Many people reach a lull at some point or other in their lives. We can all feel like we've lost our way and feel like there's no other options available.
At these times, we have to free our minds from negative thoughts. Meditation is a great tool for clearing away the noise in our heads and even a short 5 minutes of deep breathing can calm the mind enough to allow the creative processes to flow.
Picturing the places we want to be and the things we want to achieve, will help to bring them into reality.
Do some research on the things you love and create a vision board. Put this some place where it can be seen as a reminder and practice a daily meditation to get this place and all the things you want to happen fixed securely in your mind's eye.
Find a comfortable position to sit in. Lying down is not a preferable option in meditation practices as one is more likely to fall asleep than to access a meditative trance state. So find a comfortable seating position. If you suffer from lower back pain, then it is advisable to sit against a wall.
Humming Exercise
Take a deep breath in and around the eyes and across the forehead.
Next 'mememememememememe' then 'mamamamamamamama', then the vowels 'a,e,i,o,u' feeling the sound vibrating across your face.
Then use 'n', feeling the vibration up your nose and in your sinuses.
Next we are going to practice the mantra 'OM', this should be a deep resonance in your face and also internally all the way to your belly. Visualise the sound coming from the third eye chakra and also being absorbed by the same chakra space. This is quite an advanced technique, but trying the visualising technique can evoke a more profound experience.
Observing The Breath
Take a few minutes to observe your breathing and change your breathing to deep 'in-breaths' filling your belly as well as the lungs. By doing this you are oxygenating your inner organs and allowing a deeper sense of relaxation. By focusing on the breath you are also facilitating the activation of 'cho' or prana developing your own personal energy, and also allowing yourself to be connected to universal energy. Remember to keep your tongue gently pressed onto your palate at the top of the mouth.
The Aura
This is the field of subtle energy that surrounds and emanates from every living thing. We sometimes pick up negative vibrations from in and around our environment and it is a good practice to regularly check our aura and to clean it.
Aura Cleansing Meditation
Prepare yourself for meditation. Observing the breath, imagine you are sitting surrounded by white light and then visualise the light changing through all the colours of the rainbow. Visualise negativity like black spots being dissolved into white light.
The Crystal Cave Meditation The above link for a crystal cave, is a powerful meditation video, which makes use of Binaural beats to link the two hemispheres of the brain. Robert Monroe was a pioneer of using offsets of tones which the brain creates as a vibratory effect in the inner ear. Robert set up his own programs using different frequencies for relaxation called Hemi-Sync, and frequencies for what he claimed were able to activate Astral Travel and out-of-body experiences.
For some, the consent for meditation, has to come from within and listening to other voices will not work. One great way to assist in meditation practices for those finding it difficult taking guided meditations, we can record our own voice for guidance. The following is one example of a self-guided medidation.
To begin: Sit in your chosen meditation pose.
Regulate your breathing and be aware of your surroundings, the people around you, your body, thoughts and finally take your awareness fully into your breathing. Deep abdominal breaths, letting your chest expand, as well as your belly.
Count down from 10-1. On each count, a deep breath will be taken and you will sink lower into your meditation.
Release the needs of the body and those of the mind when you get to 1. Feel like you are floating weightless in a tunnel. See brilliant white light at one end of the tunnel. Be aware of yourself floating in this space.
Take 5 deep breaths; with each breath out, visualise it taking you nearer to the end of the tunnel. On the last breath enter the light.
As the light around you fades, visualise walking along a vast shore with a huge ancient white cliff face on the right-hand side, towering above you, exuding great power and protection. To your left is a vast calm sea of turquoise blue and the sun is shining around you. Take a few deep breaths in this space.
As you walk along the beach, visualise a cave opening where a beautiful soft glow of light is pulsing from within.
Take three deep breaths as you approach the cave and enter.
Notice a crystal door in front of you.
Reach out and touch it.
The door disappears and you see an immense cavern whose walls are covered with billions of crystals blazing with light.
A powerful yet comforting energy emanates from this crystal room. Step into this cavern.
Feel the warm energy pouring around you, caressing your skin and hair with soft waves of light.
You notice an area in the centre of this room with cushions or a chair for you to lie down or sit. Go there now, lie or sit down.
