By Cynthia Sue Larson

Meditation has existed since the birth of humankind, and there are as many different kinds of meditations as there are different kinds of people in the world. Meditation does not require any particular spiritual or religious beliefs, nor is there any one “right” way to meditate. Some meditations are walking meditations, some focus on clearing the mind, some emphasize breathing and breath control, some involve silently repeating a secret mantra over and over again, and some involve carefully sensing one small thing (like slowly rolling a grape in your mouth and tasting it).

If you have tried a variety of meditations, then you might already know which kinds of meditation work best for you. If you are new to meditation, then you can try a variety of meditations in this chapter, and hopefully at least one of them will appeal to you.

Many studies have shown the benefits of meditation to be real and profound. Simply by meditating, people have been able to reduce the amount of stress they feel in their lives, alleviate physical pain, deepen awareness, relax muscle tension, improve mind-body coordination, achieve a sense of peace and joy, see more possibilities, and even reduce biological age.

In this chapter, different kinds of meditations are provided for assessing and transforming your aura to better suit the life you most wish to live. When you choose the area you most wish to improve (love, money, stress-relief), you can keep track of your progress in a journal by recording your observations as you undergo the process of changing your aura to change your life. Meditations can be done alone or in a group in which one person guides the meditation process and facilitates the sharing of experiences.

Have you ever been awakened in the middle of the night and not been able to fall hack asleep again? Sometimes when you are under a great deal of stress, your mind will focus on problems so much that your sleep may be disrupted. Even when you know that such worries are a waste of your time and energy, they can seem to take on a life of their own in the wee hours. At such times, you may find yourself compelled to wake up and do something active, because so much adrenaline races through your system. In these situations, remember that the best solution might be to meditate. It may take some effort for you to remember that meditation is an option, because the urgency to do something can be so powerful.

Another time when you can greatly benefit from meditating, but probably forget to do so, is when you’re frantically trying to get as many things done in as short a time as possible. Like a many-headed Hydra, you can lose your sense of unified vision and feel like you’re being pulled in several different directions at once. It can seem crazy to set aside twenty minutes to meditate at such times, since you are keenly aware of how much needs to be done. Try meditation out some time, and see if the twenty minutes you invest in meditation and/or prayer reaps returns that compensate for the delay and inconvenience involved. Instead of feeling stressed and tired, you can be feeling relaxed and energized. Instead of thinking you have few or no options available, you can see a wide variety of choices you can make. Instead of feeling confused, you can feel focused and centered. There are even times following meditation and/or prayer in which you might feel you are guided to do exactly the right things at the right times, and everything you do feels effortless — like you’re being assisted by fairies, elves, and angels!

If you are looking for the best way to enhance your aura and turn your life around, studies have shown that meditation might be the best thing you could do. A five-year study of male felons who were paroled from federal prisons showed that those parolees who practiced meditation were 35 percent to 40 percent less likely to return to prison or be sentenced for a new crime than otherwise similar parolees who didn’t meditate. Meditation was proven to be much more effective than vocational training, psychotherapy, and prison education for helping parolees break free of a life of crime. While your problems may not be quite as severe as those of federal prisoners, it’s still good to know that such a powerful tool exists for making sweeping changes in your life.

Most of the following meditations require that you have some quiet space to yourself for about twenty or thirty minutes. You can read through all of them to get an idea of which ones might be most helpful or interesting for you, and get a sense of what’s involved before you take the time to try them out.
Best Possible Life Chakra Meditation

This meditation is a powerful one, capable of changing your life for the better in every possible way. It can require a commitment of a great deal of time at first, but as your focus and attention improve, it will become easier and less time-consuming. The goal of the best possible life chakra meditation is to envision your best possible future self while viewing all seven of the primary chakras — and to align your chakras with this ideal arrangement.

As you begin this meditation process, you may experience some difficulty remaining focused on each chakra. The most important element and success factor for this meditation is that you strongly desire to align your chakras with your highest potential, and remain focused on each chakra as it feels and appears to you — waiting until your chakra changes to match the ideal configuration for you.

1. Imagine your best possible future self in energy form, with all seven primary chakras shining brightly. Feel your love for taking the path to becoming your best possible future self, and through this connection cord of love, sense your future self as if it were your own energy body right now through this energy cord.

