Why Meditate?
Meditation involves the search for a level of awareness that isn't conditioned. It takes the mind in its restless, confused state and leads it to a higher state that is clear and steady. This process is known as transcending. Countless traditions of meditation originated in India and China before spreading throughout the East, but they have in common the same notion of how reality works. Reality flows from finer to grosser states. First there is silence and stillness, then there are subtle objects of the mind (thoughts, emotions, sensations), and finally there are solid objects and the material world itself. When you meditate you move upstream, so to speak, going beyond the material world, then beyond the mind that's full of thoughts, emotions, and sensations, finally to arrive at stillness and silence.
This journey is more profound than a subjective experience, however. Sitting in silence would be no better than sitting in a whirl of thoughts, if both were merely subjective states. In actuality, you trancend from one level of reality to another. Each level contains different kinds of energy, and as you bring in higher energy, your body adapts. Studies of long-term meditators show that markers for health improve, such as reduced blood pressure and stress hormones. But the body can adapt in far more profound ways.
If you touch the right trigger point in your mind, a long-standing distortion in your energy can instantly disappear. Unlike reflection and contemplation, the purpose of meditation is to find the switch that will turn off the automatic behavior created by your old conditioning. I don't mean that lightning strikes all at once. Meditation is a process; it takes time. But the process can cause a sudden change, the way digging a well goes through layer after layer of dirt until suddenly you hit clear, flowing water.
(By Deepak Chopra *Reinventing the Body, Ressurrecting the Soul*)
Do You Know what you are thinking?
Do you control your mind or does your mind control you? Yoga and Meditation allows stillness into the mind, which allows you to become aware of the thoughts you are actually thinking throughout the day. When you are aware of what you are thinking then you will have the power to have control of your mind by choosing to think positive thoughts. Our emotions are triggard by the thoughts we think, therefore if you are thinking negative thoughts you will be feeling negative emotions and vise versa with the positive. We are all a result of what we have thought!
Now let's look at the power of imagery. Imagery fools the brain into believing that the image is real. Imagery is the language of the brain therefore the brain integrates it.
Imagery provides a sense of control and boosts the self-esteem; confidence; mood; personal power; and efficacy.
An image of success creates an experience of success. For example, an Olympic Athlete imagines a vision of success and creates that success (Gold Medal!) Imagery programs the brain to believe that the images are actually going to happen.
It has been proven that when the eyes are closed and you imagine a beautiful sunset, the brain acts as though the eyes are open and are actually looking at the sunset. The same waves in the brain are activated with the eyes open aswell as closed, when actually looking at a scenario and imagining the same scenario. Therefore, we have the power to manifest our own destiny through the process of imagery.
EXERCISE:
Try this exercise everyday for 10 minutes. Take a dream or goal you have, close your eyes, and imagine your dream or goal in detail from start to finish, take yourself through the process of completing your goal, acting out all the positive aspects of puting your goal into action, to it actually happening. Feel the feelings and emotions running through your body, feel how good it feels, how proud you are of yourself to complete your goal/dream. And truly believe in your heart that it is happening. And it will!
I wish the best to you all. We hold so much Power within our own bodies and minds. Free yourself and make it happen:)
Namaste,
Rodina
9 Stages of Meditation
- PLACING THE OBJECT IN YOUR MIND - You have learned the instructions, and are on the road at last.
- BRINGING THE MIND BACK - Your monkey mind at this point keeps forgetting what it is doing, and you spend more time off the object then on it.
- BRIDGING THE GAPS - Your mind now stays mostly on its object, with only brief patches where it wanders.
- HOLDING TIGHT - Here your mind stays on the object without wandering at all.
- DISCIPLINE - You win the battle against agitation!
- GETTING QUIET/QUIETING DOWN - You conquer mental dullness!
- COMPLETELY CALM - Now you have control over the subtlest forms of dullness or agitation.
- SINGLE POINTED - Just a tiny bit of effort, and your there.
- PERFECT BALANCE - Effortless, like breathing.
(By Lame Christie McNally *The Tibetian Book of Meditation*)
