The concept of meditating for many people is that of hippies sitting out in the bush, high on weed, all chanting together or of Buddhist Monks in the high mountains of Tibet chanting their sacred text. Meditation can be all of that and more. Meditation is for everyone, not just a select group. When choosing to meditate, you must clearly define the purpose of the meditation session. Meditation in the western world is most commonly related to stress relief and to help ease the strains of everyday life but it does not have to be. What is meditation? Most people miss understand the purpose of meditation and what you can achieve with it. The purpose of meditation is to remove the demands the world places on your mind. It is about clearing your mind so that you can prepare for the next on-slaught the world decides to throw at you. If you are stressed then meditation will help you to clear your mind of the stress so that you can better focus on the issues that are causing the stress. The cool part is that during a meditation session you can teach yourself or direct yourself to do anything you want. In a book I have become a great believer in, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, the writer in his third secret of what millionaires know to become obscenely rich and successful, he talks about Autosuggestion. Autosuggestion is about programming your mind to become successful and achieve what you want. Meditation is a great tool in helping you to achieve this objective. In fact meditation is the best way to help reprogram your mind to achieve anything. Buddhist monks for millenniums have been using meditation to help in their path to enlightenment and in becoming a better person. During their meditations they reflect on where they are in their life and based on the sacred texts provided by Lord Buddha they use these during their meditations to reflect on what they have done and use the teachings to become a better person and achieve enlightenment. They use the sacred texts to help their reflections in changing who they are to what they want to be. This leads me to an important statement, do not meditate for the sake of it, have a clear purpose for your meditation session. If you are stressed then your meditation session should be focused on helping you to overcome the stress and get back to a point of calm. Once you have got to the point of calm then your next step is to meditate on the issue that is causing you the stress. For example, if someone in your office is causing you stress through bullying or being rude to you then you should be using your meditation sessions to retrain your mind on how to deal with these bullies. The retraining meditation session could be achieved through using lessons or repeating text from people who are experts in this area and then reflecting on the lessons during the meditation session. Alternatively, you can reflect on the actual situation where you had a run in with the person who is causing you issues and then during your meditation reconstruct the situation and work out ways you could have made the situation better. Essentially you can use the meditation session to role play and work out a strategy to ensure you maintain control over the situation the next time someone is causing your pain and suffering. Using meditation in this way will help you in dealing with situations more effectively. The reason we do the reflections during meditation is because that is when our mind is without clutter or impacted by the stresses of day-to-day life. Before doing the reflection you should always deal with the stress before beginning the reflection or you will not achieve your outcomes. Look, what I wanted for you to get out of this article was that, before you start your meditation, you should always have a clear outcome that you want to achieve with the meditation. If you do not meditate with a purpose, then your meditation will not be effective.
If you would like to read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill it is available at our website. To help you during your meditation sessions we have Meditation Music also available.
