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

Choose Your Thoughts

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Let me know what you think!

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances

but rather a person

with a certain set of attitudes - Hugh Downs

The illusion of the world is very powerful and plays easily with the mind, if you let it happen, or don’t pay attention to what is actually going on.

Distractions caused by focusing on feelings or emotions of the past, or anticipation of what is going to happen or might happen in the future, draw you away from what is actually taking place at this moment in time.

If you knew the real power of your thoughts, you would never have a negative thought again.

Thoughts have their own unique energy and work for you or against you, but if you don’t monitor them by paying attention, then it should not be a surprise when situations occur that you don’t really want.

Use the power of your words to create only that which is positive for you and will not do harm to others around you.

There is always a way to choose the right path, be it in words or actions and you are defined by the choices that you make.

They reveal your innermost values and what you hold up as important.

Be grateful for all that you have every day.
Say thank you, until you mean it.
And if you say it long enough, you will believe it.

You are a wonderful amazing individual with no limits except those that you place in front of you.
Have confidence in your abilities.
Believe in yourself and what you are capable of and soar as high as you can imagine.

Choose Your Thoughts

All Photos by Margaret Stockley,

Everything in nature is unique.

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

Positive thoughts vibrate at a higher frequency than negative thoughts, just as light vibrates at a higher frequency than what we perceive as darkness.
Realize the power behind your intentions by being consciously aware of self-defeating actions and directing your thoughts in constructive and healing ways.

As you meditate every day, you can choose a positive word or phrase and repeat it in rhythm with your slow and steady breath. Examples are:

I am loved

All is well

I am at peace

I am happy

Peace

Meditation is the tool by which you remain true to your Self, untouched by comments and the actions of others. It strengthens your resolve to not let yourself be affected by detractors or to give up following your chosen path, shows you how to keep feeling the joy of love inside, and live each moment of every day with purpose and peace.

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

I am a beacon of pure energy radiating on the world helping others by the brightness and power of my light.

Look and see where you’re resisting change which could help you evolve your life.
Meditation will help you self-generate power and self-discipline by the use of intention to effect change and forge new pathways within the brain.

Whoever tries nothing will get nothing; you won't reach your objectives if you don't make necessary efforts.

Transform yourself through minding your thoughts and by exchanging your patterns of thought for a state of mind that is continually excited by, and in love with, life.
Expect more and get more out of your day-to-day interactions and activities by reinforcing positive images and behavior.

Allow meditation to help release that which drags you down and fill you instead with energy to complete all your daily activities and live in a constant state of fulfillment.

The words and actions that you send out will manifest the life you really want so open your mind and heart to the untapped possibilities that lie within you.

Om Peace

Successful You

Are you seeing the Light and reaching your goals?

How are your New Year Resolutions progressing?

Are they going or have they gone?

Meditation helps maintain the mindset that all is well and helps you to flow with what life puts in your way. It also helps you to overcome perceived problems and see solutions to difficulties. True, no one actually knows for certain what the future holds for any one of us, but unseen obstacles need not be a deterrent or permanently hold us back.

Positive people believe that there are no "problems", only "situations". Your perspective alters when you view the world from a positive view-point rather than seeing walls and closed doors that appear in your way as insurmountable.

It means that anything is possible; all of your dreams, your aspirations, your successes.

Situations that are less than ideal can be overcome. If you can change a situation by correct action then keep on moving and act, however if a situation is unfortunately beyond the control of human ability then we can only accept what has happened and move graciously from it.

All that you desire can come true.

Starting today, resolve to be more positive! Look at what you have achieved, not what you have not accomplished, yet. No matter how small the success, focus on what is working, give thanks, and look at your next goal and determine a time when you will achieve it.

Revise your strengths, knowledge and goals. Closely examine what you are doing right and what is helping to empower you to achieve what YOU desire.
Decide what you need. You don’t have to have everything in place in order to start making your way towards your goals for 2010.
Add dates that you will begin/achieve each step toward achieving your goal.

Spend time in the presence of positive, successful people either in person, in books, or online. Let them know what you are doing. Share your plans with those whom you now trust and can confide in at this point in your life’s journey. They will be constructive and supportive. Eliminate naysayers from hearing about your aspirations.