2. Starting with the seventh chakra, the crown chakra, compare the way your best possible future self’s crown chakra feels with how your current energy body’s crown chakra feels. Especially note any differences in energy flow, color, and texture. If there is a big difference between the way your crown chakra feels now and the way it feels in your best possible future self, savor the feeling of your future self’s crown chakra. Bask in it; notice every nuance and detail of the experience.

3. Feel the energy line of love connecting your current energy body and your best possible future self’s energy body. Notice how the crown chakra on your best possible future self feels, and bring your current crown chakra up to feeling exactly like it. You may notice that other chakras in your energy body are affected by this change, and if this happens, relax in the knowledge that you are attuning your own energy body to its ideal configuration. Each chakra does affect its neighbors and is sensitive to changes. Go slowly and savor the way your crown chakra feels now.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for the sixth chakra, the third eye chakra. Feeling love for becoming as much like your best possible future self as you can, sense how the third eye chakra will feel when it is optimally configured for you. Take your time and use all your senses to savor this moment, and when you have noticed every important nuance of feeling, allow your current energy body’s third eye chakra to make the transition to its best possible configuration.

5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for the fifth chakra, the throat chakra. Feel how much you would love to have a perfectly configured throat chakra, and sense what this feels like. When you have a clear and complete feeling of this, bring it back to your current energy body’s throat chakra.

6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for the fourth chakra, the heart chakra. This is your chakra of love and compassion, and these are the feelings to focus on now for your best possible future self. How will your heart chakra feel when you are the living embodiment of your best possible future self? Bring this feeling back to your current energy body’s heart chakra, and hold that feeling — savoring and embracing it.

7. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for the third chakra, the solar plexus chakra. This is your communication center between you and the outside world, and a powerful energy center for manifesting what you want in your life. Feel how your best possible future self is holding this solar plexus chakra energy — is it clear and strong, and vibrant and clean? Most likely it’s in a lot better shape than your current solar plexus chakra energy! You can remedy this by transforming your existing solar plexus chakra to match that of your best possible future self.

8. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for the second chakra, the hara chakra just below your navel. This chakra is also known as the “dan tien” chakra, and it is a place you may he inadvertently picking up and carrying other peoples’ stuff. Feel how different your best possible future self’s second chakra is compared to your current energy body’s and allow your chakra to change to match your ideal self.

9. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above for the first chakra, the root chakra at the base of your spine. Feel how well grounded your best possible future self is, and how that allows you to stand up for yourself and feel centered and an important and integral part of all that is. Notice all the sensations in your best-balanced root chakra, and bring those qualities back to your current energy body root chakra.

10. Once you’ve viewed and transformed all your chakras, take a few more minutes to feel your chakras integrating with one another and interacting with the world around you. Pay attention to how your day goes differently than usual — hopefully in enjoyable ways, and in how you feel about yourself and events that unfold around you.

The first time you do this, it’s a good idea to draw what you see and take notes about what you observe in this exercise. Your notes will help remind you of your highest energetic goal.

Good Health and Healing Meditation

Just as chronic worry and stress first cause damage to one’s aura and then create problems in one’s physical body, freedom from stress can eventually clear one’s aura and reverse physical health problems. All meditations that increase an overall sense of being simultaneously energized and relaxed are therefore good for one’s health. The following meditation is especially good for improving one’s physical health, since that is its primary emphasis and intention.

I. Find a quiet time and space where you can have twenty to thirty minutes alone. Sit or lie down in the most comfortable position for you.

2. Close your eyes and feel your energy body around you. Notice if you can see any dark areas, holes, tears, rips, or sections of grainy energy.

3. Imagine that you are now calling on a brilliant angel/energy being of love, to help you repair the damaged areas in your aura. (Important: When you first call on angels, be sure to state that you only invite those who come in the purest form of unconditional love. Do not invite any energy beings who make demands upon you or do not feel completely loving.) This energy being is an expert at strengthening your energy field, and when you request assistance will immediately begin repairing all damaged areas of your aura.

4. If your energy body requires extensive assistance, call on another angel/energy being or two . . . or three! Know that whatever you need will be provided, as long as you ask with all your heart and feel grateful for the help you receive.

