In the beginning

Supreme Spirit

Spring Cleaning

Spring is here and the earth is bursting with the new.  Why not roll with it and start anew as well?

A New You Meditation

Begin by thinking about the person you want to be. Visualize what future you looks like - your hair, your face, your clothes, your surroundings. Then take an everyday moment in your life and relive it as the future you. Take your morning drive for instance. Do you see things differently? Are you traveling to a new exciting place? Notice the people and places around you - are they more vibrant? exciting? energized? How do you feel inside-vibrant, excited and energized?

After going through the motions of this daily activity, slowly let the background fall away. Let your surroundings - what you see and hear - disappear while holding on to those feelings. Feel this positive energy running through your body like a golden light. Let the light consume you.

With the light all around you, know that everything is possible. That future you is present you and all things are possible.

Create your own Luck

Many see "luck" as something that you either do or don't have. Funny enough, those that "have" it- usually don't even see themselves as being lucky. The truth is "luck" is something we can all have. It is all about changing your perspective.

Try these meditations to help increase your luck:

1- Be present- Lucky people live in the moment. They appreciate what they are doing and don't look too far ahead or too far behind thinking about what has been or what could be. To do this, take this very moment and sit in your surroundings. Notice your breath, see everything around you- especially the small things you look over on a day to day basis, noises in the background, the temperature... notice it all and be present.

2 - Express gratitude- Lucky people are grateful for what they have whether it be  big or small. This sets the Law of Attraction in motion allowing more positive energy (luck) to come into your life.  To increase your positive energy, practice a gratitude meditation. Sit, eyes closed, and think of everything good in your life. If you have a hard time finding positive things in  your life, begin with the fact that you are alive, that the sky is blue and the grass is green.

3- Do things for others - Once again working with the Law of Attraction, doing good for others brings good fortune into your life.  Think about the last time you did something for someone- even something small- didn't it feel wonderful to give? Doesn't it automatically lift your spirits knowing you made a difference- even a small one- in someone's life? Doing for others doesn't have to be a physical act, meditating on one's happiness is just as effective. To do this, think of those suffering in this world and visualize beams of light covering them, washing over them like a  bath, ridding them of all the pain they have.

Try each meditation for 10 minutes and see if your "luck" changes.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Exercise

Outside of the Box

I met an amazing woman yesterday. At the age of 70 she completed an Ironman Triathlon.  An Ironman Triathlon, for those who do not know, is 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 marathon.

And she did this at 70 years of age! She said that she went to the doctors at 65 and he said that her heart and lungs were as healthy as a 16 year old, and that she was going to live for a long time. He suggested that she start getting involved in sports or some sort of physical activity to carry her through the years.  She considered this, and set her sights high.

Absolutely enthralled by her story, I began asking questions about the day of the race. As a Floridian, she said that she wasn't used to the frigid morning air the day of the race in North Carolina. She dreaded stepping a foot in the freezing ocean waters. When I asked her how she overcame this- she said that she followed the rules that she had in her training.

"When things go wrong or are hard, I put myself in a box.  Everything inside of the box are things I can control which are basically my clothes and my thoughts. Everything outside of the box I cannot control- the weather.  Knowing that I can't control what is outside of the box helps me push ahead. I change what I can change and let go of everything else."

I find this to be a great lesson in life.  When things are hard/difficult/different put yourself in a box. Know that there are things that are out of your control and let them go.

Meditation and Stress

Stress is your emotional and physical reaction to pressures in your life. I think it is safe to say that we all experience a little stress in our day to day lives. Stress, as you may already know can cause serious health problems.

I recently met someone that was experiencing extreme stomach pain on a daily basis.  He went to his doctor who ran him through a variety of exams. He went to a specialist who ran him through even more exams. We're talking a colonoscopy, cat scan, blood work- you name it- they checked it.  After 3 months of testing and doctor's visits they came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with him. They said that his high pressure job was to blame for his physical ailments. In other words- STRESS was the cause of his illness.


In life you are going to have stresses. One way to reduce the intensity in which you experience them is through meditation. 


"Meditation helps to reduce the activity of part of the brain called the amygdala, which governs feelings of stress. Those who are more stressed and anxious have an amygdala that is overactive. Meditating reduces this," according to Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry and co-developer of one of the many variants, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).


He goes on to say that stressful situations lead to stressful feelings which lead to stressful thoughts. These stressful thoughts create a cycle of more bad feelings, each feeding into each other.


“Meditating breaks this cycle by reducing the links between the insula and the parts of the brain that analyse, as we have seen on brain scans. It doesn't stop a person from feeling or thinking but it uncouples these two parts of the brain, giving the patient more control." (source)


So the next time you're feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Don't reach for that glass of wine.. instead grab a pillow and sit in silence for 10 minutes.  It can improve your health.

Good health is a duty

Meditation for Kids Neuroscientist touts benefits of meditation for kids

I wanted to share this great article on the benefits of meditating for kids.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Simple meditation techniques, backed up with modern scientific knowledge of the brain, are helping kids hard-wire themselves to be able to better pay attention and become kinder, says neuroscientist Richard Davidson

• Research, including brain imaging studies, also shows it is possible to cultivate the mind to change brain function and structure in ways that will promote higher levels of well-being and increased resilience, said Davidson.

• To improve a child’s ability to pay attention — and also improve their studying abilities — a stone is put on a child’s belly, and they learn to focus on their breathing as the stone goes up and down.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/empowered-health/Neuroscientist+touts+benefits+meditation+kids/6158952/story.html#ixzz1o5U21blR

Meditation for Concentration

Do you find yourself easily distracted while working on projects?

With technology constantly at our finger tips-

 it gets harder and harder to stay focused on tasks at hand. 

Lucky for you,

there is an easy way to be better focused.

Can you guess what it is?

of course-

MEDITATION!

Meditation is exercise for the brain.

the more you meditate and concentrate on being in the silence and focusing on your breath

the stronger you become at doing this.

Buddhist monks who meditate regularly perform better than non-meditators on concentration tests.

Why?

Because they have flexed and increased their concentration muscles.

But you don't have to sit days on end in silence for this to happen

Just 20 minutes a day can dramatically improve your concentration with results being noticed right away.

CLICK HERE and learn how meditation improved the concentration of an18 year old shooting champion.