Daily Inspiration

The Search for Intimacy, 'In-To-Me-See'

When traveling on the path to an exciting, active and healthy sex life, the first key ingredient is intimacy. The most essential component begins with liking the whole of who you are. For there to be true intimacy, you must begin with the process of truly knowing, understanding and falling "in love" with yourself. A healthy sex life cannot rely solely on your partner, it must begin with you and the relationship you have with yourself.

Of course, a new relationship is exciting in and of itself. It is a period of enticement which can last anywhere from three to six months. After this time of being on a blissful high, then what? You might ask yourself, do you really like yourself? Are you comfortable enough with your body to feel happy and sexy in your own skin?

For me personally, dancing, gymnastics and yoga really helped me with my body image. These are things which helped me begin to to feel okay with the little imperfections that I now see and embrace as part of the fullness of who I am. But that process took time. The more I entered the lifestyle of yoga -- which includes eating clean, using Ayurvedic body oils, resting, meditating, channeling my creativity and sending sincere, loving compassion and forgiveness towards myself and others (perhaps the hardest part of all) -- the more my confidence rose, and that showed when I was intimate with my partner.

The secret started for me on the yoga mat where I discovered my own power. Sexuality is located in the second chakra, governing our creativity and our inner desires including our bonding instincts. If we move to the fourth chakra, or the heart, our relationships transcend sexual desires and play more upon our humanity: it becomes more about love, expression and communication. At this level, sex is much better as we move from the animal realms to the human level. As a yoga teacher, I learned to work better with imperfections and began to accept them by pouring love into those places.  (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

3 Ways Meditation Helps You Deal With Adversity

When adversity strikes, meditation can be our best friend. Not as an escape, but as a secret weapon to fortify our minds and bodies, to create resilience and perspective. In his new book, The Gift of Adversity, world-renowned researcher, psychiatrist and author Dr. Norman Rosenthal tells us, "If you are unhappy with your life, consider changing it first from within. Meditation is a powerful tool for self-change, which often leads naturally to positive changes in those around you."
Here are three ways that an ancient meditation practice is helping people overcome adversity in modern life.

1. Mind Over Matter: Reversing the Stress Response
When we are under stress from crisis, disappointment, loss or sudden illness, our bodies react by flooding our nervous systems with stress hormones, making it harder to think clearly, sleep deeply or have the wherewithal to pick up the pieces. As a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique, I meet many of my students for the first time when they are going through a difficult period and are looking for inner strength to overcome adversity.
One might think it would be difficult to sit and meditate while feeling troubled, but the beauty of a natural, effective mediation technique is that it allows the mind to shift, within seconds, to a state of calm and peace. Research has found that deep transcendence is accompanied by reduction of breath rate, slowing of metabolic rate¹, decreased cortisol and plasma lactate² and increased skin resistance are all indicators of deep relaxation.
How often I've witnessed meditators achieve a new calm and confidence to face their challenges. I see this especially with those fighting cancer. One of my students recently shared:
"During my MRI, I was told that for the 30 minutes of the procedure it was imperative that I not move a muscle. If you've ever had an MRI, you know what it sounds like -- as though the capsule is being bombed by some alien force. So, what did I do? I meditated. Without that skill, I honestly think I would've completely freaked out. With meditation, it was a piece of cake." (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate (And How it Benefits You)

Ever since my dad tried to convince me to meditate when I was about 12, I’ve been fairly skeptical of this practice. It always seemed so vague and hard to understand that I just decided it wasn’t for me. More recently, I’ve actually found how simple (not easy, but simple) meditation can be and what huge benefit it can have for my day to day happiness.

