INNER KNOWLEDGE

Inner Knowledge; Harnessing the Senses for Peace, Balance, and Health is available in print through all major stores such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com

Filled with cutting-edge research for a non-yoga audience you don’t have to practice yoga to reap the benefits!

The following is an extract from Chapter 2 Mind Into Matter.

You Can Choose Your Thoughts

Psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz combined the science of neuroplasticity with quantum physics to help people with obsessive-compulsive disorder adjust what and how they think and thereby learn to respond in new ways.

During his research he made an extraordinary discovery; that these patients were able to achieve lasting change because of their new-found ability to refocus their attention on positive thoughts and behaviors which in turn transformed the neuropathways in their brains.

Schwartz conceived the concept and practice of “self-directed mental force” based on his own personal practice of meditation, along with using the concepts of quantum physics.

Self-directed mental force is a process where the mind forges new connections in the brain simply by changing undesirable thoughts into more constructive and positive ones.

Perspective Awareness Transformation works similarly by allowing you to let go of the old perspective that does not work so that you can consciously make new and healthy choices in thought and deed, and in doing so, transform yourself. 

You are not your thoughts and this means you are not bound to your current thinking.

New perspectives are born from new ways of thinking and new ways of thinking are the cause for and the result of conscious awareness...

Click on INNER KNOWLEDGE for more information, 

Self-Generated Power

See, Speak and Hear no Evil.

The connection between the mind and the body is enhanced through the use of sound and by chants. The mind quickly becomes attuned to the vibration of the sound and aligns itself to its energy.

When spoken aloud, the words help you to focus on what you discern as your own body’s needs, thereby promoting healing and resilience to the pull of negativity.

Thinking unhealthy, sad, unhopeful thoughts really does affect the cells of the body detrimentally; while thoughts filled with hope, kindness, and love promote health and well-being.
NOTE: Previous postings highlight the research associated with this amazing connection between the mind and the body.  See the blog for more details.

You can self-generate power by using positive thoughts and vibrations.
Speak a word such as “Love,” or a phrase such as “I am Healed,” or the universal sound of AUM pronounced OM.

“I am filling each cell with the positive energy of sound and

creating a new body with the vibration of each breath.”

Embracing Change

A single iris surrounded by other plants.

Seeds of Hope

Change is unpredictable and this means that on occasions it can sometimes be scary. Fear of the unknown is a very common emotion as there can be comfort in what is familiar to us, whether it is in the people that we know, our routine, or even our view from our house.

Seeing change from a different perspective not only changes your point of view, sometimes literally, but a different thought can enable your to see that even a small change has the potential to lead to something spectacular.

Meditation affects our perception, our awareness of time, and by promoting a positive mental state enables us to be free from negativity that both creates and arises from disorder and chaos.

Give full attention to what you are experiencing physically, and what you are feeling, thinking and doing.  Nature is always changing and there are daily miracles of life everywhere.

You may like to use some of the following affirmations to remind you of the source of all creation and your unique connection to it as a means of embracing change and seeking the seeds of hope.

• I am divinely guided in all I do
• I expect life to give me what is best for me
• I am open to receive the abundant good that God has for me
• God is the source of all that is good
• When I focus on only the positive in my life, I summon all that is for my highest good, and receive what I truly need right now.

Weekly Meditation Newsletter
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/view_newsletter.php?newsletter_id=1410045011

Mastery of Energy Healing

Explore other methods of meditation and energy healing

and see where this new knowledge takes you.

Over the next few postings, I’d like to share with you some of the useful items, amazing people, or interesting methods that I have come across that help people explore and deepen their meditation practice. I am not affiliated with any of the methods and highlight them simply as a means of enabling you, dear readers, to make informed choices and grow in your knowledge of the fascinating world that we live in.

There are many forms of meditation and affirmation with the purpose of enabling an individual to promote peace and healing within themselves and I was fortunate recently to experience a new method called Mastery of Energy Healing. I was introduced to this powerful, yet simple, technique by one of my yoga students.

