Meditation can reduce your stress levels and make you healthier and happier. But if you’re one of the many who are interested in the benefits but feel too busy to read a book or look up a class, the benefits of meditation may feel out of reach. Read on to cover the basics and find out how you can get started in just five minutes and without spending a penny…

Meditation: an altered, yet natural, state
What is an altered state? Simply put, it's a state that's different to your usual state of waking consciousness, and different from your sleeping state too. It's like a state between the tow worlds of wakefulness and sleep, you're very relaxed, but you're awake, you can be very focused, yet you're very relaxed.

Meditation produces highly beneficial alpha brain-waves that result from deep relaxation. One of the many benefits of meditation is that it's positive effect on the nervous and immune systems of your body can stay with you for hours, unlike recreational relaxants where the body swings back into a stress aroused state as soon as their influence has worn off, the rewards of meditation are both long lasting and accumulative. The more you meditate the better you get at it and the better you feel.

Meditation: the ultimate antidote to stress
Stress is considered a contributing factor in up to 80% of all illness. At best it makes you irritable, unpopular and unproductive, at it's worst it makes you miserable and sick.

Meditation helps soothe stress by allowing the sympathetic nervous system to stand down. The sympathetic nervous system is what fires the "fight or flight" response, but it's only designed for short-term use and if triggered to frequently or held on-line for too long you begin to loose vital energy and immunity. Your relationships suffer, your work suffers and your health suffers. In short, stress equals suffering, but meditation can quickly act as a powerful and enjoyable anti-dote and gain you entry into the pleasurable realm of the relaxation response

Research has repeatedly shown that regular practice of meditation for just 10-20 minutes a day significantly reduces the symptoms of stress.

If you feel you are running too hot, it's because you are immersed in the red alert energy of your sympathetic nervous system. By learning some simple meditation exercises you can douse the fire of self-destruction and get cool, calm and collected in minutes.

Chinese Medicine considers the sympathetic nervous system to be yang and it's balancing counterpart - the parasympathetic nervous - system to be it's yin.

The parasympathetic nervous system serves to return the body and mind to a calmly functional state where no danger is perceived. It is a stand-down state, an "all clear" signal to your body and mind that they can relax and get on with what they want to be doing. Meditation triggers the parasympathetic nervous system and gives you a welcome break from the adrenaline fuelled states that can be so destructive to your body.

Meditation: an act of self-kindness
When you go on an aeroplane, the flight attendants tell you that in the event of an emergency you should put your own oxygen mask on before trying to assist anyone else. Why? Because you're no good to yourself or others if you're gasping for air.

Here on the ground, things might be less dramatic, but the principle still applies. If you are riddled with stress, then you are, (to a degree directly related to the amount of your stress) useless.

If you want to care for yourself and your friends and family better there are few gifts you could give yourself that are as valuable as the experience of meditation.

Get started today with the FREE Moments of Tranquility Meditation and Relaxation MP3s...

Stand still, be calm, be centred and be strong. This is the message from Yoga and from Qigong - two systems designed to keep us calm and healthy throughout our lives. Both arts favour still, standing poses, to develop core strength, stability and peace.

Standing poses invoke the mood of the mountain - still, immovable and solid, whatever weather crashes over head or blows around it, it stands strong, tall and unchanged.

With many of us surrounded by a variety of noise and hustle and bustle throughout the day (and sometimes the night too) it’s important that we find the time to recharge and ground ourselves before our energy gets depleted by pure lack of true peace and rest.

How to do the Grounding Technique
1. Bend your knees slightly and place your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Focus on your feet and imagine them sinking down into the ground that supports them.

2. Place the fingertips of one hand beneath your lower lip and the heel of the other hand on your navel with the fingertips pointing down towards the ground (see arrow on diagram).

3. Hold your hands on the points for about 30 seconds, or 4 - 6 complete breaths. Then switch hands and repeat.

Breathing slowly and deeply encourages relaxation and further enhances the benefits of using this technique.

How it Works:
When you hold your hands in these positions they are contacting key points on the central vessel of the energy system. By simultaneously stimulating the beginning and end points of this meridian the brain is stimulated and mental fatigue is relieved.

This simple exercise is useful during breaks from repetitive tasks, when working in front of a computer, or after long spells of driving.


The Grounding Technique helps with:

- General co-ordination
- Organisational & sorting skills
- Reading without disorientation (smoother tracking along lines of text)
- Promoting grounding
- Mental alertness
- Improved posture (discourages slouching)
- Relaxes the eyes



Download the FREE MP3 for the Grounding Exercise here

Your body possesses a vital energy that takes care of repair and restoration, that energy is challenged by stress, tension, adrenal strain and lack of quality rest.