As an adult, I first started my meditation practice with just two minutes per day. Two minutes! I got that idea from Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits blog, where he points out how starting with a tiny habit is the first step to consistently achieving it. So even thought two minutes won’t make much difference, that’s where I started. Whether you’re as skeptical as I used to be, or you’re well ahead of me with a meditation habit of several hours, I think it’s always interesting to find out how new habits affect our brains. I had a look into meditation to see what’s going on inside our brains when we do this, and what I found is pretty interesting. (MORE)

 

Source: Lifehacker

 

 

Daily Inspiration

Lotus Pose On Two

 

The Seahawks believe their kinder, gentler philosophy is the future of football

"IT'S DIFFERENT HERE," Pete Carroll says. "Have you noticed?" It's hard not to. At 9 a.m. on the first Sunday of training camp in Renton, Wash., high-performance sports psychologist Mike Gervais, dressed in a navy Seahawks hoodie and white baseball cap and flashing more enthusiasm than is rational at this hour, welcomes players into a meeting room at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. This place used to be the site of a coal tar refinery; now it's the happiest, greenest campsite in the history of the NFL. Gervais is about to lead a meditation session and, as he always does, instructs the players to hit record on their phone voice-recorder apps and to close their eyes. Then he starts guiding them: "Quiet your minds," "Focus your attention inwardly" and "Visualize success."

This is the Pete Carroll experience we always hear about. After flaming out as an NFL head coach, Carroll rebuilt his rep as an ultracompetitive buddy coach at USC. But beneath the perpetual smile was a guy who thought, more than anything, there was a better way to win. Meditation is only part of it. After Carroll was fired by the Patriots following the 1999 season, he agonized over what he'd do differently if he landed another NFL head-coaching job. Almost every day for the better part of a decade, while leading Southern Cal to seven top-10 finishes and one BCS title, he jotted down do-over notes. His dream was to fundamentally change the way players are coached. The timeworn strategy is, of course, to be a hard-ass -- think Bear Bryant banning water breaks, Vince Lombardi screaming and yelling, Mike Rice throwing basketballs at players' heads, Nick Saban berating his team on the sideline. Carroll craved a chance to reimagine the coaching role in the NFL. "I wanted to find out if we went to the NFL and really took care of guys, really cared about each and every individual, what would happen?"  (MORE)

Source: ESPN

Daily Inspiration

How Meditation Helped My Overeating

Oprah Winfrey was on David Letterman last week when she revealed on the show, "Well, actually, I brought meditation to my whole company ... in 2010, because it makes for a better environment when everybody is focused and of one mind and doing well."

My life is certainly not as glamorous as Oprah's or the other celebrities who meditate (Gwyneth Paltrow, Russell Simmons, David Lynch, Miranda Kerr and Ellen DeGeneres) but I have found meditation as a path for me to be more aware of why I eat and what I choose to eat.
It has been a long windy road to come to the understanding of when I feel full while eating and to ask myself why I am going for another snack.

Starting from a young age, food was like a friend that was always there. My parents were divorced when I was six and after they parted ways, I was being shuttled from one parent's home to the other. During the week I would be with my mom and every second weekend stay with my dad (in another town).

Looking back now there was always food, wherever I may be and whatever was happening around me. The habit of turning to food as an ally stayed with me as a young adult. Trouble with a boyfriend? You could find me in sweat pants, late at night touring the bulk chocolate section in the local grocery store. Celebrating a new job or event, then it would call for ice cream of other food to ring in the news. During these years there was a clear disconnect between me and food, we had a dysfunctional relationship.  (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

Why Men Should Practice Yoga

When most men hear the word "yoga," they probably think of relaxing music, burning incense, flexible women or men (maybe not a bad thing!) and colourful, stretchy clothes. If you are a yoga-skeptic, you may be thinking it's way too passive and flowery for you.
But yoga has expanded and evolved. Now there are classes for jocks, the extremely inflexible and exercise newbies. Although the "traditional" spiritual aspects are still ubiquitous in yoga, there are also non-dogmatic workouts that cater to a busy and/or athletic lifestyle. Whether your workouts are relaxing or vigorous, yoga's health benefits are substantial.

