“Authentic wisdom is the ability to monitor yourself at all times to determine your relative state of weakness or strength, and to shift out of those thoughts that weaken you.” Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace
I was reflecting on authenticity and that as I am out and about or busy with my work that the love that I seek is not really Love… but that it is a state of consciousness in my mind and that it really is based on body sensations and notions, however subtle, that are not true and wholesome like the ideal of love. True love does not come and go and it cannot be found in the world and as I stayed with this, with the stillness, I knew love cannot be found one moment and then lost in another. This presence with Love is timeless, without objects and it might be characterized, although there are no properties in the stillness, I’m saying it is a Self-knowing, Self-recognizing peaceful and serene consciousness of I know this awareness.. a consciousness I recall the experience of as like I’d been in a deep sleep and it is refreshing like a deep object-less sleep.
This time, I want to share a video that delves into what people are saying about their progress of evolving by meditations – it ought probably give us a sense that meditation is a system, sure; beneficial too, yes; but also that meditating is very personally experienced.
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Meditation and the Power of the Mind – YouTube Published on May 2, 2012 A documentary that explores the practice of meditation and it’s effect on the mind and body.
So, I want to recall the most important contribution that I think I found about the truth. Meditation promotes well-being by reducing stress, depression, anxiety, blood pressure, addiction, by boosting immune systems and by improving our memory.
Forty years ago,Matthieu Ricard, a French genetic scientist left an intellectual life, moved to India and took up a study of Buddhism. He is now a western scholar of religion and he was recently claimed by brain research scientists to be the happiest man on the planet.
His daily routine of meditation made possible amazing brain scans demonstrate that if he is meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves never before reported within neuroscience literature.
While his is the pinnacle of measures, you to may change your brain. You have the capacity to heal including all of your emotional confusions. If you set out to accomplish this, you can gradually increase your awareness and your inner peace by mindfulness. You can transform your brain, create new neural circuits and change the way your brain neurons more efficiently will communicate with each other.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the 87-year-old Zen master considered by many to be the father of mindfulness in the west, says as long as business leaders practice “true” mindfulness, it does not matter if the original intention is triggered by wanting to be more effective at work or to make bigger profits. That is because the practice will fundamentally change their perspective on life as it naturally opens hearts to greater compassion and develops the desire to end the suffering of others.
Sitting in a lotus position on the floor of his monastery at Plum Village near Bordeaux, France, Thay tells the Guardian: “If you know how to practice mindfulness you can generate peace and joy right here, right now. And you’ll appreciate that and it will change you. In the beginning, you believe that if you cannot become number one, you cannot be happy, but if you practice mindfulness…
Jon Kabat-Zinn: “Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment in a non-judgmental way.”
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When we engage in mental training,
we change the function and structure of our brain.
In this respect, the mind is no different than the body…
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Becoming Conscious: The Science of Mindfulness
The final event of the 2013 “The Emerging Science of Consciousness Series” presented by the Nour Foundation, Wisconsin Public Radio’s nationally-syndicated program features Neuroscientists Richard Davidson and Amishi Jha joined clinical mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn to explore the role of consciousness in mental and physical health.
These experts report that we can train the mind to become more flexible and adaptable.
The entire session is included (below) in the comments section of this post.
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Now, news on studies that focus on mindfulness and our youth:
Mar. 13, 2014 — Mindfulness-based meditation could lessen some symptoms associated with cancer in teens, according to the results of a clinical trial intervention. Mindfulness-based meditation focuses on the present moment and the connection between the mind and body. Adolescents living with cancer face not only the physical symptoms of their condition, but also the anxiety and uncertainty related to the progression of the disease, the anticipation of physical and emotional pain related to illness and treatment, the significant changes implied in living with cancer, as well as the fear of recurrence after remission… full story
Mar. 15, 2013 — Secondary school students who follow an in-class mindfulness program report reduced indications of depression, anxiety and stress up to six months later. Moreover, these students were less likely to develop pronounced depression-like symptoms … full story
Sep. 1, 2010 — “Mindfulness,” the process of learning to become more aware of our ongoing experiences, increases well-being in adolescent boys, a new study reports …full story
Teaching mindfulness-based practices to parents has the potential to improve parent emotion regulation and parents’ ability to cope with the stress and emotional complexity of raising a young teenager. Levels of child negative affect rise during adolescence and there is evidence that adolescents transmit their negative affect to their parents.
