How Much Effort Does It Actually Take To Live Mindfully?

The researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn writes the following about mindfulness; "The point is to pause in our experience long enough to let the present moment sink in; long enough to actually feel the present moment, to see it in its fullness, to hold it in awareness, and thereby come to know and understand it better."

How much effort does it actually take to live mindfully?
At what times during the day do you pause to think about someone or notice how you are feeling?
Noticing what you are experiencing and incorporating this awareness into all of your interactions begins when you become the observer of your life.

The hard way or the easy way?
It takes only a small amount of time to do something mindfully as it does to act without thinking. The consequences though can be very different as many people have regrettably found out the hard way.

We make conscious choices every day when it is related to an event that we deem to be important to us. Equally, not making a choice when you have the opportunity to make one is also a choice.

Learning to live in the moment begins with catching yourself in the moment. This instance of awareness includes observing what's occurring internally as well as physically.

Ask yourself the following questions:
What am I noticing right now? What's happening in my vicinity? What am I drawn to?
What am I feeling right now? What emotions and physical sensations are flowing through me?
What am I thinking right now? How do I want to react?

With practice, awareness increases and you quickly pick up what the body is feeling and what thoughts are flowing through the mind.

All this occurs in real time and gives you the ability to make appropriate choices that positively impact your present, your future, and the ability to sustain lasting change.

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 I want to ….?

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 using language and content to better fit what is happening in your own life.

I have the freedom to find out who I am

I forgive who I was in the past

I accept what is happening and trust that all will be well

I know that I am a loving person and that I am loved

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

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?

MEDITATION: A NEW AWARENESS

The Mind is Vast and Limited Only by Your Own Beliefs

Meditation: A New Awareness
Taking time every day to reflect quietly on what is required of you through meditation, through maintaining a still and peaceful mind, and through developing a slow and rhythmic breath allows you to release from your mind, and thereby your life, the issue that you no longer need and brings your mind into a deeper connection with God.

Spring-Cleaning the Mind
Meditation is a gentle but efficient means of cleansing and purifying your mind by helping you to be in control of all thoughts and the intention behind the thoughts. When space is achieved by clearing out the clutter you enable new and more beneficial thoughts to enter and a deeper understanding of your spiritual path to develop.
Here you have a unique opportunity to gain wisdom and understanding through the guidance that is freely given to you if you decide to take it. You remove the impurities of your thoughts and permit the cleansing energy of the light of the universe to flow through you, nourishing your soul.

Direct Spiritual Connection
Through the silence of meditation and prayer you receive answers through the knowledge that flows within you from your direct connection with the Creator. Other thoughts may interrupt the quiet exchange when you are in contemplative silence and you should permit them to pass through without judgment. By focusing on the space between each thought you teach your mind and body to experience the peace that passes all understanding and to feel the presence of God in your life.

Knowing Your Self
When you nurture your Spiritual self, you gain power to overcome obstacles. With thoughtfulness and openness to everyone around you, you know that as your intention shapes your actions you have within you the power to use your actions to heal the world, one person at a time.

Knowing Your Needs
This means freedom of mind, of body, and of soul. How can this be?
When your mind is no longer focusing on acquiring more items, no longer desiring extras, and no longer watching what other people have, worldly standards no longer tie you down. You rise above this and instead move toward seeing how you can use what you have for the benefit of the world.

Humanity’s Struggle
When the leaders of one nation refuse to share their country’s wealth with even its own people, the greed of the leaders promulgates downwards spreading disaster for individuals, the nation as a whole, and negatively impacting the world’s resources. A united attitude benefits everyone; both the individuals and the groups that are responsible for ensuring that the needs of those who want help are met.
Perceiving that what we have is ours and ours alone separates us from seeing how we can share what we have with those who need our help.

Create Space Within and Let Your Self Sail

Meditation and Awareness
Creating space is a liberating experience because you cannot receive until you release.

When one person initiates positive change for another person, we move closer towards achieving a balanced and objective society. Generosity spreads upwards and outwards, initiating global transformation in our neighbors. When you are generous, you know that God blesses you in line with the size of your intention and your kindness.