Review your plans and desires frequently, and especially every 6 months, because circumstances will evolve, you will grow, and people will enter and leave your environment.

As your goals become clearer and you begin to realize them, you will be spurred on to reach higher and higher.

Carry affirmations with you. Memorize them. They really do block out unwanted and pessimistic thoughts.

Meditate daily. Find the time. Make the time. Prioritize your time in order to meditate. It is during your daily meditation practice that you will recognize and subsequently address self-limiting patterns of behavior and take the first steps that will release them.

Concentrate on what you want to achieve and be inspired by your own achievements, both the small and the large. The more you recognize and appreciate success, in yourself and others, the more success will follow!
Meditation is your own tool that will help empower you toward maintaining a forward momentum to living the life you want. It costs you nothing except time and the benefits are amazing.

So believe in yourself.

You CAN do it.

GUIDED MEDITATION

TRAIN THE MIND TO MEDITATE BY FOCUSING ON A SINGLE OBJECT

Steps for Concentration for Meditation
• Find a pleasing object that holds your interest such as a flower, a lit candle, a rock.
• Sit in a comfortable seated position that you can stay in without fidgeting.
• Gaze at the object without any eye strain. Notice how beautiful it is. Marvel at it's creation.
• After a few minutes, close your eyes and hold the memory of the object in your mind's eye.
• If it disappears, gaze at your object again for a little while longer then close your eyes and concentrate on your chosen image.
• With practice, you will be able to close your eyes and bring the object to mind instantly.
• Now you can focus on more subtle objects such as the breath, inner light, healing sound such as OM.
Benefits of Concentration
Whatever you focus on, your mind forms thoughts, emotions, and actions around a particular stream of thinking.
For example, if you focus on a strawberry, notice the colors and the perfume of the fruit, your mouth waters in memory of how sweet and juicy the fruit tastes and so you decide that you must have one.

During Meditation, when you are able to focus not on physical objects but on pure objects such as love or God, you become like the essence of what you are concentrating on.

You Can Do It
Meditation takes practice, but it is easily doable. Many people struggle because they try it once or twice by attempting to empty the mind, but that is too challenging because the mind is not under control. It keeps on leaping around.

The simple steps above will help you to achieve concentration and take control of the mind.

In turn, you will find that you progress very quickly from holding an external image in your mind to one where you enter into meditation and find the peace, bliss, and determination of purpose that emerges as a result of meditation.

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.”

Guided Meditation

Observe your life for one whole minute. What difference does your being there make?

Interesting, isn’t it.

If you’ve never tried it before, the results might have surprised you.

As a yoga and meditation teacher I have found that while students enjoy learning how to meditate and experiencing the wonderful benefits, what is more challenging is releasing the “stuff” that prevents complete joy and bliss from manifesting. Sure, there is a sense of peace, but there are other even more wonderful experiences that will happen, if room is made for them. The “stuff” that I’m referring to here is different from one person to another but it acts like a pile of boxes that are stacked in front of a closed door. Once they are removed, meditation unlocks the door and then you have the choice to open it and enter.

Give yourself permission to evolve and change

How do you value yourself?
Prioritizing your life lets you see where you put your own needs and then do something about it.

With meditation, there’s no room for you and your excess thoughts. If you allow thoughts to enter and then follow them, that’s when you find that you’re not experiencing the bliss that you know is there, inside.
If you are new to meditation, thoughts WILL intrude. But hold onto either an affirmation, a mantra, or the image of a light in order to use them like a shield to protect you from unwanted thoughts.
Like all practices, once it becomes a regular habit, you become better at it and can enter it with ease.

Building confidence relies on thinking you are worth it and by acting upon it. In the opening question at the start of this posting, what was your mind drawn to?
If it was an event or attribute that made you feel happy, then that’s good. If, however, you found that you were drawn to past mistakes, then it becomes necessary to stop judging yourself, or others, and look at ways to create a mind-shift.
There are two inner voices, or thoughts, that can form in your mind; one is always wrong. These mistaken and erroneous thoughts are formed by habit, just as thinking positively about yourself and the world in general develop through continued practice.