 

If you have every marvelled at the bounce of a child, their shiny hair and eyes, soft smooth skin and enormous capacity for learning and problem solving, then you have witnessed vital energy in action. We are conditioned to expect such vitality to decline with age, but there is much you can do to slow that decline by preserving your vital energy reserves.

In Chinese medicine this vitality is referred to as latency. Latency is your personal quota of energy and vitality, it’s your constitutional “starter pack”. Some of us are gifted with a stronger constitution than others, and some of us spend it faster than others.

We are all very individual in our expression and usage of our vital energy, but one fact holds true for us all - once you start running low, your immunity is challenged and you can find yourself at tipping point with your health.

CFS - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - is a typical example of a low latency situation, Chinese Medicine considers it a condition where the energy balance dips into the red and the body suffers the final straw that takes it off-line.

Ayurveda (India’s ancient science of natural health care) regards CFS, ME, and other exhaustion states in a very similar way. The challenge to us all in maintaining helath and vitality is to preserve what vitality we have and be sure that it isn’t squandered by situations and behaviours that will ultimately present a challenge to our functionality.

Vital energy is burned by:
anxiety
anger
frustration
long-term stress
excessive alcohol consumption
smoking and recreational drugs
promiscuous relationships
poor sleep


Vital energy is nourished by:
a peaceful lifestyle
meditation
milk, almonds, dates, honey and ghee (clarified butter)
devotional practices
qigong
yoga & pranayama (breathing exercises designed to calm the mind and nourish the nervous system)



Beware Energy Draining Foods
To feel energised you need to eat energy i.e. foods rich in vital energy (prana) that nourish the mind and body. Good examples of high energy living foods are nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables and grains. Anything fresh and colourful is good for building energy.

Anything dead, stale, old, or preserved, depletes energy and leaves you feeling sluggish and sleepy. That's because these foods possess no vital energy and while they might fill you up, the contribute little else to your body than low quality bulk. They're hard work to digest and contain little nutritional value.


Almonds = Energy
Sweet almonds are nourishing to the nervous system and support energy and vitality in the body. Ayurveda (India's ancient science of health& longevity) considers almonds to be beneficial to all bodily tissues especially the reproductive tissues.

Massaging the body with sweet almond oil is a wonderful and relaxing way to nourish the tissues from the outside in.

For an energy boosting drink, try almond milk - available in all natural health stores.

Bedtime Energy Booster
Boil a cup of whole organic milk, then let it cool to drinking temperature. Put in a blender with a pinch of cinnamon powder and 5 dates (with the stone removed) blend thoroughly and drink before settling down for the night.

Managing Your Energy Budget When you take the time to consciously rest, relax, meditate, and eat well, you are preserving what vital energy you already have and also taking the opportunity to cultivate more. This is of paramount importance to your quality of life, level of immunity and your physical and mental stamina.

Treat yourself to some rest and restoration with our FREE Moments of Tranquility Relaxation MP3s…

If you can read this, then the chances are you don’t consider yourself a beginner at breathing. After all, you’ve been doing it for years. But are you really breathing or are you operating on automatic pilot and missing out on a whole host of breath related benefits.

Breath awareness helps the body detox, repair, regenerate and blow stress away. Read on to discover the simple secrets of how your breath can calm your mind and heal your body…

Influencing Autonomy
Breathing is the only vital autonomic bodily function that can be consciously controlled and directed by the mind. This is so for a reason; your breathing is a bridge between your body and your mind. To allow your breathing to remain unconscious and automatic is to exist in a realm where that bridge is obstructed.

The breath is intended as a balancing device, a tuning tool that allows you conscious control of your emotions, and access to states of deep relaxation and harmony. Your breath holds the key to the door of compassion and understanding for all living beings. Why? Because it is in the moments of peace and stillness created by breath awareness that you can get in touch with the inner you. The peaceful, calm and competent you, and the you that can extend empathy, care and concern to others.

Being able to control your breath means being able to control your mind and being able to deeply nourish, oxygenate and detox the cells and tissues of your body.

When you are rushing about too busy and too stressed to eat properly, breath properly etc etc you are also too busy to connect properly with others. Over years of observation it has come to my attention that stressed people are not popular people. They are snappy, selfish and a strain to be around. They are missing out on the sweetness and subtleties of life. Stress robs us of the pleasures to be found in simple things in life and can cause us to drive others nuts with our ranting about little inconveniences that become mountains of self-obsessed stupidity.

Stress is a personality spoiler - breathing practice is a personality nourisher. It may well be one of the most powerful, yet overlooked tools in personal development.

Deeply Does it…
Deep breathing is also detoxing to the internal organs as the diaphragm assists the heart by massaging the organs as it draws down to breath deeply and then pumping blood strongly back up to the heart and lungs for more effective cleansing and re-oxygenation.

