May 28, 2013 by Donna Thornton Leave a Comment

Why Not Meditate?

By Yamuna Loyal

‘The most powerful benefit that I have experienced from meditation is that it makes my mind much sharper. It allows the haziness in my mind to be cleared away so that everything makes sense to me and connects with my ideas. – Jamil Nasir, Lawyer

Gone are the days when meditation was some wacky word that only strange and different people used. Nowadays, meditation is being increasingly recognized as something which really offers some practical solutions to our national epidemic – namely Stress Factor 10.

Stress & Stress Related Illness

In our fast moving world, meditation, concentration, and relaxation are becoming vital tools for success both in the workplace and at home. Meditation has been used extensively to alleviate stress induced conditions both in business and at home. These can range from simple headaches and high blood pressure to arthritis and heart problems.

Medical research has confirmed that meditation has a profound influence on decreasing the harmful effects of stress. Prolonged levels of stress can lead to illness and consequent absenteeism. From my experience, teaching meditation in the workplace, as well as in courses up and down the country, meditation helps to dissolve stress effectively, helps people to learn to relax at will and thereby stay effective throughout the day.

In a study with 77 men and women following a ten week program of meditation, ALL reported a remarked improvement in their stress symptoms.

Does it really work?

Heart Disease
Research in the US with the pioneering heart surgeon Dr Dean Ornish, has shown that heart disease can be reversed through lifestyle changes which include meditation, correct diet, yoga and exercise. Meditation is a key component of Dr Dean Ornish’s therapy which is the only scientifically proven treatment to reverse heart disease.

High Blood Pressure
In a study of 36 people, the average blood pressure declined significantly after several weeks of practising meditation.

Peace of Mind
Meditation has been found to bring greater calmness and clarity of mind which in turn results in greater effectiveness in the workplace. You can practice meditation in the boardroom or the bedroom, before a sports game, important interview, while travelling, or at home. Wherever you find yourself, the benefits are always effective and far-reaching.

Mind Management
Successful people know that it is not intelligence that determines how successful we are in business, but a positive self belief that what we want is achievable, coupled with the will and right actions to follow through with an effective strategy, of course. Meditation teaches you to take charge of your mind, thoughts and beliefs, decreasing the gap between potential and output.

Emotional Balance
We all know how important and essential enthusiasm and passion are for achieving success. Learning how to increase your emotional intelligence and turn negative emotions really does increase motivation and help maintain high energy levels, even when the going gets tough.

What is Meditation?
Meditation is a highly effective method for working on the mind. It promotes an alert and skilful state of mind which requires us to remain present and ‘with’ whatever is happening in and around us.

How do you meditate?

It’s about sitting quietly and focusing the mind – often on the breath or a word such as ‘relax’. Concentration and visualisation also play a big part in the process. ‘Focus’is the key word. People often say that they have ‘tried to meditate but couldn’t switch off.’ This is absolutely right. It is almost impossible to sit down, close your eyes and just meditate. There is a definite process that facilitates meditation. Here it is:
– The first thing you have to do is to energise your body. You cannot meditate if you are tired. All you will achieve is sitting up sleep!
– Secondly, you need to do something called ‘Energy Block Release’ movements. (see Dru Yoga DVD) These movements facilitate the release of negative or unwanted energy from the muscles and organs of the body. They take away the aches and pains that can beleaguer our attempts at sitting still.
– Relaxation is the next and most important step. The mind needs to be relaxed in order to focus. Deep relaxation releases stress at a profound level, which in turn clears the mind of unwanted emotions and thoughts, clearing the way for concentration.
– Focusing the mind in a one-pointed way is essential to the process of meditation. This can include counting your breaths, focusing on one point, watching the seconds hand on your watch.

In my experience of a two hour session in the workplace, it takes one hour and forty minutes to prepare people who are not at all familiar with meditation to get to a point where they can actually focus the mind for twenty minutes. But those twenty minutes are very impressive! With all the mental gunk out of the way, the experience of meditation becomes possible.

The experience? What is that?
It is a sense of deep stillness and calm. The mind becomes essentially still, untroubled and free from thought and in that space everything inside you becomes peaceful and relaxed leaving you with a wonderful sense of wellbeing and that wonderful ‘I can do anything now’ feeling.

What are the Long-Term Benefits of Meditation?

Check this out: Scientific research shows that people who meditate enjoy:

– better memory
– clearer thinking
– greater ability to focus
– increased creativity
– Sharper intellect
– More alertness
– Higher IQ
– Sharper intellect
– Decreased anxiety
– Decreased depression
– Decreased irritability and moodiness
– Increased feelings of happiness and wellbeing
– Increased emotional stability
– Inner calm
– More self-confidence
– Deeper appreciation of self and others
– More harmonious behaviour
– Ability to feel better about self and others
– Less anxiety, anger and depression

Learn to Relax
The beauty of learning the skills of meditation is that you learn so much more on the way. One of them is the ability to relax at will.

