meditation

Changing your life with Zen

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There are so many ways that you can change your life, but you have to want to change. You have to have the drive and the desire to change in order to keep yourself going on the right path. Keep in mind that Zen is not easy and neither is change. Change is hard to accept and it is also hard to try to do.

You have to look deep inside yourself in order to change your life. You need to find a reason why you are in need of change and figure out why you want to change; because there is no way that you’ll be able to continue with your life the way that you are going. You need to practice Zen with an open mind and you need to listen to yourself. When you begin to meditate you are going to find the answers that you seek.

It is up to you to take the knowledge and listen to yourself while using the knowledge to keep yourself going strong. When it comes to meditation, you’ll find that there are many feelings that you’ll have, but the key is to find peace. Once you have found your peace you are able to live with Zen.

The first thing that you’ll want to do is figure out what it is that you want to change. You may want to change things that you have going on with your family or friends. You’ll also want to look at your own character and even your own identity as to what it is that you want to change. You’ll want to go over yourself with a fine toothcomb. You’ll need to also look inside yourself as it what it is that you want to be.

If you are able to get yourself on the right track, then you’ll be able to take to the change appropriately. You’ll want to consider that there are many setbacks that you’ll have to deal with, however, are you ready to take over your life and take back some of the control? There are a lot of things that you’ll have to consider when trying to change.

Secondly, you have to ask yourself how much change you can handle at one time. You may want to change your home, your job, your mate, and so on. How much change can you take at once? Some people need to achieve their change in small steps, while others feel the need to change everything at once. Keep in mind that you don’t want to overload yourself with change. You have to have someone to fall back on.

You’ll need to take yourself inconsideration, but you also need to consider many other things. You’ll wan to consider the stress that you will be under to change from others. You can’t make promises to change to those who you love if you have no intentions of changing. Keep in mind that what you do will not only affect yourself, but it will affect others.

Something that you may want to achieve is inner peace. Keep in mind that you can achieve peace and serenity with Zen training. When you use Zen you are going to find that answers that you are searching for. You will also find that Zen will put you back in touch with yourself. You will find all the answers that you seek. You’ll want to consider that Zen can allow you to see changes in yourself immediately. You’ll need to practice Zen as much as possible and on a regular basis in order to see the changes.

When you are using Zen to change yourself, you need to consider that this is not an easy battle. You’ll need to consider that Zen will begin to make you feel bolder and you’ll have the strength to change the things that you feel that you just can’t change. Also, you’ll want to keep in mind that there are many other things that you’ll have to consider.

Not only will you want to use Zen to help change yourself, but also accept the many things that you cannot change. You’ll want to make sure that you use Zen training for positive change, not negative goals. It is very important that you set goals for yourself and that you also care enough about yourself to keep things positive. Zen will help you find all the answers that you are looking for, but you need to be open to the answers that you get.

Meditation: A Key to Stress Management

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We often see people break down in depression, or incapable of thinking properly in times of great need or problems. These are people who let stress rule their lives, and its never a pretty sight to begin with. The only way for you to be free from stress is to make sure that you don’t let it rule you. Here are some stress management tips on how to relax and rule the problems out of your system.

It’s all in the mind

Our mind is the first to be affected in throes of stress. The harmony of your thoughts can be disrupted if you let your worries and problems seep into your conscious mind and control how you think. Financial burdens, quarrels or petty fights can leave devastating effects on your mind – if this does happen then the first thing you should do is relax.

Relaxing your mind is a great way to control stress but not so easily done. It needs a lot of concentration and willpower to achieve. There are ways to induce your mind into a relaxed state; aromatherapy is a great way to induce a sense of relaxation and can help you think straight. The scent of lavender or jasmine can put you in a meditative state and help you relax almost immediately. You can choose scented candles, incense or oils that will suit your preference.

Meditation is the key to stress free life

It’s almost impossible to find a solution to your problems when you are deep in stress, no matter how petty it is. Learning to focus all your energy in telling your mind to relax can be done through the ancient art of meditation.