My student had a colleague, Glen, who had been seriously ill for a number of years with a heart condition. Glen’s amazing testimony is highlighted in the following website www.masteryofenergyhealing.com
My student stays in regular contact with Glen and he has used the Energy Healing to help her and other people.

Alex J. Hermosillo is the founder of Mastery of Energy Healing (M.E.H.). In his own words, he states that M.E.H. is a gentle, non-invasive healing technique that assists the individual in releasing the negative energies and negative memories of unserving thoughts, emotions and patterns that cause illness.

Research in neurophysiology is supporting the premise of his work, which is outlined in the following statement.

“From the moment you are born to the present, your body and mind stores a complete record of information about you (called ‘Cell Memory’). Every experience of joy, gratitude, contentment and peace of mind is within you. Also within you are the energies and memories of heartbreaks, grief, confusion and fear.”

Simple in concept, it is actually more challenging for a person to release deep-seated beliefs than they realize. There are a variety of reasons for that, but one of the reasons that I like Alex’s method is that release does occur, without having to relive the negative events that caused them to be embedded in the first place.
Once the release has occurred, you bring in positive energy that, in turn, promotes a healthier view of yourself and your life.

“If there are individuals or a person who causes you harm, keep them at a distance, and bring in individuals that will nurture you, for they are plentiful as the stars."
~ Alex J. Hermosillo

People who have participated in this program find that they gain confidence, assertiveness, become more loving to themselves and others, and gain relief from symptoms of illness. Best results are apparently achieved through working with a healer trained in Mastery of Energy Healing.

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.

CULTIVATING PEACE

Peace and stillness flows through the mind like a river.

"There is nothing in all creation so like God as stillness."

Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)

Elusive Peace
Noise is everywhere; in the streets, in shops, even inside your head when you keep replaying past conversations. Sometimes the internal noise drowns out the external so that someone has to repeat what they have said to you in order for you to hear them. Sounds impact each one of us whether we are aware of them or not. Laughter, crying, shouting, and music can each affect our mood even when they are in the background and we are not aware of paying it very much attention.

The constant bombardment of noise on the senses can reach the point where life gets so hectic and fast paced that you say to yourself, “I just want a break. I need some peace.”

So where do you go to find it?
A spa? A sacred place of worship? A stroll in the park or by the ocean? A library?

A Moment for Meditation
Where does true lasting peace exist? Certainly not in an external place, no matter how tranquil or spiritual the place is. However, a beautiful scenic filled with the sights and sounds of nature, or a romantic atmosphere, can promote short acting peace and provide both a positive memory to return to within the mind's awareness and a stepping-off point to begin developing lasting peace.

It takes no special skills, simply practice and the belief that peace DOES reside within you.

Awareness of lasting peace is cultivated over a period of time, provided it is given the right environment so that you can first recognize it, and then enable it to deepen its roots and strengthen over time.

It is through meditation that you experience serenity and tranquility. You create a memory for it within your mind and body.

Your Meditation
As you prepare for this meditation, know that you are going to focus on the peace within you.
Even if you don't feel particularly peaceful, know that you will release stress and unhappy feelings and replace this revealed inner space with feelings of peace.

You allow tranquility to flow effortlessly in the way that a river flows unimpeded when boulders are rolled away to permit an even and steady passage of water.
Your own energy will flow in such a way that while it may be a trickle at first, it will steadily increase until anxiety and stress no longer have a chance of taking a hold again as the current of peace sweeps it away.

Your body and mind will desire staying in a peaceful state and through regular meditation you learn how to experience serene feelings and deep happiness. In doing so you calm the mind and the body, creating a situation that promotes calmness and freedom from worry.

You will return to a peaceful way of living with increased frequency until peace becomes your natural way of being.

STRESS-FREE MEDITATION

Reflection Pool at Ayurveda Clinic in Mysore, India

Purpose of Meditation
Meditation is often viewed as a form of relaxation therapy; however relaxation is a by-product of the actual technique itself. Meditation produces many positive results but its ultimate goal is to enable the practitioner to attain a state of Bliss and connection to God.