Here are five reasons guys should consider taking a yoga class:

Yoga is way more manly than you think

The practice was originally designed by men for men, and thousands of years ago was only practiced by men. With the emergence of different types of yoga, you'd be sure to find a class for you in just about any city.

Yoga will make you better at almost everything you do

If you're an athlete, yoga will make you stronger and more flexible. It helps to increase the recruitment of stabilizing muscles, and strengthens the joints (which helps in injury prevention). Yoga will also fine-tune your focus and proprioception (the sense of the relative position of your body and strength of movement in space). (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

Handling Intrusive Thoughts While Meditating

It’s easy to say that when meditating one should focus on the breath and release thoughts as they arise, but it’s incredibly difficult to do. I’ve been a bit hypomanic lately, and ideas are flying through my head. Concentration and attention are very difficult.
Acknowledging thoughts and letting them go is hard enough on a good day. What do I do now?
During mindfulness meditation you keep your attention on your breath, but you want to be fully aware in this moment. So you still take note of sounds and smells, aches and pains, all that makes up the present moment. When thoughts arise the instructions are to notice them, let them go, and return to the breath.
But to just blot out thoughts without paying attention to them would not be very mindful at all. Don’t ignore your thoughts… Instead, work with them.

As a thought pops up, acknowledge it, let it go, and return to the breath. Don’t carry it out to a conclusion. Don’t dwell on it. Don’t try to add reason at this time. Notice that you’re thinking, that your mind has pulled you away from your awareness of this moment, and place your attention back on the breath.
Labeling the thoughts may help you release them. If you’re sitting stewing about something you should have done differently this morning, label it judging and let it go. If you’re thinking about what to make for lunch or what to do this weekend, label that planning and return to the breath. If you’re taken by thoughts of beaches and the sun, label them fantasy and bring your attention back to the present moment. (MORE)

Source Psych Central

Daily Inspiration

Meditation As Medicine

Dr. Stephen Hosea’s Path to Mindfulness

I became a physician with the intention of diagnosing and treating disease in order to prevent death and suffering. When I began my practice in Santa Barbara in 1981, I found myself in an unanticipated position — it was the onset of the AIDS epidemic. I could not avoid the inevitable misery and mortality that came with that diagnosis. All of my training had not prepared me to deal with the ravages of AIDS. It was the worst of times, and I was desperately searching for some meaning.
I began to explore spirituality mostly as a survival tool. All spiritual paths seemed to lead to meditation. I had always thought meditation was the province of people who lived in foreign countries, whose cultures were distinct from mine and who had lots of time on their hands.

Meditation seemed to require time, focus, and intense concentration, none of which I had to spare.
Years later, I took a trip to Bali, an exotic, enchanting, mysterious place that I secretly hoped held the answers for me. Upon arrival, I was immediately struck by the abundance of spirit that embraced the materially impoverished people of that little island in Indonesia. I spent 12 days in prayer and meditation. I felt a peace beyond my understanding. The experience was profound, and I was blissed out. Alas, upon returning to my workaday world, I felt it all slowly slipping away. I desperately wanted to return to Bali to get recharged. The wise counsel of a dear friend suggested that this would merely result in my becoming a spiritual junkie, looking for the answers outside of my self. In my heart, I knew she was right. My serious and committed exploration of meditation had begun. (MORE)

Source Santa Barbara Independent

Daily Inspiration

What Is ‘Fizzy Yoga’? All About The Practice Kim Cattrall Says Saved Her Life

Physiyoga, nicknamed 'fizzy yoga' by the 'Sex and the City' star, is a mix of physical therapy and yoga. Diana Zotos, Kim Cattrall's New York-based yoga instructor, explains how the practice helps realign the body and prevents injuries.

“Sex and the City” star Kim Cattrall might owe her figure to cardio, but she says physiyoga is the workout that saved her life.
A blend of physical therapy and yoga — which the 56-year-old actress nicknamed “fizzy yoga” — the practice is designed to heal and prevent injuries by restoring natural alignment in the body.

