Fragrant Heart Blog

Recently I had an email from a teacher asking if I could give her some tips on introducing guided meditations into the classroom for her students. She told me that a survey done in her school revealed that students reported stress management to be one of their highest needs.

Children are natural meditators

Children are natural meditators. Have you noticed how focused your children are when they are involved in an activity that they love? Do you remember when you were a child how immersed you became in something, and how the rest of the world around you seem to fade away? Do you recall how time seemed to change, like you had been doing something for hours but it only seemed a few moments?

Guiding students through meditation

Because children are bombarded with so much stimulation, with TV and computers, play stations and cell phones, it may take them a while to readjust to coming back within themselves. If students are stressed, and they’re actually reporting this back to their teachers then helping them with some basic relaxation would be a good place to start.

The Guided Meditation on Fragrant Heart, called Creating Your Own Peaceful Sanctuary, would also be helpful in encouraging students to go within, and create a place where they can always feel nurtured or comforted, or to find solutions to their problems. Children may need to practise some simple visualizations for them to be able to use their senses more acutely. Starting with about five minutes of visualization will benefit students and get them understanding how the process works. If you are a teacher, and you have a meditation practice yourself then your own presence of calmness and peacefulness will also influence your students and help them feel less stressed.

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It’s the holiday season, and I wish you all a joyful and peaceful time with family, and loved ones. Staying equanimous and mindful during this busy season can be quite a challenge. The material pressures from our cultural conditioning can sometimes overshadow this time of the year. A meditation practice can be very helpful at this to bring you into present moment awareness. All meditation techniques have a one pointed focus so that the mind and body relax and become calm and peaceful. Anything that we do to create mindfulness and awareness brings us into the present moment.

Here are some tips that encourage you to be present and aware as you go about your day.

1. Breathe. Come back to your breath throughout the day. Notice how you are breathing. If you are feeling rushed, or overwhelmed take some deep breaths and breathe the breath all the way down into your belly. Put aside a minute and just focus on each in breath, and each out breath. Every time you become aware of the breath you come back to the present.
2. Pay attention to what you are doing. Whatever you do throughout the day, be it going to work, attending a conference, playing with your children, or something as simple as cleaning your teeth, do it with focus. We’re encouraged to multi-task. It became a catch phrase and something to be admired. I used to become quite fragmented trying to attend to more than one thing at a time. When you give all your attention to what you are doing at any given moment you will be in the present, focused and aware. You will also find that you are calmer and more peaceful. You may even slow down and get things done more quickly.
3. Smile. I’ve written a few blogs now encouraging smiling. I find for myself it is so uplifting and not only gives me joy but others too. Smiling will release endorphins, and make you feel happier. It’s so simple. Are you smiling?
4. Let go judging yourself. How often do you hear your inner critic complaining about you, and judging you? How often do you hear it condemning you, and putting you down? Give your inner critic permanent retirement because the more you listen to it, the more it will have to say. It loves the past and all the mistakes you made. Let go the past, and self-judgment. To help you do this remember to smile, pay attention to what you are doing, and breathe.

Approach your meditation practice gently in all ways. There is a tendency in us humans that if we’re not doing something ‘right’ we’ll beat ourselves up about it. Remember there is no absolute right, or wrong way to meditate. There are many techniques with guidelines, but because meditation is an evolving process it will become your personal journey, which is totally unique, and correct for you.

Be Gentle with Your Posture

Take up a posture that is comfortable for you. If you can sit cross-legged fine – if that’s not part of your flexibility, or inclination, choose another way to sit during meditation. However you sit be really, really comfortable. Even try lying down sometimes and see what that’s like for you.

Be Gentle with Your Mind

Then there’s the mind. Yes, it will wander off again, and again. Minds have a habit of doing that! Always accept and allow whatever the mind is doing. All sorts of thoughts will arise including angry thoughts, and sexual thoughts. And there’s no need to rush off for absolution from a priest, minister, or rabbi for those thoughts. They are part of being human. Accept and allow whatever thoughts or emotions arise. Witness them, observe them, breathe into them, and gently bring yourself back to your one pointed focus, whether it’s the breath, or something else. Don’t run away; stay as present as you can. Some days your mind will be busy, chaotic, frantic, and all over the place. It’s okay. Next sitting it will be different again, so allow whatever arises to arise without condemnation, guilt or shame.

Approach Meditation without Expectations

Meditation is an evolving process. How you begin meditation on day one will be quite different on day seven, day fourteen, and day three hundred and sixty five. If you expect an outcome from meditation you could be disappointed. Expectation always has an element of fear with it, that you might not get what you want.

Rituals and Props

There are a lot of rituals around different meditation groups and practices. They can be enhancing, but they are absolutely not necessary for meditation. If lighting a candle, or wearing a particular garment, for example, creates an ambience that you enjoy, then go ahead. However, never feel that you are lacking in some way without certain rituals and props that are often traditionally associated with meditation.

Let Go of Perfectionism

And lastly let go trying to be a perfect meditator. There’s no such thing. Trying to be perfect means trying to discipline yourself. When you do that you will make your meditation practice difficult, and probably give up altogether. Never, ever make yourself wrong, try to attain some ideal image, or condemn any parts of yourself. Be loving and tender with yourself in your meditations, and be loving and tender with yourself in every aspect of your life.

Did you know that the way you breathe directly affects the levels of tension in your body? Breathing is so automatic that people are hardly ever conscious of how they are breathing. Throughout the guided meditations on Fragrant Heart there is always some focus on the breath. I spent years practising, and teaching a meditation technique which simply focuses on watching the breath. You can use this technique, In Learn to Meditate Over Five Days by subscribing to Fragrant Heart. Watching the breath is simply that, just observing the breath how it comes, and how it goes. In this blog, I would like to specifically concentrate on a particular form of breathing, called Abdominal Breathing. This is our natural form of breathing, and once mastered, or rather relearnt you will become more conscious of how you are breathing throughout the day. You’ll know when you’re breathing shallowly simply because you won’t feel as good as when you are breathing into your belly.

What are the Benefits of Abdominal Breathing?

Abdominal Breathing:

1. Reduces body tension and therefore enables your body to relax.
2. Increases oxygen supply to your brain and muscles.
3. Helps excrete toxins from your body more effectively via the lungs.
4. Improves concentration.
5. Eases you into your sitting meditation practice more quickly.
6. Increases your lung capacity enabling you to breathe more deeply.

Check your Breathing Right Now

Right now check out how you are breathing. Is it deep down in your belly, or somewhere up in your chest? Just stop reading, and be aware of how you are breathing for a few seconds.

How to Do Abdominal Breathing

1. Place one hand on your abdomen just below your rib cage.
2. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, breathing the breath all the way down into your belly. Inhale to the count of four; 1…2…3…4… You’ll notice your hand will rise as you breathe into your belly. Your chest won’t move as much.
3. When you have taken a full deep breath, pause for a couple of seconds, and then slowly breathe out through your nose, or your mouth to the count of four; 1…2…3…4... and pause for a few seconds before breathing in again. Sense your body relaxing as you do this.
4. Take ten full abdominal breaths. By counting, you will slow the breath down, and you will find that your breathing will become more flowing, regular, and rhythmical. If you start to feel light-headed at anytime, stop for half a minute and then start again. Your body is simply not used to breathing in more oxygen so don’t worry. This will soon pass.
5. When you are breathing easily with one set of ten abdominal breaths, then increase to two or three sets.

You could do abdominal breathing for five minutes every day by itself, or at the start of your meditation practice. The wonderful thing about the breath is that you take it wherever you go. When life gets hectic for you, and you start to feel overwhelmed and you’re back to the old habit of shallow breathing, then remember to breathe into your belly. You will feel all stress and tension melting away.

Throughout the Fragrant Heart website there is practical advice on adopting different postures in your meditation practice that are right for you. This week I’d like to encourage you to think about the placement of your hands when you are meditating. There are many different ways to do this and in the eastern traditions the hand gestures, or postures are called mudras.

Take the Stress out of Your Life with a Simple Mudra

Here is one that is a simple and reliable way of holding your hands as well as changing your emotional state from tense to calm, from stressed to peaceful. You can take this hand position into all parts of your life outside of your meditation practice to quickly centre and calm yourself.

How to Hold the Mudra

Here’s how to hold this mudra. Place the back of the right hand in the palm of the left, and allow the tips of your thumbs to touch lightly. In a seated posture rest your hands on your lap in line with our lower abdomen. Practise it now with your eyes gently closed. To help bring you into alpha state, into the right hemisphere of the brain, (where you can experience creativity and calmness), take your attention into your left hand and do this with a sense of calmness and purpose. Keep your attention there until you are aware of your left hand. If you are left-handed keep your attention in your right hand until you are aware of our right hand. Practise this mudra anytime when you are feeling calm, relaxed, and peaceful to anchor this in your body. Whenever an occasion arises when you become reactive, and upset just hold this mudra and you will instantly relax and feel calm.