You CAN change your mind and not cling to past opinions if you know or find them to be wrong.
It is never too late to begin meditation, nor is it too late to change your mind. Just because you are walking down a certain path doesn't mean that you need to follow it all the way to the end. It’s hard to take a different path, leaving what you knew, but you can make a mental (or physical if that’s what you want) break from what’s preventing you from making different choices. Sometimes all it takes is a word from someone, an inspiring book you have read, or a strong internal feeling that arises from meditation to spur you to make a positive difference in your life.

Researchers have conducted sensory meditation studies and have found that mental characteristics that were previously regarded as fixed and unchangeable can in fact be altered by mental training such as meditation.

The brain has an ability called Neuroplasticity, in which new pathways (thought patterns) and new brain cells can form.
You’re not stuck with your current way of thinking, unless you choose to.

Additional studies have also found that electrical activity is in fact heightened during meditation in an area of the brain called the left prefrontal cortex, which is situated just behind the forehead. Scientists have associated activity in this region with positive emotions, as opposed to the right prefrontal cortex, which is associated with negative responses in an individual’s feelings and emotions.

Out With The Old, In The New
Few people can honestly say that they know what they should do with their life. They wander and drift having some moments of clarity, only to find that what they are doing loses its momentum.

Meditation trains the mind to maintain single-pointed focus. This promotes greater awareness of what is empowering and what is detracting you from living your best life and having fun while you do it.

I’ve always found it useful to make a list of my goals and intentions. I encourage you to do likewise; otherwise before you know it every good thing that presents itself will seem like the right thing. After all, when making a meal, you don’t add every healthy item to the recipe. You are selective to ensure that the food turns out just as you want it to.

Meditation is one of the simplest methods to help you look deep within and determine what will actually make you happy. Then the steps that you need to take and live by in order to attain it fall into place with ease.

Life is a wonderful gift and meditation helps to sweep away confusion and reveal a clear path free from obstacles.

Guided Meditation

Surroundings
As always before you begin your meditation practice, ensure that you find a quiet place with no distractions such as the telephone and that your clothes are comfortable. Your chosen place for meditation can be either indoors or outdoors but ensure that the temperature is not too hot or cold.
Try to develop a habit of meditating in the same place. Then once you are ane to enter into meditation with ease, you will find that you gravitate to meditation easily and oblivious to potential disruptions.

Sit as comfortably as you can, with the spine lengthened.
Close your eyes, and use the power of the breath to relax the body and mind
Follow the breath from the tip of the nose to the base of the lung
Follow the breath all the way out again.
Don’t rush this process
Continue following the breath until you feel completely relaxed

Allow the exhalation to become twice as deep as the inhalation.
Continue to notice the rate and rhythm of the breath.
Maintain attention only on your steady and even breath

With each breath, release your thoughts. Do not follow them or struggle with them.
Acknowledge they are there and allow them to drift by.
If you are visual, you can see the thoughts as images of clouds and let them drift away against the backdrop of a blue sky.

Return to the flow of the breath

With the breath gentle and flowing, notice the stillness within you. Focus on the space between each breath.
Thoughts lessen.
Stay with the deep, rhythmic breath
Enter into the space between each breath

NOTE: Even if this stillness lasts for a few seconds, you have been meditating and with practice the stillness lasts longer. When you come aware that you are experiencing stillness, it occurs with a thought such as “I am experiencing stillness.” Release that thought and return to the breath and then the stillness.

Feel the expansive abundance of the stillness
Feel the oneness with peace

When you are complete, allow the eyes to slowly open.
Notice how you feel and the state of your mind.

Know that you can return to this state of mind, simply by returning to observing the rhythmic flow of the breath.

Action
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 are going to create.

Keep a journal where you can write down your experiences and any goals or aspirations that arise.

Focus on the present and carry peace and joy around inside you. You will eliminate feelings of irritation and anxiety and live a healthier, happier life not only when times are going well, but especially when they are tough because you have the resources now to draw on the happiness and bliss that flows within.

Meditation is a great teacher and you have the resources within you to have a truly amazing life. It is YOU who has the ability to empower yourself and take the first steps to move forward on your life’s purpose, rather than standing still.
You are a remarkable individual with untapped possibilities and you CAN have amazing success with all of your endeavors.

Observe Your Life
Next time you observe your life for one minute, what is it like this time?

POSITIVE THOUGHTS, POSITIVE YOU

Consciousness is an endless stream of possibilities.

