Minutes of Meditation for Magic Moments

The previous Great NEWS post was Creating Vision Boards to Achieve Your Dreams, and today we focus on Minutes of Meditation for Magic Moments.

Two weeks ago I wrote a post about Maintaining Alignment, Muscles and Posture based on some current challenges in my life evolving from many injuries over several decades. Many others have also shared their issues with me, so why not all benefit and learn together?

Due to my personal quest to resolve them and help others deal with theirs this post starts a ten week series designed to go into much greater details regarding how and why maintaining alignment, muscles and posture is so essential for your long term happiness and health. This week we start with minutes of meditation for magic moments to reduce stress which may well be the number one cause of all disease and health issues.

The original blog post shared my top 10 tips to help you keep your body in a peak performance physiology for life. It offered short summaries regarding suggestions for maintaining alignment, muscles and posture to prevent the challenges from becoming real pains in the back, butt and neck. Since a few sentences may not be enough to inform, influence and inspire you to take adequate action, this post is devoted to offering a more detailed explanation of one of the tips that can help you improve the quality of your life now and for the future.

Where Does Your Pain Come From?

Do you have any back, elbow, head, hip, knee, neck, shoulder, wrist or other aches that refuse to go away and often flare up and cause ongoing problems? These could be resulting from a number of individual or collective causes. Common contributors include: bad posture, car accidents, chairs, child birth delivery issues, computer monitor placement, couches, ergonomics, falls, high heels, imbalanced muscle development, improperly fitting shoes, injuries, low quality shoe inserts and support, mattress/sleep problems, military service injuries, overdeveloped muscles, pillow size, poor alignment, posture, sports injuries, stress, tight muscles and tendons, underdeveloped muscles, unnatural gait running and walking and many more. There are so many things that can directly and indirectly cause or lead to pains and problems.

Stress can effect your emotional, mental and physical ability to focus and function.

Of all these contributors, stress may be the one that is the most common and harmful to your health and vitality. Stress can affect our sleep, cause our hormones to be out of balance, and muscles to tighten up. This all contributes to back, head, neck and shoulder problems, which in turn causes a chain reaction affecting our brain, endocrine system and organs. This can in turn affect our activities, career, digestion, relationships and ultimately our longevity.

In Maintaining Alignment, Muscles and Posture, I discussed meditation as a great way to calm the mind, focus on deep breathing and relax. It is obvious that reducing stress through meditation may be one of the easiest and best ways to improve your overall body, mind and spiritual health. A regular practice of meditating helps with rejuvenating, relaxing and restoring your mental clarity and overall well being.

When we feel emotional anxiety and stress, we often do things to distract ourselves and dull the pain. When we feel calm, energized and focused, we are more likely to avoid the unhealthy and unintelligent temptations in life that often lead to a chain reaction of behaviors that can lead us into a downward spiral. Deep diaphragm breathing combined with meditation will provide adequate oxygen for energy and peak performance which helps keep us on track with our emotional, mental and physical development for peak performance.

Create Peace of Mind & Wellness

Most people think of meditation as someone sitting on the floor in a crossed-leg position with the first finger and thumb touching or hands clasped. While this is very common, any place or position from sitting on a chair or couch to even lying down is acceptable. Any position that works for you is better than no meditation, so go ahead and get comfortable and begin. Even science research has learned there are numerous happiness, health and harmonious benefits from regular meditation. There are many articles and books available on the short and long term advantages to meditation. What more do you need to be convinced it can help with overall peace of mind and wellness?

Meditation is commonly acknowledged, discussed and practiced by most of the world’s religious faiths, such as: Bahai, Buddhism, Christianity, Hindu, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sufis, Taoist, Tibetans and Zen. Therefore, you have the choice of considering it an intellectual, religious or spiritual practice depending on your own personal point of view. Regardless of your religious beliefs, it is obvious most faiths of the world consider meditation an important ritual for many reasons and encourage their followers to practice it.

There are many forms of meditation with a proven track record to consider. Some of the more common ones are: Transcendental Meditation (TM), Primordial Sound Meditation (PSM), Breath Meditation, Mantra Meditation, Gong Meditation, Chanting Meditation, Sound Meditation, Music Meditation, Prayer Meditation, Tibetan Meditation, Candle Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation and Cosmic Meditation.

Meditation Modalities

Transcendental Meditation (TM) was originated by the founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and is taught by his TM centers. TM appears to be a combined form of mantra and sound meditation that is learned by attending classes taught by Maharishi trained teachers at various TM centers.

Primordial Sound Meditation (PSM) is taught by the Chopra Center and Certified teachers as another discipline of meditation. Deepak Chopra and the Maharishi were business partners in the past so there may be many similarities between the two. I attended the PSM training program and have practiced if faithfully since 2006. Having tried many forms of meditation over a 30 year period PSM has been the most beneficial and profound for me. PSM offers emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health and therapeutic benefits and became my primary form of daily meditation practice.