“When I meet someone for the first time, I do a physical therapy evaluation,” New York-based yogi Diana Zotos, who introduced Cattrall to physiyoga, told the Daily News.
“Then we customize a yoga program around that. It targets deficits, will strengthen muscles that are weak and stretch muscles that are tight, while focusing on the core.”

Zotos, a trained physical therapist for seven years, became a certified yoga instructor in 2009. Her physiyoga classes, which also include meditative breathing, are one on one and hands on. She began working with Cattrall about a year ago.

The British-born actress, currently in London for the three-month run of Tennessee William’s play, “Sweet Bird of Youth,” recently credited physiyoga with “saving” her during the grueling performance schedule. (MORE)

Source: NY Daily News

Daily Inspiration

A Simple Tea Meditation For Some Drinkable Zen

Over the years that I’ve been running Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco, I’ve found that life doesn’t actually get better when we’re distracted -- surfing online, updating our status, checking the news, generally immersed in our devices. Life gets better when we’re connecting with real people in real time. Not to mention that the less time we spend on our devices, the more time we have to actually do something. Write something. Create something. Taste something.

The ritual of tea -- boiling the water, brewing the leaves, and sipping the infusion -- does something that little else in life does these days: It gives us a little hiatus, a break in the action. Compared with the nano-gap we might get while waiting at a stoplight or grabbing a quick espresso, this is time we can actually dive into and enjoy.

We’re not talking hours here. Try 10 minutes and see how you feel. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Pay attention to each step, take your time, and you may find that for the rest of your day you’re a little more relaxed, present, and cheerful. (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

Transcendental Meditation for PTSD

One of the most significant disabilities incurred by U.S. service personnel returning from the battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether or not they suffered physical injuries, is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric condition that includes anxiety, hyper-vigilance, insomnia, exaggerated startle response, nightmares and flashbacks, outbursts of anger and social withdrawal. Not surprisingly, victims of PTSD demonstrate elevated levels of alcoholism, substance abuse, marital problems and suicide.

Speaking as one who has been to war and seen its horrors, I see PTSD as a natural reaction to the inhuman conditions of the battlefield. Not everyone has the basic psychological strength to endure such stress without at least some mental stress. But the medical establishment has struggled to cope with victims of PTSD. The basic approaches are counseling, cognitive therapy, exposure therapy, virtual reality therapy and medication. But some of these therapies involve many months of residence and are not available to everyone. Also, many veterans with PTSD do not avail themselves of the therapy for fear of being stigmatized. Since October 2001, 30-35 percent of the 1.64 million troops deployed meet criteria for PTSD or major depression, but only half have sought treatment of any kind.

But many victims of PTSD are today finding relief from an unexpected and to some a suspect source -- transcendental meditation (TM). It is not clear to me why the medical community would resist this trend, if only because traditional medical therapies are proving so inadequate. In any event, TM is a proven technique for enabling people to deal with mental and emotional stress that has survived extensive scientific review over the years.  (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

Are People Who Meditate More Likely to Believe in an Afterlife?

People who meditate tend to believe in an afterlife for the simple reason that they discover a part of themselves, which is more than their ideas, personality, and more than their personal story. Meditation brings them to a place in their heart where there is no self, just a vastness of being. It is not a great leap from experiencing this vastness in meditation to believing that someday we will be free of our bodies, personality, free of our personal story. It is not a big stretch to imagine an afterlife, being in a vastness of space and indescribable peace.

Everyone who meditates sooner or later finds a spaciousness inside, a lightness of being, a feeling of coming home, joy. This joy, this feeling of coming home is common to many people who have near-death experiences. They, too, report an expansive experience, a great lightness of being and a overwhelming self acceptance. The great love is so wonderful that it is like coming home. For meditators and people who have had an near death experience, it is a home they never expected to find inside their hearts or in an afterlife.

