of factors that influence our consciousness at any given moment and on many different levels.

Meditation is clinically proven to balance both hemispheres of the brain, bringing stability to your emotions, thoughts, and actions. This means that creativity is enhanced, thoughts are clearer, and logical reasoning is focused and attentive.

Your personal life and your interactions with other people improve as you become more contented and at ease with the calmness that exists within you.

The thoughts that intrude and demand your attention are successful. Replacing them with positive thoughts that you want to focus on, such as an affirmation, is a step forward in bringing relaxation and peace to your life.

Meditation helps you to monitor your thoughts and how they make you feel. You learn to replace unwanted emotions with ones that you DO want and with practice you find that you can eliminate unnecessary thoughts as they arise and before they are able to take up permanent residence in your mind.

Think about how wonderful you will feel when all your thoughts are happy ones. No more self-doubt, no more self-criticizing; only confidence and contentment.

Om Shanti Peace

POSITIVE MEDITATION

Embrace life.

The practice of meditation is transformative on many levels. The beginning of a changed life pathway is by living THIS moment in the present to your maximum potential. Then the next moment will ALSO be lived to fullest potential, and then the remainder of your 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.
Then when you least expect it, something great comes along to change your life making it even more purposeful, with an aliveness, vitality and a higher sense of spiritual purpose in life. Something even greater will happen for you that you never even planned.

Will you be able to say in a few months time that this moment TODAY changed your life, because you changed to THINKING POSTIVELY by using your mind and soul to your maximum potential ?

Can a mere thought block energy? Can a mere thought cause disease? A study at Duke University in 1997 found that thoughts leading to negative emotions like anger or sadness actually constrict the blood vessels of the heart, a condition known as ischemia. Ischemia starves the flow of energy to the muscle and is a precursor to heart attack. Researcher Elizabeth Gullette said "What surprised me was the power of the association and the fact that negative emotions can actually trigger ischemia." The findings summarized that "negative emotions double the risk of ischemic attacks for an hour after the emotional trigger but positive emotions reduce the risk of such events."

So, holding on to a negative thought about someone or something blocks energy flow while a positive thought reduces risk.

In this way, the nature and quality of the thoughts we think, the feelings we experience, and the meaning we attach to events, either consciously or unconsciously, both influence and are influenced by our sense of awareness and level of consciousness long after the experience has passed.

Recognizing what you need comes not from what you perceive outwardly, but what comes to you inwardly through prayer, meditation, and listening to your innermost feelings. In quieting your mind, you hear what you need and begin to recognize the areas of your life that require healing, sustenance, and love. Determining the difference between wanting and truly needing is self-liberating.

Be serious in your choice to follow the right path and all that it requires. It takes effort, but pursuing the wrong path is destructive and painful and demands more effort in the long run.

Change your routine and habits to set yourself up for success. Replace bad habits with good habits. Begin one at a time and don’t be afraid to bring people into your life you who will support you and not try to detract you from your intentions.

We live in a world full of temptation and by maintaining a regular meditation practice you equip yourself with a unique tool to cope with pressures and desires. You will feel the joy that flows through each one of us, instilling you with the capacity to face up to daily challenges.

Meditation infuses you with a powerful energy. While you are in a relaxed state of body and mind, realize that you are master of your body. The mind is yours to control, and when it is controlled it will care for you and follow your directions.

Only when your mind becomes still through meditation can you attain clarity of thought and purpose in your actions. Ultimately, life is about maintaining a balance. In other words, when you practice moderation, your mind, body, and Spirit are healthy.

A positive mindset leads to positive actions and meditation allows the essence of unity with the source of pure love to lead you to a state of harmony and bliss.

Om Shanti Peace

SPIRITUAL MEDITATION

Meditation helps you find the tranquil spiritual place that lies within you.

