Meditation by HaPe Gera
I love reading and posting about meditation because I believe that anyone can benefit from practicing it. Some of the posts I’ve read lately :
The Unifying Spirit of Meditation–by Brad Shore:
If you answer YES to any of these questions, I hope you’ll read on.
- Are you preoccupied with the next item on your to-do list, rather than focused on the task at hand?
- Do you have trouble concentrating?
- Are you often uneasy or restless?
- Does your mind race a mile a minute?
- Do you feel as though there are never enough hours in the day?
If any of that sounds like you, you could get a lot out of meditation. I started meditating about ten years ago. At that time, I would have answered all five of those questions with an emphatic YES! Now, these difficulties bother me only occasionally and to a relatively slight degree.
Meditation is all about focus, about living in the moment. At its best, meditation is a physical, mental, and spiritual exercise, though many practitioners focus on only one or two dimensions. Meditation can be as simple as a focused breathing exercise. Some forms, such as certain types of contemplative prayer, can take a lifetime to master.
Meditation and Mortality: Practice and Parkinson’s–by Arthur Zajonc:
“The diagnosis came a few months ago; I had stage one Parkinson’s disease. The most prominent symptom was a persistent resting tremor in my right hand. I had been meditating for many years, and now I was experiencing firsthand the ways in which meditation and a chronic medical condition can intersect.”
“I started my meditation practice in my usual way with the cultivation of humility, reverence, and calm. I slowly opened and closed my unsettled hand in synchrony with my shallow breathing. The tremor in my right hand gradually slowed as my meditation deepened and my awareness widened. The movements of my body associated with Parkinson’s became smaller and ultimately stopped. The jitters that accompany me during the day had finally ceased, and I found a place of rest and ease. I welcomed the silent spacious calm. It seemed as if a whole day’s agitation slid from my body.”
“Then, taking up a line of poetry as the focus for a concentration practice, I noted that my hand began to tremor once again. Returning to spacious awareness, the tremor disappeared. I have noted the difference consistently over recent weeks. Concentration practices stimulate the tremor whereas a practice of deep, silent, open awareness calms it.”
Only the Buzz Words Change–by Sue:
“A wise person I know describes mindfulness this way: Imagine that you put a puppy in the middle of the room. What is it going to do? Is it going to sit still? No, it will run off to find something fun to do. So you have to keep putting the puppy back in the middle of the room. You may have to do this many many times before the puppy stays in the middle of the room. It may not stay there today, so you can try again tomorrow.”
“The puppy is everything that intrudes on your meditation. The list of things you need to pick up on your way home. The appointment you need to make later on. The possibilities for tonight’s dinner menu. The criticism of yourself for not being focused enough or not “doing meditation” correctly. Endless, endless intrusions upon simply resting in the present moment that is now.”
Into the light by mindfulness
Wikipedia identifies mindfulness as “the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally”. Although my faith is based in Jesus Christ, I am thankful that He has given me the gift of openness to explore and implement practices from other faiths and religions.
In 1976, when I began implementing breathing exercise with meditation practices, I immediately knew that finding my center and focusing on my breath in and breath out enabled calm and peace to flow through my body. Being human, I learned in a moment what has taken a lifetime to implement. Transcendental meditation has been found to decrease heart rate and blood pressure because the mind-body connection prospers when one experiences peace and calm.
The following websites can help someone to experience mindfulness, mediation and peace: From New Dream Network come several sites linked together: Energy Breath—-Healing Arts Online–-Thinking Peace. Although these blogs are selling selected books does not take away the thoughtfulness presentations here.
Some current articles or posts about mindfulness meditation:
Mindfulness Meditation and Concentration Meditation–by Matt Clarkson:
“Mindfulness meditation is also known as insight because the intention is to gain insight as to the true nature of reality. While concentration involves the practitioner focusing their attention on a single object, in mindfulness meditation practice, every aspect of experience is welcomed and appreciated.”
“With concentration practice, we give the attention a target that keeps us anchored in the present moment. The target can be a physical object, or more commonly, the breath. We give the mind something consistent to focus on and this becomes the object of the meditation.”