Meditations: Meditating Before Going To Bed
The world to me seems to be speeding up everyday. We are working longer hours, we are busier than we have ever been before, the traffic is snarling more and more and our stress levels are going through the roof. The consequence to this is that more and more people are suffering insomnia and this can become dangerous and affect your ability to function effectively. One of the best tools to help you with both insomnia and stress is meditation and in particular, meditating before going to bed. I want to make a clear disclaimer at this point, if you are suffering severe insomnia or stress, please ensure that you get medical help because long term stress and insomnia can cause serious medical issues. However, I would encourage you to use Meditation in conjunction with the therapies a medical practitioner might prescribe as effective meditation will help. One of the core mistakes that people make with meditation and sleep is that they try to use meditation to actually go to sleep and this never works and in fact it can actually make it harder to get to sleep. The role of meditation before sleep is to slow your body and your mind down so that it gets to a point where it is easier for it to fall naturally asleep. There are many techniques that you can use to meditate including a seated meditation or a lying down meditation. I recommend people use the sitting method over the lying method because using the lying method so close to going to sleep you may tend to go to sleep rather than actually meditating. There is a clear difference between sleep and meditation. The core difference is that during meditation your mind needs to be clear but focused where as during sleep, you do not want to be focused you want nothing to be focused in your mind and you want your body and mind to get to that point where you shutdown. What I recommend is that if you are going to meditate prior to going to sleep then you need to use a basic meditation plan. The plan goes like this … 1. Your meditation session should take no more than 20 minutes 2. Your meditation session should start 40 minutes prior to going to bed 3. Your meditation technique during the session should use either the deep breathing Technique or basic number counting. 4. Do not drink alcohol, coffee, tea or any other caffeinated drink prior to sleep or you will affect the effectiveness of the meditation session. Two meditation techniques you should avoid 60 minutes prior to going to bed is the reflective meditation technique or the affirmation meditation technique. I have found from my own experience that if you use these techniques so close to going to bed you can start your mind focusing on either the affirmations or reflections post your meditation session. This means with only 20 minutes between when you finish your session and when you go to sleep, sometimes you will find that your thoughts continue on after the session and consequently can disrupt your sleep which is what you actually trying to avoid. One of the reasons I have recommended that you do not meditate and then goto bed, is that sometimes I find that the meditation will bring out various chemicals and stir up feelings in your body which could disrupt your ability to sleep and be leaving the period of 20 minutes between meditating and sleep free is enough to settle you down to get a good nights sleep. I should note that my colleagues and I use this technique because our jobs are often highly stressful and using this process at night after a heavy day so that we can get a quality nights sleep. When used effectively, meditation can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your sleep and the quality of your life. However, meditation is like a sport, the more practice you do, the more effective you become.
If you are looking for quality meditation music to help you with your meditation sessions then simply check out our website. Asthma is a terrible disease and using meditation with the Buteyko Breathing Method can help in treating your disease. If you want to learn the 13 secrets of how millionaires get and stay rich then I recommend reading - Think and Grow Rich
Ways To Properly Care For Your Feet
Your feet may be among the most underappreciated and hardest working parts of your body. They will carry you hundreds of thousands of miles during your lifetime, pound the pavement for you when you are looking for a job and keep you on your toes when everything else around you is falling apart. For all they do for you, don't you think your feet deserve proper care and a little pampering? Here's how to make sure that your feet feel good and keep on doing what they are supposed to do.
The Basics - Proper Footwear
Treating your feet properly starts with proper footwear. If you are on your feet a lot during the day, be sure that you choose shoes that fit well and offer proper support. Some very basic tips for properly fitted footwear include:
- Shop for shoes in the late afternoon because your feet will expand over the course of the day. It is best to fit your shoes when your feet are at their largest.
- If your feet are two different sizes (and that's true of many people) buy your shoes to fit the larger foot. Better to pad then to live in pain.
- Have the salesperson size your feet when you are standing, not sitting.
- Choose shoes with a roomy toe box and moderate heel.
- If you must wear heels for work, keep a pair of comfortable shoes that you can slip into for walking and commuting.
Footwear is more than shoes, though. The socks that you wear can also make an enormous difference in the way your feet feel - and in preventing some common foot problems.
- Choose socks that fit your feet right. Loose socks can wrinkle inside your shoes and cause blisters and discomfort.
- Choose socks that have cotton or wool blend that lets your feet breathe and wicks moisture away from them. Your feet will stay cooler and bacteria will have less moisture to breed.
- If you wear pantyhose or stockings, consider slipping a pair of cotton pedi-socks on over them for the reasons above.
More Basics - Routine Care
Most women lavish attention on their faces - daily scrubs and exfoliation creams, moisturizers and special cleansers - but few do much more for their feet than run a cloth over them in the shower. A monthly pedicure is no substitute for routine daily care for your feet.
- Wash your feet with warm water everyday. Do not soak them more often than once a week, though, or you will dry out the skin.
- After washing, dry thoroughly with a clean, soft towel. Make sure to dry between your toes.
- Keep skin soft and smooth with a thin layer of foot lotion, petroleum jelly or skin lotion applied to the tops and bottoms of your feet. Do not put lotion between the toes to avoid causing an infection.