Begin to Smile

Now still holding your hands together in your lap, allow yourself just the hint of a smile. Your facial muscles will relax, and amazingly so will your whole body. Your eye muscles will relax, your eyes will soften and when you open your eyes you will look out through them and view the world quite differently.

Bring this mudra to your life and your meditation practice, and also bring your smile!

I met a gifted healer, and spiritual teacher this week. In the course of the session the core beliefs that are still imprinted within me were exposed. These are still running the life, and not just this life! The healer told me, “If God wanted you to do anything it would be to smile.” Well, nearly sixty years of looking so serious could be a big ask for someone like me! Anyway I’ve been much more conscious of smiling ever since. I don’t mean one of those false, wooden smiles that I have seen plastered on faces, but more the smile of a young child that smiles and laughs so spontaneously, often just out of the sheer joy of being alive. You’ll know what I’m talking about.

It’s amazing what lifting the muscles around my mouth is doing to the rest of my body. I feel the smile going into my eyes, and I imagine that they’re starting to sparkle. I feel my breath slowing in a gentle, sweet rhythm. I feel my heart open to give and receive in the warmth of love. I also feel what I have always called “the bubble of joy” expanding in my belly.

In the next blog, I’ll give you some hints on how to bring a smile into your meditation practice, and how smiling which babies and young children do so easily can be reawakened. In the meantime affirm, “I love to smile”, and you’ll find how true that is.

In last week’s blog I wrote about attachment as the cause of suffering. At the end of the blog there were some helpful hints to calm and centre yourself. If you have “an attachment issue” dominating your life right now, here’s something else to help you, slow down your breathing.

How does Slowing your Breath Help?

Slow deep breaths will help take you out of suffering because by flooding your cells with more oxygen you stop breathing shallowly and halt the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. As a result your heart rate slows, and your emotions switch from toxifying your body into soothing your body leaving you feeling calm and tranquil.

How to Slow Your Breathing

It’s simple to slow your rate of breathing. All you have to do is close your mouth, press the top of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, and inhale through your nostrils, and exhale through your nostrils. It will sound a bit like you’re snoring. I find this sound very soothing. It will also help you to focus on the breath so your mental agitation will also begin to dissolve after a few of these deep breaths.

The Benefits

Slowing your breath will relax and calm you and it works! Your muscles soften and you no longer have that over adrenalized feeling of ‘fight or flight’. You begin to feel positive emotions. As you do you will recognize these emotions as joy, love, compassion, kindness and even greater confidence in yourself.

The Buddha worked it out when he said, “The degree to which you are attached is the degree to which you will suffer.” Well, that may not have been his exact words but that’s pretty much how I remember reading it somewhere. All sages, saints, philosophers, and even wise and dear friends who have already trodden the path of attachment say the same thing.

What Causes Us to Become Attached?

It seems to me that we become attached to people and things in the hope that they will make us happy. Yet the wise ones tell us again that our natural state of being is happiness. However, in childhood we are taken away from being ourselves by the conditioning forces around us. Our families, schools, religious affiliations, and our culture all have their own take on what we should and shouldn’t do, think, and believe. How often are young people told to strive, to get ahead in the world, and climb the ladder of success to gain wealth and status, when it may be their true desire to live a simpler life doing what they really love to do. When our attachment doesn’t get us what we want, or fulfil us in some way we become miserable. Being miserable we enter into a state of suffering.

What Happens to Us Because of Our Attachments?

Yes, we become miserable. We suffer. Sometimes we have so much invested in the person or thing we are attached to that we cannot break free, or extricate ourselves. We’re afraid of loss. We stay locked into a situation that is the cause of our misery and then we become stressed physically and emotionally. We become immersed in toxic emotions like shame, guilt, resentment, anger and even hatred. We look to blame the other, or judge the other as causing our pain. We become like a drowning person clinging to the side of a boat.

How to Stop Suffering

The boat can be seen as a symbol of our life. To stop suffering we need to climb into the boat, or into our own life. To do that my dear spiritual mentor suggests that we face Reality. Reality is what is, and so we need to take stock of the situation. Sometimes we may have become so emotionally distraught that we cannot see beyond our own suffering. At this point it may be appropriate to seek counselling from someone trustworthy who can remain objective and help us steer a safer course. If we do manage to break free of the attachment we may have to undergo a time of grieving and readjustment. If we stay focused on what is correct for us we will end our own suffering. It requires great strength and courage to do what is right for ourselves. If we don’t break free of attachment and it’s consequences, suffering and misery, we then live a life that sucks us of our energy, vitality, creativity and love.

Helpful Hints to End Suffering

If you are experiencing attachment that is unhealthy for you, you may find that it becomes a real struggle to meditate. I would suggest that you listen to some of Fragrant Heart’s relaxation audios. Also spend time in nature if you can. If not surround yourself with living plants indoors, or even pictures of nature. Also reduce the preoccupying and worrying thoughts that arise by doing something physical like going for a walk or dancing to music. Hold a vision of how you would like your life to be. Visualize this everyday. Have faith and trust that you will let go of the attachment that is binding you in suffering. Each day take action in some way. Even the littlest step toward your vision is a step toward being who you truly are, which is love and happiness.

In a group meeting I attended a woman said about her friend, half jokingly yet with a tinge of sarcasm, “She seems to spend her whole day meditating.” The other woman remaining very centred replied, “Oh! If only that were true.” I later reflected on that and thought I would share these insights with you. I asked myself, “What would that be like to spend each and every day of my life meditating?” I don’t mean sitting cross-legged in the solitary confinement of a sound proof room. I mean going about your daily life focused and fully engaged in whatever you are doing. When that happens to me at times I notice, before I start thinking again! “Wow! My mind is really quiet.” For example when you eat your food how often are you focused on the food, the colours of it, the textures, the aromas, and the taste of it when you are chewing each mouthful thirty two times (just kidding you here)? So often we hurry through a meal, hardly noticing what we are eating and not even remembering if we enjoyed it. Or what about the distractions that take us even further away from eating like watching the TV at the same time or working at the same time? Another example, how often do people really listen to you when you are talking with them? It’s easy to tell when someone is off somewhere else and nowhere present with you. And when you’re talking to someone on the phone and you can tell that they’re watching television or preparing their dinner at the same time. Giving your full attention to someone as they speak requires a focused and still mind and one that is able to be fully engaged in listening. All of these activities have all the components of meditation, and if you were to break down all your daily activities you would find that anything you are engaged in can become a meditation practice.

It’s great to be able to blog again after a few weeks absence from Fragrant Heart. And perhaps I can write this blog about what I have witnessed with my mother moving from the family home after living there since she was a young bride sixty-one years ago. My mother loved her old home. She had many fond memories over those years. It had been her first real home since she was a child and one she loved and appreciated. Dad built the home for her and crafted it with fine workmanship. She had raised her children there, and had celebrated many festive occasions with family and friends throughout the years.

Once my mother made the decision to move she stayed focused on slowly getting rid of things she no longer needed, cleaning out all the cupboards, and packing up. She began to visualize how her furniture would be placed in her new home, and finally she said goodbye to her old neighbours and her bridge club.

The Greater the Attachment, the Greater the Pain

A friend of mine says, “The greater the attachment, the greater the pain.” My mother let go all attachment to her old home. It was a great privilege to watch her in that letting go, seeing her moving in her elder years with ease and grace, joy and optimism into a whole new way of life. There was no struggle to go, there was no sadness in leaving. Simply there was no attachment.

Non-Attachment

Holding on to things causes misery. I like to think that I can learn from my mother’s example and live my own life more and more in the same unattached manner. Attachment and fear go together. Attachment to something, or someone binds us in ways that reduce our confidence, independence, and ability to accept change. So often we hold onto things and others because we are afraid that if we let go we will lose something. In that loss we are terrified of being lonely, and empty. Often giving something up when it is no longer appropriate for our well-being opens the Universal door to something else in which we can flourish and thrive. I am happy to say that my mother is indeed flourishing and thriving in her new abode surrounded by caring new neighbours, and a lovely garden filled with trees and shrubs.

My friend and I have been emailing back and forth this past week. For three months now he has been having a lot of back pain that has immobilized him at times. Despite all sorts of therapies and medication he has still not recovered. Right now he is in a phase of physical limitation whereby he can only hobble about using walking sticks.

Well, the other night he emailed me to say that he had had a breakthrough in his attitude toward his bad back. He wrote that he had finally taken responsibility for his own healing, and that he had accepted that he was restricted in getting about. He had stopped struggling. His acceptance of what is, rather than how things should be gave him a great sense of relief. Since then amazing results have happened. He is walking about without focusing on his pain, and he is walking with greater ease.