Meditation allows you to focus your mind to a single idea and letting other sift away to nothing. Meditation classes will guide you through steps on how to initiate your mind into meditation and keeping it there during times of need. This will allow you to focus on a single thought, like finding a solution to your problem, while letting the worries and anxiety float away to nothing.

Steps to meditation

The first step of meditation is to look for a place of peace. Stress management always starts with serenity and solitude, so you better pick a location that will help you start with meditation. You can pick a room in your house with the least amount of noise or go camp out with nature.

Next, you need to relax by focusing your mind on specific parts of your body. Start with your toes, legs, torso, stomach, hands, and chest. Its best if you close your eyes and let your mind zero in on these areas. Tell each one to relax. Be extra careful not to fall asleep since this will immediately cease all meditative attempts.

Once you have relaxed each and every part of your body, you will feel a slight heaviness. This usually happens during your first try at meditation. After a while, you will no longer feel your body – as if it’s a non-existent part of yourself.

Focus on a question, like a solution to your problem, with your mind. You might notice that some thoughts or scenes appear and disappear like a fleeting memory – keep note of these in passing and don’t focus on them too much since this will defeat the practice of meditation. Imagine like you’re watching a movie.

When you encounter problems that will eventually lead to stress, you can invoke meditation almost instantly. If you practice enough, your mind will instantaneously clear itself of all cluttered nonsense and allow you to focus on how to deal with your stress.

Exploring Mindfulness And Meditation

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Exploring Mindfulness And Meditation

In our every day lives, we are all guilty of neglecting our minds, allowing our brains to be lulled into a lazy, neglected, and unaware state. It is as if we are allowing ourselves to be sculpted by bland and repetitive consumerism, our individuality being chiselled away by a tedium we cannot even be bothered to challenge with any will.

Life need not be like that. We are each blessed with a powerful mind; but normally people have forgotten or, most likely, never even knew …

In our every day lives, we are all guilty of neglecting our minds, allowing our brains to be lulled into a lazy, neglected, and unaware state. It is as if we are allowing ourselves to be sculpted by bland and repetitive consumerism, our individuality being chiselled away by a tedium we cannot even be bothered to challenge with any will.

Life need not be like that. We are each blessed with a powerful mind; but normally people have forgotten or, most likely, never even knew how, to use it. It is such a waste of our own greatest resource.

One way to start to extricate ourselves from the mindless quicksand is to gently exercise our minds, using mindfulness and meditation as a way of bringing ourselves more emphatically into the real world, and start the process of exercising control over our minds and our lives.

Creating a mindfulness meditation is a gentle but powerful exercise. But how do you go about it?

A Simple Mindfulness Meditation Exercise

As with any meditation session, you need to get into a relaxed and comfortable position, eyes closed, and then commence with deep nasal breathing, focusing your thoughts on the breathing to ease yourself into a meditative state.

Once you feel that you are calmed by your breathing and that your breath is under your rhythmic control, then you can move on to focusing on your own body, a part at a time. I was first taught this at yoga class, where we were taught to concentrate first of all on the left foot, focusing on it from a position above ourselves. Then move up the body slowly, left ankle, knee, thigh and so on. When reaching your head, you then do the same in reverse on the other side of the body: right shoulder, right elbow, right hand and so on.

Once you have completed your tour of your own body, as if you were someone else examining it, then it is time to open your eyes and increase your mindfulness of your surroundings.

To do this, focus on any object in the room; it does not have to be anything special: a cup on the coffee table, a vase, a plastic flower, anything. Try to maintain that focus for half a minute, and then move on to any other object. You can repeat this several times, always maintaining a focus on your own body and your own breathing, creating a triple harmony with each object on which you focus.

By using this simple mindfulness meditation you are increasing awareness both of yourself and your surroundings, in a very gentle and easy way. It can serve as a prelude to some mental task, as well as being part of an ongoing mindfulness campaign to strengthen and expand the use of your own mind.

For example, most days I write, but sometimes I just do not seem able to concentrate on what I am supposed to be writing about. I find this type of exercise, even just for 10 minutes, will snap me out of that inexplicable malaise, and I can get right on and write what I should have written earlier.

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