- Smooth rough heels, calluses or other rough spots with a pumice stone. There are some great new products on the market that make smoothing your feet easier and prevent injury to your skin.
- Trim toenails once a week. Cut nails straight across to avoid ingrown toenails. If toenails are exceptionally thick or yellowed, or if they curve or press into the skin, have your toenails trimmed by a foot doctor or a pedicurist.
Home Care for Common Problems
You can head off serious problems by caring for your feet properly and dealing with common problems before they become acute. Some foot problems need medical treatment and can become serious health threats. Others are little more than an annoyance. Whichever categories your foot problems fall into, here are some tips for dealing with common foot problems.
Sweaty, smelly feet
If your body produces excess perspiration, you can end up with moist feet inside dark shoes - the perfect breeding ground for bacteria - which can lead to smelly feet. If you have a problem with smelly feet, there are several ways to deal with it:
- Keep your feet clean with daily washing. Pay particular attention to the areas between your toes, where dead skin cells can collect and contribute to the problem.
- Use foot powder in your socks.
- Wear cotton socks, or invest in anti-bacterial socks.
- Use odor-absorbing insoles in your shoes.
Dry, cracked heels
The skin on your heels is especially prone to drying and cracking. This condition can be especially common in people with diabetes and in older adults. The best way to deal with cracked heels is to prevent them with good foot care, but sometimes that is not enough.
- Use a pumice stone to gently rub away dry, dead skin.
- Wash feet regularly, but go easy on the soaking. Too much soaking will dry out your skin further.
- Do not use razors or other trimmers to remove dry, dead skin.
- Keep circulation going in your feet with regular exercise and stretching.
Stephanie Larkin is a freelance writer who specializes in writing about beauty and personal care as well as personal care products such as the Ped Egg
Practicing Staying Present to the Now
Transformational Counseling is about assisting others to transform their life. Transformational Counseling is a process of assisting others to learn how to let go of the past and live fully in the present. To live fully in the present is to become awaken to what is truly real and to our own natural power. Much of our life is spent living in the past, and in the process, attempting to fix it, to make it something that it is or was not. It is from living in the past that we also attempt to create our future, the result always being a living of life as it was in the past. Transformation takes place when we learn to exist in and be present to the Now. The practice of staying present to our natural power and to that which is real is becoming conscious to what is so, to the Now, to the present. What is so, the Now, has no meaning and exists outside of thought and language. As human beings we tend to give meaning to everything, including other people, ourselves and even life itself. It is in our meaning making that we leave the present and create our life from the past, a life that can be filled with a great deal of anxiety, fear and stress. What is so merely exists and it is in the experience of the Now that we begin to live a life of power and freedom, a life and way of being free from our past. A specific technique that is very powerful for practicing staying present to the Now is meditation. It is in meditation that one creates the space to experience a very deep state of relaxation, a state that is very healing to both the mind and body. As we know, in meditation ones metabolism slows down, including heart rate and blood pressure. The consistent practice of meditation will reduce anxiety and stress. For some the practice of meditation allows them to access true Being. For others it is way of reconnecting to the Spirit within us. It is in the consistent practice of meditation that the subject and object distinction inherent in language, thought and meaning making collapses thereby resulting in our access to the present, to the Now. The meditative process can be enhanced by the use of therapeutic relaxation music. Music has always been a very powerful modality for promoting a very deep state of relaxation and even healings. I have found that musical compositions that are harmonically slow, repetitious, with sustained voices, which are rhythmically, random in tempo assists an individual in experiencing a very deep state of relaxation. A second important component of the use of therapeutic relaxation music is the use of binaural audio tones that have been interwoven into the music. The binaural tones, through a process referred to as entrainment or frequency following, gently guides or directs the mind/body to generate more of the targeted frequency of brain wave activity for an even more profound state of relaxation. The meditative process of practicing staying present to the Now is as follows: 1. Take a comfortable position in an upright sitting position. 2. Allow your legs and arms to be open. 3. Allow your eyes to focus upon a chosen object. The chosen object could be a candle light in a darkened room or any point that you choose. 