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Archive for the ‘Meditation’ Category

Once Western scientists first began studying the personal effects of speculation in the 1970s, they noticed that heart rate, perspiration, and other signs of emphasis decreased as the meditator relaxed. Scientists, like Richard Davidson, PhD (University of Badger State), have besides been considering the long-term of . In 1992, Davidson received an invitation from the 14th Dalai Lama to come to northern Republic of India and sketch the brains of Buddhistic monks, the foremost meditators in the world. Davidson traveled to Bharat with laptop computers, generators, and EEG recording equipment, thus initiating an ongoing work. Now, monks travel to his WI lab wherever they chew over while in a magnetic imaging machine or they watch disturbing visual images as EEGs record their responses to understand how they regulate aroused reactions.

Any activeness–including –will create new pathways and strengthen certain areas of the mind. “This fits into the whole neuroscience literature of expertise,” says Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard neuroscientist, in a New York Times article (14 September 2003), ” taxi drivers deliberate for their spatial memory and concert musicians for their sense of pitch. If you do something, anything, even play Ping-Pong, for 20 years, eight hours a Day, there’s going to be something in your head that’s different from someone WHO didn’t do that. It’s just got to be.” monks pattern three forms of : 1) focused attention on a single object for long time periods 2) cultivating pity by thinking about angercausing situations and transforming the negative emotion into compassionateness and 3) ‘open presence,’ “a Department of State of being acutely aware of whatever thought, emotion or sensation is present without reacting to it.” Knowing the that has on the monks’ brains, Davidson decided to realize what effect has on neophytes. He set up a cogitation with 41 employees at a nearby biotech company in Wisconsin River (Psychosomatic Medicine 65: 564-570, 2003). Twenty-five of the participants enlightened ‘mindfulness ,’ a accent-reducing form that promotes nonjudgmental awareness of the present and is taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Read the rest of this entry »

You have the ability to create your own mind-set. Whether your attitude is positive or negative, is up to you. The ability to change your environment, circle of friends, and attitude, is within your control.

Just like a computer absorbs raw data, so does your mind. Within your mind a culture, within itself, has grown. Many people feel like they have no control of their own mind, because this culture has become negative. The negativity is a result of past experiences, being in a negative environment, or being under the influence of unconstructive ideas.

Similar to a computer virus, you have to identify it quickly, to avoid letting it spread within your mind. You can also pass this virus of negative thinking to people around you. As a result you are spreading negative energy around, like “weeds in a field.”

Much like a farmer, you cultivate too. The energy in your mind is the crop, and it is up to you, whether it is weeds or wheat. If you have a farm and let a field take care of itself; you will be lucky to have any kind of a crop, from it.
This is the same with the energy within your mind.

You have to option to pick quality seeds: Information, in the form of books, eBooks, DVD’s, CD’s, lectures, courses, workshops, and seminars. This is learning, for the sake of self-improvement, and it results in a positive mind-set. Read the rest of this entry »

How do you connect chakras, the energy centres of the body in Eastern tradition, and flowers, pretty, ephemeral, bright, cheerful manifestations of nature?

…by way of color therapy.. yoga energy balancing techniques…meditation… and a simple way of making yourself feel better and reenergized even if you don’t really believe in any of the above.

There are seven main chakras (as well as several others) in a line from the base of the spine to the crown of the head and one more newly recognised chakra just above the head which I believe is important. Each one is associated with various areas of physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. When the energy flow in one becomes blocked it can result in certain symptoms and vice versa. By keeping the chakras open and the energy flowing, we can maximise our body’s ability to keep well and heal itself.

One way of stimulating energy flow is by a simple visualisation. Each chakra has a colour of the spectrum linked to it. Focus on that colour and imagine that colour light pouring into the chakra and saturating it in pure coloured light, then visualise the chakra as a spinning disc of colour. Take 2 or 3 deep breaths as you do so. You can also repeat a mantra or affirmation to intensify the positive energy you are creating. Work through each chakra (see below for summary) in turn from Root to Crown to rebalance your whole energy level.

So what about the flowers? Whatever you use to visualise the colour would work, paint swatches, coloured stones or crystals, an image in your minds eye, but beautiful photographs of flowers saturated in the pure colour of each chakra can bring some extra flower energy into your life as well.

Flowers raise the vibrational energy around them, which is why they have long been associated with celebrations, brought as presents to new mothers, sick people, loved ones. Weddings and funerals are lavish with them. We are rarely aware of the spiritual connection these days, we just know that flowers cheer people up and make them feel glad. So flower photos as visualisation aids make sense and are beautiful to have around. www.aflowergallery.com has a whole section devoted to chakra flower photos.

There are books written about the chakras going into far more detail than there is space for here, as it is a deep and complex subject, with infinite, individual interpretations, but here is a basic, brief summary of the chakras and their associated areas and colours.

1. Root – Red
Situated at the base of the spine.
Emotional grounding and ones roots. The excretory and reproductive systems and the immune system.
Mantra “I am in touch with the earth, my roots”

2. Sacral – Orange
A hands breadth down from the belly button.
Sexuality, creativity, financial issues, honour and ethics, one to one relationships.
Genital and urinary systems, bladder and prostate.
Mantra “I am a creative, sexual being”

3. Solar Plexus – Yellow
Over the solar plexus at the bottom of the rib cage.
Self-esteem, self-confidence and how you see yourself.
Digestive system, worries and fears, the stress of responsibility.
Mantra “I believe in myself”

4. Heart – Green
Over the heart.
Love, forgiveness, unconditional love. Relationships.
Circulatory and immune systems. Heart and lungs. Loneliness.
Mantra “I can give and receive love”

5. Throat – Blue
Centre of the throat
Communication, self-expression and will power.
Thyroid problems, sore throats, addictions(due to lack of will)
Mantra “I speak my truth”
Read the rest of this entry »

The following is an excerpt from the book The Shaolin Workout
by Sifu Shi Yan Ming
Published by Rodale; May 2006;$29.95US/$39.95CAN; 1-59486-400-4
Copyright © 2006 Sifu Shi Yan Ming

As I go through my day today, I will remind myself to relax. Stay loose.
Be flexible in my body and mind.

It’s most important to stay loose and relaxed in mind and body. To enjoy your life, you must be relaxed. When we were children, our bodies were loose, relaxed, and flexible. We could do splits, flips, jumps, and twists without thinking about it. We were pure mind in babies’ bodies.

But you’re never too old — we just get too tense, too stiff. We think too much. One of the most important lessons you can learn doing the Shaolin Workout is how to get back that childlike relaxation and flexibility — to be at home in your body again. It makes no difference if you are in your twenties, fifties, or eighties. Relax. Never feel old. Tell yourself you’re not getting older every year — you’re getting younger!

Sifu explains that there are two kinds of meditation: action meditation and no-action meditation. In the West, we’re most familiar with the no-action kind. We can all form images of Buddhist monks sitting with their legs crossed and their eyes closed, still and silent, for hours and hours, as they strive to achieve enlightenment.

The only problem is that too much no-action meditation can be as bad for your joints, your back, your neck, as sitting at a computer all day. This is what Da Mo saw happening to the monks at Shaolin. They spent so much time sitting in meditation that their bodies were as stiff as wooden dolls. He saw that Ba Tuo had not given them the proper tools to adapt Buddhism to Chinese life. Why do we meditate? To cleanse our minds and open our hearts. But if we burden our bodies with tension and pain, our minds and hearts can’t be cleansed. Your mind and your heart and your body are inseparable.
Read the rest of this entry »