“Whatever is used as the object for the attention, the aim is to keep the mind focused as often as you remember to do so. As the mind starts to wander, we simply direct the mind back toward the object of attention with a sense of “friendliness.”
“What do I mean by friendliness? Whenever we become lost in thought or confusion, we simply acknowledge those thoughts and then gently re-focus the attention. If we consciously try to prevent thinking, it’s going to have a negative impact on our practice. Instead, the moment we recognize we have become distracted, we gently bring our attention back.”
An Online Meditation Room (with video)
The following is a book review by Shai Coggins:
“Arriving at Your Own Door (108 Lessons in Mindfulness) by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Non-fiction, Self-help) – A collection of short thoughts from Kabat-Zinn and some quotations that relate to the topic of mindfulness or meditation.”
“Review: If someone told me that I’d be interested in the topic of “mindfulness” or “meditation” a couple of months ago, I would’ve said they’re nuts. My mind runs a hundred miles a minute and it seriously hurts to try to make it go still. Unless I’m totally exhausted, the brain just won’t stop buzzing.”
“But, something happened to me at the end of last year that I can’t quite explain. And, that something led me to the concept of finding stillness within me. When I was trying to understand the whole thing better, I came across Kabat-Zinn’s work.”
“Since I wasn’t quite sure I’d be all for the mindfulness thing, I decided to read whatever was available from my local library. Thankfully, they had this concise version of one of his books. And, I’m glad I read it. I can’t wait to read more and to learn more. Of course, my mind still buzzes about – and I still struggle with the stillness. But, I am more aware of this concept, and I know I want to get to know it more and to see how it will work for me.”
By Schristia
These are the techniques I use to take charge of my mind and redirect it into helping me with my life.
1) Retrain the brain–
Our subconscious mind is estimated to be 90% of our total brain power. Yet many of us don’t know how to get our subconscious mind involved in getting our dreams changed to reality.
The subconscious can only create what we each create in our mind. Oftentimes, we express what we want in a wish and not as a command. By learning how to use the power of our subconscious mind, we can help make our dreams come true.
If you are allowing your mind or brain to run your life, you are using 10% of your resources. The conscious mind can best be used as the executor of your subconscious mind—the other 90% of your resources.
The group therapy techniques that I have found to be the most effective for learning how to retrain your brain is cognitive (thoughts)-behavioral (actions)–cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The first main learning I had was in what is called cognitive restructuring. Simply put, I had to relearn how to think. I learned how to be what I call my observer self.
I never realized that my way of thinking everything was a major disaster was contributing to my life’s disasters. In other words, I was creating the drama and not just reacting to it. So I learned that if I created the drama, I could uncreate it. The simple technique I used was to shout “Stop!” at my obsessive thinking. Scream it loud enough and you tend to get your own attention.
I learned that my mind was out to get me–or, at the very least, my mind was out to control me. I think that I was addicted to feeling bad. The main reward from negative thinking is low expectations of ourselves. If you think you’re not worth much, you don’t have to do much.
2) Flipping the switch–
Flipping the switch is what I call shifting your point of view. The two points of view that I am currently choosing between are scarcity thinking and prosperity thinking—the old glass half-empty or half full. The mind creates whatever thoughts we focus on. If I focus on what I don’t have instead of what I do have, I am in scarcity mode.
One of my favorite teachers for the prosperity thinking is Catherine Ponder. She was a Unity Church minister who wrote in 1958 a great book, The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity. The book was written via a series of sermons during a recession. She established her belief in prosperity being available to everyone by teaching that the Bible teaching of “not serving God and Mammon” was right. This teaching meant not worshiping wealth but to always recognize who the Giver is.
She was the first I knew who recognized that the brain works by the mental images we produce. She also believed in projected positive images to others so that they can prosper also. With prosperity thinking, you focus on what is and what can be added to the wealth you already possess. I think of it as pyramid. At the base of the pyramid, I have the love of the God of my understanding, my health, my husband, my dog, my loved ones, my business, my home, my computers, the Internet, my spiritual program, my experiences, my plants, the canals, etc.