So why is the experience of people who have near death experiences so much more vivid, real and unforgettable than those who meditate? The answer to this is really quite simple. Those who have a near death experience actually are free of their minds and bodies for at least as long as their experience lasts. Most meditators get only a glimpse of awareness free from physical distraction, free of thought, worry and the details of this life. Only few meditators really get to this place inside free of the worldly self to enjoy the great other.

If you talk to people who regularly meditate they will share a common experience of finding an inner wholeness that is more free than free. Meditation can routinely be a time of no thought, just being. Awareness let loose in meditation opens to something that is all embracing. Meditators report finding this exquisite love, a love beyond human love as many people who have briefly died share in their stories. Many people meditating are too busy watching their thoughts. But others who deeply explore their hearts, who allow their awareness to be, rest and soak in the inner heart discover a love beyond any love as we normally know.  (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

Meditate Your Way To Weight Loss

When actress Rosie Huntington-Whitely tweeted a photo as she meditated beside a sunlit pond, you might assume she was practising the ritual to reduce stress and stay grounded amid a hectic schedule. But is it also the secret to her super-flat stomach?
 
A growing body of research claims that mindfulness can reduce food cravings, suppress appetite and help with portion control. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen even credits meditation with helping her lose her baby weight just two months after giving birth.
  
The good news is that it doesn't mean eating dinner cross-legged, "ohming" between mouthfuls.
"Mindful or meditative eating simply means being aware of what you're putting into your mouth," says psychologist and Food Addiction Therapy author Kellee Waters. "It's about pausing to really taste your food and listen to your body's cues. We should all eat whenever we're hungry and stop as soon as we're full, but instead we get hung-up on habits and rules."
 
Mindful eating is not about calorie counting and restrictions, in fact if you're doing it right your stomach should never rumble again. Forget three meals a day. If you're hungry at 9pm then eat until you're satisfied. On the flip side, if you're not hungry at 7am skip breakfast and wait until you are. (MORE)

Source: stuff.co.nz

Daily Inspiration

Exercise, Meditation May Ease Need For Medication

Two reports show how exercise and meditation may control problems that are normally taken care of by medication.
Researchers from the University of Texas evaluated 80 patients with mild to moderate depression. The patients were placed in five groups.
Four of the groups exercised at various levels of intensity, while another group didn’t exercise at all.
At the end of 12 weeks, the researchers found dramatic differences in those in the higher exercise groups.
Those exercising on a treadmill three times a week or more for 30 minutes or more had a 50 percent reduction in their depressive symptoms.
The groups that didn’t exercise at all, or only mildly exercised, saw a 29 percent reduction in their symptoms.
A second study looked at the effects of meditation on high blood pressure.
In the study, 140 men and women with high blood pressure were placed in a group that performed transcendental medication, progressive muscle relaxation or education classes.
After one year, The TM group showed the best lowering of blood pressure compared to the other two groups. Additionally, there was a 23 percent reduction in hypertension medication compared to control groups.

Source: Tele-Management

Daily Inspiration

Meditation: Natural or Unnatural?

As far as we know, life began on Earth 4 billion years ago. As the aeons passed, plants and animals evolved, usually according to the Darwinian principle of "survival of the fittest," which ensured that only the strongest, fastest, best adapted, wiliest, smartest creatures survived and reproduced. Unimaginable millennia of evolution subsequently yielded a dazzling array of life forms, all struggling to survive, competing and cooperating, each with instincts embedded within them, driving them, in Tennyson's words, "to strive, to seek, and not to yield."

And yet, this situation sucks. Human beings are impelled, by these billions of years of evolution, to be dissatisfied with what we have, to want more, to over-perceive threats and act on them, to ignore what we mistakenly think is unimportant, to build and make love and achieve and flee danger -- only to recognize, sooner or later, that we can never win the battle. On the grand scale, we will all die, and lose much of what we love along the way. Yet even in our mundane lives, we lose the battle every day -- often in ways less tragic than comic. The damn webpage won't load, the mortgage has to be paid, the boss is a jerk, I'm a jerk -- every day, the God-or-evolution-given instinct to "want it all" butts up against a reality that rarely provides it. Life on earth is hard-wired for kvetching.

