Solutions Beyond the Mainstream » depression

Meditation For Calming the Mind

Michelle — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:00:32 +0000

This is a partial re-post from a post I wrote months ago and felt the need to post it again due to my “rebirth into balance.” One of the things I had let go for 6 weeks were my meditations. This is a brief explanation of meditation as well as how to meditate.

Enjoy!

MEDITATION

Meditation is sustained and unbroken concentration that leads to a highly focused mind. Meditation moves us from using our subconscious mind to our conscious mind. Living in the conscious mind, trains us to live with more focus, proficiency and creativity and less disorganized, chaotic and scattered. Meditation will actually help you to think in new ways and gain deeper perspective on experiences. You will find that you are not bothered by things that might have bothered or even upset you in the past.

Other benefits of meditation include:

Slows the release of hormones in response to stress
Stronger immune system
Reduction of anxiety
Lowers blood pressure
Decreases muscle tension and headaches
Increases serotonin production (low serotonin levels are linked to depression, obesity, insomnia and even headaches)
Substance abuse, alcoholism and cigarette smoking have all been helped by meditation
Increases compassion for others
Self Acceptance

The list goes on and on and these are just a few ways that meditation can be life changing.

HOW TO MEDITATE?

Find a nice peaceful area, and sit quietly (don’t lie down), set your timer (by setting a timer you are not constantly interrupting your practice by opening your eyes and checking your clock) and just clear your mind. As thoughts come in, imagine an ocean wave rolling in and pulling them away, gently, slowly then return to silence. Another visual is to see the words falling off a cliff then the cliff is empty. Any visual will work, have fun with it. Remember, meditation is a practice and even people that have done meditation for years for hours per day still call it a practice. The human mind must be trained NOT to have thoughts and it takes practice! So be easy on yourself.

Meditation seems difficult to some people, I often will hear, “I have tried but I can’t!” YES YOU CAN! Meditation is the simple act of quieting your mind. For many people having a focus, like a mantra helps them with mediation. Pick a mantra like “peace” or “OM” or any word that you are drawn to and simply state it over and over again, slowly. You can even sing it out loud or to yourself. The point is to concentrate fully on that word and that word only. When other thoughts drift in, repeat your word/mantra.

You can meditate while walking, riding a bike or even driving! It’s simply clearing your mind and thinking of nothing! Try driving home from work without your cell phone to your ear or the radio on and repeat your mantra out loud for 10 minutes, it’s so incredibly powerful. The next time you go for a walk be present moment with what you are noticing, do NOT bring your iPod or your cell phone, remain present moment and focused on what’s around you!

HOW LONG TO MEDITATE?

Meditation is not something that you have to do 60 minutes a day to begin with. When you first begin a meditation practice, begin with 2 or 5 minutes per day. Stick with that for a week until you feel you are ready to extend your time. Continue extending your time to 15-20 minutes per day and if you can maintain this amount of time-great! If you can only commit to 10 minutes per day this is great too. Spending even a few moments a day of being mindful is far better than not spending any time. It would be nice to have a goal of 20 minutes per day at some point; this may take some time to accomplish and it’s OK.

Be easy on yourself and celebrate even your smallest accomplishments, even your 2 minute victory. You may feel like 2 minutes is nothing but I guarantee you, you are benefiting your brain in more ways than you could ever imagine.

Bathing Away Negative Emotions

Michelle — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:00:24 +0000

My 12 year old came in from school and said he had a bad day and that he “needed” a bath. I realized in that moment how often both of my kids take baths not because they are dirty but because they, “need them.” I thought to myself, how intuitive of them.

As we know, bath time is a time of not only cleansing dirt but is also a time of relaxation. We all know that ads “Calgon take me away!” Bath time is where let go of all of our tensions and frustrations from the day. But there is actually more to a bath.

When we add 2 cups of sea salt to our bath and soak for 20 minutes we cleanse our emotional field. This field of energy that we all have exists off of our physical body. Imagine a bubble of soft light/energy that encircles the human body, this is the emotional body.

When we leave our home and encounter another human being, whether we know them or not, we step into their energy field. Unfortunately when we step away from them we also take “their emotional stuff” with us. We may take their good mood or bad mood, their fight with their boss, their depression or their elation over getting engaged-all of it.

Have you ever left the house in a great mood and by the time you got home you were in a terrible mood? When we absorb someone’s emotions from their energy field, we feel their emotions-good and/or bad!

Sea salt baths remove other people’s emotions that have attached to our field but also balance out our energy centers, our chakras to create an extra peaceful state.

Love Your Food

Michelle — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:06:03 +0000

I remember growing up saying a blessing before we ate our meals. I never quite understood why we did this until a few years ago when I learned the relationship between food and energy.

