What is Meditation?

These days everyone wants to meditate, but doesn’t know how to start or if they do meditate, if they are doing it right. The reason everyone is running confused about this new age solution to all ills, is that no one knows what meditation means to them. To different people it can mean different things. If you take a scientist he will tell you how meditation helps the brain shunt between hemispheres. 

A management consultant will let you know with no uncertainty that meditation is the number one stress management technique out there. An artist will say that meditation is what allows him to find creative insights or inspiration for their work. While a spiritual seeker would choose to view meditation as a way to access the higher self or even God. 

What Does Meditation Do?

Just as people differ in their opinion of what meditation is, they also seem to have a problem trying to figure out what the best meditative practices are. That’s because no matter how different and often conflicted their notions of what meditation does for them, most of what they say they have experienced due to meditation is true. Meditation will lower your stress, just as much as it is likely to give you creative inspiration to work on. 

Yes, the way you meditate will make a difference as will the intention with which you go about said meditation. We meditate to find meaning in our lives the way we see it. Meditation is a highly personal process because you are looking at connecting to your own inner power, higher self, potential desires and intimate feelings. So naturally you will be looking at a whole lot of self love coming into play when you set aside time to meditate.

How Should You Meditate?

No two people in the world are absolutely alike and no single meditation process can claim to work for both of them. This is why there are so many meditation techniques. Some prefer to be with their own thoughts and work through emotions silently. Others prefer to blank out all thoughts and focus on a single mantra or an affirmation that they keep repeating to themselves. There are people who meditate to beautiful soothing music, so that they can blank out any other stimulus. 

Then there are those who wish to be guided by someone else’s voice into a deeper meditative state where they can let go and relax totally leaving the responsibilities of coming out to meditation to the person guiding them. The only way you can know for sure what type of meditation suits you best is to try them out and see what resonates with you and your needs. 

Just like with communicating with you higher self, there is no right or wrong way to meditate. There are only ways that you enjoy meditating, and those that you don’t. The truth is that anyone can develop their own meditation techniques and benefit from them deeply, as long as you set a strong intention about how and why you are meditating to begin with.

Ten Minutes a Day to Deepen Self Love

One of the most common excuses to avoid expressing self love is that one does not have time for it. Really? No time to ‘waste’ on self love? How can you think about loving anyone else and showing them how much they mean to you, when you can’t do the same for the most important person in your life. And in case you haven’t yet got it, the most important person in your life, the one responsible for everything you think and do is – YOU! Let me ask again. How can you not have time for yourself? 

Ten Minutes Out of Twenty Four Hours

It doesn’t take much to let your body know that it is loved. Just take out ten minutes to do something to care for your physical body. It’s a way of expressing self love if you decide to oil your hair and give it a nice massage. Or you could simply dip your tired feet in a bucket of hot water with some nice smelling bathing salts in it. Maybe just wash, tone and moisturize your skin at night before you sleep. It does not take more than ten minutes to set up any of these activities and perform them. Plus it makes you feel pampered, relaxed and most importantly loved!

What Else Can You Do?

With a little planning you can come up with a whole list of things that you enjoy doing and can do easily in a regular day. Sit down and make a list of these things then make sure that you manage to do at least three of them in any given day. The activities could be as simple as enjoying a cup of green tea. Or doing six sets of surya namaskars, or any other physical activity that you enjoy if you’re not into yoga. You could even simply plan to eat one raw fruit before lunch time each day to enhance your vitamin and mineral intake with food rather than pills and supplements.

Maintain a Record for Rewards

While being able to take those simple actions in the day to express self love would be reward enough, it can be a bit difficult to stick with the plan initially. This is especially true if you have an otherwise hectic day jammed full with other responsibilities. That is why it’s a good idea to record exactly what pampering you gave yourself each day for at least the first month. You could keep a journal with details or you could just mark out the activities on a calendar as you did them. The choice is yours, pick something that works for you to main the records. It will ensure that you actually follow through with all those good intentions you have.

Affirmations also add to the self love you feel. Try saying a bunch of affirmation in the morning related to keeping you in a well loved space. Here are some you can use, and don’t be afraid to add more to your list.

Affirm – “I am Happy now

I am Healthy now

I am Wealthy now

I am Loved now

I am Safe now

I am Prosperous now

I am Positive now

I am Blessed now

I am Thankful now”

Creating your own luck

Richard Wiseman is a Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. He has the distinction of having investigated that most elusive quality that can change your lives – Luck! The gentleman has studied over 400 people over the period of a decade who considered themselves either really lucky or really unlucky to determine just how good fortune may be generated! Now wouldn’t it be easier to heal your life if you could generate good luck as and when you needed it, you say.

In one his experiments he gave the people a newspaper and asked them to count the number of images it had. Those with bad luck took about two minutes to count the photos, while those with good luck took just a few seconds. Why? The second page of the newspaper contained a half page message saying, “Stop counting and tell the experimenter there are 43 photographs in the newspaper.” The unlucky people missed this message despite it being well placed and easy to read. Wiseman then decided to see what made the people’s perceptions differ. Here’s what he identified was different about lucky people.

The Four Principles Professor Wiseman Identified

Apparently generating good luck to create better lives can be scaled down to these four principles.

1. Maximize Chance Opportunities:  The people who are lucky tend to create, notice and act upon chance opportunities on a regular basis. They network and adopt an easy attitude to life. They are always up to try out something new for the first time.

