Meditation Monday: Moving Meditations

Hello and Happy Monday! This week I'd like to talk about moving meditations. I've written before about the fact that I have trouble with traditional still meditations as I am a mover. I find it easier to go to that quiet place of contemplation in my mind when I'm doing repetitive movements of some kind: swimming laps, jogging, walking, or even doing dishes. That's why I thought I would concentrate on various kinds of moving meditations today and give you links to videos of those meditations also. Below I've given you a brief overview of three different kinds of moving meditations. I hope that if you're like me and you prefer to move while meditating, you find one that works for you. Remember though that if you try these meditations and they don't feel right to you, simply take the movement of your choice and if you're consciously aware the entire time you're doing it, it becomes a meditation in itself.

Lightwork: Moving Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptsq5Ur5yQ0 Almost 7 minutes long, filmed on a beautiful beach. Easy, standing postures.

Mahasati Meditation: Moving With Awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4ffdfw0BI
Tibetan monk sitting by the side of a lake, walking and sitting postures, concentrating on moving only one body part at a time.

Qigong Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUtRnDdDsPc  Qigong is a practice with roots in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and philosophy which allows access to higher realms of awareness and develops human potential. It aligns body, breath, and mind and is viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi) or life energy. It is now practiced worldwide and throughout China for recreation, exercise and relaxation. Qigong involves slow flowing movements, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind.

Meditation Monday: Reviewing the new "Ananda-Living In Love" Meditation App from Chopra Enterprises

Hello and Happy Monday once again! This week I received an offer to download a new meditation app from Oprah and Deepak Meditation called Living In Love. The initial app is free and comes with one basic breathing meditation led by Deepak Chopra but if you want to experience any of the other 22 guided meditations in the app you'll need to purchase them for $2.99 each. As with my previous meditation posts, I am reviewing only the free version of this app so that it's an even comparison. In this first meditation, Deepak Chopra leads this meditation and it is called the SoHum meditation because this word becomes a mantra that you repeat with each breath in and out.

  When you download the app and open it, you'll see that you have a choice of different music tracks that can accompany your meditation. These are only accessible if you purchase one or more of the meditations.

Next, you can choose the length of your meditation.

You can also choose the balance of the volume between the guide's voice and the music you hear with one slider bar.

The titles you see below relate to the title of the music selection on the left and the guided meditation title on the right.

For comparison, here is the free app Simply Being that I reviewed in an earlier post. You can see that you have separate slider bars and can choose between music, nature sounds, and voice. You can also choose to have the music continue at the end of your guided meditation for a certain amount of time.

Speaking for myself, I prefer the Simply Being app because it gives the listener more choices without having to purchase anything. I love the option of listening to nature sounds also instead of music. Also, I find the guide's voice to be more soothing and conducive to deep meditation than in the SoHum mantra meditation in the Living In Love app. Don't take it from me however-I encourage you to experience it for yourself. Here's the link to download it:http://bit.ly/1mlDhvA

                 Enjoy your Monday and your entire week. I wish you peace and happiness!

Accidental Meditation: You Mean I'm Already Meditating?

   I have a confession: I'm a terrible meditator. I want to be good at it, I TRY to be good at it, but I find it very hard to sit still for even a few minutes without all these thoughts going through my head like "You should be working, think of all you could get done right now, you should go for a run, you need to do the laundry today..." on and on--the list is endless. Here's the thing: I thought I was the only one or one of a minority of people, who find it hard to sit still. I'm a mover-I love moving around throughout the day so even sitting in front of a computer is really a struggle for me. I know it's good to take frequent breaks anyway, but my breaks become longer and longer while I find more things to do away from my Mac and my work. When I go on a walk or run or when I swim laps at the gym, I find it so much easier to just be mentally quiet and really observe my surroundings and just BE in the moment. Are you like this also? If so, you need to read the article below by J.C. Peters entitled "Accidental Meditation: You're Already Doing It."
If you prefer to listen to this in podcast form on your phone or laptop, medium Laura Evans reads it on this free download here: http://mediumlauraevans.podomatic.com/entry/2013-11-09T06_23_15-08_00

   This article explains in an easy-to-understand format the way our brains are built to wander and how we are already meditating sometimes whether we realize it or not. She talks about repetitive activity being the perfect conduit for meditation because it frees up our right brain to have a physical, present moment experience. As she says "We all need moments where the mind can wander, and if we don't sit still in mindful meditation the brain will figure out a way to zone out."
So if you're like me and find it hard to sit still but you feel like you should be meditating, take heart--you probably already are.  Or, as J.C. Peters says "You're not bad at meditating, you're just human with a brain."

      

Wed, October 30 2013

Accidental Meditation: You're Already Doing it

By: 

JC Peters

Most people think they are bad at meditating. Can’t sit still and turn your thoughts off for at least 20 minutes? You’re not bad at meditating, you’re just a human with a brain.