5. Observe what these angels are doing, and how much better you feel as they work to fluff, clear, and repair your aura. Note whatever physical sensations you feel as this healing continues.

Integrated Meditation

This meditation may seem rather exotic and unusual, because it involves visualizing all your possible selves. There is special value in this meditation, for it works to bring increasing order to the universe across all possible realities. As you find yourself becoming consciously connected to all your possible realities and becoming more relaxed and energized through this meditation, the benefits will he far-reaching and profound.

1. Imagine for a moment that you exist in many different forms across an infinite number of parallel universes. In one universe you are poor, in another you are wealthy, and in yet another you are the opposite gender from what you are today. What remains the same in every universe is some quality of uniqueness about your energy essence and who you truly are.

2. Imagine that as you become aware of all your possible selves, they become aware of you. When you intend to become more energized and relaxed through meditation, so will each of them.

3. Imagine that you and all your possible selves are grounded, so all negativity, stress, and tension slips down and away.

4. With each inhalation of love, all of your possible selves will feel loved and connected. With each exhalation of worries, doubts, anger and fear, all your possible selves feel stronger and more centered.

5. Imagine that you and all your possible selves are connected to a divine source and are receiving inspiration that will allow you to fulfill your unique purpose and special destiny.

6. As you finish this meditation, thank all your possible selves for joining you in this meditation.

Prosperity Meditation

You are already prosperous in many ways. This meditation will help you recognize how well you are doing, and increase your confidence that you are attracting all you desire to you right now. The key to success of the prosperity meditation is the feeling of it. It depends on your ability to feel gratitude and love, and to let go of fears and resentments.

1. Close your eyes, and see yourself as spirit or God would see you — shining brightly, like a star. You are surrounded by love and were created from love. You are precious beyond measure. You are blessed with the ability to help yourself and others in many ways. You have great potential within you to shine more brightly than ever before. The only things that have ever stopped you from shining so brightly have been your fears and resentments. Let go of all blame and anger, and all doubt and worry. You are a divine being of inner light who has become manifest in physical form. As you more fully embody this divine light, you will be blessed with abundant prosperity. Help is always here for you. All you ever need to do is ask spirit for guidance.

2. Open your eyes and say aloud three times, “The source of all prosperity is infinite, and blesses me with abundance. Thank you for fulfilling my every need today and always.”

3. Feel the loving energy of all those who support your endeavors.

4. Using all your high sensory perceptions (clairaudience, clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairgoutance, clairolorance), imagine your best possible future as fully and vibrantly as possible. See and feel yourself immersed in every aspect of life as you most need it to be. Say aloud, “All my favorite dreams have come true!” and feel the joy and exuberance of this being so.

A Fresh Start Meditation

To a large degree, your life is exactly what you create it to be. By virtue of your daily habitual thoughts and feelings, you create the foundation upon which the house of your life is built. The advantage of cleansing the foundation of your life of energetic clutter is that like a blank slate or tabula rasa, anything at all can be possible for you. This meditation is recommended for you if you have faced persistent problems in life, and wish to find an energetically clean point for starting fresh.

1. Do you remember a time when you were a child and felt wonderfully excited about something? You were not concerned with practicalities, and had not yet told anyone of how you were feeling and what you were thinking about. You were experiencing a moment that contained all possibility and tremendous enthusiasm.

2. Smell the smells around you as you feel this joyous state of being. You know in your heart and soul that anything is possible, and can look around at the world and feel your heart sing. See the colors and shapes of energy around you; feel their textures.

3. Wrap this special moment up energetically as a present from your past, and bring it to your life in this moment now. Feel the joyous sense of wonder you had and the sheer delight in being alive. This is the energy you can now bring to anything in your life you need it for — anything at all! With childlike wonder and creativity, you can face every situation with love, awe, and fearlessness. You are meant to succeed at bringing your special gifts to the world, and you can feel the sheer joy in reveling in the essence of all you are.