Detoxing, regeneration and repair of the body are further enhanced and triggered by the parasympathetic switch brought about by deep breathing. Slowing and deepening your breathing is a sign to your body to switch off the “fight or flight” responses that operate when you’re under duress.

The trouble with the hustle and bustle of modern life is that your body may perceive you to be always experiencing stress to some degree. If you are in the habit of breathing rapidly and shallowly, your nervous system may not get the message to “stand down” and you may be rapidly burning your energy reserves by living on constant standby.

That standby state keeps adrenaline coursing through your veins, puts your digestive system on hold, and causes excess heat and acidity in the body - which are two major causes of degeneration and disease.

Slow Your Breath and Lengthen Your Life
The Vedas teach that life duration is measured in breaths and that there is a direct relationship between how fast you breath and how long you live. To breath rapidly and high up in the chest squanders your vitality. It makes you gasp like a fish out of water. Slowing your breathing preserves your vital energy and calms your spirit.

A recent study in India concluded that the average volume of air inhaled can be increased by up to 50% after just 15 minutes of deep diaphragmatic breathing and that the average number of breaths per minute reduced from 15 to just 5 breaths a minute thus making breathing more efficient, energy producing, and stress reducing.

“When breathing is depressed or strained, all sorts of diseases will occur. Those who wish to nurture their lives must first learn the correct methods of controlling the breath and balancing energy. These breathing methods can cure all ailments great and small.”

from Precious Recipes by Sun ssu-mo of the Tang Dynasty

How to Educate Your Lungs
Both Qigong (which literally mean “energy work” or “breathing skill”) and Yoga teach a basic form of diaphragmatic breathing that can be learned and practised easily and without complex instruction.

Daily sessions of 10 to 15 minutes are long enough to make a significant difference to your life, the added benefit of regular practice being that you will educate yourself to be always more mindful of your breath, or at least to know how to stand down and recover quickly from stress and emotional upsets.

Here’s a quick guide to deep diaphragmatic breathing…

Stage 1: Inhalation
Inhale through your nose. Relax your diaphragm as you breath in and let it draw the air down deep into your abdominal cavity (i.e. Stomach area). Allow your ribcage to relax and expand as you breath in so that your lungs can get “topped up” right up to your collarbone area.

Then press the air down into your diaphragm so that your stomach wall is pushed out.

Stage 2: Retention
Hold that breath! Consciously hold the breath for about 5 seconds then relax and let it out.

Stage 3: Exhalation
Pull your stomach in and up and let the breath out in a slow steady stream through your mouth. Be sure to fully empty your lungs.

Stage 4: Empty Retention
Pause for a few seconds with your lungs empty before starting again with the next complete and deep inhalation.

In pranayama, Yoga’s ancient system of breathing for health and longevity, it is this held empty state that is considered the most beneficial to the body and the mind.

For FREE relaxation and breath awareness meditation MP3s visit our Moments of Tranquillity MP3 collection

Technorati Tags: anxiety relief, breath awareness, breathing, breathing exercise MP3, diaphragm breathing, pranayama, qigong, stress, tension, yoga

Useful/Interesting? CLICK HERE to get new posts by Email or subscribe to RSS feed

Spring is a significant time in the energy cycle. According to Chinese Medicine it is to the body what it is to the planet: a time of new growth and massive activity as the dormant nature of winter gives way to the impetus for renewal.

But, inspiring though it is to see blossom on the trees and bulbs push up their flows, spring can be a testing time...

The organs and meridians associated with spring are the liver and gall bladder. These are the meridians that govern our energy for getting things done. They promote drive, ambition, decisiveness, accomplishment etc. They are an energetic team that love starting new projects, generating ideas, and getting creative but... they are a testy due and get frustrated, if not furious, if those ideas don't get going.

The liver is the main culprit for feelings of intense frustration around spring time. It can get us irritable and shouting in seconds. We may feel calm on the surface and at our productive and creative best even, when all of a sudden the liver energy has us shouting and throwing our hands in the air in complete and utter frustration!

One of the causes of this frustration is the liver increasing internal heat in the body and pushing it to the surface. The weather starts to warm up now, and so do we, but we need to make the transition smoothly in order to feel calm and in control.

The liver is the body's blood purifier and can struggle at this time of it's peak energetic state if it is dealing with a heavy load. Now is a good time then, to give it a break
If you're suffering from spring fever and feel like you could do with some frustration soothing, and creativity nourishing help, now is the time to take advantage of our Moments of Tranquility Relaxation and Meditation MP3s

Technorati Tags: learn to meditate, spring, tension

Useful/Interesting? CLICK HERE to get new posts by Email or subscribe to RSS feed