She also taught one of the spiritual laws I believe—giving away surplus to make room for new. When my cup is full, I have to empty it to get more. So it is with possessions, love, experiences, etc. I have to make room for the new.
3) Healing our inner critic–
Our self-image is formed by allowing ourselves to be influenced by various authority figures. As we mature and accept the responsibility of defining ourselves, these internalized voices of authority must each be examined and evaluated. It is only when we take back our own power to define ourselves that we are truly free.
Our conscious mind is where thoughts are formed. Our subconscious mind is where our creative mind takes root. As we learn to harness the vast power and energy of the subconscious mind, we are tapping into our real source.
Transactional analysis therapists estimate that we each have 25,000 hours of internalized negative self-talk. We are generally taught what is wrong with us by our authority figures at home, school, church, etc. In an effort to understand who we are, we accept these self-limiting labels as who we are. However, we each individually are the only one who can truly “know” who we are, or, at least, we are in the best position to make the best educated guess. Learn to challenge the “voices” (one of friends called them “the committee”) or negative self-talk you carry around in your head. Listen to what you tell yourself about you.
In learning to monitor your inner critic, learn to first determine if the criticism is helpful. If you find the suggestion to be helpful, next check to see if the inner critic is kind, gentle, and polite to you. If it is in a condemning voice, ask you inner critic to speak kinder to you.
The techniques you may use to change your inner critic from enemy to friend are: speed up the volume, mimic a falsetto voice, etc. My favorite ploy when I was learning this was to scream “Stop”. It is better to practice these techniques while alone. As someone has suggested—learn to join the airwaves until you own the station.
Self-esteem comes from how we evaluate and accept or reject input as well as the foundation we’ve created from the successes we’ve experienced. By learning to focus on our strengths rather than on our weaknesses, we have each take charge of our own destiny.
After learning how to utilize our inner critic, we next need to take charge of our thoughts. What we choose to focus our thinking on determines what we will think and feel about ourselves. You are what you think you are. By substituting positive self-talk for negative self-talk, we are re-programming ourselves for positive action.
Artist Under Bridge by randy-son of robert
Our self-image is formed by allowing ourselves to be influenced by various authority figures. As we mature and accept the responsibility of defining ourselves, these internalized voices of authority must each be examined and evaluated. It is only when we take back our own power to define ourselves that we are truly free.
Our conscious mind is where thoughts are formed. Our subconscious mind is where our creative mind takes root. As we learn to harness the vast power and energy of the subconscious mind, we are tapping into our real source.
Transactional analysis therapists estimate that we each have 25,000 hours of internalized negative self-talk. We are generally taught what is wrong with us by our authority figures at home, school, church, etc. In an effort to understand who we are, we accept these self-limiting labels as who we are. However, we each individually are the only one who can truly “know” who we are, or, at least, we are in the best position to make the best educated guess. Learn to challenge the “voices” (one of friends called them “the committee”) or negative self-talk you carry around in your head. Listen to what you tell yourself about you.
In learning to monitor your inner critic, learn to first determine if the criticism is helpful. If you find the suggestion to be helpful, next check to see if the inner critic is kind, gentle, and polite to you. If it is in a condemning voice, ask you inner critic to speak kinder to you.
The techniques you may use to change your inner critic from enemy to friend are: speed up the volume, mimic a falsetto voice, etc. My favorite ploy when I was learning this was to scream “Stop”. It is better to practice these techniques while alone. As someone has suggested—learn to join the airwaves until you own the station.
Self-esteem comes from how we evaluate and accept or reject input as well as the foundation we’ve created from the successes we’ve experienced. By learning to focus on our strengths rather than on our weaknesses, we have each take charge of our own destiny.
After learning how to utilize our inner critic, we next need to take charge of our thoughts. What we choose to focus our thinking on determines what we will think and feel about ourselves. You are what you think you are. By substituting positive self-talk for negative self-talk, we are re-programming ourselves for positive action.