[See: Collins, W. A. (1990). Parent-child relationships in the transition to adolescence: Continuity and change in interaction, affect, and cognition. In R. Montemayor, G. R. Adams, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.), From childhood to adolescence: A transitional period (pp. 85–106). London: Sage.; AND Larson, R. W., & Richards, M. H. (1994). Family emotions: Do young adolescents and their parents experience the same states? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4(4), 567–583.]
Wayne Dyer’s “10 Principles for Success and Inner Peace” work explores basic principles for changing one’s outlook on life. The principles for success and inner peace is a simple, honest guide to living happily.
I previously posted all ten principles on my blog. Here is a chance to discover them all from a single list that links to each of the posts. Originally, each post features Dr. Dyers video. Most were since removed from YouTube, but I replaced the missing video with quality, and suitable, other training videos.
We are all “works in progress” we may say. Sometime, we get caught up in the past only to feel there is too little or no energy to live in the present.
The series of lessons is designed to help us move away from the dominance of the past (problems) into opportunities for higher energy and creativity that stem from deepest wisdom and truth (solutions). Understanding of wisdom and truth then is expanding. Your truth is expanding… as you move into the flow of your higher-self truth (living in your solution).
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10 Principles for Success and Inner Peace ………………………………………………………………
Abridged audio book:
Breaking it down . . .
unfortunately, Wayne Dyer video content for my links is removed at YouTube... I did my best to insert suitable substitutes ...
#1Have a Mind That Is Open to Everything and Attached to Nothing An open mind allows you to explore and create and grow. In all of your relationships, if you can love someone enough to allow them to be exactly what they choose to be without any expectations or attachments from you, you’ll know true peace in your lifetime.
#2You can’t give away what you don’t have
Think of the people you know who give love in response to negative energy that’s directed their way. If what you give is self-respect and self-love, the universe will return the love and respect you’ve been radiating. It’s really so simple.
#3There Are No Justified Resentments Be willing to send the higher, faster energies of love, peace, joy, forgiveness, and kindness as your response to whatever comes your way… readily offering forgiveness.
#4Don’t die with your music still in you Find your passion and follow it even if it means marching to your own drumbeat when it’s different from what everyone else or society says you should be doing.
#5Embrace Silence There’s a momentary silence in the space between your thoughts that you can become aware of with practice. In this silent space, you’ll find the peace that you crave in your daily life.
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The Coming of the Kingdom – Luke 17:20-21, KJV
“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
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#6Give Up Your Personal History Your past is over! When you’re at peace, you radiate a different kind of energy than when you’re stressed or depressed. Your mediation practice keeps building immunity. The more you achieve peacefulness through meditation, the more your peaceful state impacts those around you.
#7You Can’t Solve a Problem with the Same Mind That Created It In order to solve relationship problems, you need to adopt a different mindset by questioning the negative thought(s) and replacing them with positive ones that are as or more true.
#8Treat Yourself As If You Already Were What You’d Like to Become The more you see yourself as what you’d like to become, the more inspired you are . . . you discover that you’re a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be . . . dormant forces that were dead or nonexistent, springing into being and collaborating with you as a result of your becoming inspired and acting as if what you want is already here!
#9Treasure Your Divinity There is no place that God is not. You are energized by the divine intelligence that supports everything and everyone on this planet.
10Wisdom Is Avoiding All Thoughts Which Weaken You Authentic wisdom is the ability to monitor yourself at all times to determine your relative state of weakness or strength, and to shift out of those thoughts that weaken you.
