Mindfulness Meditation And The Power Of Now

The technique of mindfulness meditation brings us into the present moment. As Eckhart Tolle has described, opening yourself to the present moment without judgement brings freedom through "the power of now". Here, Hugh Byrne writes in the Washington Post and discusses some of what we understand about this powerful form of meditation.

Mindfulness Meditation And The Power Of Now

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Have you ever been caught up in a wave of anger, craving or worry where you felt the emotion carry you away like a wild horse you could not control?  Most of us have experienced the strength of these energies and wondered how to work with rather than be ruled by them.

 The healing power of bringing awareness to our experience—just as it is here and now—is what Eckhart Tolle calls the “power of now.”  Tolle, who is giving a rare public talk in Washington Thursday night at the Warner Theater, points to the freedom and inner peace that comes from opening fully to this moment without judgment, resistance, or holding.

For over 2,000 years, Buddhism and other wisdom traditions have taught that there is a way out of the stress and suffering that can fill our lives, and a possibility of living a life free of suffering. Mindfulness, the practice of opening fully to our experience in this moment—the joys and sorrows; the good, the bad, and the ugly—is the gateway to this deep freedom of the heart.
In recent years, the wisdom of these ancient teachings has been confirmed by scientific studies, which demonstrate that we can train our minds, change our brains, increase our well-being, and radically lessen such afflictive states of mind as anxiety and depression.

Please go to the original article here at washingtonpost.com:

Mindfulness meditation can bring peace of mind and acceptance of everyday situations that might ordinarily cause us a great deal of emotional distress. Practicing mindfulness meditation as part of yoga is an excellent way to combine practices and get the most from your mind and body.

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Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.      -- Buddha

Yoga Meditation Techniques For Your Body And Mind

One of the main thrusts of my other blog is that yoga meditation techniques are intended to unify the body, mind and spirit. Yoga as practiced for the past, oh, say, 5000 years or so was always intended to prepare the body for prolonged periods of meditation. Today, the vast majority practice yoga only as a form of physical exercise. At least that's the initial motivation for most. Many who start out with this intention, however, come to discover they are being led down a more spiritual path regardless of what they intended to do at the outset. I recently read an article by a fellow yoga blogger named Mel Johnson who wrote about a similar realization over at Lorton Patch.

Yoga Meditation Techniques For Your Body And Mind

People flock to studios and gyms to practice spiritual gymnastics, yet yoga ultimately has little to do with exercise. That’s a western adaptation. And of course it’s popular because westerners like to be in shape, which is not news to most Indians.

Photo by Mike Powell c/o Photos.Com.

Not about exercise? 

Yoga is about concentration, separation, isolation and not union. It's not about joining the mind-body, but about transcending the mind-body problem.
The yoga text that’s most widely read in the west is the Yoga Surtras of Patañjali. The most quoted sutra in this text is the second sutra, which says that “yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind-stuff”.

More to read of this original post at lorton.patch.com:

Yoga meditation techniques can bring unification and tranquility to the mind and body. The fitness aspects are a given, but why should anyone stop there. The regular practice of yoga will, sooner or later, beckon for you to go further and develop yourself mentally and spiritually. Why not take a few extra steps and see what's just over the next horizon or hilltop. You will be amazed!

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Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they're meant to be.    -- Anonymous

Yoga Meditation Benefits Jai Sugrim

It can be quite a while before yoga meditation benefits you. That seems to be what many experience when first starting out with yoga. A recent interview with Jai Sugrim by Lizzie Fuhr at FitSugar provides us with his personal perspective.

Yoga Meditation Benefits Jai Sugrim

If you've ever been intrigued by the connection between ancient yoga philosophy and the current state of yoga, Jai Sugrim is the man to talk to. After taking home a World Series ring working as the New York Yankees personal trainer, Jai took a different path and looked for something deeper. That something was Jivamukti yoga, a more modern spiritual practice. I recently chatted with Jai about his marathoning past, his current vegan practice, and much more

Read the original post and the rest of the interview here at fitsugar.com:

There you have it. Yoga meditation benefits can come with some effort and persistence. Why not start today and get closer to your goals?

Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

These days, my practice is teaching me to embrace imperfection: to have compassion for all the ways things haven't turned out as I planned, in my body and in my life - for the ways things keep falling apart, and failing, and breaking down. It's less about fixing things, and more about learning to be present for exactly what is.                                               --  Anne Cushman

Yoga Meditation Techniques To Calm School Jitters

Yoga meditation techniques can calm both children and their parents on those days just before school starts and during the early weeks of the school year. Here's an article by blogger Jill Lawson at Diets In Review that teaches how to employ some very simple and easy yoga poses to calm those jitters.

Yoga Meditation Techniques To Calm School Jitters

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First day of school jitters ensue this time of year for students and teachers alike. Just a few nasty side effects of back-to-school anxiety include  constipation, diarrhea, insomnia, and headaches. Your first reaction may be to pop a pill, but thankfully, yoga can help, too.
Practice these simple yoga poses in the morning before school and in the evening before bed to calm your nerves, clear your mind, and release stress and tension.

See Jill's article here at dietsinreview.com:

Many yoga meditation techniques exist to help us to ground ourselves and to regain a centered mind state. Try them the next time you aren't feeling like your best self.