This is the core of the contemplative life: The completely natural state of affairs is one in which human beings cause suffering for themselves and others. And it's entirely natural; it comes about not because we're evil, or because Eve ate an apple in God's garden, but because we are animals living on this planet, and we have evolved to want what we can't get, and to run away from things we don't like. (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

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Why the Law of Attraction Works Every Time

Why should you believe in the law of attraction? After all, you didn’t read about it in school textbooks when you were taught all the important laws of the universe, like the law of gravity and Einstein’s formula for relativity: E=mc2. If it wasn’t written about in your science book, and you didn’t hear about it in philosophy, psychology or history, then how do we know it’s true?

Well, thanks to scientists, we now know we have something called “mirror neurons,” which are neurons that mirror the behavior of others who are being observed. In other words, when we observe somebody smiling at somebody else, that same pattern of brain activation that allows the person to smile is emulated in our brain. Even though we might not physically act on the behavior, the same areas of our brains, the regions that prepare the body for movement and attention are triggered. This means our brains mirror the actions of the other person automatically.

Think about this for a moment. When you are watching a television show or a movie, how do you physically react when tension is building? Even though you are not a part of the scene, your heart is racing; your stomach gets tense; and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, even though you know it’s only a movie. This is because your brain is copying those you are watching. (MORE)

Source: Elevated Existence

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Yogic Bliss

Yoga was born out of the intent of the mind to seek the universal truth.

 According to Yoga, visible or perceptible existence is just a manifestation of cosmic consciousness., Meditation is an integral part of yoga,

As long as conditions are compatible for life in a biological entity, the omnipresent and omnipotent cosmic-consciousness manifests in it as its soul. Mind and prana are the two constituents of the soul. Mind is a sort of differentiated consciousness, and prana is the energy generated by it.
The mind in our body acts as an observer. It gathers all the information from various senses and processes this information in our brain to use it for our benefit. Awareness; analysis, coordination are the main functions of the mind.

A blank conditioned mind with nothing else, but pure awareness has the ability to go in to the depths of cosmic consciousness. This is the aim of meditation. In death mind loses its individuality and becomes one with cosmic con. A lighted electric bulb is a perfect example of manifestation. The moment it is broken, the conditions in the bulb become unfavorable and current in it stops manifesting in to light. According to yogic doctrine, a manifested entity has fewer powers than its source. That is why a human mind with limited abilities can attain great powers with the help of yoga.

. The observation and knowledge gained after meditation, cannot be shared or discussed in any language, nor can it be explained according to any law. It is simply just a feeling, which in Yogic language is called BLISS.As all the laws of nature apply to this manifested world, it is beyond the capacity of science to know or analyze the laws, governing the underlying reality, behind everything in existence.  Meditation is the only way to imbibe the feel of those laws.

We may not achieve the final goal in meditation even in our lifetime. But with daily practice, the rewards are astonishingly satisfactory. No other thing or any other activity can give us so much happiness and peace. 

Dr.Arun Kakkar

Daily Inspiration

 

12 Yoga Poses To Undo The Damage Of Your Desk Job

You may joke that your job is slowly killing you, but it might actually be true.
And while job-related stress seems like the main culprit when it comes to health and your career ( it can have negative health effects as far ranging as increased heart attack risk, depression or premature aging), there's another danger lurking in the office: Sitting.

"Sitting is the new smoking," warned Wired magazine earlier this year. And indeed research links a highly sedentary lifestyle with a shorter life span and increased risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes, among other serious health problems.

As most desk jockeys know (and feel), sitting over a keyboard for hours can contribute to tightness in the hips and legs, in addition to neck, shoulder and back pain and discomfort. Camping out all day at a desk can also create an unhealthy posture -- that you take with you when you leave for the day -- in which the back and shoulders hunch down and the neck protrudes forward.