4. If you feel any negative thoughts or feelings, ground yourself and let them go down an auric energy cord to the earth. Look at that present of the bliss of your youthful excitement, and feel once again the sense of joy and wonder it brings to you. You are a whole new person today, refreshed with the youthful vigor of your spiritual energy and ready to do anything you put your mind to!
Bringing Meditation Home

Once you make meditation a regular part of your daily life, you may notice that you feel at home wherever you may be. If you want to know how much of a difference meditation can make in your life, keep track of how often you meditate in a journal. When you feel rushed, meditation can bring you back to a sense of living in the eternal now. When you feel tired, meditation can refresh and renew your body and spirits. When you feel confused, meditation can bring you clarity. When you feel defeated, meditation can bring you inspiration and new ideas.

About author:
Cynthia Sue Larson works with Aura Imaging Systems in California, consulting and developing cutting-edge technology to capture auras on film. She hosts a popular Web site, http://www.realityshifters.com, providing visitors with information about auras and a forum to discuss their own experiences. Her articles have appeared in magazines such as Magical Blend, Parabola, and Lightworker. Ms. Larson lives in Sacramento, CA.
http://www.realityshifters.com

By Laurel Kallenbach

You don’t have to live like a Zen monk or spend hours sitting silent and motionless on a cushion to benefit from meditation. In fact, if you’re the type of person who’s more comfortable moving or being outdoors, walking meditation might be your personal path to inner peace.

“Many people dislike traditional meditation – sitting still, trying to coax their mind to be blank,” says dancer, meditation teacher and body therapist Camille Maurine, who is the co-author with her husband Lorin Roche, Ph.D., of Meditation Secrets for Women (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001). “Meditation should never be uncomfortable. To make it work, find ways that are natural to you,” she advises. Walking meditatively is just one of the many ways her book suggests for being with yourself in a profound way.

To illustrate walking meditation at its best, Maurine tells the story of a woman who attended her meditation lecture. This woman criticized herself for being unable meditate the “right” way – sitting still and rigid. Yet, when she related her passion for walking, Maurine pointed out that walking itself could be meditative. “The woman described a day in the woods when she came upon a crane poised on a rock,” Maurine says.

“She stopped in her tracks and was drawn into a rapturous state watching the bird. And yet, before my talk, she’d never considered that her walks actually were meditations. When you open yourself to your environment, heighten your sensory awareness, and experience deep joy and presence in the moment – that’s meditation.”

Many cultures have forms of walking meditation in their traditions. Typically, walking is done slowly to allow for complete awareness of motion and breath. It’s the process of walking that’s important, not the speed or destination. “The more slowly you go, the more detailed your awareness,” says Maurine. “It’s also calming. The simplest movement such as how the weight shifts through your foot is intensified.” However, if it suits your mood, you may also walk briskly. “Whatever you do, observe your body and become curious and delighted by your body in motion,” she recommends.

Maurine believes walking meditation is liberating, and when it’s done outdoors, it connects you with nature. “As you walk, you have the freedom to turn your attention outward as well as inward,” she explains. “Outward attention is when you concentrate on being part of the whole environment. You see colors and notice the movement of branches and leaves in the wind. You smell the fragrances of the earth; you feel the air on your skin.”

To turn your attention inward, gaze down, just slightly ahead of your feet. Feel your breath, become conscious of your body’s movement, and listen to your thoughts and emotions. Because of the nature of meditative walking, sadness, fear, anger and anxiety can flow through you and move out as you walk and breathe.

The Path of Walking
Walking meditation, Maurine points out, benefits you in a number of ways:

Teaches you to stay centered and aware in the midst of other activities so that you’re less influenced by chaos around you in other situations.
Increases your sensory awareness, including the profound delights of the sights and sounds of the great outdoors.
Gets you out into fresh air and sunlight.
Helps you develop a deep meditative awareness of motion, something we often take for granted.
Focuses your attention on rhythm, including your breath and your gait. By walking meditatively, you become aware of how your hips move, how your feet touch the ground, and how your torso and arms sway.
Integrates exercise and your emotional state. The purpose of a walking meditation is to simply be, not to reach a destination or increase your cardiovascular capacity – although it may have that benefit. Play with the tempo of what feels good. If you feel energized, walk quickly. If you feel quiet and inward, walk slowly.
Increases your sense of joy in knowing that walking is good for your body and spirit.