Meditation is healing

In meditation thoughts arise. If we struggle against these thoughts they become even stronger. It’s a bit like having a bad back; if we struggle against the pain it becomes stronger. Once my friend accepted and allowed what was happening his pain has decreased. In meditation when we accept that thoughts arise and allow them to be there and to pass away without hanging onto them, we then stop struggling with the mind just as my friend stopped struggling with his mental thoughts. This is a state of awareness and freedom. This creates inner peace and calm. My friend calls it a sense of relief. Either way, as a result the body relaxes and without the hindering mental emotional tension the body can heal itself. We go from struggle to serenity, from hindering to healing.

“The Artist’s Way” was written by Julia Cameron and first published in 1994. It became an international best seller. It’s a book I’ve read and reread over the years. It is a very helpful book to encourage each one of us to release the blockages within our mental processes that stop us from pursuing our creativity.

Here is what Julia Cameron says about meditation. Her insights may encourage you in your meditation practice.

God in Self Esteem studies

In my last blog I wrote about growing up in a religion where I was taught, and conditioned to believe that God was a punitive and vengeful patriarch. And yes, he also sat on a big white cloud in heaven. A Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel painting must have become hardwired into my neurological pathways at an early age. Other people in the same religion, however, viewed God as divine, merciful, and loving.

Studies have shown that the higher one’s self esteem, the more people see God as loving. The lower a person’s self esteem, the more self punishing that person is, and the more they project an image of God in the same way.

We all have self esteem issues at some time in our lives

From all that I read and research, and listen to others, there would be very few people in the world who didn’t have self esteem issues at some time in their life. If you are besieged with guilt and shame, or if you blame yourself for whatever goes wrong, and you’re always apologizing, the chances are a positive view of yourself will be almost non-existent.

Meditation and how it can restore a positive self-esteem

Meditation could help to restore your self-esteem, as you become more and more aware that you are not our thoughts. How else do we arrive at this concept called high or low self esteem? It is simply through the sixty thousand or more thoughts that pass through our minds daily. These thoughts create our reality. Meditation allows us to observe the thoughts that arise, fall, and pass away. Thoughts are simply thoughts, but it is our attachment to the thoughts that create who we think we are, and should or shouldn’t be. Meditation can bring us to a deep inner knowing that we are simply pure consciousness. As pure consciousness we rest in stillness and silence; that is our natural state of being. This allows us to reside in a friendly, safe universe where we intrinsically know that we are okay just the way we are.

In Learn to Meditate Over Five Days on our website, the one pointed focus is the breath. Watching the breath encourages you to be in your body, and aware of your body.

I grew up in a religion where the body was condemned. The body was associated with impurities, and defilements. It belonged to nature – the earth, which is down there, and I was taught to aspire to what is up there, which is the divine, which is God in heaven. The truth is that we are nature. Nature is not something outside us. We breathe, and through breath we are alive sentient beings. We are in form. From those early limiting core beliefs a huge part of my journey has been to honour the form, to care for it and nourish it, to respect it, and to listen to it. How I am breathing tells me a lot about my physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

Meditation helps you become aware of how you are breathing

When I began meditation I gradually became aware of how shallowly I breathed. I could even stop breathing altogether, and not notice that I was actually holding my breath! Through meditation I have become very conscious of the breath.

Breath is always with you

As you go about your day, become aware of the breath. You can do this just about anywhere. Take a few minutes out to be conscious of how you are breathing is really helpful. When you are stressed, take your attention to the breath for a little while. When stressed the mind becomes frantic so the breath tends to be very shallow. Observe the breath as it enters and leaves your nostrils. Be aware of the rise and fall of your chest and abdomen with each breath. Observe how watching the breath, if only for a few minutes, helps to bring you in touch with your body, and your body’s sensations. Observe how the breath helps to connect you to your emotions and feelings. Observe how the breath can calm and soothe you. Be with your breath and remain centred in your body.

It was great discovering a book written back in the 90’s, and stepping back into the spiritual and psychological thinking of some researchers, sages, and visionaries of that decade. The focus for humans hasn’t changed much from then to now, which is how to be happy, and how to be at peace with oneself and the world.

Vipassana also known as Insight Meditation

As I was perusing the book I noticed a photo of S.N.Goenka who brought the teaching of Vipassana Meditation from Burma to the West. Vipassana is also known as Insight Meditation. Its popularity has resulted in centres all over the world. Anyone can go there for a ten-day silent retreat. The ones I have been to in New Zealand, Australia and India are places of deep peace, and the surroundings are gentle and harmonious with nature.

Vipassana can be done by just about anyone

Vipassana as taught by S.N.Goenka emphasises three aspects; moral behaviour, to encourage the mind to settle, mastery of the mind through concentration of the breath, and vipassana proper, that is, purification of the mind through insight into one’s physical and mental structure. Yes, vipassana is definitely a discipline, and some people find it too strenuous for them. However, following this path can lead to dissolving the three-fold source of all suffering: craving, aversion, and ignorance. The Buddha taught Vipassana, but it is non-sectarian, and people from all walks of life have done the courses.

Vipassana can dissolve suffering

Doing Vipassana has given many people I know a greater awareness and compassion for themselves and others. Stress and anxiety have melted away as they continue to meditate daily. Others too, gave up after a few days on the course. It wasn’t for them, and they went on to seek the peace they were aspiring to in other ways.

Vipassana Meditation was a turning point in my life and a practice I continue to do. It gave me a structure and a technique, but it also reinforced that once again our true nature is that of peace, stillness, and love.

If you are interested in a course you will find a centre near you if you check the Internet.

I came across an article on an amazing experiment done by Professor William Bruad at the Mind Science Foundation in San Atonio, Texas. He wanted to find out if someone could consciously or unconsciously influence not just another person’s mind but their body as well. He used red blood cells to see if they could be protected by human thought from swelling and bursting (an effect known as haemolysis) when placed in test tubes. A group of ordinary people with no specific training in this field were shown colour slides of healthy blood cells and asked to visualize them remaining healthy when they were put into solution in ten test tubes. Another ten test tubes were used as the control. The group of visualisers were put in a different room from the test tubes. They set about visualizing the blood cells staying healthy. By passing a light beam through the solution the rate of haemolysis could be measured. Results showed that the blood cells that were visualized as remaining healthy disintegrated much less quickly than those in the control tubes.

This experiment demonstrates quite remarkably and beyond doubt, that human thought, even at a distance used by people with no special training using visualization can actually influence living human blood cells.

Our thoughts are powerful. They create our reality and affect not only ourselves but others as well. If we are constantly thinking negative what affect is that having on us? What if we are thinking negative thoughts about someone else?

Throughout the day pause, take a few breaths, and say out loud, or silently with an open heart:

“May all beings be happy. May all beings be free. May all beings love.”

Whatever technique you decide to use in your meditation practice it will follow this structure. It’s worth keeping in mind (!) as it helps to simplify what meditation is. It also takes the mystery out of meditation, and the concept that it is only for New Agers, or other weird nutters.

Meditation involves focused attention

First of all meditation involves focused attention. Some call it one pointed focus. This enables the mind to quieten. When thoughts come into the mind they are accepted and allowed to drift away, rather than pushed away with effort, or wilfulness. When you realize that you have been carried away by thoughts you gently and simply bring your attention back to your one pointed focus.

A technique is part of the structure

The most widely used practice focuses on the breath. On our website you can subscribe free of charge to Learn to Meditate In Five Days using the breath technique.

Remaining focused on the stimulus

It takes time for the mind to become still but persistence in bringing your attention back to the one pointed focus or stimulus enables the mind to quieten. When this happens both the mind and the body become calm, still, and peaceful.

Peacefulness is our natural state of mind

The natural state of the mind is that of stillness, and peacefulness. It is also referred to as a state of presence. Presence is simply being here, and now. It is beingness in its pure essence.

Peacefulness becomes a part of daily life

As meditation practice becomes part of daily life you will find that the inner peace that comes from meditation will enable you to become less reactive to the stresses and strains that you encounter.

I did a workout the other night with a chiropractor who has devised a series of structured and integrated exercises. He told us that ten years ago his belly was so fat he could barely see his toes. Once he started the exercises he felt really good but not only that he felt slim as well. From then on just visualizing himself slim, led to eating slim foods and doing things that slim people do. People began to tell him how great he looked, and he felt great despite still being overweight. That didn’t matter, it was how he was feeling and visualizing himself to be. Three months later he was slim and has stayed that way ever since.

His story reinforced for me the power of visualization that brings about changes in both our inner and outer lives.

Visualization is about imagining scenes in our minds. Some people see pictures and others simply become aware of thoughts and impressions that have to do with pictures rather than seeing the pictures themselves. How do you visualize? Shut your eyes now and visualize someone’s face to find out which method you use.