Over 2500 years ago, yoga originated as a means of teaching people to control their bodies and minds, in order to sit in meditation.
Meditation was considered extremely important because of the limitless possibilities that it unveiled. It was viewed as so much more than a medium of relaxation, emotional healing, and relieving stress as is often seen today.
This is like being offered a blank check that has your name written on it and only asking for a dollar of the true worth.

At its heart, meditation is the foundation of spiritual growth. It is a unique pathway that enables you to explore your soul and draw awareness to your actual self that lies deep within.
With meditation, you learn to rise above the perceived restrictions and prejudices that keep you in a habitual pattern of emotional and physical limitations and reveal instead the doorway to the spiritual realm.

In the spiritual realm you can tap into great wisdom, tranquility, and deep healing as you take time to explore your emotions and feelings, while maintaining an open connection to God.

It is here, in your meditation, that you discover your potential, and know the profound love that exists for you. As you bathe in this love, you feel the bliss. There is no place for fear or anxiety to reside. Instead, there is only love, peace, and happiness. This love emerges from the source of Light and this Light fills you and emanates from you. In turn, your light shines on others and they delight in being around you because you help them to feel the love and Light.

This spiritual consciousness brings a shift whereby spiritual gifts will emerge for you to put to good use to help others. The more that you practice meditation, the easier it becomes to enter into meditation, making your meditation deeper and more blissful. Eventually you reach a state of enlightenment where consciousness expands in all directions and becomes limitless. You lose awareness of having a body or breath and realize instead your very soul and its connection to God.

Persist with your practice of meditation and know that its ultimate goal is to help you to grow in your love for your Self, your love for others, your love for the world, and especially in your love for God.

No matter where you are on your own spiritual journey, meditation transcends religious dogma by enabling you to grow closer to and maintain an authentic relationship with God.

Om Shanti Peace

PEACE AND HARMONY

Create Peace and Harmony Within Your Thoughts.

PEACE AND HARMONY

A life that is over-worked, stressed, and flits from one crisis to another is usually a life that is living in confusion and chaos with a mind in inner turmoil. If prolonged, this can lead to accidents, illnesses, and unhappiness and no knowledge of a way out of the present situation.

The demands of daily living are not exactly conducive to a life of tranquility but every day you are presented with a myriad of choices.
If you were to monitor your thoughts, would they be assertive, encouraging, affirmative, hopeful, loving to your self or other people or even towards situations?

When you are relaxed and happy, you put others at ease too. Plus, other people like to be around you as your positive energy level rises and in turn, people feel happier when they are around you too.

A peace and harmony meditation allows you to develop calm and peaceful feelings that you can feel within yourself as well as emit to the world in general. As clarity of mind evolves, you discover that through the inner silence you can discern how to utilize your thoughts for the better.

As more people learn how to meditate upon peace and draw harmony and serenity to themselves, their meditation practice will allow more people to live in tranquility.

AFFIRMATIONS
As always, choose affirmations that feel appropriate to you. Feel free to create an affirmation that's suitable to you by asking yourself the following question:
What do you want?

This will help you to create affirmations that assert your purpose and therefore have special meaning to you.
It is important that the words you use are your own or that they feel comfortable to you.
Once you become familiar with using an affirmation, you can create your own ones, based on your specific needs on a day-to-day basis.
The affirmations presented below are a suggestion and I encourage you to change the language and content to better fit what is happening in your own life.

I choose to see only the best in myself and other people
I am happy with who I am
I bring light and love to everyone I meet
I take time every day to meditate
I think, say, and do supportive and loving thoughts and actions

IN PRACTICE
The stillness of your mind will evolve and become natural through contemplation of all the energies that are positive and stem from love.
Developing a single point of focus through both meditation and the practice of affirmations will silence the worries and fears that prevent you from remaining calm and living in peace and harmony.
When you focus only on what is good, there is no room for negativity to set up residence and so it will dissolve away.
Loving kindness will flow through you and surround you, and extend to everyone that you come into contact with.

Om Shanti Peace