Reasons You Can't Afford to Not Meditate

I used to have to deal with sub-clinical depression.  Even when my life was going really good, my emotional body would be laced with an underlying feeling of sadness and even utter hopelessness at times.  A few years ago, however, I started meditating and my world changed in some astounding ways.  I rarely ever deal with depression any more and I have learned to enjoy each life experience that comes along.

Somebody once likened meditation to the water that flows over rocks in a river.  The rocks are slowly smoothed and shaped by the continual running water.  Your life is a lot like those rocks that get transformed.  It happens slowly, but one day you wake up to find that your life has really changed.  Some of the jagged edges have been smoothed away and you are experiencing more peace. 

Here are a few reasons why your life should include daily meditation:

• Meditation gives your brain a much-needed rest and allows for divine presence.  When we learn to manage the barrage of thoughts that clamor for our attention during the time of meditation, we are also learning how to listen to our deeper, wiser selves.  Through meditation, we can develop our intuition and hear directly from God.
• Meditation returns us to center.  The nature of meditation itself involves the art of letting go.  And that includes practicing detaching from our charged emotions.  When we are engaging in emotional extremes, we are pulled into the past or catapulted into the future.  By letting go of those extremes in meditation, we can return to a more balanced state of being.
• Meditation is good for your health.  By learning to become calm in meditation, you will automatically find yourself utilizing that skill when you are faced by the stresses of the day.  Research has shown that meditation lowers blood pressure, reduces the likelihood of having migraines, and reduces other stress-related symptoms.

Meditating is easy.  Sit in a relaxed position and close your eyes.  Become aware of and focus on your breathing without trying to control it.  When you can do this for about 5 minutes, then you can begin to repeat a spiritual mantra like God is love, or simply the word peace.
 

Original Articles. Constant-Content.

Making and Keeping New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions – does anybody keep them anymore?

The answer is “yes” if you know how to formulate them properly.  We all know people (maybe even you) who find that their ardently planned resolutions were dropped somewhere along the wayside right beside the motivation and enthusiasm that it took to create them.  So what is the secret to making resolutions and, more importantly, how do we keep them?

1.) Make sure that there is a true desire to change. Many people make resolutions based on the expectations of other people.  If you do not have a true desire to reach your goal, you most assuredly will not.

2.) Lay out your objectives with specificity. Many people make the mistake of stating their goals in very broad terms. Two very popular New Year’s resolutions are:  I want to quit smoking or, I want to lose weight.  These statements are not specific enough. Your subconscious mind plays a big role when it comes to reaching goals in life.  Taking that fact into consideration, say you are successful at losing one pound or one ounce. Your subconscious will perceive your goal of weight loss as having been reached and will stop helping you.  After all, you did lose weight.  To use your subconscious in the most effective manner, word your resolution statements in terms of measurable outcomes.  Consider these revised resolutions:  I am reducing my smoking and will smoke half as much by Valentine’s Day, or, I am making choices that result in a twenty pound weight loss by July of this year.

3.) Make your resolutions present tense. Keep in mind when making resolutions that the subconscious part of your brain operates in the present tense. Formulating your objectives in this manner will be much more powerful.  Here are some examples of effective resolutions: I am becoming healthier each day as I choose nutritious foods to eat, or, every day I am getting closer to becoming a non-smoker.  These types of statements are more readily accepted by your subconscious mind.

4.) Write your resolutions down. Experts agree that you increase the likelihood of reaching your goals significantly by just simply writing them down.  When you write your goals down, you develop a more visible target on which to focus and concentrate.  Your goals become clear objectives.

5.) Formulate smaller sub-goals.  The reason that many New Year’s resolution and other goals go unfulfilled is because they are too daunting.  That’s why breaking your goals down into smaller, more achievable chunks is a good idea.  If your goal is to lose twenty pounds then some smaller sub-goals would include things like, substituting fruit for sweets, eating raw vegetables for snacks during the day or setting a goal to walk for 30 minutes a day.  These are small yet very do-able actions that will lead to the greater goal of losing the amount of weight you want to lose.

Looking at resolutions in a new way and with new resolve involves having the right tools to implement a plan to achieve the results you desire. Let this be the year that you keep your New Year’s resolutions. 

Original Articles. Constant-Content.

Do You Know Where You are Going in LIfe?

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Would you be surprised to find out that most people do not set goals?  Except for giving brief attention to a failure-prone New Year's resolution list, most people don't give a second thought to what they want to accomplish this year, this month, or today.

Setting Yearly Goals

Having a target for the year sets your trajectory.  It points you in some general direction.  Let's say, for example, you decide you want to write a book this year.  This is a goal.  You have set an intention for the year.  Enter monthly goals.........