Visualization can help us achieve our goals

In real life our senses come together to give us a unified experience. In visualizing or imagining we can do this too. Not only can we ‘see’ but we can also imagine hearing, touching, tasting and smelling as we visualize. For example, visualizing being in nature we can feel the warmth of the sun on our skin, the smell of the flowers, the sounds of birds singing, or the taste of water from a clear mountain stream. When we add positive feelings like joy, happiness, peace or exuberance we create an even more powerful inner landscape. Visualizing can help us obtain desired goals by picturing ourselves actually achieving them.

The unconscious mind is the key to powerful visualization

What makes visualization so powerful is that we are able to connect with our unconscious mind. This part of the mind holds and stores memory. Not only that but it influences our emotions, attitudes, likes and dislikes. We may think that the conscious mind which we have access to is in charge, but consider how much of our lives are being played out through our unconscious thoughts and beliefs. For example, a person may have a core belief that he is not good enough. It doesn’t matter if he has a good job, a nice home and a loving spouse, he still doesn’t feel good enough about himself. This belief will undermine that person who may become a workaholic, over eat, or drink to relieve his anxieties and have affairs to try to prove his worth.

Visualize and change your thoughts and beliefs

You may have heard the old adage, “seeing is believing”. Well, consider that it is really the other way round, “believing is seeing.” If you believe in something strongly enough, if you visualize it with mental pictures and call your senses into play that’s what will show up in your life. Because you are the creator of your reality make what shows up in your what you want.

Taking the first step

Browse our website for many and varied guided meditations and visualizations to help you to move into accessing your unconscious mind to release its possibly infinite potential.

Where are you twenty-four hours of the day? Hopefully in your body, although in a society that puts so much emphasis on consumerism and television, the chances of always being present in your body, in the present moment, may be slight. Drugs, alcohol, and food taken in excess, or anything else done excessively, even exercise; can take us away from listening to, and being aware of our bodies. I read about a triathlon competitor whose goal is to win gold at the Beijing Olympics. His schedule is highly strenuous. He said that all he did was to train, eat and sleep and he was continuously exhausted and pushing himself to the limits. What is his body telling him? He has a major goal and is prepared to ignore the signals his body is giving him. I wonder what the long-term effects of that will be. If we aren’t listening to our bodies and what they are trying to tell us, we end up in a state of imbalance, which leads to dis-ease.

Being aware of the breath keeps us in our bodies

In a lot of meditation techniques the point of focus is the breath. The breath is a reliable indicator of how we are functioning in our lives. Right now pay attention to the breath. How are you breathing? Deeply or shallowly? Do you sometimes forget to breathe for long periods of time? Which parts of your body are the most tense right now? Could you take the breath to those parts of your body and release the tension you are holding there by just breathing in and out of those areas?

Learn to Meditate over Five Days

In Learn to Meditate over Five Days the one pointed focus is the breath. Watching the breath as it comes and goes, gives you the opportunity to neither coerce nor control the breath, but simply let it be. If you have taken the opportunity to subscribe to these free Learn to Meditate lessons on our website, you may now be finding that you are breathing much more freely and easily, not just in your meditation practice but in your daily living as well. You may find that you catch yourself breathing shallowly when you’re tense or uptight. Taking some full deep and clearing breaths will help you to re-centre. Being aware of the breath throughout the day helps you to stay calm, alert, relaxed and focused. Being aware of the breath, being in your body is definitely a good place to be.

Losing that knowing of being valuable

I came across this quote from M. Scott Peck and reflected on it for some time. For all of us who have in one way or another grown up emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually abused, either by parents or those who take on the role of caregivers such as teachers, feeling ourselves to be a valuable person is not always easy. Yes, we can feel of value if we are giving to others or meeting others’ needs in some way. I’m talking more about the feeling of intrinsic value of oneself without having to do anything but just be you. Calling back the parts of ourselves we gave away at an early age to be loved and accepted is the journey of self-growth and understanding. As we do this we can experience old feelings of sadness, anger, shame and guilt.

Dealing with your Emotions

If you have begun a consistent daily meditation practice you may find at times that emotions and feelings that you have suppressed like anger and sadness will come to the surface. Allowing and accepting them, experiencing the sensations in your body that are associated with these negative feelings and emotions, and being there with them until they change into something else is all part of the healing process with ongoing meditation.

Meditation reinforces that you are valuable

Meditation will help you retrieve the knowing that you are a valuable person if you lost that at some point in your life. Meditation is also a way of taking care of you. A meditation practice will give you an innate knowing that you are valuable, not in any sort of egotistical way, but that you are here on earth with your part to play. Meditation is a form of self-discipline because you need to show up each day to your practice, but it is also a form of self-caring. Taking care of yourself is essential to being happy and peaceful. You will find as time goes on that “self-discipline is self-caring”.

From all the research that I’ve been doing lately around meditation and living in present moment awareness it appears that there is no sure fire way to make awakening happen. Some people wake up just by accident, often after extreme depths of despair and depression. Others follow spiritual practices and disciplines under the mentoring of a teacher. When they wake up they get to live with the certainty of non-separation, inner peace, clarity of mind, and often profound wisdom. They are great helpers and pointers for the rest of us following a spiritual path in life. Their wisdom can inspire us to understand that there is more beyond our own wants and desires, that there is more than just the day to day concerns for our survival.

It would seem once again by listening to the experts in the field of mind/body awareness that meditation is a necessary and powerful tool to gain access to living more in the present moment. Here we can experience an ongoing reality of inner peace, and serenity and at the same time alertness and clarity of mind.

Ongoing Negativity and Emotional Turmoil

However, some people can meditate for years and years and still experience emotional turmoil, and deeply negative feelings in their daily lives. Somehow the experience of quiescence in a meditation session may not always be carried over to everyday living. Often deeply ingrained core beliefs at an unconscious level strongly influence how someone interacts with the world and others.

Combining Western Psychological Methods with Meditation

Meditation has come to the west through the eastern doorway and we associate it with having its roots in India. However, meditation goes back to our earliest beginnings, therefore it is an inherent part of our collective consciousness no matter where we live in the world. The overlays of conditioning in our modern world have taken us away from our true nature by the impact of the values of the society we live in. For example, we do things that are not always right for us out of a sense of duty, obligation, fear, guilt or something else. We might have glimpses of present momentary awareness but, when challenged by someone else, for example, all our inner peace evaporates and we can become either aggressive or defensive. If this is happening to you, consider the benefits of our own western psychological models to also help in the waking up process. Some of the more helpful psychological inner workings that are being used effectively by experienced practitioners with clients are “Inner Voice Dialogue” and “Shadow Work”. These combined with ongoing meditation practice to anchor awareness are proving to help integrate inner conflicts.

How many times have you said something to someone that you instantly, or later regretted? It’s often referred to as ‘foot and mouth disease’. Out come the words and then the thought, “Whoops, I didn’t mean to say that!” or “Did I really say that?” Usually the impact of our words gets an immediate reaction from the person we’ve aimed them out and a reaction we usually don’t like.

How meditation affects what you say

One of the benefits of meditating is that over time more and more awareness comes into our daily lives. The Buddha, who said some very profound things a few thousand years ago, talked about ‘The Eight Fold Path’ that leads to the end of suffering. One of these interrelated parts is called Right Speech. Meditation is about becoming the witness to our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations in our bodies. Right Speech is about becoming the witness to our words, and observing ourselves speaking so that we make correct choices. Compassion and love are the hallmarks of Right Speech. We become Mindful (another step along The Eight Fold Path) observing ourselves without judgment, witnessing the spoken words, witnessing the breath. We may find that what we talk about and how we talk changes. There is less inclination to want to gossip or be critical of others. We may be less inclined to chatter to reduce our insecurities. We may become more sensitive to not just the sound of our voices and what we are saying, but to the sounds in nature, and the sounds in music. We may enjoy longer periods of silence and solitude. Right Speech and Mindfulness are just two steps along the way that lead us to greater inner peace.

Last week I watched a movie on Happiness with Deepak Chopra. Deepak Chopra is an acclaimed author, teacher and doctor. He said that when people really reflect on what they want, it is to see a happier world, to be happy, and to make others happy.

What determines Happiness?

Apparently there is a set point in the brain that determines happiness which is genetically programmed. However, it can be changed in different ways. Drugs for example, can alter chemistry in the brain but they invariably have debilitating side effects. Cognitive Therapy can also change the set point of happiness. Here it’s possible to get rid of false beliefs by simply releasing an attachment to an idea and shifting a perception e.g. ‘I’m not good enough”, to a new belief, ‘I am okay just the way I am.’ MEDITATION can also change the biological set point. When a person meditates the pre-frontal cortex of the brain gets activated and releases its own chemicals such as serotonin, oxytocin and opiates, which make us feel happy. The side effects of meditation are non toxic and harmless.