10 Steps to Walking Meditation
Before you begin a walking meditation, choose comfortable clothing and supportive shoes. If you’re on a beach, go barefoot so your feet make direct contact with the Earth’s electromagnetic energy. You should also choose a place you find nourishing, whether it’s a park, a forest or your neighborhood block. Allow yourself at least 15 or 20 minutes to walk. However, Maurine notes, even 5 or 10 minutes can renew your spirit and energy. Then try her suggestions for your walking meditation:

icon1. Pause for a minute before you start, and feel yourself in the present. Use your senses to scan the world around you. Say hello to the sky; feel the ground beneath you. Notice your breath, then take several slow, deep ones to increase your awareness.
2. As you begin, start with the quality and tempo of walk that’s comfortable. The pace should allow you to stay aware of surroundings and your body.
3. Feel your feet connect with the ground. Isolate the sensation in your heels, toes, ankles. Feel the motion throughout your body, not just the legs. How do your hips move? How do your arms swing? You don’t have to change anything, just notice it.
4. Breathe in through the nose and out through either your nose or mouth. Pay attention to the rhythm and flow of your breath.
5. Take the time to truly appreciate the ability of your body to propel you forward.
6. Play with the tempo as you go, choosing a pace that’s nurturing. Slow down and speed up as you like.
7. Shift your attention from inward to outward, alternating between following the breath and focusing on the world around you. Devise a cycle that suits you, perhaps spending a minute on each, then switching.
8. Open up your senses. Feel the air move across your skin, enjoy the quality of light. See the colors of flowers and trees; notice the shapes of rocks and buildings. What sounds are you hearing? Observe the outer world as you would a painting, with heightened awareness.
9. Give yourself the freedom to pause. It’s okay to stop and touch the bark of a tree or smell an herb or flower.
10. At the end of your walk, pause, experience yourself again within your environment and listen to how you’re feeling. Give yourself a moment to consciously receive the benefits of your meditation and give thanks. Appreciate that you have the gift of breath and walking. You may want to make a ritual gesture such as placing your hands in the prayer position and saying “namaste” to close your walking meditation.

Feeling the Glow
Walking meditation will balance you and help you come to equilibrium, says Maurine. If you’ve been lethargic, it may help perk you up. If you’ve suffered from frazzled nerves, the meditation may calm you.
And finally, Maurine emphasizes that you should enjoy yourself. “Everybody will find her or his own delights in walking meditation,” she says. “You may be surprised at the wonders you discover each day. Perhaps it’s a butterfly landing on a leaf, maybe it’s the pleasure of feeling stress melt away. Just noticing tiny things can radically enrich your quality of life and awaken a sense of yourself that you carry with you forever.”

About author:
Laurel Kallenbach writes about health, wellness and travel. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

By Katherine Robertson

A travel destination shows you your fascinations, your curiosities, even your deepest longings. But a destination alone does not a journey make.

A Trip Becomes a Journey
Hidden in the literal experience of “getting away” lie the challenges and opportunities of the mythological Hero’s Journey. Travel can become a meditation when you use its gifts to become more present – with yourself, your life and your world.

Phil Cousineau, whose book The Art of Pilgrimage has been my close companion on the road, names…

Seven Stages of the Journey

1. Longing: Honor your quiet yearnings – to see, to touch, to listen, to walk in another place.
2. Call: Listen for what beckons you – a dream, a knowing, a loss, a wake-up call.
3. Departure: Let yourself go. The time has come.

4. Pilgrim’s Way: Surround yourself with what you do not know, to see yourself with clearer eyes.
5. Labyrinth: Welcome surprises – encounters, delays, obstacles, weather. There is pleasure in them all.
6.Arrival: Look around you. Where are you? Why are you here?
7. Bringing Back the Boon: Share your treasure. Tell your story.

Journey Stories
This time last year, I heard the call. I finished a challenging project, put my things in storage, and embarked on what I could only call a walkabout. I planned to be gone for a couple of months, yet I could not see myself returning.

53 year-old Frederic Wiedemann resisted: “I refused to listen to the call for the longest time because it scared me, because I knew it meant leaving my partner, my work, salary, friends, a beautiful home, everything.”

For Mike Killeen, a 45 year-old Chicago business-owner, “The idea was to get the hell out of Dodge, get away from my job, where I felt really overwhelmed and deadened. The idea was to escape.”

