meditation – Page 14 – Empowering Your Mind

How to Slow a Racing Mind – Sources of Mental Agitation

April 10, 2013 Linda-Ann Stewart

By Charles A. Francis

Do you ever find it difficult to slow down your mind? For some of us, a racing mind is a serious problem. When we’re agitated, we have no control over our mind, and it becomes extremely difficult to meditate.

An agitated mind leads to stress and a whole host of health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. It even disrupts our relationships and sleep.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to this problem. No matter how fast your mind is racing, you can learn how to cultivate a calm and serene mind, and the good news is that it’s a lot easier than you might think. The only catch is that you have to be willing to take a few simple suggestions.

Sources of Mental Agitation

Some people have the misconception that they need to calm their minds before they start meditating. They often think that they’re “the type of person” who just can’t sit still. Having a calm mind is not a matter of who you are, but rather what you do.

To understand why our minds get so agitated, it would help to understand a little about how they work. The primary mechanism by which we perceive the world is through our five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell). These are our receptors. They are connected to our brains and send us raw information about what is taking place around us at any given moment.

Each time our senses are stimulated, our brain reacts by trying to interpret the signals it receives and tries to determine the proper response. In other words, each stimulus triggers a thought, either conscious or unconscious.

There are four main sources of mental agitation: 1) Too many commitments, 2) background noise, 3) painful memories, and 4) worrying. There are short-term solutions for dealing with too many commitments and background noise. Painful memories and worrying will take more time to overcome, but they will resolve themselves through a regular meditation practice.

Charles A. Francis is the founder and director of the Mindfulness Meditation Institute. The Institute is dedicated to providing people with the tools they need to realize their full potential as human and spiritual beings through the practice of mindfulness meditation.

Filling the Well of Your Mind, Part 2

April 9, 2013 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Healers, service providers, entrepreneurs or anyone who gives of themselves will get depleted if they don’t take time for self-care and replenishment. That’s why conferences and retreats are so important. Not only do they offer people new tools, but symposiums help attendees remember why they do their business, rededicate to their vision and get excited again. They’re able to network with people of like mind and get re-energized.

Those who get so busy that they can’t slow down will soon exhaust their stores of motivation. This is when burnout occurs. They drain their reserves and eventually have to stop and restock. It’s similar to a muscle that’s been over-exercised and over-exerted. That muscle will get weak and need to be rested before using it again.

The same principle applies to your mental state and optimism. If you don’t keep feeding your mind with positive ideas, you’ll soon consume your reserves. That’s why you need to always read uplifting books, watch motivating videos, and listen to inspirational audios. They continually pour enriching ideas into your mind, sparking more upbeat perspectives. Meditation or mindfulness will also get you back in contact with your enthusiasm and creativity.

Here are some suggestions to stay motivated if you have a particular goal you’re striving for:

Find articles about the benefits of that goal, like I did for my walking program, and read them daily.
Read inspiring stories about how other people have achieved the same goal you’re seeking.
Keep a daily journal about how you’re doing, what you’ve accomplished, and how you feel about it.
Write down why you’re doing it for yourself, and look at it daily.
Find someone who can encourage you and keep you on track.

By following these simple steps, you’ll notice you’re able to stay on track and accomplish your goal. You have to keep “filling the well” of your resources to keep your mindset positive and your passion alive. When you do, you’ll find a consistent source of energy you can use to achieve your dreams.

Affirmation

I realize that I need to keep myself motivated and inspired. Because I deserve to live my dreams, I commit to myself and make the effort to keep my attitude upbeat. I am Divinely guided to the right way of staying enthusiastic about my goal. When I nourish my inner self, I reap enormous benefits.

Better Living through Mindfulness – Univ. of Utah News

April 3, 2013 Linda-Ann Stewart

March 07, 2013 – A new study from the University of Utah shows that individuals who describe themselves as being more mindful have more stable emotions and perceive themselves to have better control over their mood and behavior throughout the day. Higher mindful people also describe less cognitive and physiological activation before bedtime, suggesting that greater emotional stability during the day might even translate into better sleep. The study results will be presented later this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.

Read the rest of the article at U Study Connects Traits of Mindfulness to Emotional Well-Being.

TEDxBloomington – Shawn Achor – “The Happiness Advantage: Linking Positive Brains to Performance”

March 5, 2013 Linda-Ann Stewart

Shawn Achor is a researcher in the field of positive psychology. Using a humorous, personal example, he explains that how we perceive our lives creates our experience. He goes on to explain how we have the success equals happiness equation is backwards. When we can reverse that equation, we have a statistically higher chance of success, productivity and many more positive outcomes. In this video, he includes several quick tips on how to improve our state of mind.

How do I block extraneous thoughts during meditation?

October 16, 2012 Linda-Ann Stewart

Question: How do I block extraneous thoughts during meditation, visualization, or self-hypnosis?

Answer: Extraneous thoughts are normal when you meditate, visualize, or do self-hypnosis. It takes time and lots of practice to learn to not let them distract you during your spiritual and/or mental practice.

When other thoughts come into your mind during your practice, you don’t have to let them interfere. I know that sounds odd, but the more you resent or resist those thoughts, the more attention they’ll get. The more attention they get, the more often they’ll interfere. When they come into your mind (and come they will, it’s the nature of the mind), just acknowledge them then put your attention back on your practice.

When I’m working with a hypnotherapy client, I say something like “other thoughts won’t interfere,” because the more a person is concerned about those thoughts, or resists them, the more they take attention away from the goal of the session. Therefore, I subliminally give them permission to have other thoughts, but then suggest that they won’t have any power to distract.