This is a beautiful excerpt from the book Nourishing Traditions that reminds us the importance of being present in performing every daily task, even preparing our meals.

“If woman could see the sparks of light going forth from her fingertips when she is cooking and the substance of light that goes into the food she handles, she would be amazed to see how much of herself she charges into the meals that she prepares for her family and friends.

It is one of the most important and least understood activities of life-that the radiation and feeling that go into the preparation of food affect everyone who partakes of it, and this activity should be unhurried, peaceful and happy. It would be better that an individual did not eat at all than to eat food that has been prepared under a feeling of anger, resentment, depression or an outward pressure, because the substance of the lifestream performing the service flows into that food and is eaten and actually becomes part of the energy of the receiver. That is why the advanced spiritual teachers of the East never eat food prepared by anyone other than their own chelas. Conversely, if the one preparing the food is the only one in the household who is spiritually advanced and an active charge of happiness, purity and peace pours forth into the food from him, this pours forth into the other members and blesses them. I might say that there are more ways than one of allowing the Spirit of God to enter the flesh of man.” (Maha Chohan Electrons)

Eat Your Way To Happiness

Michelle — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:59:08 +0000

We all have our bad days. Many times when we are having a bad day we reach for potato chips, ice cream, alcohol or another vice that (temporarily) makes us feel better.

When we get tripped up and fall into a bad day one idea to get us back into balance is food. Before we go on an eating binge, hang on, there are certain types of foods to help us back to happiness.

Let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts behind this theory. There are two ideas to examine:

1. Negative thoughts and emotions carry an energetic vibration that is very low (feels heavy), versus happy thoughts and emotions which carry a much higher vibration (feels lighter).

2. The law of attraction teaches us that “like attracts like.”

So we can conclude that when we are feeling down, we crave something that has a similar vibrational match to our mood, like the vibration of candy bars, potato chips, ice cream or something similar.

One solution to help lift us out of our sadness is to choose foods with a higher vibration. If we are eating foods with a higher vibration then (because of law of attraction) we could begin to feel better.

Foods with the highest vibration are “live” (or uncooked) like raw fruits and vegetables.

Sometimes when we feel the need to be comforted, an alternative choice are foods that are warm like soups, stews or steamed vegetables. These foods are cooked but still hold a higher vibration (because of the vegetables) than fried or sugary sweets.

So the next time you feel you need an emotional boost, eat your fruits and veggies. They help to your energy to vibrate higher, in your heart, the same place happiness resides.

Maintaining Peace Throughout the Holidays. Part I

Michelle — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:26:24 +0000

As the holidays quickly approach, there is a feeling of not only excitement in the air but also the impending dread of cooking for days, shopping with 10 times the people in the stores, driving on the roads with people that are angryand in a hurry and seeing relatives that you just don’t care to see or be around. So what can a person do to make through the holidays with peace and even joy?

There are actually many ways to keep in balance and not get sucked into the collective consciousness of “holiday stress.” The holiday’s can be joyful from Thanksgiving through New Years. In fact the tools that you will read about throughout the next 6 weeks are tools that can be used throughout the entire year to maintain peace, balance and joy in your daily life! So learn the techniques now and continue using them throughout 2010.

The first tool that in this holiday series is:

MEDITATION

Other benefits of meditation include:

Slows the release of hormones in response to stress
Stronger immune system
Reduction of anxiety
Lowers blood pressure
Decreases muscle tension and headaches
Increases serotonin production (low serotonin levels are linked to depression, obesity, insomnia and even headaches)
Substance abuse, alcoholism and cigarette smoking have all been helped by meditation
Increases compassion for others
Self Acceptance

The list goes on and on and these are just a few ways (relating to holiday stress) that meditation can be life changing.

HOW TO MEDITATE?

HOW LONG TO MEDITATE?

The Power of Acceptance

Michelle — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:34:35 +0000

When faced with a situation that you cannot control, one that makes you angry, sad depressed or frustrated there is greatpower in acceptance. When finding out your best friend is moving or your husband wants a divorce or a parent is dying our first response is to stop it. After finding ourselves emotionally exhausted, drained and hopeless we still try and figure out how to prevent it from happening.

When we are confronted with a situation that we cannot repair, the next step simply for ourselves is acceptance. Put down your boxing gloves and just accept what is happening, it’s out of your control. By accepting the situation, our life energy is able to flow again, the depression/anxiety/rage dissipates and the dust settles. Clarity is the predominant state when we choose to accept a situation that we cannot change.

Acceptance is not for the benefit of the other person, it is for you and your own healing.