This is how it goes. You get upset and tense up. The tension makes you feel bad and so more tension is created. The cycle perpetuates itself until you reach a maximum level or until you break the cycle and ‘let go’. This could be talking to someone, having a hot bath or going for a walk. The interesting thing is that if you regularly allow yourself to get into a stress cycle, then the maximum level of stress that the body can tolerate also rises. After a while, maybe a few years, you will find that you are suffering from hyper-stress and the body is seriously out of balance. At this stage, the body’s natural defence may become lowered and result in burnout or illness.

Here is a powerful aid to relaxation to start you off:

– Simply count your in and outbreaths. You could try this while out walking, using your steps to count as you synchronise the breath to your walking. Then adjust your breathing so that you make the inbreath equal to the outbreath.
– Ideally you would start by practising this equal breathing with a count of four.
– For example, breathe in: one, two, three, four, pause.
– Breathe out: one, two, three, four, pause.
– As you become more practised you can increase the count to five or six and so on.

Once you learn to relax at will and you learn to let go, you will start to experience more clarity about your life. This is because you have started to clear the clutter of disorganised, stressful thought patterns. Think of it as feng shui for the mind! And then you are ready to further investigate the art of concentration.

Simple Meditation
Practice gazing at an object for a few minutes every day. Typical objects that are used as a candle flame or a flower as the brain finds natural, non-linear shapes more restful than the linear environments that we are normally subjected to. Gazing is not staring. It is a gentle, unbroken point of contact on an object by the eyes. The eyes should be softened so that the process takes no energy from you, but adds to your energy.

Yamuna Loyal is an writer, singer and songwriter and meditation teacher. She promotes meditation as a means to resolving many of life’s deeper issues. As well as teaching Dru meditation courses in the Dru UK Course Centre in Snowdonia, she also runs the Sound Certificate Course and is the author of A Survivor’s Guide to Cancer: The New 7-Point Plan to Reclaim Your Health having survived cancer twice. Her e-book is available as a download from http://www.survivingcancer.co.uk

Article Source: Why Not Meditate?

May 7, 2013 by Donna Thornton Leave a Comment

What are Chakras?

Chakras, which mean wheels in Sanskrit, are energy centers running along our spine. Ancient Hindus formulated that there were seven of these energy wheels, each one a different color and spinning in a clockwise direction.

We all have seven major chakras and many minor chakras. They are like spinning funnels that come out from our body. When they are perfectly balanced and spinning correctly we are in perfect health. If one or more are out of balance, too open or too closed we feel off color, out of balance, or sick. This is what is called dis-ease. Each chakra relates to organs or parts of the body and each need to be looked after and balanced regularly. You can work on each chakra separately starting with the base chakra, and then bring them all into balance, or you can work on all the chakras at the same time.

The root chakra is located at the base of the spine.
The sacral centre is just below the navel.
The solar plexus is about two inches above the navel.
The heart is about the level of the physical heart.
The throat is at the base of the neck.
The third eye is on the forehead between the eyes.
The crown is at the top of the head.

These are the 7 major chakras and there are many minor chakras as well.

All chakras interact with one another. Each chakra corresponds to a particular colour frequency and with a particular gland or organ. This means that the organ or gland vibrates at a sympathetic rhythm to a colour vibration. When we feel “off colour” or “washed out” we need to re-tune the colour, just like tuning in a radio set to a station so that it restores the signal loud and clear.

In a healthy body the chakras absorb and distribute colour energy evenly, while in an unhealthy person toxins may begin to collect causing physical, mental and emotional problems.

Each chakra can be balanced using colours, crystals, essential oils, music, affirmations or changing what you do. It is also beneficial to have a chakra balance to bring them all back into balance. This can be done at home by yourself or you can go to a crystal therapist or colour therapist to have it done.

When all your chakras are balanced – you should be healthy and well balanced.
It is important to have all your chakras in balance, sometimes when people start on the spiritual path they concentrate on the third eye, but it is very important to start at the bottom. Our body is like a building, you need to get the foundations right before you work on the top floors. So make sure your bottom chakras are balanced and functioning properly.

Each chakra is represented by a colour:
Base – Red
Sacral – Orange
Solar Plexus – Yellow
Heart – Green or Pink
Throat – Blue
Third Eye – Purple
Crown – White

The easiest way to bring the chakras back into balance is to carry or wear the appropriate colour.

Another very easy and pleasant way is to listen to a chakra balancing CD. Music is a very relaxing way to bring things back into balance. Ideally this is done while meditating, but just listening to the music will help. And let’s face it anything is better than nothing. Playing a chakra balancing CD is a great way to balance the whole family at the same time and usually this has a calming effect on every one as well.

An easy but effective way to balance and align the chakras is to do a guided meditation lying down with crystals or colour patches of material on each chakra.

A Guided Meditation for balancing the chakras:

You may either get someone to read this to you, or you may read it out and record your own voice. It is best read slowly, allowing for pauses where appropriate.

Relax, take a couple of deep breaths and breathe out all your stress and tension.

See yourself standing in a valley, you are surrounded with red tulips, everywhere you look it is a sea of red.
As you start to walk though the tulips you feel yourself absorbing the red energy.
You feel your root chakra come alive.
As you walk further you come to the end of the red tulips.

