Open Focus Meditation. Healthy Treadmills Losing Weight

We are happy to present articles about Open Focus Meditation!

Guided Meditation

Just as there are many teachers, there are a wide variety of guided meditations. Ideally, their goal is to allow you to be both alert and relaxed, while your guide draws your attention to that which is larger, grander, and wiser than yourself. Through regular use of guided meditation, you improve your sense of oneness with that which transcends you, and yet is at the heart of you.

Here is a guided meditation I received from fellow-writer and chaplain, Christie McKaskle. You can lengthen or shorten the pauses to fit your needs. In fact, she suggests recording both a short and a long version, so you can use this guided meditation no matter what your schedule is like. You can record your own voice reading it or ask a beloved person to read it for you.

Take a breath and get comfortable

"Take a breath and get comfortable (pause).

Breathe again. If any of your clothes are binding, loosen them (pause).

If you are chilly, get a sweater or shawl. If you're warm, remove a layer.

Breathe.

Breathe and allow your eyes to close (pause).

Notice the sounds around you – voices, dogs barking, any traffic sounds (pause).

Notice the sounds within you – your stomach growling, your heart beating, your blood rushing throughout your body (pause).

Listen to all of these sounds and allow them to become a picture in your mind. See them as waves, like those at the surface of a choppy lake or ocean. But instead of an ocean of water, this is an ocean of being, where you breathe more freely and deeply, the further down you go. This is an ocean in which you live and move and have your being.

Take a deep breath, hold it for a second, and as you exhale now, go deeper into Being,
Down past the surface noise, Down past your history, with all its victories and disappointments, Down to the ground of your being.

Take a moment to settle here and get your bearings (pause).

Once you feel centered, look around and see that everything you need is here – perfect peace, vibrant health, constant love, endless supply for all your needs. They’re all here as pure potential. You give them form in your imagination (pause).

Look at all of these forms of good, and choose one to take with you now. Take whatever you need – a more harmonious expression of peace, more compassionate and generous love, livelier health, or a constant, generous overflow of supply for every need.

Choose the good you want now, and have no fear: you can return here at any time to get anything else you need. What are you willing to take with you right now? Whatever you are willing to receive is yours by right of consciousness (pause).

Breathe in, and as you do, take that quality of life from pure being into your physical form. It is a part of you now and will come back with you into your manifest life. As you take one last look around, you see that you have always had a connection to this place. A golden cord grows from the center of you and anchors you here. You never saw it before, but now you know it's what drew you here, and will bring you here again.

So breathe again, and as you exhale, head back to the surface of your life on the daily physical plane. Take a moment to bring your full awareness to your body and your surroundings, and open your eyes when you're ready."

You are free to adapt this guided meditation as you wish. Soon, you'll become so familiar with the experience, you'll feel ready to choose a new one from the thousands of CDs and tapes available. Or, write and record a new one of your own!

Amy Biddle has been a lifetime student and teacher of spiritual principles. Spiritual Healing Secrets is a fast-growing resource for anyone who wants to improve her or himself, or simply to learn practical spiritual principles. Let Amy help you improve your life! Discover the secrets at http://www.spiritual-healing-secrets.com

This article may be reproduced in its entirety as long as the "About the Author" and links are included.

“continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature; the habit of meditation is the basis for all real knowledge."

Meditate Your Way to Business Success

It’s all about calming the mind to allow for greater inner perspective.

The problem with meditation is that most people think of it as “sitting on a rock and humming OM for an hour.”

In fact, meditation can be dynamic, moving, energetic and calming, all at the same time.

Here are 4 examples of excellent meditative exercises

1. Take a walk of about 1 to 2 miles. Go by yourself and don’t think about the walk or your day- to-day activities. Instead:

* Notice your surroundings

* Think about how you feel as you walk. What is your body doing? How does that affect you?

* Focus on how you are breathing. Is it smooth or kind of jerky and irregular? What happens if you breathe really deeply while you’re walking?

* Take a moment to appreciate anything beautiful you pass by. What do you see? How does that make you feel?

You are now meditating. You are calm, focusing on things you have never noticed before and appreciating the moment.

Please note the words “appreciating the moment.” It means living right NOW and not in a past that already happened or a future that is yet to come. This is your goal when meditating.

2. Go play a round of golf. My personal favorite mediation exercise is golf. Oddly enough, golf is one of the best exercises you can do to expand and develop your creative mind potential.

Just learn to think differently. Instead of worrying about how you’re going to play, notice your surroundings instead.

