Tag: #meditation

Mindfulness Reminder

by Ana-Alicia

I saw this quote in my mindfulness book. I thought it was a lovely and powerful quote about mindfulness. I wanted to share it and say something about it.

It is important to be reminded of what mindfulness is, even with years of mindfulness practice. I sometimes get lost in mindlessness. I really love the quote above. Its all about learning to live in the present, so one can find inner peace and calmness. Living in the past creates sadness, frustration, guilt, regret and sorrow. Living in the future creates stress, tension, anxiety and worry. We can always use the past as a tool to learn and grow, and we can use the future to set goals for ourselves, but clinging to the past or future should be avoided for your mental health and peace of mind.

Take Time For Silence

by Ana-Alicia

I spent my morning being in silence(away from distractions), and being mindful. I feel amazing, refreshed, relaxed, and at peace from doing this. Mindful time is good for the soul. I read this passage this morning, and thought it was perfectly timed with my mindset at the moment. I was able to be inspired and creative, while enjoying, and embracing the quiet. It is hard to be inspired with noise and distractions. It is nice to give your mind space to be free.

I wasn’t able to find inspiration recently, but having my mindful time has invoked my inspiration. I truly appreciate this time of silence. Try to give yourself times of silence to clear your head. It is truly a lovely experience. I lacked this yesterday, too distracted, but getting back to mindful silence is a beautiful experience. It is hard to sit in quiet, but once you are able to do so. You realize the beauty of it. Have a lovely mindful day everyone.IMAG0455

Benefits of Nature,Yoga& Meditation

by Ana-Alicia

Mindfulness practices have brought peace, calmness, and positivity into my life. I just wanted to discuss some benefits to these three practices. I always feel much better doing each of these practices, some may be more difficult to do than others. I still try to keep these things in my life, because they can always bring me back to my mindful state of mind, and help make my mindfulness nature much stronger. I think having these three things in your life can make you a more mindful and happier individual.

Nature

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Studies show that nature has a positive effect on your mental and physical health. An article mentioned two reasons why nature has its benefits.

Psycho-Evolutionary Theory-Natural environments reduce stress level, because it has qualities our ancestors needed for survival.

Attention Restoration Theory-Sharpest patterns of nature are positively stimulating to a fatigued mind.

This makes sense, my mind feels much clearer and calmer after walking in nature. I always feel a sense of peace, and have a relaxed mind and body afterwards. I feel fresher ,and rejuvenated after a nice walk in nature.

There was another study with Indiana University & Illinois University. They found people who went hiking at a park, or wilderness showed increase signs of joy, and a decrease level of cortisol(hormone involved with stress).

That joyful and more relaxed feeling you get after walking is built in us. We need nature. It helps bring us back to the basics. That is where it all began, in nature.

Yoga 

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This practice is associated with improved flexibility, metabolism, muscle strength, better focus, lessen chronic pain, lower blood pressure, and stress reduction. According to a team of scientist in Brazil, they found women to have greater cortical thickness in parts of their brain that associated with cognitive functioning. In short, yoga can help defend against aging minds. It helps keep the mind and body younger.

I enjoy this practice. It is nice to give my body the stretch it needs. I like to be able to move around as I get older, and I feel practicing yoga can help with that. My body and mind feel much better after a yoga session. Yoga is good for your mental and physical health. It is important to incorporate this practice to our lives.

Meditation

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This practice may be the biggest part of Mindfulness, but can be the most difficult practice to do. I say for me, it is. It isn’t easy for us to sit still in the busy world we live in. It is ingrained in us to move and keep going. But we should try and make an effort to sit still, because this practice really does help bring peace to our lives.

According to healthline.com studies have shown meditation helps reduce stress, control anxiety, promotes emotional health, reduces activity in the “me center” of the brain, helps preserve aging minds, improves attention spans, control pain and improve sleep.

I believe it heightens clarity and calmness of the mind. It reduces stress levels, and improves your coping skills. These have all been benefits of meditation for me. There is just a sense of calmness, positivity and peace after practicing meditation.

The benefits of these practices are wonderful additions to our lives that we need. They help meet our physical, mental and emotional needs. Our minds and bodies need these practices. I believe these are practices we should incorporate in our lives for a more satisfying and fulfilling life.

 

Meditation Practices

by Ana-Alicia

Meditation practices help keep the mind calm. It helps keep us at peace. Many people think it is about avoiding thoughts, but it is more about embracing them, and not allowing the thoughts to consume you. Meditation helps the thoughts flow, instead of linger.

There are many different practices you can try. It is always great to have a handful of different ones you can try, since some work better than others depending on the situation. We are all different, so some may suit you more than others.

I will list some that may be helpful to try, the first couple I found online, or in books. The last two I created myself, along my journey of practicing. I have tried all these practices of course, and they all have been helpful one way, or the other.