Frederic finally set out alone to backpack in the Himalayas. Mike was called with his cameras to the untamed, unfenced landscape of his Irish ancestors. I found myself in the South of France in the middle of September, and never left.

It is not, however, necessary to close your doors for Transformation. For Diane Doe, 55 year-old writer and owner of Boulder import store Worldly Goods, her buying trips to Bali are her way to go deeper: “I meet people and get into the families and get into the deeper culture and slowly shed my belief systems and open up to other belief systems. I travel to stay open.”

Letting Go of the Shore
Being present in travel means opening yourself to what surrounds you – immersion. But leaving the familiar first takes you into what Cousineau calls the Labyrinth. Diane calls it the Dark Night of the Soul:

“For the first two weeks, I am working but I’m still getting more and more immersed in the culture; and shedding, shedding, shedding as I do business, because I do business with families. Then I’m immersed and open, but there’s always an initiation to reach that place – the feelings, the heart stuff.”

When Mike first reached Ireland, he was paralyzed with fear: “For the first couple of weeks, I couldn’t get out of bed. It took time to shift. Once we got settled, all that stuff started falling away and I could then turn my thoughts to where I was, what I was doing, what the sky looked like.”

When the fog clears at last, pay attention. This is what you came for – the treasure you seek.

Returning with Treasure
Mike brought home his wild Irish garden in black and white, along with a new sense of himself and humanity. “I learned how alive I could be. I learned that fear had shut me down from experiencing the world. And there wasn’t much to be afraid of.”

Frederic is trekking still, and dancing his story in wonder: “When I’ve just woken up and the sky’s a little gray, the test is how present I can be to the wonder and the beauty that is the miracle and the magic of the Universe.”

Diane continues learning the language of the heart: “In the more formal structures of meditation, we’re taught that it’s an opening to an experience bigger than what is locked in our bodies. I find that traveling is really a living, breathing meditation in all its aliveness.”

And I am trying to paint with words the qualité de vie I am learning in France.

If you listen, how you travel can show you how you live. As you contemplate destinations, consider the spiritual journey ahead as well.

Tips for the Road

• State Your Intentions. Before you leave. Knowing why you’re going is as important as knowing where.
• Choose Your Companions.
  • A Talisman: Keep a symbol of your intention with you.
  • A Journal: Create something special. Record your thoughts and feelings. Join each scene through sketching. Collect mementoes for pasting.
  • A Camera: Notice what attracts you. Focus on details.
• Go Deep. Choose one or two destinations. Adopt the customs. Develop a routine. Get to know people.
• Plan and Let Go. Leave enough space in your plans to be surprised.
• Use your Body. When you lose your way, get physical. Take a walk. Dance. Swim.
• Take Risks. Do one thing each day you’re afraid to do – for fun.

About author:
Katherine Robertson is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles, California. Her work has appeared on ABC, PBS, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel and the Web.

By Robert Elias Najemy

Meditation can be described in hundreds of ways. Here we will give some brief explanations about this so-extremely-important aspect of human harmony, health and spiritual evolution. Three Aspects of Meditation

1. The first step is relaxation or surrendering of the body and mind so that the mind is not cluttered with various unrelated and disturbing thoughts.

2. The second is concentration on a limited area of mental focus so as to begin to be able to control and direct the mind towards the chosen “object” of concentration. Thus, if I have chosen to concentrate on Christ, the concept of love or the energy in my heart center, my mind will not wonder from that point of focus to various other unrelated thoughts concerning my daily life, needs, desires, the future and the past.

3. The third stage is the eventual transcendence of the mind, thoughts and all identification with the body and personality. We then enter into a state of super-mental union with divine consciousness. These three aspects, RELAXATION, CONCENTRATION and TRANSCENDENCE constitute the basis of most meditation techniques.

What is Meditation Like? Meditation could be considered any process or abstinence of process, which brings the mind into a state of contact with the inner self, so that a sense of inner peace and fulfillment ensue. Ordinarily, our minds are constantly preoccupied with feelings, ideas, thoughts, sounds, sights, tastes and sensual experiences. We are focused on working, talking, thinking, analyzing, watching, worrying, solving, studying, dreaming and so on. We are like ships being tossed around by the waves of circumstances, external inputs and our subconscious programming. One moment we are happy, elated over a success, a new purchase or an affirming exchange with a loved one. In the next moment sadness flows through us – we are tired, depressed with life, bored with work, confined by our family, devastated by the heat, frustrated with ourselves, angry at others, or bitter about the hardships which life has put upon us.