The more you hold onto, the less you are able to move, figuratively and literally. Letting go of all that you hide away in your thoughts, your lifestyle, your closets, frees you to allow positive energy to flow to you and from you. Your awareness heightens and your perceptiveness grows. You are liberated, you are able to move around, explore ideas, experience peace that you are doing no harm to the environment, to others, and to yourself.

Meditation on Awareness
During your meditation practice, focus on lingering on the space between each breath. Notice the peace that resides deep within.
Enter it without any reservations
Free the mind from all restrictions.
Know that you are safe in the space between each breath
Keep focusing on the space.
You will discover that you will be able to spend more time in this peaceful state.

After Your Meditation
During your everyday activities, listen for the guidance that comes from within.
Look for ways to share your gifts with others, whether it is in the form of a kind word, a smile, or in sharing a material gift.
Let your meditation practice transform you and everyone you come in contact with.

MINDFUL MEDITATION

Many activities require great concentration

Mindful Meditation
Recognizing what you need comes not from what you perceive outwardly, but from what comes to you inwardly through prayer, meditation, and listening to your innermost feelings.

A couple of summers ago I injured my right ankle and attended physiotherapy department for a series of treatments. I waited for my therapist, leisurely flicking through a glossy magazine, and two elderly women joined me in the waiting area; one in a wheelchair.
I couldn’t help but hear their conversation as the two friends discussed the hot humid New England weather that we were experiencing that day. Both agreed that they disliked the heat. “When my husband was alive,” began the woman in the wheelchair, “he was always turning up the thermostat, while I was opening windows. He liked the heat, you see.”
There was a slight pause, and her voice became wistful and wavered as she spoke. “I would put up with any amount of heat if I could just have him back.”

Nothing on Earth remains the same, but being able to live in the present moment enables us to heighten our experiences and interactions with people.
Every moment counts. No moment is more important than the one you are experiencing right now. Events and milestones are significant and add to your mental library of happy memories or lessons to learn from. But even these come down to the thoughts that take place inside you.

Meditation and the Moment
Meditation helps you to appreciate the value of time and your experiences and interactions with the people that you see every day.
Meditation keeps you in the present moment, not only during your meditation session, but afterwards too.
Meditation trains the mind so that you are able to catch thoughts before they turn into actions and thereby choose appropriate ones.

Mindful Meditation
In your comfortable seated pose, use the methods shown in previous blogs to release the mind from thoughts and conversations, feelings and emotions, and to simply follow the breath.
Feel the breath become slow and steady.
When the mind is calm and peaceful and the breath slow and steady, focus on the intake of the breath from the tip of the nose into the base of the lungs.
As you exhale, follow the breath slowly all the way out of the body and out through the tip of the nose.
Continue with this rhythmical breath.
Ignore any thoughts that enter the mind’s awareness.
Stay focused on the flow of the breath.
As your meditation deepens, you may lose awareness of the body.
Stay with the flow of the breath and then allow the mind to release into the space between the breath.
Continue in this manner until you feel that your meditation session is over.

Mindfulness helps you notice small gifts in life such as this rainbow forming

Mindful Present
During your everyday activities, stay mindful by keeping the breath steady and even. Focus on each task, whether you are at work, in conversation with someone, or preparing food for dinner.
Notice your thoughts and behaviors.
Notice how you react to other people.
Strive to remain positive and non-judgmental
Return to the steady flow of the breath when you need to draw yourself back to the peaceful place within.
Treasure each moment and you will have a lifetime of happy memories,

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 Methods

Meditation Creates Expansion of the Mind

Meditation Methods

Finding Time to Meditate
Meditation is a means of bringing the mind into a singe point of focus until after many months of practice you eventually transcend beyond the point of concentration and all awareness dissipates and you emerge into complete bliss.

The journey to bliss is wonderful and need not be time-consuming. While a regular practice is to be encouraged, your whole life should be a meditation.
The mind loves to be in meditation and the results bring you to a more relaxed and peaceful state of mind and body.
Stress dissipates and you are more creative, happy, healthier, and productive and take an optimistic view on life.