Following is from work by
Wayne Dyer Ten Principles for Success and Inner Peace
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The Ninth Principle: Treasure Your Divinity
You are a divine creation of God. You can never be separate from that which created you.
While you’re separated in your mind from your source; you lose your divine power, the power of your source.
Just like the drop of water, you too will change form and ultimately return to your source.
As long as you feel disconnected from God, you lose the power of your source, which is the unlimited power to create, to be miraculous, and to experience the complete joy of being alive.
Your ego is nothing more than an idea that you carry around with you everywhere you go. This idea tells you that you are the sum total of what you what you have, what you do, and who you were . . . Your ego also tells you that you’re separate from everything that’s missing in your life. So you spend a great deal of time and energy chasing after what’s missing . . . your ego keeps you in a constant state of fear, worry, anxiety, and stress. It implores you to be better than everyone around you . . . it maintains your separate status from God and it allows you to be terrified of your own divinity.
There is no place that God is not.
Remind yourself of this every day . . . you’re already connected to all that you’d like to attract into your life.
In some inexplicable way, you’re already connected to all that you’d like to attract into your life by the presence of this universal, all-powerful Spirit of God . . . You are a divine creation. You are a being of light who showed up here as a human being at the exact moment you were supposed to . . . You are beloved. You are a miracle. You are a part of the eternal perfection.
Your divine purpose – Wayne Dyer:
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You are energized by the divine intelligence that supports everything and everyone on this planet. In a world in which this divine intelligence creates everything, there can be no accidents.
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The Wayne Dyer videos that I had put into this and the other posts from this series were removed from YouTube – I am doing my best to replace them when I find suitable substitutes.
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Every time you experience fear, self-rejection, anxiety, guilt, or hate, you’re denying your divinity and succumbing to the influences of that insidious ego mind that has convinced you of your disconnection to God. You are a divine creation of God. You can never be separate from that which created you.
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The above is from work by
Wayne Dyer Ten Principles for Success and Inner Peace
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Dr. Dyer tells a story of author U.S. Anderson called Three Magic Words. In the end it is revealed that the words are ‘You are God.’ As Dr. Dyer goes on to explain, “Not God in the sense of ‘above all others and better than everyone else,’ but in the sense of being eternally connected to your source, the ever-present power of love that never abandons you and never runs dry. You can rely on this source if you remind yourself that it includes you at all times.
Mindfulness improves reading ability, .
working memory, and task-focus
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If you think your inability to concentrate is a hopeless condition, think again — and breathe, and focus. According to a new study, as little as two weeks of mindfulness training can significantly improve one’s reading comprehension, working memory capacity, and ability to focus. (source)
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Findings were recently published online in the empirical psychology journal Psychological Science.
Michael Mrazek, author of the paper:
“What surprised me the most was actually the clarity of the results. Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering.” “Even with a rigorous design and effective training program, it wouldn’t be unusual to find mixed results. But we found reduced mind-wandering in every way we measured it.“
To investigate whether mindfulness training can reduce mind-wandering and thereby improve performance, the scientists randomly assigned 48 undergraduate students to either a class that taught the practice of mindfulness or a class that covered fundamental topics in nutrition. Both classes were taught by professionals with extensive teaching experience in their fields. Within a week before the classes, the students were given two tests: a modified verbal reasoning test from the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and a working memory capacity (WMC) test. Mind-wandering during both tests was also measured.
The mindfulness classes provided a conceptual introduction along with practical instruction on how to practice mindfulness in both targeted exercises and daily life. Meanwhile, the nutrition class taught nutrition science and strategies for healthy eating, and required students to log their daily food intake.
Within a week after the classes ended, the students were tested again. Their scores indicated that the mindfulness group significantly improved on both the verbal GRE test and the working memory capacity test. They also mind-wandered less during testing. None of these changes were true of the nutrition group.
