| |
| |
|
Meditation Information |
|
|
|
Breathing
Breathe in through your nose and draw your breath down into the area just below your navel, allowing your stomach to expand as you breathe (Baby Breath) and filling your lungs entirely with each breath before exhaling through your nose. Breathing is the most important part of meditation and Kundalini Awakening. From our birth until death we breathe more or less continually, yet for the most part we do it without any awareness of our breath and its effects on us, and believe it or not most people in the western world do it wrong! Take a moment right now and feel your breath. Pay attention to the air as it flows in through your nostrils and down into your lungs. Don't think about anything or do anything other than just breathe. 1. Are you taking a relatively shallow breath and just filling the upper lobes of your lungs? 2. Does your stomach move out as you breathe? 3. Do you feel the bones of your ribcage expanding and opening with each breath? For most people the answer to 1 is YES and the answers to 2 and 3 are NO so lets expand this exercise a bit. Draw your breath down to a point about 2 inches below your navel (the body's center of gravity). When you do this you'll feel your stomach expand and push out in front of you. Most westerners usually keep their stomach pulled in and their chest out, so if you do this you'll have to relax your abdomen. Just take a moment and be aware of your breath as it flows down into your center. Now as you inhale and draw your breath down, also let your ribcage expand. You'll feel your floating ribs at the bottom of your ribcage spread and move, and you may get a few pops out of your spine also. Now just take a few moments and breathe this way. Don't think or let your mind wander, just breathe. If you've never meditated before then congratulations, you just did! It's exactly that simple. There are many benefits to proper breathing. The extra oxygen in your system means that your heart doesn't have to beat as fast, which lowers your pulse and your blood pressure. Drawing the breath down into your center also helps to massage your internal organs, providing more oxygen to them as well as helping to release the accumulated stresses that build up there. The long term health benefits are immeasurable and have been repeatedly proven for thousands of years. Breathing is by far the most important part of the kundalini awakening exercises, although it sounds so simple. Paying attention to the breath is the beginning of opening up your awareness and it's use in meditation is seen in every culture on the planet. Take some time to practice this, as it's the foundation for everything that comes next. If you have to dedicate your meditation time to breathwork for awhile then that's good, as we all proceed at our own pace. I recently read a translation of some of Jesus' teachings from the original Aramaic (the language he actually spoke, although he apparently wasn't literate) and it was very interesting to me that in Aramaic they used the same word for wind, breath and spirit. Those with a Chi Kung background might find it interesting to take another look at the New Testament and insert the word breath every time you see the word spirit. --- Robert Morgen is a Reiki Master who currently holds a Black Belt in Hoshin Roshi Ryu. He's the founder of the Kundalini Awakening Discussion Group, the Druids Circle Discussion Group and the (offline) Druids Circle in Lakewood, CO. You can find more info on all these at; www.druidscircle.info He's also the founder and Executive Director of the Windhaven Foundation for Sustainable Living. He writes a regular column on subtle energy for Fight Times Magazine and a twice monthly column on Kundalini Awakening at Alumbo.com. In addition to teaching about energy work and Kundalini Awakening he donates time to teach about Renewable Energy, Alternative Building and Creating Sustainable Lifestyles in various Public Schools. He travels and teaches as much as possible and you can find out how to attend one of his Kundalini Awakening seminars at his website at; www.windhavenco.org His new book "Personal Mastery: Develop Your True Inner Power By Awakening Your Kundalini" is now available at http://www.lulu.com/RobertMorgen.