2. Listening to Lucky Hunches: Lucky people very often take steps based on what their gut tells them. They can make major decisions simply by paying attention to what their intuition tells them. What’s more they usually take steps to clear their mind or meditate to ensure that they enhance their intuitive capabilities.

3. Expect Good Fortune: This is a no brainer. They are almost always optimistic about the day and whatever activity they are undertaking. They shape their destinies by always expecting good things to come their way. Yes they are basically invoking the Law of Attraction to ensure their positive prophecies are self fulfilling.

4. Turn Bad Luck to Good: They have the “if life gave you lemons, make lemonade” attitude that always manages to see the good in any potentially disastrous situation. They are also less likely to brood over the past failures they have had. They will do a quick check and learn what they can from the incident before moving on, positive that the next time they are bound to do better.

The Luck School

Apparently the good Professor went on to develop techniques that helped unlucky people think, behave and react like lucky people. These techniques were used by the test group for a single month and then tested for efficacy though a series of experiments. What was amazing to see what that 80 percent of the people were happier, more satisfied and felt luckier than before. Some mentioned dramatic improvements in life fields that they had previously been struggling with. Others showed improved confidence and started seeing the positive side of things more easily.

Essentially when you think about it, it all comes down to exactly what Louise Hay has been telling us for years. Think positively, set intentions and go with the flow.

Affirm – “I create my own good luck.”

Change is Inevitable: Accepting Your Spiritual Side

About ten years ago I did the Art of Living Course and was sharing my experience with family when my grandmother asked me, “Don’t you know how to live life?”

I recently spoke with a friend about a Heal Your Life Workshop, and the first question I was asked was, “What’s wrong with your life?”

Over the years I have let the doubts and criticism of family and friends roll off like water rolls off the back of a duck. However there was a time when it used to stick. There was a time when although I wanted to do these spiritual courses and workshops, I was worried about what people who came to know about it would think of me.

The opinion of my family members and loved ones mattered and I wanted to keep up the appearance of being “normal”. However life kept going crazier and crazier on me and at one point of time I could no longer keep up with all that seemed to be flooding into my state of being.  I knew I needed some help and I knew where I could get, so I finally got over all the mental blocks and went for it.

That’s the point when I said to myself, “OK. Stop. Inhale. Listen. Assimilate. Exhale.... And now prioritize.” There will always be people who disagree with what you say. No two people have the same journey to make in this world. So it’s alright to be a bit different from other people around you. It is absolutely fine to pursue what you are interested in, especially when you are not harming anyone else. After that it was just a matter of picking and choosing what I wanted to learn and when. And I can honestly say that it has been one of the most enriching periods of my life.

Now that you have decided to accept the change, the point is where do you begin? These are a few questions to get you started:

Do I enjoy my life every day?
Am I happy with my job/career?
Am I making a difference?
Is there anything holding me back?

As you think about what all you are not quite satisfied with in your life, you will begin to come up with suggestions to make changes – big and small – to get to where you really want to be. If part of that process involves investing in yourself, so be it. Find the experts who can help you. Make sure you get nice positive vibes from them and are willing to trust them with the intimate details of your life.  Remember that in order for them to help you, they need to see the bare you. Once they can figure out what you need, they can guide you in a manner that can send your life soaring. The only way to find out if it works, is to experience it once.

Affirmation – “All that I need for my spiritual and emotional growth: resources, courses, teachers, books and more, are sent to me now.”

Love Yourself Enough to Count Your Blessings

Ever so often we get bogged down in all the things that seem to be going off track in our lives that it is simple to forget all the things that are going right. The truth is we forget to love ourselves, we forget that we have so much more to be thankful for than what seems to be going wrong. One of the easiest ways to remind yourself that you are truly blessed is to write down all the good things that happen to you every day in a Gratitude Journal. 

Making a Gratitude Journal

It does not have to be something very elaborate with a pretty cover and expensive to boot. It can be a regular yearly diary, a simple spiral notebook or even just a word document on your computer. A Gratitude Journal needs to be something that is full of positive words and thoughts and makes your heart lighten the minute you pick it up. The idea is to reiterate to yourself that you are blessed, that good things happen to you often and that you are in the flow of the universe. This helps you manifest better with the Law of Attraction as well.

What is a Blessing?

Now blessings may mean different things to different people, just as the definition of happiness and success changes from person to person. Here for the purpose of our Gratitude Journal we are merely going to write about anything that gives you a positive vibration. Write down all that you were grateful for at the end of the day. Write about things that made your day easier, or just appreciate a person or situation that helped you. Reread the journal every time you feel overwhelmed with life to see how much you have to be happy about.

Specific Areas to Focus on

There are a few areas that everyone has some amount of focus on and you should make regular entries in your Gratitude Journal about them. These may include your body and health, your family and close relations, your career progression, your financial growth, your spiritual or personal growth, your travel and fun activities. As always, these are just starting points and you can expand on these guidelines to include things that really matter to you. As you begin to write down your gratitude daily you will also begin to Heal Your Life without realizing that you are doing so.

Gratitude is a pillar of spirituality that you can never go wrong with. By acknowledging the good that happens to you daily, you are setting up vibrations to receive more good into your life in the future. So why not show true gratefulness for all that you have instead of comparing yourself and your material possessions with those of others around you who seem to have more. Become the positive vibe that people go to when they feel low to perk themselves up. As you motivate others to become a better version of themselves, you bless them as much as you bless yourself.

Affirmation: I express gratitude for all the wonderful things in my life and the great things that are coming my way.