Setting Monthly Goals

Now that you have your yearly goal, you will need to set smaller monthly goals in order to accomplish your large one.  In the monthly breakdown of the book writing in the above example, you would set smaller achievements up month by month.  For example, you could intend to write one or two chapters a month.  Enter weekly and daily goals.............

Weekly and Daily Goals

This is where the work gets done.  In order to accomplish the monthly goals, your large project must be broken down further into smaller pockets of work.  For example, you would set aside a certain amount of time to write every day; or, you might schedule a weekly meeting with an editor or a writing coach to keep you on track.  You get the idea.

Any job, project, or undertaking can be accomplished when you break it down into smaller units.  Remember that big dreams are achieved ultimately through very small courses of action.

Put Down That Smartphone and Look at Me!

Hearing the inventory of Steve Jobs' ground-breaking innovations, it made me think of what effect his genius has had on how we now relate to each other.

What have we gained?

We can now make magic -- we can bolt right over those old time/space barriers that made connecting with each other take time and physical effort. Now we can communicate with each other instantly, effortlessly -- no seeing/hearing/touching/talking necessary. Our words fly through space and land just where we want them to with just the tap of a finger. And while we're with one person we can even answer another's demands and reach them too -- putting the live, visible person we're with on hold.

But what have we lost?

Communication science tells us that first impressions -- the input that helps us learn and discern as we judge people -- are made up of 55 percent experiencing your body language, 38 percent your tone of voice and that only 7 percent is your words. Seven percent of total information about anyone is what cell phones give us as we contact each other! Even less since......read more

A Note From the Universe

From http://www.tut.com/ :

The secret behind miracles is that the one performing thembegins without any knowledge whatsoever of exactly how
they will succeed, yet still they begin.

When you move, I move -
The Universe

The Power of Imagination

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.”

-Albert Einstein

Our imagination is the portal to creating our world.  Originating from simply thinking one thought and then another, imagination is our ticket to being, doing, and having the desires of our heart.  The key is to develop a belief in the power of thought.  After all, if thoughts are things that shape our world, then the work lies in controlling our minds and the thoughts that continually creep in and out.  This is the premise of positive thinking and positive affirmation.  Indeed, it is the basis for encouraging others in their endeavors, as well.  Psychologists have found that accentuating the positive is far more productive than emphasizing the negative.  Try this exercise in imagination:

·         See your life exactly as you would like it to be.

·         Describe how you feel when you have reached your goals.

·         Get into character by asking pertinent question like “who am I associating with?”, and “what do I look like now?”, or “how are things different?”

If you clearly see your life as you want it to be and continually view that mental film on a regular basis, you will see positive change come to your life.

The Secret of the Law of Attraction

The Law of AttractionThe law of attraction is a universal principle purporting that like attracts like. To expand this concept further, the law of attraction states that every physical circumstance starts with a thought. Thoughts attract other thoughts of similar nature that, in turn, give your subconscious mind focus and direction. This line of positive thinking causes people to notice opportunities and take advantage of situations that will cause conditions and events to manifest.

The Law of Attraction Begins with a Thought

Many people have expressed the law of attraction in axioms like, "be, do, have", or, "ask, believe, receive". These maxims serve to summarize the essence of the law of attraction. In addition, by coming up with a meaningful abbreviation, people can easily remember the steps for implementing this all-important universal principle.

To understand the law of attraction better, start by imagining that your thoughts have a magnetic quality. Positive thoughts attract good circumstances and negative thoughts, in turn, bring forth undesirable events and circumstances. The problem with the law of attraction has always been in choosing thoughts and keeping them positive, or at least keeping them headed in the right direction. If people will take a moment to stop and become aware of their thought patterns they will often find that much of their time is spent engaging in non-productive negativity. Since the law of attraction is always at work, life becomes a process of taking one step forward and one or more steps backward, resulting in little to no progress toward desired goals. It's this awareness that can revolutionize lives by empowering us to realize that as long as we are mentally sound, we are, in fact, in control of our own thoughts.

Defining What You Want in Life

Another problem with harnessing the power of the law of attraction is the fact that some people have a hard time really knowing what they want out of life. Consequently, they attempt to follow after vague aspirations instead of solid, tangible objectives. For example, if you want to manifest money, you need to be specific. Thinking, "I want a lot of money" is not a defined goal. Stating a precise amount sets tangible parameters around your objective. What about the person who says "I want to lose weight". This person's subconscious mind knows when they have lost two ounces, so to this portion of the mind, the goal has been met.

Your mind is a blank slate. Use your thoughts to write upon it only the things that you desire and you will find yourself living a life of success and happiness.