Deepak Chopra M.D. has helped introduce the many benefits of meditation to many people around the world.

Breath Meditation is designed to use a specific pattern of breathing to oxygenate the body while it calms the body, mind and spirit. Very specific breath patterns are used with pranayama breathing to achieve advanced states of profound body, mind and spirit awareness.

Mantra Meditation is a method of listening to, saying or thinking of special sounds known as mantras while in a quiet and relaxed position. The sounds are created with specific emphasis on the use of the breath, mouth and tongue to create a variety of sounds that resonate in different areas of the body. There is even a breath walking mediation that combines a unique breathing pattern while saying mantras to enhance the benefits.

Gong Meditation is based on the principle of the sounds of the gong being used to block out other sounds and thoughts as it enters your ears and mind. Many different sounds and tones can be achieved with a gong that is quite beneficial at helping you let go of the distractions and thoughts so you are able to reach a calmer and more peaceful state of being.

Chanting Meditation uses different sounds or words that help you let go of distractions and go deeper within your being. One of the most well known versions is Gregorian Chant which is a Christian chant that has been used for hundreds and maybe thousands of years. Often the chant is set to music and sounds like a prayer in Latin.

Sound Meditation can use any natural and peaceful sound to help quiet the mind and relax the body. Common examples are rainfall, running rivers, singing birds, water falls, water fountains, waves on a sea shore, whale songs, wind and wind chimes.

Music Meditation is often based on using an instrumental piece of music without words. Some common examples are Baroque, dulcimer, drumming, flute, harp, harpsichord, Native American flute and piano

Prayer Meditation is usually associated with repeatedly reciting a single word, few words or full prayer over and over. Often a set of prayer beads are used to keep count and maintain a specific ritual.

Tibetan Meditation often uses bells to calm the breath and quiet the mind. It may involve one large bell with a timed repetition of ringing or use several smaller bells of different sizes with a defined or random pattern.

Candle Meditation is based on using the flickering flame of a candle for focusing your eyes with the intention of calming and relaxing the mind.

Mindfulness Meditation is often defined as the process of being fully awake, aware and observant of all that is happening around you. Being mindful involves using all your senses to tune into the power of the universe and what is going on around you. Most of us go into mindless trance doing the same things over and over without being aware of our choices or influence on the world around us. Mindfulness is being present with this moment and not living in the past of future. Mindful meditation can take place all day long to keep you grounded in the here and now.

Cosmic Meditation often has the specific purpose of learning answers or information. A person would ask a question or think of a specific topic with the intention of meditating on that idea to access insight, knowledge and wisdom from the field of infinite intelligence that connects all life. Many great leaders, thinkers and wise men over the ages have used this process to help them find guidance and solutions by tapping into the collective consciousness.

Manifest Health, Happiness & Harmony

Meditation can be a deeply intellectual, religious and spiritual activity or it can just be an easy and healthy break from a busy and stressful day. Regardless of your beliefs and values meditation may be one of the most powerful things you can do to enhance your energy, health and well being.

Meditation may be one of the most powerful health and wellness habits to adopt

There are other versions of meditation and most use a combination of the above mentioned techniques. Meditation focuses on breathing, calming the mind and going deep within your being to access the cosmic consciousness and infinite intelligence. By doing this on a daily and regular basis you can enhance your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual life for greater happiness and health. As you are tuning into these states on a regular basis you are much more likely to continue manifesting happiness, health and harmony in your life which continues the continuum of balance, peak performance and well being in all areas of your life.

When things are not going well and you are feeling sad, sick, stressed and tired give meditation a chance to help turn things around. Better yet, why wait? Why not start meditation now to help access your inner wisdom, expand your awareness and take your life to the next level?

This Great NEWS post regarding Minutes of Meditation for Magic Moments is easy to apply and easy not to apply. Are you ready to step up and take your life to the next level? Two weeks ago I wrote a post about Maintaining Alignment, Muscles and Posture. Like any complicated electronics device if you abuse or misuse your body and do not take special care of it, it will malfunction. Enjoy this ten week series on Maintaining Alignment, Muscles and Posture which is essential for your long term health and peak performance by applying Minutes of Meditation for Magic Moments.

What is your current Gap?

What are you doing for Maintaining Alignment, Muscles and Posture? How often do you practice meditation?

Mastery Action Plan (MAP)

Learn meditation by listening to a CD, reading a book, taking a class or watching a DVD and practice it twice a day for at least 90 days. Then decide for yourself how beneficial, relaxing and therapeutic meditation can be.

Call to Action

What comments, commitments or questions do you have regarding meditation?

Next week the Great NEWS blog will share:

Power Walking Strategy : Powerful Wellness System