Look at everything as if you were going to paint or photograph it. See the details of highlight and shadows. Notice the beauty of the garden you’re playing in. Bend down and notice a single blade of grass; realizing that it is life in and of itself.

Don’t think about your swing. Just step up, relaxed, not worried about how you look and let it all go. Anytime the rational mind is out of the picture and feelings replace them you will hit much better shots.

Between shots, don’t think about the shot that was or that shot that is coming. Spend time between shots enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Really notice the beauty that is all around you. Realize that the next time you step up to the ball, the potential exists for something exceptional to occur.

Before, during and after the round don’t tell yourself stories about how, why, what you are doing or wish you did.

Just enjoy every moment. Remember, every hole (just like every day in your life) holds the potential of a fresh new start.

3. Go out and take a few pictures. Noticing beautiful things all around you is also an excellent meditation. Go outside, somewhere you consider beautiful and bring your camera. Any kind of camera will do.

Don’t think about anything except your surroundings. Breathe the air; notice how you feel in the beautiful outdoors. When you see something (anything) that catches your attention, go over to it for a closer look.

Notice how light and shadows interplay. Focus on what you notice when you look at an object. Take a photo of what you actually see, not the entire scene.

Again, noticing what is REALLY happening around you right NOW is the key to successful meditation.

4. Begin your day by looking at your true goals in life. Write them down and read then aloud. Take 2 or 3 minutes to understand what achieving this goal will feel like to you.

Then write down ACTION steps you can accomplish today, which will take you one step closer to that goal.

Get used to experiencing NOW. As you get used to this idea, before starting your meditative activity, think about a challenge you want to solve or a new idea you want to create.

Write down what you want to gain perspective on, contemplate it for a moment, then set it aside and start the activity. Follow the steps outlined above.

As you notice your experience of RIGHT NOW, the answer to solve challenges or new inspiration will surface, seemingly out of nowhere.

The quiet, relaxed mind, focusing on right NOW inspires you to new heights in creative thinking.

New heights in creative thinking lead to exceptional ideas coming to the forefront; giving you a distinct competitive edge in both business and life.

Take This ACTION Step

1. Go for a walk. Follow the advice in example 1.

2. Play golf. with focus and purpose instead of apprehension of impending doom. Follow the advice in example 2.

3. Take photographs in a beautiful place. Notice your surroundings. Open your awareness and then bring that back to your daily life in business. Paying attention to every moment, not worrying about a past or future is meditation at it’s finest. See article 3 for ideas.

4. Begin your day looking at your true goals and passions in life. What can you do today to move one small step closer to them?

Relaxing, opening your awareness to right NOW and focusing are the core principals of meditation. When that relaxed state of mind focuses on the talent and value you provide to other people amazing new ideas arise.

Bill Gluth is a Human Touch Marketing Expert, professional speaker, trainer and consultant. He is the first person to specialize in developing “talent” as a competitive business strategy. Bill brings clear, simple and focused action steps to any business building program that spotlights controlling time, methods and mindset to stand out from the crowd.

When in control of these 3 variables, business people can realize greater achievement and business growth in less time, with greater enjoyment and minimal stress. Learn more about Bill Gluth and his Creative Business Strategy Training programs by visiting http://www.developyourvision.com.

Meditation: 3 Easy Ways to Meditate

We all need a way to relax and reduce the stress caused by our busy lives. Many people have turned to meditation, an age-old technique that is not only an excellent way to reduce stress, but is also known to be one of the surest and best ways to gain spiritual enlightenment. In meditation one can begin to make a connection with the spiritual realm, meeting angels, guides or spiritual helpers, receiving insights and inspirations, and gaining help with problems and guidance for spiritual growth. No wonder meditation is becoming an ever more popular way to relax.

But just what is meditation? And how does one go about getting into a meditative “state?” Are there techniques to master and rules to follow? While many people do learn to meditate by following a technique such as the popular TM method or the Relaxation Response, the truth is that anyone can begin meditating anytime without any formal training.

Meditation, simply put, is a quiet mind. Most people can learn to meditate by themselves. There is really no “right” or “wrong” way to meditate. All you need is a feeling of relaxation and a sense of inner awareness. I have taught students to meditate for over ten years, using the simple methods of attuning to the breathing and being aware of the location of awareness or consciousness. It all begins to happen when you go inside.

