Just because a meditation practice is easy, does not necessarily mean it is the best one for your brain. Anything worthwhile takes effort. If you are looking to engage in meditation to rebalance the brain, the practice may be difficult. You are asking your brain to do something new, to change its old patterns. This is not likely to be easy. Meditation is work.
Read MoreShifting the body can help the brain shift, too. Researchers exploring the relationship between mood and the body have found that walking in an erect posture and skipping tends to increase subjective feelings of energy and positive emotional states. In contrast, a slouched posture may decrease feelings of energy and increase negative emotions (Peper & Lin, 2012; Nair et al, 2015).
Read MoreWe think that somehow attempting to predict problems will alleviate stress. At the very least, we won’t be disappointed if things don’t work out the way we wanted. The reality is that the majority of those thoughts are fear-based stories that create an internal environment priming our brain to be stressed and anxious.
This is where mindfulness comes in. Can you become aware of the stories you are telling yourself in any given moment? Can you recognize that your thoughts are not facts? When you are unaware, you act out of habit, and old programming runs the show. When you are aware, you have a choice.
Meditation can be thought of as a form of mental training. It is a skill (or set of skills) that allow us to intentionally direct our attention in ways that challenge the automatic and habitual ways that the mind tends to engage. Just like any skill, getting good at meditation requires practice. Unfortunately, practice is hard. Unless you were lucky enough to be born with a rock-solid will it is tempting to put aside this practice when we feel stressed, pressed for time, or simply bored with doing the same thing day after day. Here are 5 tips to help you stay consistent with your practice:
Read MoreThe speed of life continues to increase, and we are inundated with information and expectations that we should always be available by phone, text, or social media.
Many people use a frantic lifestyle as a distraction so they do not have to experience underlying feelings of sadness, grief, remorse, or fear. One of the most powerful practices to begin to shift out of the fast-paced stress mode is to slow down.
Do you ever feel anxious when doing relaxing activities like yoga, meditation, or getting a massage?
If you answered yes, you are one of the 15%-20% of people who experience anxiety during formal relaxation training.
Postponing unwanted thoughts gives them a time and place, helping keep them at an appropriate scale. When you find your mind ruminating on unwanted thoughts, find a 30-minute block in your calendar. Schedule a time to sit with these thoughts.
Read MoreLabeling the thoughts that arise during a Mindfulness meditation can be a helpful practice. For example, if you notice yourself thinking about what you will be doing later that day, you can label the thought “planning” and then let it go.
Read MoreThere is no such thing as a “wrong” style. As all forms of exercise are beneficial, so too are all meditation styles. You will see a different result from running than weight training, and you will see a different result if you choose a Focus meditation than a Quiet Mind meditation.
Read MoreHumans are meaning-making creatures.
We are constantly involved in this process of meaning-making by creating narratives about our life, ourselves, our surroundings, and the people we interact with.
We fill in the missing details of a particular situation based on our fears, unmet needs, memories, and expectations. These stories help us feel like the world is predictable.
But the majority of the stories we create are works of fiction. And they still hold tremendous power.
Read MoreThis exercise helps quiet the mind. It’s a good practice for those times when the day feels so busy, you’re uncertain how you will get everything done. There is, indeed, more time for us, if we can find it. This practice helps you find the pause, the moment in which things feel more possible.
Read MoreThe role the environment plays in your meditation practice is important. Elements of your practice space can facilitate entering an open, loving, generous state of consciousness. You can invest in your meditation space without investing a lot - or any - money.
Read MoreMindfulness involves paying attention to what is happening in the present moment. Most often when we consider mindfulness, we think about our own thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and behaviors in the moment. It is also important for us to notice what is happening in our environment, as our environment has the ability to impact both our thoughts and our emotional states.
Read MoreMeditation is a method to shift the brain into healthier and more balanced ways of relating to and experiencing the world. There are many different styles of meditation, and they all require preparing the body and beginning our practice with a posture most conducive to directing our attention inward. Our mothers were right: posture is important!
Read MoreMindfulness meditations involve maintaining an open presence and a non-judgmental awareness of sensory, cognitive, and affective experiences as they arise in the moment. Studies examining brainwave patterns during Mindfulness meditation practices have found increased frontal theta power as well as increased frontal theta communication. Theta waves are between 4-8 hz and are associated with the subconscious mind, moments of creativity, and retrieving certain types of memory.
Read MoreQigong (pronounced chee-gong) is an ancient Chinese exercise and healing technique that involves meditation, controlled breathing, and movement exercises. Qigong is therefore sometimes translated as "vital energy cultivation" or "mastery of your energy."
Try our warmup session in the video below to pique your interest. This meditation style can help you feel more connected to your body than ever before.
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