The meditation path, therefore, has much to offer and the relaxation response should not be dismissed but utilized and appreciated for the gifts that they are, strewn along the meditative journey.

Meditation produces an altered state of consciousness which helps protect against anxiety and depression. Researchers are using this altered state to help patients help themselves overcome the debilitating effects of these pernicious ailments.

Health Benefits
Numerous studies show that when patients are given instruction in a meditation and relaxation technique for a minimum of 8 weeks, the results clearly demonstrate a significant reduction of anxiety, depression and other stress-related disorders such as high blood pressure (hypertension) to name but a few.

For patients, the gains include not only the ability to experience relaxation , but the ability to experience a reduction in pain and the associated feelings of discomfort, a reduction in hypertension, and the ability to have self-control over their condition without the use of drugs with the associated negative side-effects.

Improvements in health not only continue during the weeks and months that an individual continues to practice meditation, but the effects actually become more pronounced with deeper efficacy and positive change.
The long term use of meditation produces a lasting effect that has profound significance for not only maintaining good health, but for both prevention and producing better long term health.

Meditation Technique
Choose your most comfortable seated posture
Feel grounded and supported by the earth
Focus on the breath
Slow the breath down until it is slow and steady
Follow each exhalation and allow the breath to lengthen and deepen
Notice the space between each breath and enter into the space
Feel the energy of the breath fill your body
As you exhale, release all tension
Continue with this technique until you feel deeply relaxed
Feel the energy of the breath flow through you with no obstacle
Notice the levels of relaxation that exist within the mind and the body
Let the mind enter the deep vastness of your life-energy
Allow the mind to dissolve from a place of concentration and enter a place of stillness and peace
Remain in this peaceful place until you sense that it is time to begin the tasks of your day

After Your Meditation
You can pre-empt any anxious thoughts or moments by noticing changes in your mind and body’s calm and relaxed state. Then, by returning to the rhythmic flow of the breath, you can quickly bring yourself into a tranquil and stress-free place.

MEDITATION AND HEALING

Meditation and Healing
Meditation has proven health benefits in both healthy individuals and people who have been diagnosed with a specific illness. The benefits are not subjective, i.e. “I feel good” but using blood tests and brain scanning imagery researchers are able to provide data on the clinical improvements.

In a Swedish study, published in December 2007, researchers studied 55 healthy adults and the effect of a breathing technique that involved cycles of slow, normal, and rapid breathing exercises.
At the end of the study, feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression were significantly decreased and optimism was significantly increased in the breathing study group.
There was also a reduction in the sympathetic nervous system activity and a feeling of well-being with an increase in antioxidants and lower levels of cortisol.

Other studies have looked at the influence of thoughts upon the cells of the body and how mood affects your health one way or another. During a health crisis, remaining positive helps with a positive outcome as well as having supportive colleagues. It does not mean doing away with modern therapies, but is seen as a means of supporting the treatment.

Tapping into the light within you during meditation has benefits
to your overall health and well-being.

Researchers at the University of Miami found that controlled breathing, guided imagery, and meditation promote not only a positive mental attitude in women being treated for stage I or II breast cancer, but provide significant health benefits in supporting the immune system and the overall health of the body, including reduced serum cortisol levels in only 10 weeks.

Affirmations
Prior to your meditation session, fill your mind with the words, images, and energy of your affirmations.
Thoughts have their own unique energy. Use the power of your words to create only that which is positive for you. Here is one example but please choose the words that are appropriate for your own needs.

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

See yourself feeling strengthened and invigorated as you awaken in the morning. Smile and embrace the start of this new day. Hear yourself welcoming the potential that this glorious day will bring. See yourself succeeding in whatever tasks you need to fulfill.

Enter into meditation.
Spend fifteen minutes allowing your body to enter into a peaceful and tranquil state using any of the methods outlines in previous postings on this site. (See Guided Meditations)

After Your Meditation
See yourself as strong and healthy. See healing energy passing into you and surrounding you. See yourself doing all the things that you are now able to do.