Places to Meditate
You do not need to be seated at home or another quiet place.
I encourage people to practice drawing the mind into a meditative state whenever they have a few minutes to spare e.g. waiting for the kettle to boil, standing in line waiting to be served, when out walking or when you are participating in any other activity that you can think of.


The meditative experience can occur anywhere.

This does not replace your regular daily practice though. It is in addition to your practice to reinforce what you have learned from meditation and to see that meditation is not separate from your life but an integral part of it.

Controlling the Breath
We all breathe, but many people do not breathe correctly, only half-filling the lungs and not absorbing the essential nutrients and energy contained within the breath to enable daily tasks to be performed with vitality and clarity.
Practice slowing the breath down and keeping it slow and steady. This may take only a few breaths or it may take several minutes depending on how experienced you are at meditating.
As the breath becomes slower and deeper, feel the different levels of relaxation that are occurring in the body and mind.
Feel stress ebb away with each exhalation.

Monitor Your Thoughts
During your quiet moment, notice your thoughts then allow them to pass without becoming attached to them. As you practice focusing on the breath, you will notice that the body is relaxed and the mind peaceful.

Over time you will discover that during your daily activities, if disturbed or angry thoughts emerge you will become aware of them as they occur and will be able to replace them with more appropriate thoughts and subsequent behavior.
This results in a more enjoyable and peaceful environment that keeps you tranquil, happy, and more prepared to face what life sends your way. All your interactions become pleasant and devoid of extreme emotional reactions.

Music
Listening to gentle music has been clinically proven to induce relaxation, slow the pulse, and lower blood pressure. It also enables you to enter into a meditative state with ease. If you can walk outside, listen to the sounds of nature and absorb the natural sounds and colors that the world provides.



Natural Sounds enhance the Meditative Experience

If you spend most of your time indoors, a small water fountain that trickles softly can also generate a relaxed response and help you to remain calm and peaceful.

Make Space to Meditate
Remove any items that disturb your environment. Keep the temperature comfortable.
Fill your space with objects that promote serenity and tranquility.
In time, your whole life will become a meditation, free from anxiety, stress and filled with hope and love.

Meditation:Healing Stress

Meditation: Healing Stress
When you are in control of your thoughts and emotions, you are in control of your physical body and able to view the world with clarity of vision and compassion. You are able to envisage a better way of living and you also gain a unique perspective of viewing the world around you.

We don’t often think about the importance of maintaining awareness of our thoughts. Think about a race car driver though.


He or she cannot risk the mind wandering and thereby losing concentration. It’s easy to see what may happen.

When any aspect of the body is unhealthy, other parts suffer. A stressed mind adversely affects the body if there is no release from the undue tension. Disease spreads if healing is impinged in any way and when one person is in pain they affect others who see their suffering.

As you take care of your home and environment, should you not also look after your living body and the thoughts that you keep?

Your body, thoughts, choices, and mind all undergo many transitions through each stage in life and you have a choice to either respect and maintain your body at each level to enable it to achieve its highest potential, or to consume and do whatever you want with no thought to the end result either on your own body or on the environment around you.

Meditation

Maintaining a healthy life is determined in part by what you eat and drink, how you think and act, and increasing your devotion to a spiritual path.

All decisions lie with you and it is by taking time through meditation that you are able to know what you should be doing and take the steps necessary to stay on the path even if you do not know where the journey will end and have only a rough idea of the destination.

Meditation both frees and clears mind occurs when you remove the existing thoughts and preconceptions that you carry with you everywhere you go.
It sweeps the area clean for a fresh beginning.
Remaining focused on the present, consciously choosing to act in a loving manner, and living in gratitude on a spiritual path directs the mind inwardly and away from distractions.

Through meditation you achieve conscious relaxation and freedom from stress. Meditation gives you the peace that you seek and helps you keep it.


Affirmation
Release yourself from stress using the following affirmations or words of your own choice that meet your daily needs.
You may first speak them aloud then draw the words in and out silently with each breath.

I am relaxed and free
I am at peace
I am loved and accepting of others
I trust my inner self to lead me in the right path.
I am always connected with the Divine Love in the Universe.

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.