4. As you focus on the chosen object, allow your muscles to slowly relax from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. 5. Take three slow deep breathes in through your nose as you inhale. Hold each breath to the mental count of four. Slowly exhale each breath out through your mouth. Continue to breath at a slow pace after the three breaths. 6. Continue to focus on the chosen object. When your mind wanders to some thought or thoughts slowly and gently bring it back to your focused concentration upon the chosen object. Simply let go of the thoughts that arise. The thoughts are from the past. Stay focused to what is so. 7. Continue the practice for a prescribed period of time and then go about your daily activities. Each day that you practice you may even choose to lengthen the time you spend with this technique. The ability to stay in the present, to access the Now, can be enhanced with the consistent practice of meditation. What this will necessitate is one making the practice of meditation apart of his or her daily schedule. With the consistent practice of meditation one will also create the ability to stay even more present to what is so even when not actively engaged in the meditative process. It is through a commitment to the practice of meditation on a daily basis that one will begin to live more fully in the Now. Harry Henshaw, Ed.D., LMHC http://www.enhancedhealing.com
Dr Harry Henshaw is in private practice in North Miami Beach, Florida. http://www.enhancedhealing.com
Essence And Manifestation
Essence is the totality of who you are - the one - just as it is right here right now. Immutable; changeless; timeless; spaceless; depthless; completely independent of all arisings; block of rocklike solidity; infinite darkness; indescribable - none of these descriptions come anywhere near to what it is like - they fall abysmally short of the mark, and your interpretations of these descriptions does not even come close to these "pointers". There is no possibility whatsoever of being told of how exquisitely rich this one is, that who you are is. You are going to have to experience this for yourself. You are going to have to travel the "journey of self discovery" yourself. You can be this essence because who you are is this essence. It is the "motion of seeing" that is flowing through your very eyes right now. This "motion of aliveness" is the "central point" of itself - essence - writing itself out into its play of manifestation through the mindbody that you find yourself driving around through, day in and day out. Of course, this one is all things everywhere. Without it - who you are - there would not be any manifestation. It is the fullness of nothingness that gives life to all. There is no "gradual" about this essence. It is and it is right here right now. It is complete - changeless. It is not a growing thing. It is not unfolding. It is finished - it did not begin and nor will it end. It is - isness ising. There is no "one" in the driver's seat. You cannot compete for that position because it does not exist. Duality does not exist in this essence. Everything is this one. All creatures, great and small, are this one. All humans are this one. Not only it is who you are, it is also who everyone is. Manifestation is the ground of duality. It is where polar opposites play themselves out, where variance has such "scope," variation. Manifestation was born and it will die. Accordingly, all things within manifestation - all minds, all bodies, all sensations, all emotions, all "heavens and hells", all visions, all feelings, all "toys", all arisings, all subtleties, all grossness, all creations, all worlds, all celestial beings, all human beings, all "shmee" beings, - will die. They were born, they live for a time and they die. Your mindbody - this vehicle that you drive around through - is a part of manifestation. It is an arising that was born and will die. It is not who you are Until you come to realize who you already are you are going to believe yourself to be who you think you are which is just a part of manifestation - not who you are. Who you are is the essence that is flowing through and sustaining this manifest existence - this is who you are. You are not your mind even though you cannot conceive of how you could not be your mind. You may well believe that you are not your mind because of concepts that you have come across about how you are not your mind. But these concepts have not relieved you of the bondage, entrapment, estrangement and imprisonment of this mind that you take to be your "guiding light" in life. This mind is part of manifestation. Who you are is not. Concepts are of this mind - manifestation - and cannot deliver you of who you are, which is beyond not only of this mind but beyond all manifestation - beyond beyondness. Manifestation is the playground of love. Love coming to know itself from within its own dance.
Elysha is a self realized teacher of the heart. http://www.elysha.org Elysha is available for satsang in New Zealand for those who are ready for a change in spiritual consciousness. http://www.tran7.com/Elysha/elyshavids.html
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