People often say, “If I won the lottery I would be happy,” or “If only I had a relationship I would be happy,” or “If my spouse understood me I would be happy.” Life situations are however, not a major determinant. According to Dr Deepak Chopra only 8-15% of the happiness quotient is due to lifestyle. When people do win the lottery, after the initial shock or euphoria their set point of happiness reverts to how it was. Things that give us immediate gratification like sex, food, alcohol, sport or something else only last a relatively short time.

What then makes us humans happy?

Again according to Dr Deepak Chopra fulfilment makes us very happy. When we are fulfilled we have a sense of accomplishment and a knowing that we are making a difference in the world. We become inspired and make choices that are also fulfilling for others. The key here is that making others happy is the golden rule.

My friend Joe, (not his real name) who has been meditating for many years, told me that his only reason for meditating was to feel blissful.

“Does that happen every time you meditate?” I asked him.

“No, it doesn’t,” he replied.

“So, Joe, when you don’t get into a blissed out state after an hour or even two hours of meditation, what’s that like for you?”

“Well it’s extremely disappointing. Sometimes I feel let down that I’ve put so much effort into my practice and I don’t even get the results I want,” he said with a rueful look on his face.

Every thing is rising and falling and passing away

A lot of people meditate with the expectation of getting blissful. It’s possibly a good idea to ask yourself why you meditate, or even if you are new to meditation why you want to take it up. If your goal is only to get into blissed-out states, accept that of course, but also accept that this may not happen as much as you would like. Whether it’s feelings of bliss or the very opposite, all things sooner or later will rise and fall and pass away. If you are clinging onto bliss or some other ‘altered state’, you could become anxious and frustrated when it doesn’t happen to you. Attachment to anything creates misery because it induces fear; fear that it won’t always be there for you, or meet your needs in some way. Bliss is a by-product, so to speak of meditation as are other bodily states such as agitation, lack of concentration, or physical discomfort. Can you accept and allow these as well in your meditation practice? And whenever they arise in your daily life can you accept and allow that too? Can you be the observer of the bliss, or the agitation, or other emotions without identifying with them or judging them or yourself?

Consider the Law of Impermanence. EVERYTHING arises and passes away. One of the reasons we suffer as humans is that we are attached to a self that we think is permanent and we then want to make things around us permanent as well. We can become attached to bliss and want to make that permanent as well.

This week’s exercise in Expanding Your Awareness lends itself to experiencing physical activities that engage your right brain.

Exercise 3: Get Physical

I hope you’ve found some time to try these exercises. Each one will enhance your well-being, and also help you to deepen your meditation practice.

Last week in Expanding Your Awareness you could try the Open Focus exercise. Did you feel a change in your awareness that left you feeling right here, right now and a greater feeling of connectedness to yourself and your world?

This week try something altogether different. You will need a pencil, some blank paper and something to copy.

Exercise 2: Draw Upside Down

This can be a lot of fun to do and if you believe you are not artistic you’ll be amazed at how accurate you can draw something when your left brain is not organizing, controlling and judging the outcome. See how relaxed and at ease you can feel just drawing lines that you are not trying to make into something that you already perceive how it should be.

Getting into meditation will help you to relax, become peaceful and calm and energize you both physically and mentally. Meditation helps to access the right hemisphere of the brain and as we do so we experience a change in brain wave patterns. We are able to access what is known as the Alpha state. Here we experience mental alertness, while at the same time being calm and clear in our physical and mental functioning.

Practical and simple ways to expand your awareness

Over the next three weeks read these blogs to learn practical and simple ways to change your awareness and to experience a move to Alpha state. Any one of these exercises can be done as part of your meditation practice, or simply to enjoy other aspects of right brain functioning that lead to greater calmness, expansiveness, creativity and oneness.

Exercise 1: Open Your Focus

The first exercise is called “Open Your Focus.”

In the USA ten million people now claim to meditate daily. Meditation is fast growing and gaining recognition worldwide.

I was reading through the Oprah Magazine and came across some very useful research on meditation which will be posted on Fragrant Heart over the next few weeks.

Meditation helps Attentional Blink and prevents us missing what’s going on with those we care about.

You may well ask , “What is attentional blink?” I had no idea myself until I came across an article written in the March edition of the Oprah Magazine by Tim Jarvis.

Apparently attentional blink is a brain glitch which occurs in certain circumstances when, for a split second, “we literally become unconscious of what might be happening right in front of us”, says Richard Davidson, PhD, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That is the reason why so often we may think our partner’s self absorption is selfish when we are visibly upset about something.

However, Davidson’s latest research showed that three months of intensive vipassana – or insight – meditation significantly reduced attentional blink. “Vipassana increases awareness of one’s surroundings in a nonjudgmental, nonreactive way,” Davidson says, but he believes any kind of meditation, even 20 minutes a day, could make spouses better at reading each other’s subtleties.

Davidson recommends starting with a simple meditation of focusing on your breath; when your mind wanders, notice how it’s distracted, and come back to your breathing.”

With meditation I keep stressing that it needs to be done consistently for it to be effective. So if you want to be more present and less judgmental with your spouse and avoid “attentional blink” consider learning to meditate. If you are already doing a meditation practice perhaps you could invite your partner or spouse to meditate as well.

These past three weeks I have been staying in an apartment building in the city’s busiest street. It has been a sharp contrast to my seaside home. It has given me many opportunities to observe my thoughts as I resisted aspects of this environment.

By 6.00pm each afternoon the atmosphere on the street outside becomes hazy as the cars, and especially the buses roar up the hill belching out exhaust fumes as they transport the workers home in peak hour traffic. When I look out of the doors and windows of the apartment all I can see is concrete; huge overhanging concrete beams, and concrete walls to support this tall building. I was residing in an apartment on the ground floor. By nightfall the paving tiles outside the sliding door are littered with cigarette butts, some empty drink cans, a few fallen clothes pegs, a flutter of discarded tissues, and a film of black gritty soot from city pollutants.

Such an environment where I do not experience the greenness of plants or trees is a great time to practise equanimity. Knowing I was to be here for three weeks I could either resist in any moment, or accept and allow what is, in any moment. What happens when I resist? I become unhappy. My thoughts then create more and more stories about what seems like an “alien” place and I experience greater and greater misery. Can I stay present in each moment? Sometimes I can, other times my mind takes over and I am no longer absorbed in present moment awareness but lost in the past, or the future.

I brought a plant inside from the scraggly assortment I found hiding in the shade. Not that it was any sunnier inside but the plant exuded aliveness as its green succulent leaves hugged each other in a jewelled lotus configuration. The plant centred me and I was drawn into its stillness.

As the weeks went by I found myself observing the flow and rhythm of the city more and more. The noise never stops day or night. If I woke in the early hours of the morning I would often hear couples arguing, doors slamming, young ones partying, the smell of cigarette smoke drifting through the open window and the boom, boom of heavy music from a base speaker in someone’s apartment. At first I was unable to sleep with all the noise. Then I thought to myself that this was yet another opportunity to observe without judgment. I let go of resisting the noise. After all noise is just a collection of sounds, and soon I fell back to sleep, feeling an inner peacefulness. Each day I swept up the rubbish that had been thrown from tenants’ balconies. I watched my hands in action as I held the broom and dustpan. I sensed the stillness now behind the actions. Gone was my aversion to cigarette butts and I laughed out loud at my former snobbishness and what I considered to be “beneath my dignity.” As I walked outside along the busy street milling with other pedestrians I noticed the stillness beyond each person I passed.

I have returned home today. I am grateful for the time in the city. I could have gone on a silent retreat where I would have been cocooned from noise, pollution, over crowdedness, and lack of nature. It is easier to find stillness in nature but what I have learned is that stillness is also there in what I once judged as a harsh environment. When the mind drops all its concepts of what should or shouldn’t be and is able to observe, accept and allow just what is, something happens. There is a change within and a knowing that stillness can be found everywhere.

No, you don’t have to be having out of body experiences, meeting angels, seeing coloured lights, or even hearing voices to know that you are meditating. All of these can arise but they are phenomena that like everything else will rise, and fall, and pass away. The secret is not to get trapped into any one thing as the mind will crave for a repeat state of that. When the sought after state doesn’t happen in a meditation session there can be feelings of disappointment, disillusionment and the desire to stop meditating.

If you find your mind becoming quieter than usual and your breathing is changing and becoming softer and lighter then you can trust that you are meditating.

Just a reminder that one of the most powerful tools for change is meditation.

There are so many different techniques that you can learn. If you haven’t found the one for you yet, don’t give up. Remember there is no technique that is right, nor is there any one teacher who is right. There is no better or lesser technique.