Move lightly, filled with vitality and the knowledge that all is well.

Use your affirmation during the day whenever you feel troubled.

Tap into the peace of your meditation to stay relaxed and permit the healing energy to flow within you.

MEDITATION AND HEALTH

The mind is expansive and not limited to the physical body.

Meditation and Health
A 2007 national Government survey found that more than 20 million adults had used meditation in the past 12 months which is 5 million more than a previous study 5 years earlier. In addition, 725,000 children had practiced meditation.

People use meditation for various physical and emotional problems, such as:

• Anxiety
• Pain
• Depression
• Stress
• Insomnia
• Symptoms associated with chronic illnesses and their treatment, such as heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and cancer.

Meditation also helps promote overall wellness:

• Quality of life
• Spirituality
• Relaxation
• Inner Peace
• Heightened connectivity
• Improved relationships

Mind-Body medicine has proven that psychological factors in the way that an individual thinks affects their clinical symptoms with either positive or negative effects depending on a persons mood and train of thoughts.

Meditation can significantly slow down the progression of degenerative diseases and improve blood pressure, reduce stress, and enhance the effects of rehabilitation techniques in conditions such as cardiac care and cancers.

Pain Reduction
Evidence from a variety of studies has shown that meditation lowers or even completely alleviates pain. One study with a master meditator showed that he was able to withstand pain that was inflicted upon him during his meditation session. fMRI of his brain mapped out the areas within the brain that were affected and showed meditation calming the brain down to ignore the pain. Meditation switched off the receptors that the brain used to transmit the awareness of experiencing pain.

In addition to improving an individual’s quality of life, meditation helps with the ability to sleep through the night, cope with daily issues, and improve the outlook on life including raising overall hope and expectations.
This means reductions in pain and nausea, reductions in use of medications, fewer trips to visit the doctor, and a feeling of well-being and improved health. Life becomes livable as the mind focuses on the present, not on the difficulties of the past or what may happen in the future.

The Meditative Brain
Meditation creates positive changes within the mind and the body that are both physiological and emotional. The National Center for Complimentary Medicine states the following:
Some types of meditation might work by affecting the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system. This system regulates many organs and muscles, controlling functions such as the heartbeat, sweating, breathing, and digestion. It has two major parts:

• The sympathetic nervous system helps mobilize the body for action. When a person is under stress, it produces the "fight-or-flight response": the heart rate and breathing rate go up and blood vessels narrow (restricting the flow of blood).

• The parasympathetic nervous system causes the heart rate and breathing rate to slow down, the blood vessels to dilate (improving blood flow), and digestive juices to increase.

Each system of the body is not an independent self-directed system; rather they each have 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.
Meditation produces actual changes in brain function which in turn creates new neural pathways that assist in new habits, the ability to monitor thoughts and feelings, and your ability to choose appropriate actions.

Meditation improves your health. Can you afford not to meditate?

GUIDED MEDITATION: HEALING

Guided Meditation: Healing

The unique Life Force that exists within you flows effortlessly when all obstacles have been removed. This force is often “seen” within your mind’s eye as an internal light that promotes well-being. It is the energy that is contained within the healing process and your light can be directed to a specific area or drawn through the body as a means of maintaining and optimizing health and vitality.

This light brings an awareness of happiness and contentment that permeates all aspects of your life, including your thoughts and your actions.
If you have any illness, see a qualified medical practitioner as this is not a substitute for medical care.