Actually, most of us already meditate—we just do it accidentally. You know that feeling when you are taking a shower, and the warm water pours over your body, and you forget what you were rushing to get ready for? Time disappears for a moment, and when you step out of the shower you snap out of it. Maybe you’ve driven down a long empty road with no traffic, and suddenly you’ve hit the next town. This feeling of time lapsing and your thoughts tumbling freely like dryer sheets happens all the time: on walks or runs, in the moments before you fall asleep, when you are staring out a bus window, or daydreaming in a waiting room.

We all need moments where the mind can wander, and if you don’t sit still in mindful meditation, the brain will figure out a way to zone out. Meditation doesn’t have a standard definition because it’s something different depending on which tradition you are working within. Most meditations are essentially techniques for releasing the hold of the moment-to-moment crush of daily life so we can slip into a quieter place where we can connect to our bodies, our intuitions, or perhaps some form of spirituality. 

One way of thinking about this (greatly simplified) is that most of the time, we are very active in the left brain hemisphere, which governs language, analysis, rational thought, and planning for the future. The right brain doesn’t have language, and governs our experiences of sensation, image, intuition, and energy. We live in a world that privileges our left brain, and we feed our information addictions constantly through our smartphones. We need to balance that with moments where we can slip off to a space where time stops its incessant tick, and we can access our subconscious, emotional, and creative selves.

When accidental meditations happen, the left brain is occupied with a repetitive task that’s familiar enough that it doesn’t require a full engagement. Showering, walking, or figuring out where to put your foot in a yoga class can give your analytical left brain something to do, which frees up the right brain to have a physical, present-moment experience. Even forms of classical meditation, like repeating a mantra over and over in your mind, are essentially techniques for occupying your left brain so that you can slip into a different state.

This different state often means your brain is in an alpha brainwave rhythm, a relaxed, open-minded experience where creativity is at its most potent. When we are stressed and over focused, we can’t see any new ways of thinking. Alpha state blurs our sense of boundaries and rationality, so new ideas and connections can appear. That’s why we often get our best ideas in the shower.

You know, then, that you are already a great meditator, whether you mean to be or not. Creating more opportunities to enter into this creative state is as easy as incorporating more light, repetitive, physical activity, like walking, into your day. Next time you are sitting on a bus, resist the urge to check your phone: just stare out the window. Knitting, cooking, and cleaning can also be very effective accidental meditations. The more mindful these meditations become, the less accidental they are. Soon enough, you may notice yourself getting stuck worrying about the future or trying to think out a problem, so you stop and try one of these activities instead. You may even decide to sit still for 20 minutes, and find out that meditation on purpose isn’t so bad, after all.

- See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/blog/jc-peters/accidental-meditation-youre-already-doing-it#sthash.pxGU7JFL.dpuf

Meditation Monday-Comparing Guided Meditations Part 2

Today I'll be talking about two meditations that are both free but very different than the meditations from two weeks ago. The first is a meditation that you can download through the Oprah.com Spirit Channel. It's by Kim Eng and is part of the Eckhart Tolle New Earth series. It can be downloaded for free on iTunes. There are many different meditations within this program like Breath Awareness, Object Awareness, Inner Body Meditation, Rising Meditation, etc. I chose the Inner Body Meditation to review today.

1. Relaxed Awareness Meditation: Inner Body Meditation by Kim Eng
Cost: free

There is no interface per se for this meditation because it's part of a podcast series. Kim's voice begins after the prayer bell sounds. There is no other background music. The entire length of the guided meditation is about 7 minutes, but she does instruct you to continue it for 5 or so more minutes longer. Her voice is very even and calming and I like the fact that she begins with awareness on the outer sounds and sensations around you before directing your focus inward. She directs you to move your attention through each part of your body, which is both very calming and also helps you to become more aware of how you are actually feeling. One thing I like in particular is that she says that if you have pain, be it mental or physical, notice the pain but don't associate a certain story with that pain. When you do this, I think the pain lessens and you feel like a burden has been lifted that you don't have to think about anymore. We all have our stories that we carry around about what's happened to us in our past and this helps you release those.


2. Laura Evans Spiritual Medium: Meditation For Your Higher Mind
Cost: free

This is a podcast that I also downloaded for free from iTunes. I had never heard of Laura Evans but I was drawn to all the different podcasts about both hypnosis and meditation. She has MANY to choose from so look her up. Here are just a few of the hypnosis subjects:Become free of worry and anxiety, A.D.D. Better concentration, Drawing love to you/self love hypnosis, Trusting your intuition, Self-esteem for young adults, Authentic power, etc. Laura's voice begins and there is background music but it's very light. She also has a calming voice and I noticed that she will speed up or slow down her cadence depending on the meditation or hypnosis. This meditation is also around 6 minutes long. She says this meditation comes from Sanya Roman, who is another medium, and her two spirit guides. This meditation is a listening one rather than an internally quiet one, where it's more about focusing on those qualities that you want to pull toward you: love, clarity, intent, abundance, serenity, enthusiasm, commitment, peace, creativity, etc. and you repeat them as a mantra. Although it's not at all like Kim Eng's meditation, it's a good meditation to help you start out the day focusing on the positive within you. I could see listening to this meditation when you just need a short break in the day or when things aren't going so well. I really did feel lighter and more positive overall when it was done and I find myself repeating those good thoughts to myself afterwards too.