  • Transcendental Meditation-This is a practice where you come to a state of no thoughts. You transcends your thoughts. It is the art of no thinking. If you do have thoughts, become aware, and allow the thoughts to flow out of you. Now people ask, how can you have no thoughts and just be? It is possible if you are persistent, and keep pushing through your thoughts. Eventually the thoughts will calm down, and fade. You will just be. It is quite peaceful when you are at that state, but pretty difficult to get there if you are a beginner, or don’t practice much. It can happen, but takes patience.
  • Waking Meditation-I say this one is one of the easiest. This one you don’t have to sit still. This practice is more active. This includes, Mindful eating, mindful brushing, mindful walking, mindful showering etc… This is about being mindful of the things you do through out the day. Things you normally don’t pay attention. You give more attention to. It is about focusing on the moment. Focusing on the feelings, sensations, reactions you have to doing that particular activity. You become aware of the things you never noticed while eating, brushing, cleaning, showering or walking. It brings a whole new experience to a normally mundane activity.
  • Mindfulness Meditation-Quite similar to the first one, but not as intense. You start by sitting. Focus on breaths. Breath in and out. The idea is to keep focusing on your breaths. If thoughts pop up. Focus your attention back on your breaths. This keeps you in the moment, and calms the mind. You can also focus on your senses around you(the sounds, the smells, the sensations of sitting, or on the body). I usually visualize myself on a beach, or in nature, while doing this as well. The point is to keep your mind in the present, and not have all your thoughts overwhelm you.
  • Visualization-I have spoken about this one in another post. This practice is more of a motivational factor to reach your goals, and dreams. You just visualize what you want. Imagine what you want to happen. Imagine how it feels to reach that dream. Imagine what you are doing, where you are, what positive changes it made, how it made your life after it happened. Be specific. Add dialogue, feelings, sensations. This is a good practice to get you on the path to where you want to be in life.
  • Negative to Positive Imagining– I really liked this practice when I tried it. First you sit, think of a worry, or problem. Then imagine the worst case scenario, which is always easiest for us. Then stop thinking, and notice the feelings, and sensation one has. Immerse yourself in those feelings, and what it does to the body. After that, you switch it up. You do the same thing, but think of a positive outcome(this is always harder). Then you dial that feeling up from 1 to 10. Doing this helps cultivate peace of mind. This practice should help you feel a bit more positive about the problem, or worry you have. It is quite an interesting practice to try.
  • Sensory Meditation-In this practice, you use your senses to guide you. This practice is about focusing your attention on any of the senses. Light incense, use body lotions/oils, play music/nature sounds,take a bath. Focus on the particular sense you are using for this practice.
  • Release Meditation-Bring forth the thing that is cultivating negative emotions, a worry, or problem. Inhale-immerse in it(the thoughts, emotions, sensations, reactions). This process help you understand, and accept the worry, or problem. Exhale-release the negative energy out of you. This process can be repeated as long as you need. Sometime the thoughts will keep lingering, until you are ready to move on.
  • Flowing River/Wave Exercise-This is visualizing your thoughts as waves, or as a river. Whenever you have worries, or lots of overwhelming thoughts. Imagine a river, or wave of an ocean. Become aware of what is bothering you, then throw it into the river, and let it flow. If you have lots of thoughts, imagine all the thoughts flowing through the river. Go through each thought one by one as they flow through the river, like when you see an object flowing through a river. Become aware, and let it flow. You can also imagine your thoughts as waves rising(become aware of the thought), and crashing(letting it go).

Now meditation takes concentration and patience. It isn’t for everyone. I have difficulty sitting still as well, but these are good practices to give a try if you like to practice meditation. It definitely has its benefits. I hope these are helpful to you guys.

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Have A Mindful Day

by Ana-Alicia

Try not to rush through things throughout the day. Focus your energy on the task you are doing. Focusing on what you are going to do next leads to anxiety. Remember things will get done eventually. Just immerse yourself in the activity one is doing at the moment. No matter how dull you may think it is. Immerse yourself with your thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and behaviors in the present moment. You can always learn something new with any experience. Living in the moment is when you are living. Embrace it. It will lead to peace, calm, and relaxation of the mind and body.

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Meditation to Calm the Busy Mind

by Ana-Alicia

All of us have moments, or days where we have a lot on our mind, and we can’t stop stressing, and worrying about the problem, or situation at hand. I had this happen to me yesterday. My mind was racing with many thoughts, mostly negative, that is where the anxiety and stress stem from.

I tried to be mindful, and focus on the moment, but that wasn’t helpful unfortunately. After it was getting too much. I decided to try to meditate, since that always helps me calm down. And like always it did wonders for my state of mind. After twenty minutes of meditation I was no longer stressing about the problem I had. It really is a useful tool to use.

There is no need for drugs, or alcohol to help ease the tension, just try meditation! I think the trouble people have is staying in that meditative state for as long as twenty minutes, or whatever is needed. At first, your mind will be racing with thoughts. It doesn’t just go away that easily, but you got to push through it.

Continue breathing in and out, try to visualize yourself somewhere that is peaceful for you. I try seeing myself sitting, or walking in nature, or on a beach. Your thoughts will consume you at first, and this is why people give up, because they think it isn’t working, but it doesn’t work that quickly. Now the time may be different for some people. It may be longer for beginners.

Now I was skeptical is wasn’t going to work yesterday. I tried going through all the things I was stressing about, one by one, like I usually do, and trying to figure out a solution, but the anxiety couldn’t let me think. That is the problem with anxiety. You can not think clearly, while you are anxious. Negative thoughts consume your mind.

Thankfully after 20 minutes of breathing in and out, visualizing a peaceful place and running through all my worries, it just all stopped. My mind calmed down. It is quite an amazing experience, and I am always surprised how relaxed and at peace I am afterwards.

Now that my mind was calm I was finally able to come to conclusions to the problems I was facing. It is amazing how much clarity you get when your mind is calm and relaxed. Anxiety, depression, drugs, alcohol all cloud your mind, but using meditation can truly help clear your mind.

It guides you to see the reality of the situation without negativity, or even positive thoughts. You see things for what it is, and that helps you figure out what you can do. We usually get anxious when we don’t know what the future holds, but meditation can help clear things up for you.

Mindfulness and Positive thoughts are helpful to reduce anxiety and depression, but I don’t think it is truly helpful when you are in a state of anxiety and depression. I think meditation can be more helpful, and can give you insight to a mind filled with negativity, and irrational thoughts.

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