Meditation Benefits

If you've ever wanted to pursue a hobby, diet, or exercise plan and struggled to complete the course, meditation is the solution to your success.


Recent clinical studies have compared what is happening in the brain during the thought process and during meditation. Using fMRI's, they have been able to see the parts of the brain that are involved when you think and when you meditate.

Basically, habits of any kind follow a specific neural pathway within the brain which becomes easier to traverse with each repeated action. This is a good thing otherwise we would all have to re-learn how to dress every morning!

The downside is when a thought or action becomes outdated or is based on fabricated truths where your present experiences continually add to a past experience by telling yourself, "see I knew ... would happen, or so-and-so would be like that."

You are reinforcing past beliefs which have changed over time and are not in fact true any more.

What this means is that your existing habits are well-ingrained and tough to change without assistance. Meditation is the easiest method to use if you are serious about wanting to make a difference in your life.

Brain cells (neurons) switch on and off depending on their specific use, so that your body can successfully function with each body part knowing its role. New thought patterns can be formed, but just like a little-used country path that is covered in undergrowth, it is challenging to walk through at first.


With repeated use it becomes easier to traverse until you can walk through it without any obstacles in your way.

Meditation actually facilitates a new way of thinking.

Rather than rehashing the same experiences, you begin to acquire a different understanding of who you are and what you want based on new and more accurate knowledge of your thoughts and habits.

Meditation promotes relaxation and peace, which the brain likes and wants to return to. When you associate meditation with a new behavior, you actually make it easier to stay on track and not fall back into old habits.

Meditation alleviates struggles and is your very own tool to making life more enjoyable and easier.

Making meditation part of you everyday not only brings peace, but helps you lead the life that you want.

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.

Meditation Relaxation

People often say they want to meditate in order to relax because they're too tense, stressed, or worried and see meditation as a way to create more relaxation in their life.

However, many activities can help you to relax such as:

• owning and petting a cat or dog
• going to a spa
• having a massage
• watching a sunset
• reading a book
• going for a walk

These may help you to relax but what's the difference between meditation and relaxation?

Using fMRI's scientists have been able to see the positive physiological changes in the frontal lobe of the brain that meditation creates. So in addition to creating a relaxation response, meditation changes the brain in ways not previously thought possible, further explaining the reasons why people not only feel good after meditating, but why there is heightened intuition, improved memory, and a "younger" brain.

You can turn your relaxation activities into a meditation experience by the use of single pointed focus.

Next time you sit down with your pet or go for a walk, be mindful about what you are doing.
Focus only on that activity for fifteen minutes. For example, when walking, be aware of what is going on around you, such as vehicles passing by, birds singing, leaves rustling, but not distracted by them.
Focus on each footstep, what the ground feels like, how slow and steady your breath is.

Make each moment a meditation.

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.

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.

Meditation: Living Stress Free

Meditation is easy to use in order to live a stress-free life.

A turbulent mind is a worried mind, with thoughts scrambling over one another, fighting for your attention. The dominant ones win and you find that you go over scenarios in an attempt to make it right.

Constantly dragging conversations and events from the past or fears and worries about the future around with you keeps the mind in a state of turmoil and dis-ease.



This leads to the body into a negative energy state which elevates the pulse rate, blood pressure, and over time results in illnesses such as heart attacks and other stress-related diseases.

Being able to lead a stress-free life is possible because meditation helps you to create space within the mind for new patterns to emerge. By setting aside 15 minutes every day for your meditation practice, you slow the breath down and quieten the jumble of thoughts racing around in the mind.

The breath is linked with the activity of the mind.



Applying the right thoughts, emotions, and behavior comes after making meditation part of your daily practice. Aversions and preferences fade away until you remove the patterns of the past to create space for a new present to occur.

When you experience peace, not just for a moment, but as a lasting experience, you resist the pull to worry about what has happened or what might occur. You remain in the present and it is this mindfulness that meditation reinforces, which in turn instills long and lasting peace.

The mind enjoys feeling peaceful and the more times that you practice it via meditation, conscious thought choices, and peaceful action, the world around you becomes peaceful in return and it is a self-reflecting experience.

I wish you all the peace in the world.

Meditation is for life.

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.