Entries Tagged as 'Meditation'

Slow Down To Go Faster

Description:  The more slowly, deliberately and carefully we do something, the better the outcome. Why?  because we are more present. It is this quality of PRESENCE that is at the very core of meditation. Don’t just believe me. Put this into practice.      

When and Where:  Experiment in every arena of your life. Start with simple activities like doing the dishes, taking out the trash, driving your car.  The activity doesn’t matter. What matters is the quality of your presence being mind-full, care-full and deliberate.  Notice how it makes you feel. Pay attention to the quality of care
you
are giving the activity or the person to whom you are speaking.    

Benefits:  Over time, as you make this a habit, you find yourself more relaxed, more present, producing higher quality work. All your relationships are enhanced because people know the difference when you are rushing through a conversation and when you are taking your time to make sure they feel heard and understood.

You spend a lot less time on searching for things you have lost and  correcting mistakes. The result  is more time for relaxation, fun and romance. 

Prayer for Chile

Dear  Friends,   One of our Discover Meditation community from Chile sent me an email about the devastating effects of the earthquake. It was very moving to receive a personal account and I told her that I would send out this prayer to all of you so that we can send the power of love and healing to all the people of Chile. Thank you for participating.  

Description:  Close your eyes and give thanks for everything that you have in your life right now. Include the good and the not-so-good.   Now, breathe in - cherishing yourself - and breathe out - cherishing others, particularly the people of Chile.   As you breathe out this vibration of love to the people of Chile it helps ease their pain and realize that they are not  alone, there is hope. We are all connected. The more love we offer them,  their sorrows are soothed and their anger is transformed into creativity. Never underestimate the power of love.       

Benefits: This technique is an invitation to allow yourself to feel  the boundless love that already exists in your heart. As your heart expands your capacity for giving and receiving love increases a millionfold. 

Take a Deep Breath

Description:  Take a deep breath. Feel it hitting in the middle of the chest. Feel as if the whole existence is pouring vitality and life into you, into your heart. Do it at least five times. Now exhale deeply, again from the heart, and feel you are pouring all that has been given to you back into existence.    

When and Where:  Do this as many times in the day as you remember, but whenever you do it, do five breaths at once.   

Benefits:  This technique will help you feel more vibrant and alive, enjoying whatever life brings. It helps you shift from the head to the heart. You become more sensitive and aware of many things that you have not previously been aware of. You start feeling life really throbbing in you.  

Trees

Description: 
Spend some time, five or ten minutes or longer,with a tree. Befriend the tree, look at it with eyes of wonder and awe. Lie or sit on the ground at the foot. Close your eyes for a few minutes and feel the tree’s presence and the earth
beneath you. Then open your eyes and gaze upwards through the branches. Breathe, be aware of the earthy scent, allowing  all your senses to be awakened: touch or hug the tree, absorb it’s calm, listen to it, speak to it, feast your eyes on the colors, the reds,greens,browns. Feel the luxury of lying on a bed of grass and/or leaves. Listen to the sounds of the birds, the breeze  singing through the tree.
 
As you absorb the tree’s beauty, power and magnificence, know that you also have the same potential to be deeply rooted in yourself and reach high into the sky to make your dreams come true.
 
Wherever you live in the world, use these suggestions creatively depending on your environment. If you can, plant a tree. 
 
 
Benefits: 
Trees give us hope, they foster our imagination.They provide us with constancy. Trees absorb our tensions and help us to be more calm  and at ease.They are sanctuaries.When you know how to speak to them, listen to them,you learn the eternal laws of life. Allow trees to inspire you to be magnificent. 
 
 

Haiti

Description:  Close your eyes and give thanks for everything that you have in your life right now. Include the good and the not-so-good.   Now, breathe in - cherishing yourself - and breathe out - cherishing others, particularly the people of Haiti. Include also the animals, birds and the visiting volunteers.  

As you breathe out this vibration of love to the people of Haiti it helps ease their pain and realize that they are not alone. We are all connected. The more love we offer them, their sorrows are soothed and their anger is transformed into creativity. Never underestimate the power of love.       

Benefits: This technique is an invitation to allow yourself to feel the boundless love that already exists in your heart. As your heart expands your capacity for giving and receiving love increases a millionfold.  