Fragrant Heart offers you many techniques to try to get you started. Explore our website and discover for yourself guided meditations from many different traditions. If you have any concerns or questions about beginning a meditation practice don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

This question comes up a lot and can cause confusion. Simply put a spiritual practice is anything that a person does to be at peace within themselves and in the world.

Some people may follow the path of an organized religion, a special teacher or guru. They may feel more secure with beliefs and doctrines imposed from outside of themselves. There are many approaches and it is not to say that one is better than another but rather what is correct for each person.

What is the aspiration of any spiritual practice?

The aspiration of any spiritual practice is to simply change our perception of ourselves and the world. With years of conditioning set in concrete within us it takes a lot of chipping away at that to encounter who we truly are. To know the difference between our conditioning and our true nature is the journey of self-discovery. The more we can do this the more we can feel at peace. It takes perseverance and persistence to let go of the things that lead to misery and unhappiness.

Meditation as a Spiritual Practice

Meditation offers many different techniques for us to be at peace. The technique is simply the tool that leads to meditating. Consider that by the year 2020 depression will become a leading cause of ill health and death. Underlying all depression is stress. We know how prevalent stress is in our world. When people feel they have no control over their stress their lives become unmanageable and unfulfilled. Anything that takes us away from a sense of well-being for any prolonged length of time undermines our health on all levels.

Learn to Meditate

What is your spiritual practice? What do you do that gives you inner peace? If you are considering learning to meditate for inner peace and well being subscribe to Learn to Meditate over Five Days on our website.

Recently I talked with a man who has been meditating since he was eighteen. I wanted to find out what had led him to this practice. Before I write this interview I’d just like to say that people meditate for all sorts of reasons from wanting greater peace in their lives, to wanting to manifest what they desire. Meditation is a very personal experience and no two people will travel the same course in their meditation practice even if they are doing the same meditation technique.

I began meditation because I wanted to feel less anxious and not so confused about myself. Certainly over the years of meditating I have become a lot more peaceful and have let go a lot of conditioning and beliefs that kept me contracted in fear and misery.

You will have your own reasons for starting a meditation practice and this little interview is to simply give you an insight into someone else’s experience and what that has been like for them.

INTERVIEW

Yoga Nidra comes from the Eastern traditions and is a very powerful form of deep physical and mental relaxation. It soothes the body and helps to release the mind’s over stimulation of thoughts. Practised regularly Yoga Nidra can help resolve mental issues and reduce physical pain.

We hope you will take the time to experience this rejuvenating practice of mind, body and spirit.

There has been a lot of scientific research that now confirms the benefits of meditation on all levels of health; physical, mental and emotional. In this blog I’d like to talk about the emotional side of good health.

Why we avoid unpleasant emotions.

When we have a strong emotion that we don’t like, for example, anger, rage, or fear our tendency is to try to avoid it. We don’t want to feel the sensations in our body. They are painful. Children are so often taught to numb down their emotions. They are told, “Don’t cry.” “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” and so on. Growing up children can come to look upon emotions as bad and to shut them down so as not to lose love or approval.

What happens when we suppress emotions.

What research shows is that suppressed emotions don’t go away. They are locked into the cellular tissues as cellular memory in our bodies. Physiologically what happens is that signals are sent through the body from chemical reactions taking place when, for example there is anger. These reactions cause contraction in the organs and a reduction in blood supply and nutrients to the cells. Emotionally we feel ill at ease and over time this can lead to disease.

What to do when emotions arise in your meditation practice.

In meditation emotions will arise sooner or later. They can present in all sorts of ways from memory flashbacks to physical changes in the body with accompanying feelings of agitation or discomfort. I have experienced extreme panic as fear came up during a meditation session.

What to do when emotion arises in your meditation practice? Some people will just get up and walk away as they become overwhelmed. However, the emotions haven’t gone away and can come back even more strongly at another sitting. Often at this point people will give up their practice altogether.

Here are some suggestions that may help when there is an emotional response that you’d rather not have in your meditation. First of all accept what is happening, even welcome it because your body is ready to integrate this emotion otherwise it would not be there. Become fully engaged in it. Observe all the sensations around it, from the strongest to the subtlest. Get as much out of it as you can, love it, embrace it and surrender to it. Even if the sensations become more intense I can assure you that you will not fall apart or go insane. That could well be what the mind is telling you will happen. Keep on relaxing into the emotion by using your breath to breath in and out of the strongest sensations wherever they may be in your body. At some point in the very essence of what seems to be an “unbearable” emotion resides peace. You can come to that essence of peace in your very worst emotions. When you experience this you will have the courage to befriend all your emotions that you may have dismissed as unacceptable. They are not bad as you may have been taught. They are the portal into freedom and fully living the expression of life in happiness that is your true nature.

Before beginning meditation I often find it helpful to centre myself. Centring grounds the body and begins quietening the mind. It also initiates relaxation.

How do you centre yourself?

Centring can be done very simply. Here are two methods that you might like to try.

Centring Seated

You will naturally find where your centre of gravity is and that will help your posture during your meditation.

Centring Standing

The standing centring practice originates from Eastern traditions of meditation and is also known as Moon Centring. When you are doing this be mindful of your hands or your breath. Keep the inhalation and the exhalation in time with the movements of your arms. The slow, deep breaths help to relax the diaphragm, improve breathing and posture. Do two or three rounds before your meditation practice.

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and have your knees slightly bent and your arms by your sides. Keep your gaze soft and look straight ahead.
2. On the inward breath raise your arms to shoulder height.
3. On the outward breath bring the palms of your hands together in the centre of your chest in the prayer position.
4. Inhale and stretch your arms out in front of you.
5. Exhale and stretch your arms above your head.
6. As you breathe in bring your arms to shoulder height again.
7. As you breathe out bring your arms to your sides.

Begin the centring again and continue for two or three more rounds or until you feel it is time to move into your meditation practice.

When brain scans are done on practising Buddhists it has been found that there is heightened activity in a spot in the brain called the left pre-frontal lobe. This spot is associated with positive emotions and happy moods. When the same brain scans were done on depressed, stressed and angry people the results showed greater activity in the right frontal cortex.

Meditation is the basis of the Buddhist tradition. The Budda taught that through meditation a person could find happiness and peace. Because the practice of meditation calms the mind and the body the outcome is positive emotions and good moods.

Wondering if meditation is for you?

If you are still wondering if meditation is for you remember that:

How does this relate to meditation?

Meditation helps us to observe things just as they are without condemnation or judgment, without craving or aversion. When thoughts arise, when emotions arise whatever they are we accept and allow all of them. Thoughts and feelings that we could condemn and berate ourselves for having we accept. They arise, they fall and they pass away. Is this not beautiful? We experience stillness and silence, inner peace and calm. Are these not beautiful? We may laugh and play and have more fun. We become more generous of spirit. We may feel a strong desire to be of service to others. We may feel more alive, energised and in flow with the rhythms of the universe. We may be happy just for no other reason than we feel good. Are not all these things beautiful? Through meditation limitations of living life fully and freely, just as we breathe fully and freely, fall away and each moment of being present here and now is beautiful. Now here is something that I have pondered. At times I may experience the opposite of all of the above. I may not always feel peaceful or calm or energized but if as this sage and teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan says that this whole phenomenon of the universe is the phenomenon of beauty, then no matter what is happening it’s still beautiful. Only my judgment makes it something different.

The Earth’s Resonance, Your Brain, and Meditation.

Did you know that not only can you experience the Alpha state in meditation but also by spending time in nature? Have you ever felt sublime calmness being in a forest, or at the beach or in the mountains, watching a sunset or sunrise? Open spaces and fresh air in natural surroundings help to contribute to the Alpha state. In nature you may find your awareness expanding and fears and anxieties dissolving.

A scientist by the name of Schumann discovered and measured the earth’s resonance. The existence of the Schumann Resonance is now an established scientific fact. He predicted that there are electromagnetic standing waves in the atmosphere, within the cavity formed by the surface of the earth and the ionosphere. These electromagnetic waves were detected resonating at a frequency of 7.8 Hz. Most of nature is in harmony with the Schumann Resonance. Konig, who became Schumann’s successor at Munich University, demonstrated a correlation between Schumann Resonances and brain rhythms. He compared human EEG recordings with natural electromagnetic fields of the environment. He found that the main frequency produced by Schumann oscillations is very close to the frequency of alpha rhythms which in the lower range are around 7- 8 Hz. When your brain resonates between 7.5 – 7.8 Hz you have placed your mind in true harmony with life itself. You are able to access that oneness with all that is. Here you experience deep peace, inspired creativity and being in The Zone.

As your meditation practice continues you may find yourself wanting to spend more time in nature. If you are a city dweller and unable to get out into nature all that frequently, photographs of nature placed in your home can also bring an atmosphere of natural beauty to your sense of well being.

The guided meditation, Creating Your Peaceful Sanctuary on our website, will help you to visualize your connection to nature, to relax and calm your mind and body and bring you into the Alpha state.