To gain access to your inner self, you must first remove your attention from the outer world. Attuning to your breathing will accomplish this goal quite easily and well. Start by getting into a comfortable position. If you tend to fall asleep when you lie down, you might consider sitting up instead. Close your eyes and relax. Put all of your attention on your breathing, noticing how it feels for the air to come in, your lungs to expand, your diaphragm to recoil. Allow your attention to follow each breath until you are just too relaxed to remember to do so any longer. Then let your mind wander; let all thoughts of the day pass out of your mind. Know that anything important will be there later. You will continue to have thoughts drifting by, but don’t stop them and look a them, just let them go. If you forget and begin to dwell on a thought that floats by, gently remind yourself to let it go and return your attention to your breathing until your mind begins to drift off again. Sooner or later as you allow thoughts to float by unattended, you will discover moments of “emptiness” between thoughts. It is during these moments of profound inner stillness that our bodies and minds realign and balance themselves.

Open Focus Meditation

The process described above leads to an Open Focus Meditation, where the idea is to turn down the volume of your logical mind, to quiet its chatter by simply not attuning to it. In an open focus meditation you diffuse your attention so that it does not engage on any one thing.

The One Focus Meditation

There is another way to meditate and quiet your mind that uses the exact opposite approach as the one mentioned above. Some people find it easier to meditate by not trying to “let go.” Indeed, if you must try to let go, you probably won’t be able to do it. If you have an active left brain, you may find it easier to use the One Focus Method.

The One Focus Meditation Method allows you to quiet your mind and turn down the volume of your thoughts by “boring” your logical mind with a repeated experience. You might use a word or phrase, which would be called a mantra. Repeating your mantra could involve you saying to yourself the word, “relax” over and over for a period of ten to twenty minutes. Alternately, you could maintain the breathing awareness throughout your meditation and use the breath itself as your focal point., which I find to be more relaxing. Your main goal is to concentrate your awareness, to pin-point it. Then the thoughts that are continually passing through your head cannot take hold, because your attention is already engaged.

Open Focus Meditation With Reflection

Whether you use an Open Focus or a One Focus Meditation, at some point in your meditations, your mind will begin to bring up information or insights from your subconscious. Your subconscious learns to take advantage of the “down time” of your logical mind to slip into your awareness information that it feels is important. You can learn to use this natural reflective process to get answers to questions, solutions to problems, and insights about your life’s direction. As you move from the breathing awareness into an open focus meditation, gently mull over in your mind a question or a problem, just wondering about it in a detached and relaxed manner. Then let the thought go, allowing it to move quietly into the background, as you continue to relax in an open focus meditative state. Every once in a while, gently remind yourself that you are seeking an answer to your question and mull over it again momentarily. Then let it go again, repeating this process throughout the meditation. By gently holding the question or problem in your mind, you are pointing your subconscious in a specific direction as it begins to bubble up insights.

Using these methods you can make meditation a valuable and pleasant part of your life. You can gain relaxation and a sense of inner balance as you learn more about yourself and receive guidance for your life. Let meditation take you to the source of your best advice and healing - your own inner mind.

Adapted from the book, Tools for Transformation, by Rita Milios.

Rita Milios, the Mind Mentor, is a psychotherapist, author and speaker on topics of mind, creativity and behavior. Her uniqe "mind tools" training system teaches people how to "mind their own mind's business" and transform their lives for good. Learn more about Rita's books, tapes and trainings for both adults and children at http://www.ritamilios.com.

Meditation For Depression

How to meditate, it's an unusual topic for this series. However, it is very applicable. As we discuss the problems of losing your temper, a serious problem in depression, it is helpful to know how to meditate, because meditation is a very effective technique for calming yourself.

The first step towards meditation is to turn off the TV, the radio, try to eliminate as much noise as possible. Meditation will encourage you to focus on your own breath, and that is what you want to be listening for. You want to try and avoid any distraction at this point. Second, close your eyes. You may want to open them to see what is going on, but remember, you are focusing on the internal right now, not the external. It doesn't matter what is going on in the other room. All that matters is what you are doing. Take deep breaths. Get into a rhythm of deep breaths in and out. Try to extend your exhalation so it is longer than your inhalation. Begin counting to ten with the odd numbers on the inhale and the even numbers on the exhale. This will put you in your body's natural rhythm. With your eyes closed, imagine a shade of purple that just gets darker and darker without ever turning to black. This will give you your focal point. The deep purple will soothe you, as will the counting of your breath.