Mrazek:
“This is the most complete and rigorous demonstration that mindfulness can reduce mind-wandering, one of the clearest demonstrations that mindfulness can improve working memory and reading, and the first study to tie all this together to show that mind-wandering mediates the improvements in performance.“
He added that the research establishes with greater certainty that some cognitive abilities often seen as immutable, such as working memory capacity, can be improved through mindfulness training.
Mrazek and the rest of the research team –– which includes Michael S. Franklin, project scientist; mindfulness teacher and research specialist Dawa Tarchin Phillips; graduate student Benjamin Baird; and senior investigator Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychological and brain sciences –– are extending their work by investigating whether similar results can be achieved with younger populations, or with web-based mindfulness interventions. They are also examining whether or not the benefits of mindfulness can be compounded by a program of personal development that also targets nutrition, exercise, sleep, and personal relationships.
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For more information on the mindfulness training program,
contact Dawa Tarchin Phillips
(805) 680-3988 or phillips@psych.ucsb.edu
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University of California – Santa Barbara. “Mindfulness improves reading ability, working memory, and task-focus.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 March 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130326133339.htm>.
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see also:
Meditation Changes Brains Gamma brain wave production is associated with consciousness, attention, learning and memory. We want to train our brains to increase peace and serenity and this changes the brain.
Embrace Silence Instead of rationalizing and asking your friends and family what to do without being you, just be you. Relax your mind. Open up the small spaces between your thoughts to silence.
Bloggers, readers, meditation and mindful practice is AMAZING! Astounding!
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According to Ricard …
“In the Western world, meditation means sitting under a mango tree in a blissed out state. The prevailing idea is that you have to sit down and empty your mind. It’s not that at all. You have to clean up a bit. We have so many wandering and intrusive thoughts. So you have to be in control of your own mind. Meditation means inner freedom. Inner freedom doesn’t mean following every chain of thought. It’s like a sailor who takes the helm and decides where to sail instead of drifting with the current. If you want to generate particular state of mind, you do what it takes.”
“There was a lot of activity in his left prefrontal cortex which indicates a huge capacity for happiness; this man is very unlikely to be making negative choices about his experiences,” says Neuroscientist Richard Davidson
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“Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree but it completely changes your brain.”
The French genetic scientist left an intellectual life 40 years ago and moved to India to study Buddhism. He is now a western scholar of religion.
His daily routine of meditation made possible amazing brain scans that demonstrate that if he is meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves never before reported within neuroscience literature.
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NOW, here begins the really amazing part Gamma brain wave production is associated with consciousness, attention, learning and memory. We want to train our brains to increase peace and serenity and this changes the brain — It’s like we come into unifying Loving Light… after time… the brain changes (maintenance required).
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FINDINGSHis skull was wired up with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin and its all been recorded — he’s got a happy and joyous mind — no doubt. Scans found excess activity in his brain’s left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving Ricard an abnormally large capacity for happiness.
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FINDINGSA larger volume of a specific brain structure generally increases the abilities to carry out specific functions associated with that structure. This is widely accepted based on the assumption that greater numbers of neurons will produce larger outputs and therefore may be more influential than smaller numbers of neurons.
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FINDINGS Researchers in neuroscience demonstrate that the prefrontal cortex plays a responsible role in forming of expectations based on actions and social control, predicting of outcomes, future consequences of activities, working toward goals, development of abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, abilities to determine same and different and better and best. Abilities to suppress urges that may lead to socially unacceptable outcomes are developed by this area of the brain. Meditation boosts learning ability, improves brain functioning, and reduces stress!
Even people meditating for the first time will register a decrease in beta waves, a sign that the cortex is not processing information as actively as usual. After 20 minutes there is a huge decrease in beta activity — these brains are learning to be highly focused.
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Matthieu Ricard: “Compassion is not just some high-minded flaky concept that Buddhist monks and New Age hippies bandy about, it’s a very practical way to operate in a world that is incredibly stressful for just about everyone.”