“Our character is what we do when we think no-one is looking.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr

Every day, the news stations and newspapers present us with reports, facts, and opinions from all around the globe. People we meet also have news to share about their health, their family, and their jobs. We receive a daily dose of information and most of it’s not pleasant.

While most of us are well aware that “remaining calm” or “love is the answer” are appropriate choices to the issues that we learn about or personally face, putting them into practice is another matter entirely when you find it challenging to monitor your thoughts, keep them in check, or even reign in actions that you really don’t want to pursue.

While meditation helps you to uncover your life’s purpose (dharma) there are daily encounters where you have to make choices, either instantly or with some pondering and self-discussion. In both cases, and whether you realize it or not, each decision that you make will result in some form of action, which impacts you and the world around you (karma).

In yoga terminology, this is referred to as Samsara, which translates as cause and effect, whereby you reap the results of the seeds of your actions. This life-cycle has an ebb and flow to it and how you respond is your choice and yours alone.

The basics of life keep us busy and it’s often a challenge to remain calm and in control while balancing obligations to family and work. Challenges are everywhere, from the mundane to the major ones and living your life to its highest and greatest can seem especially difficult particularly when someone says or does something thoughtless to you or a loved one.

No-one likes a hot-head and having a life that’s overflowing with happiness, contentment, meaning, and purpose can only occur when you take a moment to identify your priorities and look closely at what you are doing and whether it serves you best. It does take effort, but so does the alternative.

Meditation is one of the simplest methods to help you look deep within and determine what will actually make you happy. Then the steps that you need to take and live by in order to attain it fall into place with ease.

What Makes You Happy?
Before you enter into your meditation practice, ask yourself one question such as; “What will make me happy?”
The answer will either come to you during your meditation, or soon after, as a feeling of certainty about what is right for you.
The lower mind is where all your rational, everyday thinking occurs while the Higher, or Wisdom Mind, is where you uncover your innermost desires and aspirations. Your Wisdom Mind gives you the strength of purpose and conviction to follow what resides deep within you.

All obstacles and thoughts dissipate in your mind’s eye and a sense of peaceful assurance fills you. This gives way to joy and bliss. Following your meditation, the joy continues to stay with you as you embark upon your path to happiness. There is a richness to your activities that benefits not only yourself, but everyone who comes in contact with the fruits of your actions. Only when you lose yourself and stray from your purpose does discontentment, anger, and your old mind-set return.

While happiness can be generated via meditation or affirmations that reshape the way that the brain formulates responses to external or internal stimuli, it is ultimately your thoughts that determine your happiness.

It’s all very well repeating affirmations such as “I am happy” or “I am successful in all that I do” if you don’t believe it, don’t feel it, don’t experience it to be true. You choose what your responses and emotions will be in both the joyful and sad events that occur in daily living, be it the birth of a child or the sad passing of a loved one.

So how do you maintain integrity and contentment?
Choose what you want to focus on, then practice focusing on it!

Technique
For example, try focusing on liking situations and people. This is a popular technique that I teach during workshops.
The next time that you are at the grocery store, try liking your surroundings and the people who are in the store too. Don’t focus on the way the other shoppers dress or style their hair.
Project feelings of happiness to them and to the world.
Notice what is good in your environment.
Appreciate what you have.
Smile.  (Don't grin.  Your smile is sufficient.)

Continue this method with family members and yourself. When folding laundry, take each person’s clothing and think about whom that item belongs to. Send that individual loving, happy thoughts. Think about some quality that you appreciate in this person. Do the same with your own items. What features and talents do you like about yourself?

The purpose of this technique is to show you that it is possible to reduce negative thinking one thought at a time and replace it with feelings and thoughts that are appreciative and happy. You will find that you release old emotions because they are literally dragging you down. This attitude overflows in all areas of your life and in turn, you find that it becomes easier to identify and stick with your goals and achieve a life that is fulfilled and enriched with great relationships and opportunities.

Meditation Generates Power
Meditation connects you with the wisdom mind which is the source of all insight and with continued practice it leads you to a state of bliss. It directs your mind away from a negative view of the world and shifts it towards one that embraces opportunities. This awesome power is yours and only you can choose what you are going to do with it.