The essence of this idea works with any individual’s spiritual and/or mental practice. Give the thoughts permission to be there, but don’t get emotionally involved with them. It’s part of spiritual/mental practice to watch them objectively. This objectivity then translates into the rest of your life.

Make The Effort To Change, Part 2

October 15, 2012 Linda-Ann Stewart

by Linda-Ann Stewart

My friend Lily read lots of self-help books, listened to motivational CD’s and went to personal development workshops and then complained that her life didn’t improve. When I asked her if she’d practiced any of the exercises in the books or CD’s or workshops. “No,” she said. “That’s too much trouble.”

To change, you need to participate and use the tools you’ve found. It’s easy to fall back into old habits. They’re familiar and comfortable, but they won’t provide you with a new direction. They won’t improve your life. There’s an old saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

Negative thinking is simply a habit. People aren’t born to be pessimists, they learn to be that way. It can be changed with time, attention, and energy. One of the complaints of negative people is that it takes effort to be positive. It always takes work to change a habit, no matter what that habit might be.

Are you going to continue to float along with your old ways of thinking and doing things? If so, your life isn’t going to improve much. What are you willing to do to make it different? Think of one thing that you could start doing, and then commit to practice it every day. It could be meditating, self-hypnosis, being mindful, an affirmation, journaling or one of any number of other techniques and exercises that you’ve found over the years.

By choosing to make one small, consistent difference in the course of your life, you’ll begin to break up the inertia that’s gripped you. Each day that you follow through with your choice will take you in a new direction. You have the power to change your life. You just need to work it.

Affirmation

I have the ability to change my life. All the power of the Universe is available to me to create new ways of thinking and new beliefs. I now decide to use the tools that I’ve been given to create new habits that are more beneficial for me. My life will only improve if I choose to change it. I take charge of my life and commit myself to my well being.

Tools For Change

October 2, 2012 Linda-Ann Stewart

Reading self-help and personal development books, and listening to CD’s of them, is helpful to expand the awareness of the possibilities for yourself. It also can uplift you and put you in a more constructive mindset. But if you don’t start using some of the tools that you learn about, the improvements won’t last long. You need to create your own foundation so that you can build a strong structure that can withstand the winds of storms.

Here are a few techniques for you to begin with, if you need to start somewhere.

Meditation – Studies show that meditation actually changes the structure of the brain. It establishes a sense of well being, allows us to think more quickly and make better decisions, along with a whole host of other positive results.
Mindfulness – This type of meditation means that you just remain aware of the present moment. As with meditation, it changes brain structure, reducing fear, improving memory and productivity.
Self-hypnosis – This is a process of communication with the inner mind that can change ideas at level where they were programmed. It can reduce stress and anxiety, help change habits, grow self-confidence and improve all sorts of physical issues.
Cognitive techniques – This technique instructs you how to become conscious of negative ideas and change them. It’s effective for improving depression, anxiety, and negative self-talk.
Journaling – Studies have shown that when you write about your feelings, your situations, or your life, this can improve the way you feel physically and mentally. It helps the mind to reprocess the information at a deep level and builds inner resources.
Affirmations/self-talk – When you change the way you talk to yourself, you change the way you believe and behave. It helps increase optimism and is a key to stress management.

Choose one of these to begin practicing consistently and you’ll notice an improvement in your life in a very short time. It will give you the tool you need to hold onto when life gets a little bumpy. You’ll get through the challenges much more smoothly when you have been making time for your personal development.

Book Review-An Easy Guide to Meditation

September 26, 2012 Linda-Ann Stewart

An Easy Guide to Meditation [Kindle Edition]
Roy Eugene Davis

Many recent studies have shown that meditation changes the brain in beneficial ways, and improves your quality of life. With that in mind, I was delighted to find this gem of a booklet free on Amazon. The author studied under Paramahansa Yogananda and is the founder of Center for Spiritual Awareness.

This booklet starts out by discussing the purpose of meditation, and then explains simple steps to begin to access the meditative state. Succinctly, clearly, this booklet describes how to get into meditation, how to avoid the pitfalls, and what to do when you’re there. It condenses the knowledge you’d find in a much longer book.

I own an old physical copy of an earlier version this booklet as well as a couple of this author’s books (which are unfortunately out of print) and treasure them all. This is a Kindle edition, and you can download a Kindle app for all kinds of devices or or read it in the cloud.

Guided Meditation to Expand Your Horizons

September 18, 2012 Linda-Ann Stewart

When you expand your limiting beliefs, you increase your self-respect. To do this, you have to risk trying something new. Here’s a guided meditation to help you rehearse trying something new and how it changes your attitudes and actions.

Neuroscience, Meditation and Well-being

September 17, 2012 Linda-Ann Stewart

An article from ” The Review: The Weekly Beaker,” states that Buddhist monks compared the mind in a meditative state to malleable gold. Modern neuroscience is proving that to be true.

Meditation changes the brain in many ways. And these changes can improve the quality of our lives. It:

Decreases stress
Increases the sense of well-being and peace
Contributes to being positive
Improves mood
Quickens thinking and mental processing
Establishes thoughts and habits more easily
Improves health
Decreases pain

Meditation and self-hypnosis access the same types of brain waves and can induce these kinds of changes in the brain. Practicing either of these can give you these kinds of results.

Our western culture values success, achievement and accomplishment, but that it comes at a cost. We physically and mentally run ourselves into the ground. Modern neuroscience is proving that we can literally improve our brains. Meditation and/or self-hypnosis help us to rebuild those inner resources and cultivate awareness and insight. And that could further our productivity and success.

Read the full article: The Weekly Beaker: The Neuroscience of Wellbeing – Meditation.

Empowering Your Mind

Mindset, Motivation and Empowerment

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