Method

• Sit in your chosen seated position for meditation
• Draw awareness to the breath until the breath is slow steady and rhythmical
• Focus on seeing your healing light at the base of your spine
• Don’t strain to see the light. Simply focus on the base of the spine with a steady breath until the light appears.
• Keep your body and inner focus relaxed
• With each inhalation draw the light through the body to the crown of the head and on the exhale, see the light flowing from the crown of your head to surround you like a protective aura.
• If the mind wanders, do not judge yourself. Accept that this may happen in the beginning when you are first practicing this method. Simply draw your awareness back to the rhythmic flow of the breath and “see” your light flow from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.
• Let the flow of light continue until you feel that your body is filled and surrounded by the healing light, about three to five breaths.
• Enter into your meditation feeling the light surrounding you, concentrating on the steady flow of the breath

Benefits

There are many benefits of this guided light meditation. They include:

• Stress-reduction
• Awareness of your inner Self where calmness resides
• Ability to relax
• Increased peace
• Calmness during all situations including challenging ones
• Increased flow of energy through the body
• Clarity and balance of body and mind

This inner light meditation is powerful at blocking negative thoughts and emotions and helping you cope with daily life. When the mind is happy and content your energy flows effortlessly and your inner light shines brighter, not only within yourself, but outwardly onto other people as well.

Peace and well-being are closer than you think by feeling your light within you and surrounding you.

Meditation: Peaceful Life

Paying attention to the needs of your body means that you have to ask yourself several key questions on a regular basis: are you getting enough rest, appropriate nutrition, adequate exercise?
Listening to your physical and emotional needs disciplines you to live in tune with your inner rhythm. The body’s requirements differ from day to day just as the natural rhythms of the body rise and fall from morning through the night.

Is your body getting adequate nutrition?

Monitor Your Thoughts
Meditation helps you to protect and nurture your body and learn to face and cope with daily challenges. This is an ongoing process as you discover your strengths and skills and use them to help yourself and others. You learn to monitor your thoughts and see the intention behind the thoughts, resulting in actions that are kinder and more productive.

Creating Change
The inability to initiate changes is not always because of a lack of will power.
Apprehension of what will replace your current behavior, fear of the unknown, and uneasiness of having an empty space in your life are all reasons why it can be difficult to alter your current mind-set.
Even fear of success brings its own trepidation with concerns about how other people will view you, what they will think of you, what they will say about you.

Altering any aspect of your life is initially fraught with potential discomfort as you begin to realize that some friends may not welcome the changes that you are making and will not support you or walk with you on your path. As you become more confident and see the positive effects of one small change in your life, it becomes easier to keep transitioning until you are comfortable with who you are.

Hesitation in making a smooth transition from your current way of thinking to achieving your hopes and dreams is normal. You clear away tension and stored up anxieties only to come across an obstacle that grinds you to a halt. Every journey has its delays and detours.

Meditation helps you to stay true to your destination.

Personal questions to consider:
• What makes you react to situations and other people the way that you do?
• What feelings do you hide within you?
• What makes you feel afraid?

Don’t judge yourself.
Judgment is in itself a negative thought and therefore not conducive to helping you move to a life of peace and harmony, whether it is other people or yourself that you are judging. You are striving, one step at a time, to consciously monitor your thoughts and alter your behavior.
This is a learning process and you are focusing first on the areas where you want to make a change and then gradually discovering ways to remove unnecessary habits and replacing them with actions that are more productive.
Work consistently through your early successes and accept that there will be some aspects that are more challenging.
Remain steadfast in your conscious desire to change.

Meditation helps you create and maintain lasting inner peace

Meditation is a Healer
Meditation restores balance and controls negative emotions. Prayer, meditation, and your inner voice (intuition) all serve as a means to guide you in a particular direction.
As you become aware of areas that create difficulties, work with intention to open your heart and mind to learn and eventually to heal.
Meditation helps you create the space within to allow intuition to flow and enable your choices in life to be the ones you really want.

Meditation for Peace
During your meditation practice, slow the breath down until it is smooth and steady.
Feel space within you as you breathe away negative thoughts.
With each inhalation, draw in positive happy feelings.
As you exhale, release all tension and discomfort.
Continue with this breathing technique until you feel peaceful.
Hear the sound of Om resonating deep within you.
See light at the base of your spine and draw it in a column to the crown of your head.
Om changes to the sound of bliss, which is the sound Ah.
As you exhale, see the light pouring from the crown of your head to surround you.
Repeat the sound and light visualization for 3 to 5 rounds
Feel yourself dissolve into meditation

Retain the peaceful feeling inside you wherever you go, returning to it through the calm and peaceful breath and the ongoing healing of your meditation practice.

POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS

POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS CHANGE THE MIND LIKE THE CHANGING SEASONS

We all use affirmations hundreds of time every day. However these affirmations are not the ones that we want to continue using. Every thought that you have affirms a choice or a decision that may or may not be in your best interest. They're filled with doubts and negativity, but are powerful nevertheless.

Changing your thoughts and life is possible through the use of POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS.
They allow you to nurture yourself through kindness and are an internal cheerleader, helping you achieve your goals.

How Affirmations Work
Your mind cannot hold two thoughts at the same time.
You have a choice therefore to replace negative thoughts with powerful positive ones.

Holding a positive affirmation in your mind, carrying it with you, repeating it, believing it, makes the mind less resistant to change and eventually it slips into a positive way of thinking on a deep subconscious level.



All Affirmations must be positive in nature and use the present tense as though you already have what you need in your life and have created the changes that you seek.

When you are open to change, you will see opportunities present themselves before you for you to take hold of and use to your advantage. What you need will come to you, often when least expected. Even if you don't feel ready or prepared enough, accept that it has arrived for a reason and will help you.

You will not be given more than you can cope with. You will grow as an individual and in turn be able to help others by perhaps being the answer to or the completion of an affirmation that they have asked for.

Affirmations for Happiness:
I choose to be grateful and kind
I am successful in all that I do
I am happy
In this moment I am at peace
I have peace in all areas of my life.

Affirmations for Love:
My family life is loving and kind
I choose to give love
All aspects of my being are filled with love

Affirmations for Health:
I am filling each cell with light and creating a new body.
I have abundant energy to complete all my tasks
I am filled with vitality in body, mind, and spirit

Affirmations for Wealth:
All my needs are being met
I have abundance in my life
I receive whatever I need


Affirmations: Positive, Powerful, and Your Key to Happiness

Create Your Own Affirmations

1. All your affirmations must be positive in nature and in the present tense.
2. State your affirmation as though it is already happening.
3. Determine what is important to you, whether it is already a part of your life or not.
4. Decide what you want to have in your life.
5. Write it all down. That way you can see if you are using the correct positive language.
6. Create your list
7. Ignore any negative internal voices that tell you:

• you don't deserve to have...
  
• it won't work
• you're being silly
  

You are starting a new way of thinking and it will take a little while for you to replace your past thoughts and behavior pattern. Have faith in yourself and in your affirmations.
Your affirmations cost nothing but they achieve everything that you need. Throw out the doubting, negative-accepting thoughts and start believing in yourself.

Thoughts can be changed and by doing so you change your life.

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.

Breathe Easy

Breathe easy

Your breath, your mind, and your meditation practice are all intertwined with each other.

The breath is both a sign that the emotions are out of control and a means of drawing peace and harmony to the Self.
Troubled thoughts release adrenaline and stress hormones that increase outbursts of anger and undesirable consequences.

Researchers at the University of Miami found that controlled breathing, guided imagery, and meditation promote not only a positive mental attitude in women being treated for stage I or II breast cancer, but provide significant health benefits in supporting the immune system and the overall health of the body, including reduced serum cortisol levels in only 10 weeks.

Awareness of your reactions to what you experience enables you to release anxiety and block out the cause of your distress.

With awareness, you cultivate peace through control of the breath and become calmer, more loving, and in full control of your emotions.

Rather that being tossed about by the chaos of life, with the mind filled with hurtful and punishing thoughts, you can observe your thoughts, your reactions, and choose to hold onto the peace that resides within.


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

As I breathe in, I fill my body with light
As I breathe out, I let go all internal impurities that arise from:

the foods that I consume
all pollutants I absorb from my environment
the toxins released from my thoughts.

I feel balanced and peaceful with each breath.


Meditation is for life.