"There are a lot of very negative physical reactions created when the body's not in movement," Vyda Bielkus, certified yoga instructor and founder of Health Yoga Life studio in Boston, tells The Huffington Post. "Between sitting eight hours a day and then being in the elevator looking at your smartphone, you're totally misaligning the spine."  (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

Daily Inspiration

Put Meditation on Your Summer Party Shopping List

Summer parties are a lot of fun, but the food shopping can be a drag! Here are a few ways to add meditation moments to your shopping chores and infuse your party with peace and fun! As you sit at home ready to write out your list, take a moment to check in. Ask yourself three questions: Are my thoughts in the present moment? Are my thoughts positive? Is my body posture aligned or twisted? This check in moment is your first meditation! Checking into your mental and physical state throughout the day develops mindfulness. With this mindfulness meditation, you are more likely to spend time in the present, focus on the positive, and treat your body better.

Now that you are in the present moment and supporting your physical needs, begin to make out your list. As your mind starts to worry about how Aunt Julie is going to get a long with Cousin Mary, gently bring your thoughts back on making out your list. By keeping your thoughts focused on your current activity, you are doing an Activity Meditation. It is important not to judge your mind for wandering, it happens to everyone. Simply acknowledge the wandering thought and gently return to your activity. You will find you are done with your list in no time and less likely to forget something! (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post

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Does Meditation Help or Hinder Mental Illnesses?

It can help smokers as they quit, but meditation may not have the same benefits for some mental illnesses as it does for addictions.
Meditation is well known for its ability to relax and calm the mind, and in recent years, studies document that such mindfulness can also curb the cravings associated with addictions. In the latest study investigating the effects of meditation on smoking cessation, researchers found that smokers who meditated were 60% less likely to smoke than those who were simply taught to relax various part of the body. The meditation involved listening to music and focusing just on the present moment. Both groups took classes nightly for half an hour over the course of 10 days.

While the study involved only 27 smokers, these participants did not join the study with the intent of kicking their habit. And the smokers were unaware of how much they had cut back — they reported smoking the same amount, but breath measures showed that they actually used fewer cigarettes.  When questioned, they realized that they had indeed lit up less — some found more cigarettes left in their packs than they thought they had. (MORE)

Source: Time

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Mindfulness Meditation Can Reduce Tobacco Cravings

Researchers have discovered that a meditation practice that helps individuals to control stress also significantly reduces tobacco use.
Addiction to smoking and other substances is well known to involve a particular set of brain areas related to self-control.
In a new study, researchers wondered if a training approach designed to influence this addiction pathway could influence smokers to reduce their tobacco use — even if smokers did not intend to do so.

The study, published online in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that smokers trained with a form of mindfulness meditation known as Integrative Body-Mind Training (IBMT) curtailed their smoking by 60 percent.

Subjects in a control group that received a relaxation regimen showed no reduction. (MORE)

Source: Psych Central

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Colts’ Dwayne Allen Raves About His Offseason Yoga Routine

Colts tight end Dwayne Allen is expected to have a big role in the offense this season, and he says yoga will keep him healthy through the wear and tear of 16 games.
Allen said he did yoga almost every day, all offseason long, and he feels the difference in his flexibility.
“Man, a ton of yoga,” Allen said. “I had probably over 100 classes of yoga and it’s helped out a ton. I feel more fluid in my routes, getting in and out of my stance. It’s definitely helped calm me down a little bit.”
Allen, a 2012 third-round pick who caught 45 passes as a rookie, did a lot of his yoga in extremely hot conditions. He said more players are starting to realize can prepare them for sweating through August practices.
“It’s something that’s getting around the league,” Allen said. “A lot of the guys hear about it initially, they hear hot yoga, ‘Woo too hot for me,’ and then they understand that it’s something that’s going to help their game.”
If Allen has a big year, more players may follow his lead and use yoga as the way to stay in shape.