Eventually, you might find that you only need to breathe and be able to go into a meditative state. That is fine. Always remember to count from one to ten in cycles, though because you do want to bring your body to that calming rhythm. The pace of your breathing is what will maintain your calm and without that, you will not be able to move on.

You can read more about depression at http://www.curemydepression.com

How To Meditate Today

How to meditate? Breath, and watch your breath.

Among the documented benefits of meditation are less anxiety, decreased depression, reduction in irritability and moodiness, better learning ability and memory and greater creativity. That's just for starters. Then there is slower aging (possibly due to higher DHEA levels), feelings of vitality and rejuvenation, less stress (actual lowering of cortisol and lactate levels), rest (lower metabolic and heart rate), lower blood pressure, and higher blood oxygen levels

How to Meditate Right Now

Here's a simple technique that will give you results in minutes. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and tense up your whole body.

Sigh deeply, then breath deeply through your nose and release the tension from every muscle. Just feel each part relaxing, watching for parts that may hold onto tension, like a tight jaw.

If you still have tension somewhere, tense up that part again, then let it relax. It may also help to repeat silently "relax" as the tension drains. This will train your body and mind to recognize relaxation. Later you may be able to relax more easily just by repeating "relax" a few times.

Breath through your nose. This is important because it brings in more oxygen by involving your diaphragm more. You can test this. Breath with your mouth and you'll notice that your breathing is shallower. Then breath through your nose and you'll notice that your abdomen extends more. Air is being drawn deeper into your lungs.

Allow your breathing to fall into a comfortable pattern, and pay attention to it. Pay attention to your breath as it passes in and out of your nose. Your mind may wander endlessly, but all you have to do is continually bring attention back to your breath.

If your mind is still too busy, try naming the distractions as a way of setting them aside. For example, say in your mind, "itchy leg," "worried about work," or "anger," and then immediately return attention to your breathing. Use any way you can to identify and set aside distractions.

That's it. Continue for five or ten minutes, or for 100 breaths. Afterwards, open your eyes and sit there for a few seconds. You'll feel relaxed, and your mind will feel refreshed. And you'll be better prepared for any mental challenges. That's how to meditate.

Steve Gillman has been studying brainpower and related topics for years. For more on How To Increase Brain Power, and to get the Brain Power Newsletter and other free gifts, visit: http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com

More Healthy Related Articles on Open Focus Meditation

Osteoarthritis Supplements - Osteoarthritis is most commonly known to degenerate cartilage and cause the formation of bone spurs.

Discount Chamomile Tea - Chamomile tea is sometimes used as a sedative. Orange, lemon and other citrus peel are also used.

Growth Vitamin Supplements - In this day and age, your health is not something you want to gamble with.

Immune System Function - There is mounting scientific evidence that certain immune system dietary supplements can help strengthen and protect your immune system.

Basic Relaxation Techniques - The first stage of meditation is actually a technique in concentration. Once relaxed, focus on your breath for a few minutes.

White Noise Machine - There are many forms of meditation. I feel that meditation happens when we sit silently in a garden in the presence of nature or when we are perfectly still in the silence of prayer.

Yoga Booty Ballet - This is not unlike the person who attempts to plumb the depths of oriental scriptures. Right away it becomes evident that they consist of incalculable layers, nearly all symbolic in nature.

Master Yoga Teacher - The negativity is a result of past experiences, being in a negative environment, or being under the influence of unconstructive ideas.

Multiple Black Belts - There is an instinctive fear to take start this task. Hence, the reason why there are professionals for psychological analysis.

Chronic Pain Sufferers - Mindless eating is a favorite recreational past time. It fills time and space and those emotional holes that sometimes cry out for attention.

Meditation Supply Items - If you are not comfortable in the traditional crossed legged or Lotus positions, you might benefit from one of the following meditation supply items.

Blockage Busting Techniques - It must have happened to you, it seems to happen to all of us at some time. You’ll be doing something part way through the day and suddenly something will break your dream from the night before, but you only remember a part of the dream.

"

> > > More coming soon!

Healthy Living articles on the web

Popular Types of Weightlifting Supplements

Some of the more popular types of weightlifting supplements are whey protein, muscle milk and a variety of supplement bars. However, before you begin testing the waters of weightlifting supplements, you should consider your personal goals. What is it that you're trying to accomplish in regards to your physique? How much lean muscle mass do [...]
 

Healthy Treadmills Losing Weight Navigation

• Aerobics Cardio
• Allergies
• Diabetes
• Meditation & Yoga
• Healthy Supplements
• Healthy Treadmills Losing Weight Site Map