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If I'm losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga.                          --  T. Guillemets

Yoga Meditation Benefits For Veterans PTSD

Yoga meditation benefits anyone seeking self improvement mentally, physically, and spiritually. Yet, there are those who have suffered an injury, be it either physical or psychological in nature. These individuals would benefit even more from yoga meditation were they to start practicing it with the proper guidance and instruction. There is one group in particular, and unfortunately this group is growing in number each month. They are our ex-military who suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). There is quite a backlog at the VA (Veterans Administration) for them to get approprite treatment. Studies have shown, however, that practicing yoga and meditation can bring significant relief of the sometimes overwhelming symptoms of PTSD. A recent article by Elizabeth Jones at PCS-Lodging.Com describes what is happening with our returning veterans and how yoga meditation has been able to bring some benefit to them.

Yoga Meditation Benefits For Veterans PTSD

Yoga meditation benefits female soldiers with PTSD.

PTSD can affect an individual in many ways. It can manifest as hyper-vigilance, causing one to be on edge and alert to the environment at all times. Symptoms also include flashbacks and nightmares, emotional numbness, and the inability to feel love, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published a study that found a group of female patients who completed eight hatha yoga classes showed great improvement in their symptoms, including the frequency of intrusive thoughts and anxiety levels.

"This is a really promising area that we need to examine," says Rachel Yehuda, a professor of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the PTSD program director at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Bronx, according to Yoga Journal.

Soldiers returning from Iraq have high rates of PTSD and other mental health problems at one in five. Veterans from other wars continue to suffer from PTSD, at times worsened by news from Iraq that reminds them of their own experiences, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Read the original article here at pcs-lodging.com:

Yoga meditation benefits for military veterans affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder could help to alleviate the backlog of care needing to be provided. While more research is certainly needed, preliminary results seem very encouraging and worth pursuing. Our veterans deserve nothing less than the best care we as a nation can deliver to them.

Please leave a comment below and share your opinions and your thoughts on this topic.

Warrior pose battles inner weakness and wins focus. You see that there is no war within you. You're on your own side, and you are your own strength.                          -- Anonymous

Yoga Meditation Nation

I have to admit, I can identify with the author of this article. I much prefer yoga meditation alone as opposed to doing it in a group. I guess that's b/c I'm not an extrovert. Then again, there are many who enjoy doing things that we don't necessarily like to do ourselves. Here, author Anna David relates her own experiences with group meditation in her recent article on the Huffington Post.

Yoga Meditation Nation

Yoga meditation group. Photo by Comstock c/o Photos.Com.

Until this year, the words "meditation" and "retreat" did not go together in my world, in any capacity. Truthfully, the word "retreat" never entered my vocabulary much at all, unless it somehow involved a spa treatment. But suddenly, in 2012, it seemed as if people were retreating. People were becoming retreat-ers. It was time for me to join the fray.

Especially because the retreat I'd decided to sign up for was being led by Thom Knoles, the man who'd taught me meditation nearly a decade ago. The form of meditation he teaches, Vedic meditation, is a derivative of the Transcendental Meditation technique taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and I've been practicing it for roughly 20 minutes every morning and 20 minutes every afternoon most days since I learned

Still, meditation, for me, has always been a solitary act: Something I do, in a cool, quiet room--preferably my bedroom--with the windows closed. During Thom's visits to Los Angeles over the years, I've occasionally joined in the group meditations he's led, where I've encountered hordes of people who have told me how much they love meditating in a group setting. I've nodded and then contemplated murder as I tried meditating next to them but found myself horribly distracted by their coughing or rustling around or loud breathing

Get the entire article here at huffingtonpost.com:

So there you have it. Yoga meditation doesn't necessarily make you any less irritable if you find yourself in the wrong environment. Then again, you can learn to perceive your surroundings in a different light and appreciate the better aspects of what has been there all along. After all, the better aspects of those around us have been there the whole time, we just never saw them before.

Maybe we could all start to better appreciate the more positive aspects of those people and situations around us. We might one day discover our world can become a much nicer and more tolerant place in which all of us can live.

What do you think? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

Our raga/dveshas make us prisoners to the mental lenses through which we view the world. No matter what actually appears before us, our vision is always skewed, and as a result we suffer.
                                                                           --   Leonard Perlmutter

Best Yoga Meditation Techniques Without Posing

When I heard about the possibility of learning yoga meditation techniques that didn't involve also learning complex poses, let's say I was more than casually interested. Here author Jill Lawson who writes in her blog Diets in Review.Com that there are four branches of yoga, and only one of them involves physical manipulation of the body to achieve enlightenment.

Best Yoga Meditation Techniques Without Posing

Photo by Shannon Keegan c/o Photos.Com.

When people think of yoga, the first thing that comes to mind is an image of someone doing a yoga pose on a sticky mat. But did you know that only one of the four main branches of yoga involves poses, and poses are just one fraction of that branch? This means that the yoga poses you are familiar with are a very small part of yoga.

If you study the origins of yoga, you will learn that yoga began as a way to reach enlightenment. Of the various methods, only one involved the deliberate and systematized use of the physical body. The others were centered on the path of selfless service (Karma yoga), love and devotion to God (Bhakti yoga), and the study of the intellect (Jnana yoga). In the fourth branch, Raja yoga, steps were taken to prepare the body (and the mind) for long hours of meditation for the purpose of attaining union with the divine.

Read the original article here at dietsinreview.com:

There are yoga meditation techniques that do not in fact emphasize physical body positions. I do know that I enjoy Raja yoga and derive great benefit from practicing yoga and meditation together. The practice and discipline necessary to achieve physical control over one's physical body also leads one on the more difficult journey to master one's mind and spirit. I'm just going to keep going.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and let us share in a discussion about this topic.

When I started doing asana, the yoga postures, I had a very strong feeling of many unnecessary things dropping away - especially tension and inadequacy.                      --  Patricia Sullivan