FINDINGSMindfulness meditation, one type of meditation technique, has been shown to enhance emotional awareness and psychological flexibility as well as induce well-being and emotional balance. Scientists have also begun to examine how meditation may influence brain functions. This talk will examine the effect of mindfulness meditation practice on the brain systems in which psychological functions such as attention, emotional re-activity, emotion regulation, and self-view are instantiated. We will also discuss how different forms of meditation practices are being studied using neuroscientific technologies and are being integrated into clinical practice to address symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress..
Share this one around… its time to change this world, one brain at a time… each to their own.
Let’s rid the world of social anxiety:
NOTE: Social anxiety is linked to anxiety, panic attacks, depression, psychosis (not otherwise specified), drug use, alcohol use, spontaneous violence, outbursts, character flaws, behavior problems, anger and rage; to name just a few dis-eases.
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Let’s work on it together… mindfulness is a tool for awakening mental health.
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FINDINGS Related to anxiety… this is empirical evidence… about Meditation benefits. These are FACTS: .
Personally, I am sure that practicing mindfulness meditation with some expert therapeutic guidance can speed healing of PTSD and possibly DID; maybe even NPD, BPD, and possibly even schizophrenia.
Meditation can speed recovery from grief.
It will probably heal some Anxiety NOS and episodic Depression.
Mindfulness can greatly decrease panic episodes… maybe cure it.
It can reduce Bipolar and Uni-polar disorder symptoms.
Simple is best when beginning anything. So, today, I’ll give you a simple practice for making the most of every moment. This technique comes from Thich Nhat Hanh. Use this practice for a month — if you are low on energy or if you are lacking sometimes in concentration, you will notice a substantial difference — or if this sort of practice is entirely new to you.
Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the world’s leading teachers of mindfulness and meditation. He claims that life is available only in the here and the now; it is our true home.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness meditation is simple and isn’t at all religious.
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I’ll summarize his most basic teaching here.
Thich presents mindfulness (here and the now) living as a practice of five simple steps that you can use in just about very moment of your day.
1) Mindful Breathing, 2) Concentration, 3) Awareness of Your Body, 4) Releasing Tension, and 5) Walking Meditation
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Most people are in a state being preoccupied… forgetful of true self; not really there a lot of the time. Is your mind is caught in worries, fears, regrets, anger, of not being here? That state of being is forgetfulness — here but, not here…. caught usually being preoccupied.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s method is designed to bring mindfulness home, into your body, to become more fully alive, and to perform the miracle of mindfulness — always. If you discipline yourself to practice the simple five steps, you can do so in every moment. The more that you are fully in the moment, the healthier will you be as we’ve discovered in my previous article.
Simple… the “Five Steps to Mindfulness” is a simple way to relax and energize. It brings more blood into the brain and it facilitates a deeply relaxed peacefulness. It is so simple you can use it all the time. Use it always.
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1. “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.”
You don’t make an effort. Allow your breath to take place. Become aware of it and enjoy it. Effortlessness. Enjoyment.
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2. “The energy of mindfulness is the energy of concentration.”
Follow your in-breath from the beginning to the end. If your in-breath lasts three or four seconds, then your mindfulness also lasts three or four seconds. Breathing in, I follow my in-breath all the way through. Breathing out, I follow my out-breath all the way through. From the beginning of my out-breath to the end of my out-breath, my mind is always with here with my breath.
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3. “Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body.”
My body is here, so my mind ought to be here. Put peace and harmony in your breathing; the peace and the harmony will penetrate into the body, and the body will profit.
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4. “There is peace and harmony in your breathing.”
Practice this simple affirmation often during the day: “Breathing in, I’m aware of my body. Breathing out, I release the tension in my body.”
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5. “Every step is joy. “
You don’t make any effort during walking meditation, because it is enjoyable. You are here, body and mind together. The last step is to remind you during every transition that may occur in your day, be here, be relaxed, breathing and aware of peacefulness.
