Deep Breathing Exercises at Losing Weight

Exercise Tip of The Week

Where is your scale?

Mine is in the kitchen! Every morning when I make coffee I weigh myself. Since it is the same time I can compare it and make a mental note if it is higher than the day before!

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Deep Breathing Exercises at Healthy Treadmills Losing Weight

Relax Into Health

I’d like to share a little secret about relaxation techniques for athletes (or health-minded people that workout) and anyone that wants to feel more focused, calm, healthy and peaceful.

But first, let’s define relaxation techniques, or more specifically, meditation. To begin, it’s not necessary to be a Zen master to learn meditation. Anyone can jump-in at any time and start meditating. You should put any expectations aside; do not try to force the outcome; don’t try to over-analyze "what meditation is"; and in general, just turn-off the brain and be in the moment. When meditating it is not necessary to blank out your mind or chase thoughts away. You’ll learn that as you progress with meditation, your mind will become quieter. Sit comfortably, with your spine reasonably straight. You can rest against a chair, a wall or headboard. Your hands can rest comfortably at your side or on your lap. Your legs can also be in any comfortable position (crossing them or any complicated pretzel position is not necessary). Overall, allow your body to sit comfortably so your body-mind-spirit can be open to relax.

“movement is superior to meditation”?

There are different types of meditations that you can use in your daily practice. Here are a few:

* Mindfulness - A process focusing on physical sensations and being present of the moment. It is being attentive to the sensory information entering your mind through your five senses. Beneficial to athletes, people in body pain or someone with a health challenge, dieters and overall for body awareness.

* Visualization - This process creates in the mind specific places or situations, such as a green forest or the calming waves of the ocean. This can be used for goal setting or for quieting the mind.

* Walking meditation - This Zen Buddhist form of meditation focuses on the sensation of the feet against the ground. Some people have discovered its benefits without realizing it was meditative. Pacing back and forth can be very calming on the mind.

This next meditation I strongly recommend learning first. In fact, I do a "sandwich" - I start with grounding then one of the meditations listed above and end my meditation practice with grounding.

Grounding - This process is being fully present mentally and emotionally and will help you feel more centered and focused. Practicing grounding will put you in control of your environment and focus your energies in your daily routine. Anyone learning meditation for the first time will gain great benefits by practicing grounding on a daily basis.

The Tree Meditation is the simplest exercise to feel more relaxed and energized. Yes, you can actually experience both of these at the same time! Familiarize yourself with this meditation by reading it two or three times and then begin. If you want, you can set a timer for ten minutes.

* Close your eyes and breathe in calmly. Each breath, imagine sipping air with a straw.

* Imagine a beautiful, majestic tree. As you think of this tree, breathing in more relaxed, imagine YOU are the tree. With each calming breath your spine lengthens. See your body as the trunk of the tree; and as you continue breathing down from your head to your spine, down to your hips ---continue breathing down, feeling more relaxed and calm; down your legs --- your feet ---supporting you like the trunk of the tree.

* As you continue breathing, imagine healthy strong roots extending from the bottom of your feet. Your roots extend deep into Mother Earth, anchoring your body. You’re healthy-whole-and complete; fully supported as you breathe deep into the earth. You are a beautiful tree; you feel strong, solid and fully grounded where you are.

* Continue relaxing and breathing. When you are ready, come back to the present --- alert, confident and fully energized.

The last type of meditation is Transcendental. This is a specific type of meditation that must be learned from a certified teacher of the Transcendental Meditation program. Introduced in the late 1950s, this meditation focuses on a mantra (a sound, word or phrase that is repeated over and over, either aloud, as a chant or silently).

Studies of relaxation techniques have shown overall improvements of the body-mind connection for athletes and many health benefits for individuals. Taking the time to meditate and quiet our mind gives us the time to pause in our daily lives. It is the greatest power we hold, to be in the moment, alive and aware of our surroundings and our body. Relaxation gives us time to better organize our day, focus our energy and work more efficiently.

Start your meditation practice in the morning for ten to fifteen minutes. Many of the types of meditations - Grounding, Mindfulness, Visualization, Breath, Walking or Transcendental - can be done at home, work or out-and-about. There are hundreds of meditations to match the needs of the individual or to meet a specific purpose. You can find meditations online, in books, on CD and by taking a class. Over time you will have increased self-esteem and self-confidence; greater creativity; a greater ability to problem solve; and a more calming effect on your surroundings and the people you interact with.