Source: NBC Sports PFT

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How Does Meditation Actually Work

Neuroscientists are researching centuries-old Buddhist mindfulness techniques and their effects on the brain

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

This line from Herman Hesse’s 1922 novel Siddhartha came unbidden to me during a recent weeklong visit to Drepung Monastery in southern India. His Holiness the Dalai Lama had invited the U.S.-based Mind and Life Institute to familiarize the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community living in exile in India with modern science. About a dozen of us—physicists, psychologists, brain scientists and clinicians, leavened by a French philosopher—introduced quantum mechanics, neuroscience, consciousness and various clinical aspects of meditative practices to a few thousand Buddhist monks and nuns. As we lectured, we were quizzed, probed and gently made fun of by His Holiness, who sat beside us. We learned as much from him and his inner circle—such as from his translator, Tibetan Jinpa Thupten, who has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Cambridge, and from the French monk Matthieu Ricard, who holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Pasteur Institute in Paris—as they and their brethren from us.

What passed between these representatives of two distinct intellectual modes of thinking about the world were facts, data—knowledge. That is, knowledge about the more than two-millennia-old Eastern tradition of investigating the mind from the inside, from an interior, subjective point of view, and the much more recent insights provided by empirical Western ways to probe the brain and its behavior using a third-person, reductionist framework. What the former brings to the table are scores of meditation techniques to develop mindfulness, concentration, insight, serenity, wisdom and, it is hoped, in the end, enlightenment. These revolve around a daily practice of quiet yet alert sitting and letting the mind settle before embarking on a specific program, such as “focused attention” or the objectless practice of generating a state of “unconditional loving-kindness and compassion.” After years of daily contemplative exercise—nothing comes easily in meditation—practitioners can achieve considerable control over their mind. (MORE)

Source: Salon

Daily Inspiration

Cure for Common Cold: Meditation & Exercise

There are many effective ways to maintain your health without drugs. When it comes to the common cold, there are two natural cures that can make a huge difference in helping you heal - meditation and exercise.

A recent study divided patients into three groups (control, meditation, exercise). The meditation group received 8-week training in mindfulness meditation. The exercise group received 8-week training in moderate-intensity sustained exercise. The control group did neither.

By the end of the cold and flu season, the researchers found that "compared with control (group), global severity was significantly lower for meditation (group). Both global severity and total days of illness (duration) trended toward being lower for the exercise group, as did illness duration for the meditation group."

Keeping your body and mind healthy can make a big difference in your health and in not getting sick.

Source: For Your Health

Daily Inspiration

3 Meditation Techniques for Beginners

Find your focus. These exercises work for just about everyone at anytime, anywhere

Gold stars to those who can make it through this article without wondering about dinner or unattended emails, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or scanning half a page before realizing you have no idea what the heck you just read.

Amit Sood, author of the upcoming book "The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living," calls this autopilot daze, in which we're physically here, but mentally elsewhere – our "default mode." And it's not a great place to be. We spend about half of our day in default mode, in which we're typically unhappy, he says, adding that too much time in this mode can lead to increased risk of depression, anxiety and attention deficit.

Our brain's counter to default mode is its focus mode. Imagine if, as you were reading, a giraffe walked up to you. Chances are, you'd stop reading and thinking about emails, dinner and Instagram, and focus entirely on the giraffe. A perhaps more realistic example: You're driving home from work, thinking about who knows what, when a police car pulls up behind you. Even if you're obeying the law, your attention may now shift to the rearview mirror and speedometer, as recollections of the workday are replaced with silent urges for the police car to change course.

We may not want a police car (or a giraffe) following us, but it is helpful to engage that focused attention these experiences beckon. Meditation is essentially the process of doing just that – cutting through our brain's static and finding focus. The practice not only offers a slew of health benefits, from stress management, to possibly helping with high blood pressure, heart disease and depression, but it's also something you can weave into your everyday life. If you simply want to give it a try, there's no need for a trip to the doctor's office or a monastery. "Meditation is nothing mystical," Sood says. "It's basically your trained attention." (MORE)

Source US News Health