You have now come to a field of orange poppies, they are everywhere, and the flowers appear to be dancing in the light breeze.
As you walk along you notice you are starting to go up the side of a hill.
Walking through the poppies you feel yourself absorbing the colour orange.
Your sacral centre is alive.
You now reach the end of the poppies.

You are now in a field of brilliant yellow daises.
Smell the fragrance and see the sunny yellow flowers.
As you continue your journey up the hill you feel the yellow absorbing into your body and your solar plexus is alive.
All too soon you come to the end of the yellow.

You now find yourself in a beautiful field of soft green grass.
As you walk across it you feel the green absorbing up through your feet.
Your heart chakra is alive.

The green grass field takes you further up the hill till you reach a field of bluebells, their delicate blue heads bowed slightly as if to greet you. As you walk through them, feel the blue absorbing into your body, feel your throat chakra opening.

As you walk further up the hill you reach the end of the beautiful bluebells and find yourself in a field of indigo irises.
Stand for a moment and absorb the indigo colour flooding into your third eye.

Walking further up the hill you come to the end of the indigo and reach a patch of purple pansies.
Their beautiful petals are like faces looking up at you. Hundreds of them all are projecting their colour up to your crown chakra.
Just stand for a moment and absorb.

As you slowly continue up the hill, you leave your pansies and reach the top of the hill. Here you are surrounded by a sea of tiny white flowers. As you sit in the middle of the white flowers you notice you are on the top of the hill. Looking down you can now see all the colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple and white, like stripes in the side of the hill.

Sit for a moment and take it all in.

You feel very peaceful and every chakra is alive.

It is now time to leave your rainbow hill.

Remember the feeling of all your chakras being alive. Return to the top of the hill whenever you feel the need. It is now time to open your eyes and return to this reality as we know it.

You may use this chakra balancing meditation whenever you feel the need for it, or as often as you like.

About the Author

Sue Windred is a Crystal and Reiki Master, Metaphysician and Meditation teacher who lives and works with her husband Ron at ‘Akasha Keep’; a spiritual centre dedicated to healing and teaching, located in the beautiful Somerset region of Queensland, Australia.

http://www.WhollyMetaphysical.com

http://www.MyCrystalAura.com.au

Article Source: http://www.content4reprint.com

February 10, 2013 by Donna Thornton Leave a Comment

Inspired Action | How Secure is your Firewall?

I have a friend who is having some issues. I know, we all have friends with issues as well as our own issues, nothing new there. This one is special though. Not only is she a special person but our recent discovery is by far the coolest thing I’ve been a part of in all my years of practice. Among her list of trials, experiences and challenges in her life is one of health and weight. Now before I go any further let me say that ‘weight’ is the word we use here but my belief is that what is going on in just about anybody’s head is far beyond just body weight. That though, is a different story.

I have worked on her, energetically, several times. Counseled with her (giving as well as receiving) and met as friends to have or give a shoulder. I know who she is and what she believes, how diligently she works on herself and how she presents herself. So for me to be witness to this particular epiphany was mind-boggling, enlightening and just plain exciting!

She came in for an appointment this week and we covered both old ground and new ground. Old ground being her weight and health. She has worked (literally) for years to heal herself. Removing triggers, self-sabotage, traumas and a general feeling of not being valuable in the world. More recently she has focused on removing behaviors as well as emotional triggers which she believes contributes to her inability to be healthy and at a desirable weight (for her). Confused? Yes she is. Lots of work and in her eyes, no results.

As I am working on her to energetically clear her lymph system she is allowing herself to express random thoughts. Guess what came out. “People who get cancer loose weight”. BINGO! DING-DING! BULLSEYE! There it is…her FIREWALL. That is a fail-safe belief if I’ve ever heard one. The Trojan horse couldn’t get past that gate.

The point here is, it doesn’t matter how much work we do on ourselves or how much we clear away. If you have built in a firewall a fail-safe to protect a belief, you will not get to your goal. And get this, we all have them! Let’s understand that the reason we build this firewall is to protect ourselves, it works for us, it serves us, for a time. Then there comes a time when it no longer serves us but hurts us, stops us from getting to our goal, stops us from healing and being all we were meant to be. Until we uncover what we have written on our firewall it isn’t going to work. It never hurts to clear away old stuff, that’s how we get to the real issue. Clearing will eventually lead you to your fail-safe belief, but you have to keep going until you get there, painful as it might be.

Do you have an issue or situation that you just can’t get ahold of? Can’t seem to get to your goal? How does or did that belief serve you? This is the first question to ask, ‘How did this belief serve me’. Then what firewall, fail-safe belief did you put in place to protect your original belief? Whew! Complicated right?

We all have them and yes they serve us, but not in this time of shift, of enlightenment. Not in this time of raising our vibrations. Time to bring down that obsolete firewall and install a new higher vibration, kick-ass belief that supports the beautiful light being that you are. Reboot!

Robin Wiggs is a massage therapist and energy healer. You can find out more about her, or get in touch with her through her website at http://www.ahealingartmassage.com/