How Green Tea can Help you Meditate

Each morning I take my grandmother’s old bone china teapot out of the cupboard. I remember how proud she was of her teapot and delicate cups and saucers. They were only used on special occasions. The teapot is a lovely shade of pale green but it does have a crack along the bottom. It must be almost a hundred years old now. Following in her footsteps from so long ago I remember to warm the teapot with hot water. What has this to do with meditation you may well ask? Well, this preamble is to share with you some interesting research I have just discovered. And the tea that goes into the teapot is what could help your meditation practice. It's called green tea.

I began drinking green tea some years ago because of its antioxidant properties, which protect our cells from free radical damage. Free radical damage is the cause of many diseases. Now I have discovered another amazing quality of green tea. Green tea contains L-Theanine which is an amino acid that has been described as “zen in a bottle” because of its calming effects on brainwaves. A study done by K. Kobayashi, a Japanese researcher, concluded that Theanine promotes the state of alpha-brain waves and also induces relaxation. Alpha is not the highset or lowest band of brainwave frequencies but it occurs in wakefulness where there is a relaxed effortless alertness. As our meditation deepens we experience this effortless alertness. In this state we become rested, calm, peaceful and focused. Theanine also enhances our ability to learn and remember. When we are relaxed our worries are lessened and our attention span and concentration increases. Theanine increases a brain chemical as well called GABA that is calming and creates a sense of well-being.

If you are meditating but you begin to feel resistance to your practice first of all accept and allow that. Just about everyone at some stage feels that they just don’t want to meditate anymore. However, if you have reached a point of frustration and are about to throw it in, consider taking a cup of green tea before you sit down to meditate. Some people may disagree with this and say that you just have to work through your resistance. However, if it is the difference between giving up meditation and continuing to deepen your practice then I believe a cup of green tea may be just that little bit of help that could inspire someone to carry on meditating.

Here are some tips on using green tea:

• When you buy green tea avoid buying tea bags. I believe that the quality of the tea is not as high as loose-leaf tea.
• Prepare the leaves in an earthenware teapot if possible. Let the leaves float about in the water to bring out the subtle flavour.
• Warming the teapot with hot water and then tipping it out is an old fashion secret when making tea.
• Place the tealeaves in the pot. I use half a teaspoon to a cup of boiling water for one person. Let stand for about three minutes, and then pour through a strainer. Leaving the tea to steep too long makes it bitter.
• Sip slowly and enjoy. The ritual of making tea can be a meditation in itself.

Did you know that one-third of all American and European adults suffer from insomnia?

Meditation is a great tool for getting a good night's sleep. If you're coping with insomnia or would just like to go to sleep feeling greater peace and calm, we invite you to listen to this month's new free meditation: "Peaceful Sleep". Play this guided meditation just prior to your bedtime and enjoy the benefits.

Listen to the Peaceful Sleep Guided Meditation

Certain types of music like classical music or gentle lyrical music can be relaxing and help some people hold their attention and focus. On our Fragrant Heart website the guided meditations can be played with or without background music. Most of us have probably experienced the soothing and calming effects of listening to music. Much of Mozart’s music for example, has a rhythm that helps to induce a slowing of brain wave patterns that can lead to what is known as the alpha state. This is a state of deep relaxation and peacefulness. Music as an adjunct to meditation is useful at times especially if you are new to meditation, or your mind is particularly busy. If you are emotionally upset and finding it difficult to concentrate music can also help to settle you into your practice. My suggestion is to use music only when you absolutely need to. As you continue your daily meditation begin to let go of having background music even if it is only barely audible so that you can move into and experience real stillness without distraction.

The simple answer is, yes it can. If you already have a meditation practice you will be able to recall the feelings of deep relaxation you have experienced from time to time. It is by being able to relax and to soften around pain that a person can move through the pain so that it disappears. As humans, generally speaking our reaction to pain is to try in some way to get away from it. For example, when a person is feeling emotional pain they may resort to overeating, overdrinking, overworking, or some other distraction so that they don’t have to feel their feelings of discomfort. The same can also be applied to physical pain. However, there are of course degrees of pain. Pain management with medication is obviously very important in many areas of unwellness to maintain some sort of equilibrium. In the research that I have been doing people have reported reducing analgesics and undergoing medical procedures without anaesthetic. Their daily meditation practice has enabled them to relax and be inwardly calm and at peace.

Here’s a method that you may like to use if you are experiencing pain in your body. You may be sitting in meditation and become aware that you have some discomfort, or you may go into meditation with some pain that you want to relieve. Allow that part of your body to become your one pointed focus and observe what happens. For example there may be a pain in the right shoulder. You take your attention there and get a complete image of the pain. You become aware of the sensations, where they begin, where they end. You become aware of the size, how big the area of this pain is. Is it a centimetre or many centimetres in size? You become aware of its shape. Perhaps it has the shape of a ball, or a square or a cone or some other shape. These sensations may be quite dense or the density may vary on different layers of the sensations. You stay aware, just observing any thoughts that may be arising and passing away in the same way as the sensations in your body. Once you have an image of the pain you concentrate fully on it. You may begin to feel overwhelmed at this point as the discomfort may increase. Accept and allow what you are feeling. In this way it is possible to dissolve the pain in your body. Through one pointed focus which meditation can be defined as you relax, accept and allow and what occurs is a natural release of endorphins. Endorphins are the brain’s opiate-like pain relievers. As a result a person can feel euphoric with a profound sense of relief and well being. Pain naturally dissolves.

On my first meditation course the teacher told us to focus on the breath entering and leaving the nostrils. Well, I thought that didn’t seem too difficult. But by the second day I was ready to leave. No matter how hard I tried, my mind would wander off. I would come back to the breath when the instruction was repeated but it seemed within a few seconds I would be off again in some reverie. By the beginning of the third day I had convinced myself that meditation wasn’t for me. My body ached from hours of sitting cross-legged on the floor. The cushion now felt like a lump of concrete under my buttocks. Flies droned around the room in the late afternoon warmth and I began to dread one landing on my head in its drowsy state. A monologue raged through my head; “What am I doing here? This is crazy. This isn’t for me. I need to go home. This isn’t fun. There must be easier ways to feel peaceful. What a waste of time! I’m fed up with being told to focus on this dumb breath.” Yes, the mind was having a great time with the thoughts pouring through it and my reactivity to each of those thoughts.

The fourth day loomed in the early hours of the morning as the first bell rang to wake up and go to the meditation hall. I sat with my blankets around me to keep me warm. Somewhere during that day I began to notice I wasn’t so agitated. My mind was still busy but I wasn’t reacting so violently to the thoughts. I noticed my body was a little softer and more relaxed. It still ached but I wasn’t holding myself so tensely. The instructions became helpful and soothing rather than annoying and repetitive. As the days of meditation continued my mind was not so besieged with thoughts. In these moments I felt very calm, very peaceful, very still, and deeply relaxed. My body seemed to straighten and grow taller as I continued to sit cross-legged in the practice sessions. The room took on a deep and penetrating silence. I felt that silence filling me with a joyousness that was somehow familiar and something that I had forgotten long ago.

What made me stay for the ten-day duration of the meditation course? Perhaps it was curiosity to find out if this formal “meditation thing” really worked. Perhaps I was ready for the immense shift in my life that meditation brought. Certainly when I began to experience the stillness and quietness inside me I couldn’t wait to get to the hall to sit and meditate. I began to realize that meditation really does work. Could I continue to bring inner peace and calm, serenity and acceptance into my life? That is indeed the ongoing journey.

What I have learnt is that meditation does require perseverance and discipline. It requires that you show up each day to sit in your practice for whatever length of time you have decided is right for your life. The ‘secrets’ for an ongoing meditation practice are perseverance and discipline, and accepting and allowing what is happening in any moment. These ‘secrets’ will enable anyone I believe to benefit from meditation.

There are all sorts of reasons why people begin meditation. For me it was part of my spiritual journey. Once I had tasted the profound peace I experienced on my first ten day retreat I have never stopped my formal practice. That doesn't mean that from that day on I lived in peace and bliss. Far from it. My responses to life have presented me with many challenges over the years. Sometimes I remained centred and balanced, other times I caved in under the emotional turmoil.

What then is the most appropriate action to take when as the old saying goes, "you have taken one step forward and two steps backwards"? You have "lost it" in reactive behaviour to someone or something else. You may feel angry, sad, resentful, despairing, and overcome with many chaotic emotions. In fact you are feeling down right miserable.