I begin the day with a simple mindfulness morning Meditation followed by a simple prayer and breakfast. It takes only a few minutes to get the day started and thus retain the benefit of rest and to charge up my body with lasting daytime energy.
Alternatively, you may prefer this simple standing movement:
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If you like a more varied routine, try the video technique one day and the morning Meditation another day… the essential key to making progress is really that by increasing mindfulness, you will become more healthy, more energetic, and peacefully relaxed.
Here is how to get started with mindfulness exercises.
You can download three Mindful School lessons for free.
I’ve also included links to the basics in this post.
The comments section has additional resource links.
I’ve previously blogged several posts about mindfulness and meditation. The best of them are listed at the end of today’s post.
Mindful School: Mindfulness of the Breath Awareness of the breath is one of the foundational exercises for learning mindfulness meditation. It’s a popular starting point because the breath is something you can always access, and the act of breathing also serves to regulate your physiological state. It serves as a valuable anchor for other mindfulness practices. Listen to “Mindfulness of the Breath”
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Mindful School: Body Scan The body scan is a simple, structured way of checking in with the different parts of your body. Often, you will find areas where you have been holding stress, which can help to release that stress. The body scan can be very useful as a grounding mechanism when facing strong emotions, or if you’ve having trouble keeping your attention on the breath. Listen to “Body Scan”
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Mindful School: Mindfulness of Walking Walking mindfully cultivates awareness of your body while it is in motion. Mindful walking can help to increase your energy level if you are tired or restless, and it can also add variety if you are doing longer periods of seated practice. It’s also useful because directing attention to walking, and even standing, is something you can do throughout the day. Listen to “Mindfulness of Walking”
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Download All Three Exercises in a ZIP Folder
You can download these three mindfulness meditation exercises in MP3 format so you can listen to them offline on your computer, laptop, iPod, or other mobile device. Download ZIP File
My Practice
I am using Shinzen Young’s teachings. In his practice developing mindfulness, he defines mindfulness as Concentration Power, Sensory Clarity, and Equanimity. The purpose, he defines is, to develop skills as a way to process sensory experiences.
There are many manuals and teachers for mindfulness. I selected Young for several reasons. A few include that he is a teacher through and through; his practices are well defined and described; he is adept at communicating even abstract concepts; and his methods are tried and tested and easily available.
Take just a few more minutes to look more closely at mindfulness. Here is a video that is about the basic assumptions of mindfulness and I’ve included a training manual PDF as well. If you like the video and booklet, you can search Youtube for more from Shinzen Young. He has lots of his work posted on Youtube. His Website is http://www.shinzen.org/.
I am Christian (nondual) and mindfulness is for me a course of discipline like taking up martial arts and it’s like artistic instruction as well. It opens me to greater God-willingness and creative abilities.
Mindfulness is preceded for me by a prayerful desire for inner peace and then is a part of life, a prayer. Know it or not, we get what we are praying or being. We are all praying or being what we are. We do not necessarily just get what we say we want, but we do get what we are. In my experience, mindfulness helps me to better live as a loving kindness prayer.
I pray that there is a similar benefit for you.
Thanks for visiting. I am lovingly, your blog friend,
As a lover and teacher of meditation and mindfulness, I see the adverse affects of stress everyday in my clients – physically, emotionally and spiritually. I am witnessing more and more that any moments of awareness we can give ourselves during the day can be powerful and place us swiftly into a calmer and more connected place. This can happen whether you decide to do a 20-minute meditation OR simply take a second to notice what is around you with awareness and clarity. Big steps or lil’ steps; they are all steps.
Here are four simple exercises to bring some mindfulness and calmness to you right now:
Stop and feel gratitude for one thing in your life. First, think about it in detail, then pause, and place your left hand on your heart to feel it. When I say feel it…
Eric
Eric