Life is an incessant flow of moods, thoughts and perceptions. Now the object of your consciousness is what you are reading. And in-between the lines it moves to the life experiences, which are stimulated by the associations brought forth by these words. Then the past memories become your object of consciousness. Meditation is a process in which we let go of these disturbances and allow ourselves to sink into ourselves and experience the center of our being, where there is a constant sense of peace and feelings of security and love for ourselves and all others. This becomes a source of energy, security, self-worth, freedom, strength and peace with which we can deal with our daily lives. We have so much to gain by dedicating 20 minutes at least once but better twice daily for this contact.
We will obtain greater clarity, health, harmony, happiness, intuition, understanding, creativity and problem solving ability. The meditative process climaxes in the transcendence of the ego and the mind itself, ending in a state of contact with higher levels of awareness or, eventually, pure consciousness without an object of perception. If we care for our bodies and minds, they will care for us.

*********For details concerning how to meditate, Click Here for the Free Trial of MediHeaven**********

About author:
(Robert Elias Najemy’s recently released book “The Psychology of Happiness” (ISBN 0-9710116-0-5) is available at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/holisticharmo-20 and http://www.HolisticHarmony.com/psychofhappiness.html . His writings can be viewed at http://www.HolisticHarmony.com where you can also download FREE articles and e-books.)
http://www.HolisticHarmony.com

By Chris Connard

How would you like to take your meditation practice to a whole new level? Many long-time meditators have heard of using binaural beats to entrain the brain into a state of deep relaxation, similar to meditation. But did you know that you can use it to improve and deepen your traditional meditation practice? By using binaural beats to bring your brain down into a state of deep relaxation, it becomes easier to reach the same state during your traditional meditation practice.

 

Meditation is becoming more and more popular as Western society recognizes the enormous physical, emotional, and mental benefits that it can bring to the regular practitioner.  By means of sustained concentration on the breath or some other object, the meditator relaxes his mind, bringing it down into a Theta state, or even the deeper Delta state.  In this relaxed condition, the body can eliminate the harmful byproducts of stress, increase capacity for concentration, and bring about positive emotional change.

The deeper the state of relaxation, the greater the benefits.  The problem is that meditation is a skill, and must be practiced regularly for years in order to reach the deeper levels of concentration.  The depth of relaxation reached by a long-time practitioner of meditation, such as a monk, is much deeper than someone just starting out with their meditation practice.

Binaural beat programs use brain entrainment to cause similar mental states. Brain entrainment means playing beats of different frequencies in each ear. The brain tries to match the two frequencies, entraining it to a third frequency that is equal to the difference between the other two. The goal is to bring the brain down into a Delta state, which is normally associated with deep relaxation, dreamless sleep, and advanced meditation. After more than a year using a binaural beat program, I can tell you that it does bring about a deep Delta brain state as advertised, much deeper than I had ever achieved with meditation. The bodily changes are amazing. While it provides mental clarity and improvements in concentration, traditional meditation seems to do better in these areas.

I have found a way to use both approaches, in order to gain positive effects unachievable through either by itself. I realized that if I was able to relax my mind as deeply and thoroughly in my meditation practice as I could through binaural beats, the benefits would be much greater than using one method by itself. After experimenting using both, I realized that after having achieved a deep Delta state with brain entrainment, the next time I meditated, I could get closer to the same level because I knew what it felt like. After experiencing such deep relaxation, it was easier to duplicate it while meditating the old-fashioned way.

The binaural beat products are wonderful, but they fall short of traditional meditation in some ways. Traditional meditation provides greater benefits, but it takes years of practice to reach the higher levels. A combination of the two, combining the ancient practice of meditation with the exciting new technology of binaural beats and brain entrainment, allows you to reap the greatest benefits in the long-run.

About author:
Chris Connard is a self-improvement junkie dedicated to finding the best methods to improve mind and body. His review of [http://holosyncreview.com]HoloSync is now available. You can read it at http://www.holosyncreview.com