Wayne McDonald is the author of "Relax Into Health" - a comprehensive guide to completely relax your body in five minutes. He is the founder of http://www.HolisticWebDirectory.com - an on-line health directory of complementary health care professionals. For more health articles, signup for the monthly Health Newsletter. Send an email to submit-ezine@aweber.com

The important thing with a regular practice is to just do it. The effects are cumulative and one day you’ll look back and see that all those short meditation sessions actually added up.

How to Train Your Brain to Keep You Healthy and Happy

When you are unhappy what do you do? Do you go out for a meal? Go to the cinema? The theatre, perhaps? Do you go shopping?

Perhaps you like a drink to overcome your unhappiness. Or do you get a buzz from jogging or going to the gym?

Whatever it is scientist are in the process of proving that internal change is the only thing that can give you health and happiness. Everything else is an illusion.

Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin and Jon Kabat-Zinn from the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre have just completed some interesting research that can actually be of benefit to you and me and the way we run our lives.

When we begin meditation or working towards the kundalini, we often feel that we should be able to do certain things within a certain time frame.

They took a group of 41 stressed, but otherwise healthy, individuals working in a biotechnology firm in Wisconsin. 25 were taught meditation. In this case: mindfulness meditation. The group met for a 2.5 to 3 hour meditation class each week. After six weeks they all attended a seven hour meditation retreat. In addition each member was asked to meditate, at home, for one hour a day using a guided meditation tape.

The other 16 were held as a control group and did not receive meditation training until the study was completed.

At the end of the eight week programme, in November, they also gave all the participants a flu jab. And guess what. “The members of the meditation group had a significant increase in antibody titers” in other words they have less chance of catching flu.

The bottom line appears to be. If you want to have good health and overcome the day by day blues and maintain happiness learn to meditate. When you meditate you change the way your brain operates.

In addition, they found, the more you practice meditation the better your daily performance.

What we found is that the long time practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before. Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance.'' It demonstrates, that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine. --(Richard Davidson)

Active Meditation For Surges In Energy Levels!

When I first started learning about deep breathing exercises and meditation I had this pre-conceived notion of sitting very still for long periods of time, my body like a statue, my breathing hardly discernable to an onlooker.

Little did I know that this was not the only way to achieve a meditative experience.

In my discussions with people they often deem meditation an activity for ‘hippies’ from a bygone era that is for those people who are essentially away with the fairies! However, this could not be further from the truth!

You see meditation comes in all forms and guises. Yes, sometimes it does consist of silent, still, contemplation. Nothing wrong with that at all. What I also discovered was that it can come in a very energised form, a meditative experience yes, but one that blows the cobwebs out of your mind and body and provides you with the impetus to take action!

I have become a firm believer in such types of meditation. Ever heard of the saying “movement is superior to meditation”? Well this is a means to combine the two and create a wonderful way to increase focus on goals while energising the body.

3. While doing this your chest and abdomen acts almost like bellows pumping rhythmically along with your breath.

4. Perform this initially for a minute. See how you feel. It is a dynamic breathing exercise that requires some getting used to. Once you have a feel for the breathing slowly add more time.

This is a great and quick way to energise you. Also (if you wish) while performing it add in a mental image of a goal you wish to achieve. See it as a success. Allow your rising energy levels to combine and merge with this positive image and you will feel compelled to use this energy to achieve this objective!

Tim Webb is a fitness instructor, Ju Jutsu instructor and competitor. He specialises in easily accessible deep breathing exercises that combine breath and mind together. His site http://www.breathforsuccess.com/ offers a product that provides deep breathing exercises for invigorating yourself, relaxing, and highlights how your breath can be tied in with your goals to move you towards them in record time!

Meditation Is Not Just for Men with White Beards

What kind of picture comes to mind when someone mention the word “meditation?”

I don’t know about you, but for me, I use to get a picture of some real, health food nut, with a white beard, sitting Indian style with his eyes closed, palms facing up and making weird sounds. Didn’t seem like anything I thought I’d ever do. In fact, they looked sort of crazy to me and I didn’t really understand it. In fact, I never bothered to try to understand it either.

The reason I decided to start learning about meditation is because every single self-development book, seminar or workshop I would read, hear or attend, always mentioned meditating.

No matter how many times I heard the word meditation, I simply ignored it because it was not for me. I simply wasn’t “corny” like that. You would never catch me sitting down Indian style and moaning—naannn, not me.

I’ve tried to remember the name of the book, but for some reason the name escapes me right now.

The name isn’t important. What is important is that it opened up a whole new world for me.

It made me realize the importance of meditating and how meditating can help me to get in touch with my inner self.