Remember, no-one has control over your thoughts except yourself. Your hope, wishes, even your imagination are all within your own power to direct their energy in one path or another.
Studies show that the mind can not discern between what it has actually seen and what it is seeing via your imagination.
This means that your mind can be “tricked” into believing that a memory that you have created has actually been experienced!

Use the power of your thoughts to generate a reality that is positive, loving, and all that you desire. This is not a make-believe type of imagery, but a means of creating more positivity and constructive actions that in turn generate affirmative thoughts and actions. Gradually, you develop the habit of thinking positively, seeing opportunities rather than obstacles, and being the type of person that people want to be around because they feel good by being in your presence.

Downbeat and pessimistic thinking is an acquired habit with its own internal mantra, and you can release yourself from thinking in terms of boundaries, disappointments, and problems by first and foremost seeing all that is good in your life and being thankful for it. Thinking and doing the right thing all the time may seem like a lofty principle, but ultimately it’s your life and the karmic results belong to you too.

Meditation is a great teacher and you have the resources within you to have a truly amazing life. It is YOU who has the ability to empower yourself and take the first steps to move forward on your life’s purpose, rather than standing still.
You are a remarkable individual with untapped possibilities and you Can have amazing success with all of your endeavors.

The choice remains yours.

The quote at the top of the page asks you to consider how you would act when you think that no-one is looking. Meditation teaches each one of us that the Self is always observing.
SO WITH THIS AWARENESS, HOW DO YOU ACT?

AFFIRMATIONS
I choose my thoughts
Every thought takes me closer to my life purpose
I am filled with joy and enthusiasm
Divine guidance is always with me
I love myself and others
I choose to do things that foster love
I am successful in all that I do
I am connected to the source of infinite wisdom
I am at peace

POSITIVE THOUGHTS

It is estimated that an average person thinks about 12,000 thoughts per day, while a deep thinker can think up to 50,000 thoughts.

While 95% of what we think ARE the same thoughts as we had yesterday, 75% of the average person’s thoughts are negative.

That’s between 9,000 and almost 38,000 negative thoughts every single day.

Thoughts and the spoken word impact ourselves and others and help to mold and shape the life that we ultimately live. Living your life unaware of the thoughts that you are thinking, or their consequences, means that you are unfortunately setting yourself up to failure before you even embark upon a particular endeavor.

Deep seated feelings and emotions that you may not even have quantified into actual words, permeate through your mind and your life as a self-defeating cycle. Language such as “you’re not good enough, not smart enough, not worthy of love,” may have been uttered a long time ago but they still hold true because you repeat them every day, reinforcing them as a truth.

It's a vicious cycle that has the ability to trap you unless you make the conscious decision to BREAK FREE ONE THOUGHT AT A TIME.

The converse is also true; “you are so clever, you are wonderful, I love you.”

YOUR MIND IS CAPABLE OF BELIEVING THESE THOUGHTS TOO.

AFFIRMATIONS
Words and thoughts enter both the conscious and subconscious where they impact you with either positive or detrimental effects.
The mind and the body will believe what you tell it and in turn will help you to create a life based on the premise of what you affirm to be true, whether it is a beneficial or critical thought.

Speak and think your chosen positive affirmations.
If it helps, you should write your affirmations down until you become practiced at making them.
Repeat them as often as you need to until you know that you believe them.

Instead of saying language such as “I want to…”
Use language such as “I am…”

The mind will believe what you tell it and soon you will be living these affirmations.
Allow positive changes to occur and replace the negative emotions that have occurred in your life.
Replace the bad with good and one by one you will grow stronger in your confidence, your outlook, and your zest for life.

ALTRUISM
In addition to helping you create the reality that you want, you will find that you become more grateful for what you have in your life, and are able to reach out to others and help them too.

RECEIVE
Continue to be open to receiving the subject of your affirmations. Trust that as you ask it, it has happened, and that you have received it. Receiving is important. It’s like having a parcel delivered on your birthday but you choose not to open it so you can’t use it in your life.

Affirmations are powerful statements that are under-utilized. The phrase Use it or Lose it, applies to affirmations too. Let every part of your body, mind, and spirit tap into the energy of your own positive messages, and you will change your life in ways that you DO want.

Om Shanti Peace