Meditation is for Smarties by Author Joleen Bridges
ABOUT JOLEEN BRIDGES
Joleen is a life-long Missouri resident and currently resides in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Besides writing, Joleen's favorite things to do are; hang out with family, travel, read, and pretty much anything related to nature. Joleen is passionate about the topics of consciousness, enlightenment, spirituality and personal empowerment. Her debut book,Finding Home, Breaking Free from Limits, available at Amazon.com and on the book's website, represents over 10 years of research and a lifetime of inspiration to present readers with a comprehensive look at understanding and releasing our self imposed limits to discover your authentic potential and divine authority to live a life by design.
Joleen also has other inspiring articles on her book's website, www.breakingfreefromlimits, that may interest those on a path of enlightened consciousness. You can contact Joleen for speaking engagements or for questions about her book via email @ jhallo03@hughes.netor through the book's website. Joleen is currently working on her next spiritual empowerment book and is now accepting feedback and comments on her website towards topics of interest to the spiritual seeker.
Meditation is for Smarties - The Basics of Meditation
Meditation seems so boring. All you do is just sit there. Meditation is not for me, I am too energetic. I can't sit still for very long.
For any of my non-meditation friends that have ever considered meditation, but then talked themselves out, maybe it's time to take another look at this easy, free and tremendously beneficial practice. Yes, meditation can be used to facilitate transformative spiritual experiences, but if this is not your goal, no worries. This timeless practice can put so many "parts" of you in the plus column, it's hard to not start right away. Here are a few of the known health and wellness benefits of meditation:
Stress Relief
Relaxation
Improved Mood
Tension and Fatigue Improvement
Enhanced Energy, strength and vigor
· Reduces anxiety attacks as it lowers the levels of blood lactate
· Builds self confidence
· Increases serotonin which influences moods and behavior. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, headaches and insomnia
· Helps keep blood pressure normal
· Creates a state of deep relaxation and general feeling of wellbeing
· Helps with Pre Menstrual Tension
· Increases concentration and strengthens the mind
· Helps reduce heart disease
· Improved state of mind
· Improved sleep
· Enhanced peaceful countenance
· Increased control of anger, irritation, annoyance, negative thinking
· Improved view of yourself
· Enhanced brain function, imagination and intuitiveness
· Increased connection to spirituality
Are you kidding me? This is like a magic pill? Why isn't everyone doing this?
The reason most people do not have a regular mediation practice is because they do not know how to start one, or they have tried what they think is meditation and because it didn't seem to benefit them, they quit. Meditation is easy, but there are a few guidelines you should follow to actually be meditating as opposed to sitting with your eyes closed letting your mind challenge you to a mental dual of; continue meditating versus wasting time sitting here with my eyes closed. I'll throw out some basic tips for you to get started. After you begin a meditation practice and begin to realize some results from it, I encourage you to continue to enhance your meditation practice with additional techniques and extended lengths of time.
Basic Tip #1: Wear comfy clothes and sit upright (or you will fall asleep) while meditating. Sit in a chair, forward on the edge of your couch or on a comfy pillow on the floor with your legs crossed. Your back/spine should be straight, shoulders down and relaxed with your head looking straight ahead. Pick a quiet setting or environment that has no distractions. Phone off, dogs out, TV off. You can use music if you want, I do, but many like it quiet. If you do use music, pick something soothing and I recommend staying away from music with lyrics.
Basic Tip #2: You should meditate for no less that 15 minutes, but I highly encourage more time if you can. Twice a day is optimum, but at least once a day. Mornings work best for me - it kind of prepares my day for me. But meditation can be done at any time for any length of time, including a 5 minute meditation after a particularly challenging moment in your day. I find meditation most powerful with my eyes closed, but many leave their eyes open looking slightly down.
Basic Tip #3: The key to meditation is the breath. One key philosophy about meditation is balance. Begin your meditation taking easy breaths. Begin to deepen your breaths and focus your mind on your breathing. Consider your inhale as a plus sign and your exhale as a negative sign, and begin to feel the balance of your breathing. You will find, if you pay attention, that you cannot be totally focused on your breath and have a busy chaotic mind at the same time. Let your breath be your guide during your meditation practice. When you feel totally distracted from your meditation, always come back to the breath. Allow thoughts to come and pass on by, always reconnecting to your breathing. Don't cling to any thought or feeling. A large benefit of meditation is learning, through your meditation, to let go, so let thoughts come and be carried away like a breeze.
Basic Tip #4: To expand your meditation technique towards focus on specific areas of improvement, like relaxation, stress relief, pinpoint concentration, or brain improvements, add some creative ideas to your practice. For instance, if you want to work on relaxation, a common meditation technique to enhance relaxation while meditating is the following: Gently direct your focus to each area of your body and sense that area of your body coming into a fully relaxed state. Allow yourself several breathing cycles while you are focusing on one specific area of your body for relaxation. If you want to focus your meditation on overall healing energy, you may want to try imagining golden white healing light or smoke entering into your body during your inhalation and dark gray/blue light or smoke exiting your body during your exhalation. Expand your healing light deeper into your body with each new inhalation until you entire body if filled with warm healing light.
You should begin to experience the benefits from mediation right away, especially with your relaxation, stress reduction, and calmness of mind. Remember, you do not have to be in your special zen zone at home to meditate, you can take a quiet quick meditation any time. Many benefits of your meditation will show up later, quite unconsciously, when you realize you are sleeping better or a friend comments on your changed mood.
Ok, so there you have it. What's not to love? There are so many ways you can tweak your meditation process to focus on specific areas of your body and mind or to significantly enhance your spiritual connection. Give yourself this opportunity.
Enjoy, relax, go out and buy a new cool yogi outfit to get in the spirit.
Peace! Joleen
ABOUT FINDING HOME-BREAKING FREE FROM LIMITS
Within our soul, we are already free. There is within us an indescribable place where we know this instinctively and intuitively - this is a place we call "home." Finding Home, Breaking Free from Limits is a charter to discover that place, and in doing so, transform our lives and the lives of others.
Finding Home, Breaking Free from Limits intention is to energize the mind to challenge the propaganda of fear and limitations and enable one to embrace a new attitude of personal and spiritual empowerment. The condition this book addresses is limits - personal limits that impact our individual spirit, and subsequently, our relationships, communities and our world.
Finding Home creates a paradigm shift away from limits and into a realization of unlimited potential. Never again will you look at yourself and the world around you in the same way after you found that place of "home."