And, I’ve learned, that it isn’t necessary for me to grow a long white beard, or to eat only healthy food (although that wouldn’t be a bad idea).

Have you ever needed to figure something out and simply went somewhere you wouldn’t be disturbed, closed your eyes and let you mind go blank until an idea popped into it?

When you wake up in the morning, after reviewing your goals for the day (because you did write them down before going to sleep, right?)—close your eyes and put the thought in your head that you will accomplish all of your goals for the day. Then, without forcing yourself, let your mind go blank.

That statement will be something that you will have to do that day to make sure that you are able to complete the things you set out to do that day.

Do you know that if you run your day using this technique—everything will go smoothly for you and you will find yourself closer and closer to your goals.

Because you are connecting to your spirit. Your spirit, if you listen and follow it, will never lead you astray.

It’s not necessary to sit Indian style and it’s not necessary for your palms to be facing up. In fact, you could be laying down, sitting in a chair—doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you are comfortable (and it helps that it is somewhat quiet).

Let’s say you are at work and a problem comes up, you don’t know how to solve it. Excuse yourself and go to the bathroom. Go in a stall. Think, for a moment, about your “problem.” Close your eyes. Clear your mind. And wait for the answer to come. When it comes, go out and take action.

You’ll be surprise how meditation can fit into your day and help you become the YOU you’ve always dreamed of becoming.

Dawn Fields is a motivational speaker, author and coach. She has an amazing way of reaching you with her down-to-earth style and her ability to make the impossible seem possible. Sign up for her FREE weekly newsletter by sending a blank email to yourlifespurpose-subscribe@topica.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Visit the web site at http://www.dawnfields.com Be sure to tune into her weekly radio show Thursday nights at 9 p.m. at http://www.dawnfields.com/radioshow.htm

Establishing A Daily Meditation Practice

It’s important to establish a daily practice and then stick to it. This doesn’t mean dedicating 12 hours a day to meditation, it just means creating a space in your home where you can take a few minutes and meditate and do the exercises. I advise people to start with some of the basic exercises and devote 10 -20 minutes a day as they develop their physical and mental abilities. Many people quite simply overload themselves and expect too much too soon, then get discouraged when they don’t see the results they thought they should see.

Set aside a corner in one of your rooms. You can stock it with whatever accoutrement you wish. Many folks have cushions, candles, incense and a small CD player for music or guided meditation CD’s. Use whatever tools and accessories you want to, as there’s no right or wrong at this point.

Once you’ve created your ‘sacred space’ then all you have to do is use it. Set aside a few minutes each day and begin working on your breathing and Full Body Awareness. Don’t worry at this point about how long you meditate, just get into the habit of doing it. The effects of meditation are cumulative, so 5 minutes a day everyday is better than 20 minutes once a week.

Eventually you’ll get to the point where you don’t need any accessories and you can clear your mind and meditate anywhere, at any time, but for now don’t worry about that, just create a pleasant, sacred atmosphere and get started.

In the spiritual circles we often hear people talking about doing things ‘without expectation’. It’s amazing how often the simple truths are all around us.

We expect to be able to clear our minds and access our deeper abilities. We expect to be able to sit for an hour and meditate, or to see auras, or feel other people’s chi. Then when it doesn’t happen we become disappointed and confused. I can’t tell you how important it is to break free of these expectations.

When we let go of expectations and learn to just relax in the moment and just BE, then we are making progress of the most important kind. In the west we tend to be so goal oriented and have a need to see results, but frequently the cumulative effects of meditation aren’t noticeable until much later. Meditation is about this moment, about BEing totally in this moment, rather than about who you’ll be when you’ve become a good meditator.

“Establishing A Daily Meditation Practice” is an excerpt from Robert Morgen’s book “Kundalini Awakening for Personal Mastery” (ISBN: 0-9773801-0-6)

His new book “Easy Meditation for Martial Artists” (ISBN: 0-9773801-3-0) will be available in October, 2006.

Robert Morgen is a Reiki Master who holds a Black Belt in Hoshinjutsu. He’s founder of the Mystic Village Online Community at http://www.mysticvillage.org

He writes a regular column on subtle (or internal) energy for Fight Times Magazine and a column on Kundalini Awakening at Alumbo.com. He’s the author of 3 books and 4 CDs on meditation and energy work.

He’s a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids as well as the International Bujinkan Dojo Association, Canemasters International and the International Combat Hapkido Federation.

You can learn more about his books, Kundalini and Martial Arts Seminars and free events and newsletters at his website at http://www.mysticwolfpress.com

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