MORE RESOURCES:
Meditation - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Meditation: Time to Stop & Listen As a co-active coach, one of the underlying principles that I subscribe to is that everyone has their own answers within. Most of what I do as a coach is to give people the time, space and permission to find these answers (and sometimes I provide a question or two to get things going). Meditation and the Monkey Mind? Some find the term, "monkey mind", upsetting, derogatory, and insulting. This is a shame, as the point is lost, the ego is involved, and a natural human defense goes up. How You Can Unite Meditation, Divine Essence, And Personal Tenacity to Serve Your Highest Purpose 1. Meditation:Meditation is a sacred practice. Meditation - What is It Good for Anyway? Meditation is an age old healing and stress relieving modality practiced throughout the world, in virtually all cultures and all religions, although it may go by different names - prayer, visualization, relaxation techniques, and hypnosis; they are all forms of the same practice.Meditation refers to "taking a break" from real life. Meditate to Unlock Your Hidden Potential - Part 1 Meditation is often misunderstood by those who do not practice it. Very often, I hear meditation referred to as, "altered states of consciousness. Quieting the Mind Opening the Heart To put it simply, the act of meditation involves quieting the mind so you can open the heart. That's it in a nutshell. Meditation Is Not Just for Men with White Beards What kind of picture comes to mind when someone mention the word "meditation?"I don't know about you, but for me, I use to get a picture of some real, health food nut, with a white beard, sitting Indian style with his eyes closed, palms facing up and making weird sounds. Didn't seem like anything I thought I'd ever do. Wireless Meditation: Top Five Tips For Wherever-Whenever Mindfulness The problem with meditation is attachment.We get in the habit of needing our altar, favorite cushion, incense, CD, certain time of day, necessary length of time, or particular style of sitting. Practicing Staying Present to the Now Transformational Counseling is about assisting others to transform their life. Transformational Counseling is a process of assisting others to learn how to let go of the past and live fully in the present. A One Minute Meditation Maybe learning to meditate intimidates you, and in any case it's tough to find the time for daily meditation. The solution to both problems is an easy meditation you can learn right now, that will only take a minute to do each day. Meditation Hello, sample some of the arguments below. But mind you, this is not an opinionated writer that is trying to forward his profound knowledge on an altruistic art that is meditation. Why Should You Meditate? Everyone's mind needs a little downtime. We all need time to focus on one task, instead of multi-tasking all day and night. Relaxation Magic - Hypnosis, Meditation, Visualization Hypnosis, meditation and visualization are three similar processes for accessing a creative area of the sub-conscious mind. Relaxation Magic lessons use a combination of all three therapies for maximum results. Establishing A Daily Meditation Practice It's important to establish a daily practice and then stick to it. This doesn't mean dedicating 12 hours a day to meditation, it just means creating a space in your home where you can take a few minutes and meditate and do the exercises. The Relationship Between Meditation and Self-Analysis These are two very powerful tools for self-improvement, but how can you use them in harmony? For example: Self-analysis and meditation cannot be performed at the same time. After all, multi-tasking runs contrary to what meditation is all about. Full Body Awareness Now that you're comfortable working with your breath it's time to bring the rest of the body in. Continue breathing as I've outlined in my article on Breathing. How to Train Your Brain to Keep You Healthy and Happy When you are unhappy what do you do? Do you go out for a meal? Go to the cinema? The theatre, perhaps? Do you go shopping? Perhaps you like a drink to overcome your unhappiness. Or do you get a buzz from jogging or going to the gym?Whatever it is scientist are in the process of proving that internal change is the only thing that can give you health and happiness. Scientific Research on Transcendental Meditation (TM) Scientific research has shown that the most beneficial meditation technique is Transcendental Meditation (TM). The striking reduction of stress and anxiety caused by TM are 3 times greater than the effect caused by most meditation and relaxation techniques. Embrace Fear and Let Go Before I started meditating several years ago with CDs using audio technologies, I estimate I hadn't recalled much more than tiny snippets of a dream in, gosh, at least ten years and probably many more than that.One of the things I liked immediately when I began using meditation CDs was that I started sleeping as soundly as a puddle of snoozing cat and dreaming vividly and often. A Look at Meditation I've counseled many people from every background and led workshops and lectures about self-empowering topics for about 25 years. Over that time, I saw a need.
|
| home | index |site map |
| © 2006 |