Emails

Description: Do you sometimes find that you move too quickly and
forget details? As one example, these days so many of  us are inundated with emails, and they can be a real  source of tension.

The next time you write an email, stop for a moment and take a deep breath before you start. Allow yourself to relax by dropping your shoulders down, feeling your feet on the ground, and settling comfortably into your chair. Now write your email, staying fully present with what you are writing and with the person you are writing to. Write in a relaxed way with full awareness. If you are in a hurry, include the awareness that you are in a hurry.

When finished, reread the email, checking the content, spelling, and
attachments, if there are any. Breathe and pause for a moment before
you hit Send.

Benefits:
This technique saves you time and, depending on the circumstances, money. Communication and relationships are enhanced, and you have an easy way to include meditation in your busy day. You can use this practice with other written communications and for reading emails as well as writing them
 

Unhook from Tension

Description:  Start being more self-aware and relaxed with day-to-day, routine activities.There is no need to be tense. When you are cooking, or cleaning, for example,what is the need to be tense? There is not a single time in life that requires your tension. It is just unawareness and impatience.

Tension has nothing to do with anything outside you, it is created  within. Just to rationalize, you find some reason outside yourself to explain why you are tense.

When and Where:
Whenever you remember, wherever you are, notice if you are living in competition and/or comparison. Are you thinking of the past or the future and missing the present moment, the only reality? All this creates tension. Whatever you are doing, do it with such love, with such care that the smallest thing in the world becomes a piece of art.    

Benefits:
This technique helps you find your own talent, your unique gift. Whatever qualities and talents you have, use them to the fullest, and the energy that is involved in tensions starts becoming your grace, your beauty. It brings great joy to you. It creates a world without competition or comparison. It gives you dignity,restores your pride. Any activity done with totality becomes your prayer.

What Are You Looking For?

Description:  All our senses are extrovert. The eyes open outward, the hands move outwards, the legs move us to the outside, the ears listen to outside noises and sounds, the tongue tastes something on the outside of us.   The seeker is inside.   First, understant this dichotomy. This is why our tendency is to try to find something which will be fulfilling on the outside. Second, bring your attention to what you are really, really looking for. Once you understand the deepest longing of your heart and soul, then fulfillment is inevitable.       

Benefits: This technique brings you a greater sense of balance between what is on the outside of you and what is within. Your inner wisdom and your true authentic self lie within. Over time, as you become clearer on what it is you are looking for,your heart and soul are filled with love, inner peace and the divine knowing of who you are. With inner success, outer success is inevitable.  

Start Loving

Description:
Become more and more loving, and you will become more and more joyful. Don’t worry about whether or not your love is returned; that is not the point. Joy follows love automatically, and fear is dissolved automatically.
The beauty of love is that its result, its value, is intrinsic.  Love does not depend on the response of another, because it is totally yours.

Choose a person or pet to be loving toward. It makes no difference to whom you are loving — a dog, a tree, a stranger in the grocery store. Smile at people in the street, be more loving toward yourself.

Benefits: Over time you feel the joy in your heart expanding and your fear dissolving.

Healing Sounds

Description: Natural sounds heal a stressed mind and body. Man-made sound can be jarring.The sounds of a cascading waterfall, ocean waves, birds singing, rain falling on the roof, the wind whistling through trees,for example, create their own music. Water, and it’s sound, is healing. It reminds us to flow. When we turn into stagnant pools of anger, hostility, suffering and rage against ourselves or others, we forget to flow.   The rhythm in the trickle and bubble of brooks laughing through the shrubs and rocks invites us to join their celebration and lifts our mood. You can translate this into your life with taking baths and showers, splashing in puddles, walks in Nature, enjoying the rain. Find creative ways to bring natural sounds to relax you.    

Benefits: Natural sounds soothe tired nerves. Unknowingly they resonate in our bodies and hearts and make us feel relaxed. Birds singing in trees, nature’s expression of joy, have a calming effect on tense nerves and taut bodies. These are a natural form of meditation and can take you to a deeper peace within.

If you like this gentle form of meditation, there are two techniques I particularly recommend for using healing sounds to take  your meditation deeper.
The Osho Chakra Sounds Meditation CD and
The Osho Nadabrahma
Meditation CD.

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