First of all don't give up your meditation practice even though the temptation not to meditate is very strong, especially if when you sit you become even more agitated than you are already. Accept the agitation, the clamour of thoughts to fill your mind. Accept and allow what is happening, "Oh, so this is what's going on right now. Interesting. This is how my body feels when I'm in this state." Watch your breath as it comes and goes, coming back to the breath each time your mind wanders. As your mind settles and becomes more focused, scan your body. If you are agitated there will be places in your body where you will feel very strong sensations. They may for example, be in your throat, your heart, your stomach, your head or some other place in your body. Be with the sensations as much as you can. Observe them. Breathe into them. Accept them as they are. The tendency is to try to get away from any discomfort. It is natural for humans to do that. Humans avoid pain as much as they can and will over medicate (yes, medicate not meditate), over eat, over drink, over exercise, over watch TV, or do something else to distract them from what they feel as pain and discomfort. Many studies show that when people observe the sensations in their bodies they are able to manage both physical and emotional pain more effectively.

Next time you become destabilized by reacting to something or someone else take some time out. It may only be for five minutes but that may be enough time to centre yourself again. Meditate by focusing on your breath. Observe the breath. As thoughts arise observe the thoughts, as sensations arise in your body observe the sensations. Keep on coming back to your breath. Just be aware letting go of all judgments. Know that the thoughts and the sensations are all rising, and falling, and passing away. See if you can, even if only for a moment, sit back and watch the movie with detachment.

Accept and allow whatever is happening in your meditation practice. As I read through forums and links to meditation I come across people who are very caught up in the phenomena that will arise in meditation practice. Such phenomena as flashing lights, voices, visions, symbols, out of body experiences often happen in meditation practice. Sometimes these heightened experiences are very pleasant and after coming out of the meditation practice a person may feel they have been in an altered state. Then what can occur is a desire to repeat that in the next meditation session. It usually doesn't happen and then there can often be great disappointment. I have seen this time and time again over the years at meditation retreats. Some students could not accept that such a phenomenon is like anything else; rising and falling and passing away. They became attached to what they had experienced. Often the ego would be convincing them that they were special or chosen in some way. They would talk about their mind-altering experiences to whoever would listen and it was a way of making them feel superior to others. If you do have any of these experiences accept and allow them to be there. Stay fully present in your one pointed focus. Whatever you do refrain from trying to recapture that experience. Treat it like any other that arises in your practice. Approach each meditation session without any expectation of how it should be. Accept and allow and stay alert in momentary awareness.

The other day I went into a healing centre and there above the doorway hung a line of Tibetan prayer flags. They were in bright bold colours of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Each flag had a single Mandarin symbol printed on it and below the translation in English. As I read each one I thought how meditative these high vibrational words and sentences were. I asked my friend's colleague where the flags had come from. He said he had bought them in a shop in Sydney, Australia. I do so appreciate whoever wrote them. They are quoted below and you may be interested in using them in your life. Perhaps you too may resonate with these high vibrational words and sentences.

As a suggestion you could concentrate on one of them each time you meditate, quietly repeating the word as a mantra to enable you to remain in one pointed focus in your practice. You could write the words on cards and place them around your home, office, in your car, wallet or purse to read to yourself and absorb the essence of these words. You could memorize some of the sentences and repeat them as affirmations. Singing them out loud in the shower, in the car, or as you exercise, are other ways of holding them in your consciousness. This last idea is probably best done alone unless you are a great singer!

As you continue your meditation practice these very qualities will be more and more an integral part of your life.

PEACE
To bring peace to the earth strive to make your own life peaceful.

HAPPINESS
When one's spiritual needs are met by an untroubled inner life, happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to others.

LOVE
An inspired form of giving, love breathes life into the heart and brings grace to the soul.

COURAGE
Not the absence of fear or despair but the strength to conquer them.

TRANQUILITY
The peace that comes when energies are in harmony, relationships are in balance.

WISDOM
Knowledge, intuition and experience, combine to guide us in thought and deed.

We come into the world on the inward breath and we leave this world on the outward breath. Breath is with us all our lives. It is something that we cannot do without for too long. If you are one of the many people who have taken "The Learn How to Meditate in Five Days" course from our website you would have had the opportunity to become very aware of the breath. The one pointed focus is the breath, just allowing the breath to come and go as it will, not trying to control, coerce or manipulate the breath but just observing it. As you now continue to do your daily meditation practice you may be finding that as your mind quietens, your breath is naturally deepening. You may also be aware in your daily practice that your body is becoming a lot more peaceful, still and calm.

As you go about your day after your meditation remain aware as much as you can as to how you are breathing. From time to time breathe deeply into your lower lungs which forces your belly to expand, and as you breathe out, breathe out until you are empty. Notice how your body feels after taking a deep and clearing breath.

Take a few moments right now to become conscious of your breath. How are you breathing? Are you breathing fully and freely, so that each inhalation expands your belly? Or are you breathing high in your chest so that each breath is shallow rather than full and deep? Breathing deeply keeps your body relaxed and reduces feelings of being uptight, stressed and agitated. I believe that if you can maintain awareness of your breath throughout the day you will also enhance your meditation practice. In time whatever you are doing will be that of one pointed focus and concentration. It is possible to move through your day in a meditative state, fully conscious, fully aware. The breath is always there as your guide to the internal state of well being, or not, inner calm and inner peace, or not.

If you are feeling particularly nervous about something and you can sit quietly by yourself for a little time (even if this means escaping into the bathroom) try this form of one pointed focus. Breathe in through your nose allowing your belly to expand, and as you breathe out, breathe out through your mouth making the sound…aaaaaaah. On each outward breath keep on allowing yourself to make the sighing sound. Do this repeatedly until you feel calm. As you breathe out keep on relaxing on the outward breath, letting the air fall out of your body, moving into a state of relaxed calmness and focus, and as you breathe in, breathe in so that your belly expands.

Recently I had an email from a friend who said that his partner had decided that meditation seemed to be a rather inefficient way of sorting one's stuff out. I took "stuff" to mean fears, and negative thoughts about oneself, others, and life in general. Is meditation inefficient in this sense? It would seem from all the research available that meditation is indeed a very efficient tool to align yourself to life. Training and focusing the mind through whatever style or technique suits, whether based on the physical or mental senses brings about change.

In many of the circles and groups I have moved about in there was often a great emphasis on 'enlightenment'. This is a state that produces oneness with the universe, increased awareness and understanding, and a continuous state of bliss. The emphasis on being all light and love so often left many of us still dealing with "our stuff." I had mistaken the real purpose of meditation (to focus and concentrate the mind with its many beneficial mental and physical side affects), to escaping from all that appeared to be mundane. I wanted to become very spiritual and above having to deal with such things as relationships, working, and paying the bills. Well, I was doing these things but in a haphazard way because my attention was always on the light and the love that seemed to me to be separate from daily living.

Back in those days I had an expectation of meditation. So much for the Budda's teaching of "Anicca, Anicca, Annica," ( Everything constantly rising and falling and passing away). I wanted to be out of this miserable world on a high of bliss and everlasting nirvana. That was my goal and my immense struggle for a long time. Perhaps that is one of the reasons people get so confused about meditation. It is so often seen as a mystical practice; of reaching a state of holy endowment, sitting in some serene cross-legged pose.

In writing Fragrant Heart I wanted to create a website that focuses on the practical benefits of living your life in greater peace, calmness and relaxation. If 'enlightenment' happens along the way, well and good.

As I researched and talked to others and brought my own experience into this website, I found that most people are looking for a meditation practice to reduce the stresses in their lives. In doing so there are the side effects of letting go worry and anxiety, and experiencing increasing states of inner peace and calm. In this very fertile practice it will stand to reason that "stuff," "baggage", or whatever else is deemed as limiting to fully experiencing the joy of being alive will also gradually dissolve.

If you also consider meditation to be inefficient in dealing with your "stuff" I would encourage you to find a meditation technique that interests you. There are so many of them. In doing so you will find that the benefits of meditation will come to you much faster.

Perhaps you have been meditating for a little while and you began with great enthusiasm. You may have had an intention for your meditation practice, such as reducing your stress levels, or being able to concentrate more effectively in your life. You may also have prepared a special place to do your practice where you could go each day and be alone in a peaceful spot. Then you begin to find that you are coming up with excuses as to why you are unable to meditate. This is resistance. This is normal and happens to everyone of us who takes the path of meditation. Why does this happen? The mind wants to be in control. The mind is creating thoughts all the time. Stilling the mind requires focus, concentration and discipline. The mind is restless and when it does take over its influence is such that you can start believing the thoughts that arise. For example, "This meditation is not working. I've been practising everyday now for two weeks and I'm still not enlightened. What's the point of it anyway? I'd much rather be watching television. I don't like sitting still. It's not good for my body. And these feelings are just yuk and who needs them?" And on and on it goes. Again, just remember that you will experience resistance. Just accept and allow it. "So this is what resistance feels like." Carry on with your practice and it will pass sooner or later.

There is so much information on the net to guide you and inspire you to k