Now close your eyes.
Feel as if you have been enveloped with pure love, tranquillity and peace. As you lie there allow the sensations to embrace your mind and body. See the energy around you pouring into your body.
Ask to be shown a coloured crystal, which will help to increase your well-being.
The appropriate crystal will appear next to you.
Pick up this crystal and make a note of its colour.
Feel the power of this crystal and feel its energy dissolve your fears.
Give thanks to the crystal cave and take 5 deep breaths. With each breath, you see the room gets dimmer and dimmer until it is dark and you are aware of being back in the tunnel.
Feel yourself floating in this dimension for a while and use this safe place to absorb the energies that you have been given.
Five deep breaths, with each breath taking you closer to the other end of the tunnel, which is pulsating with brilliant white diamond sparkling light. Enter the light.
As the light fades you feel you are back in your body. Be aware of your breath in your physical body, as it fills you and cleanses you. Be aware of your body, wiggling your toes to fill the body with your spirit.
Three deep breaths and then slowly open your eyes.
Regular Practice Brings Greater Results
The above meditation techniques should be practised regularly as a way to centre and connect with our inner selves. If the first attempt produces no observable results, try some of the different techniques and consider the times, types of food, the environment and mind state. All suggestions have to be followed consensually. If there are any doubts or fears about the process, the meditations will not work as well or not at all. Belief, openness and acceptance of the benefits will bring the best results.
After the heart for keeping us alive, the Soas is arguably the most important muscle in the body. It's functions are for maintaining good upright posture, allowing full range of mobility between the upper and lower body and keeping us functioning correctly as a healthy physical individual. Also referred to as the hip flexor, it is important in a number of ways but it's key function is to keep us walking upright and when called for - helps flex the thigh and raise the knee forward for running.
Arguably, the evolution of Homo Sapiens owes much to the correct functioning of this muscle and it's very survival, dependent on the necessary quick reaction times required for action in averting danger. In evolutionary terms, it's not that long since we've come down from the trees to roam the plains and there are still very real dangers in our cities. So, this valuable life saving, primal region of our body is still hard-wired to our central nervous system as a first-stage mechanism for fight or flight. Due to it's necessity for being ready to move at all times, it's finely attuned to the environment and warning signals that are picked up from our senses, central nervous system, processed by the brain and sent out to this muscle even before our conscious minds are aware there is a potential threat upon us.
It's been shown through research, where our instinctive reaction times are alert and primed up to a staggering 10 seconds ahead of our conscious minds. Our senses react, the body systems and muscles prepare themselves while our mostly oblivious conscious minds pick up the messages through other signals - like the prickly feeling when our hairs stand on end, the gut feeling of unease or agitation as our blood supply switches away from the gut and cortisol is released from our adrenal gland into the blood stream or from the very fact that we've started running and unsure why that is we are doing it.
Stress Indicators
It appears the diagnosis and treatment for back pain has clearly been somewhere off the mark in many cases over the years. But through breakthrough research into chronic back pain by Dr Sarnos, there has been a lot of success with his treatment into undoing a lot of the problems associated with perpetual stress related symptoms. Key findings have indicted where a lot of stress related pain can be located around the lower back area. This has been shown through studies to be connected with the central nervous system and connected with repressed feelings of anger, anxiety and linked to sustained levels of stress, which in turn are linked and held in the Soas muscles and other related regions of the body - in particular, around the neck. The treatments for improving back problems are focused around directly treating the muscles with massage, pain and muscle relaxing drugs but also through evaluating environment and emotional health.
I believe yoga and meditation have a greater part to play in this rehabilitation therapy, but earlier acknowledgement of the potential stressors, understanding personality types and assessment of suitable environments for positive wellbeing should be considered as a preventative measure against all forms of stress related illness. If we consider that our environment, our moods, the people we surround ourselves with and work situations we put ourselves in are all the modern day equivalents of the Serengeti Plains - with dangers at every turn, either imagined or realised - then we can take preventative measures to stop the fight or flight response from being 'stuck on'.
Good muscle function should be a key factor in our continued quest for retaining peak levels of health. With more focus on the correct movement, agility, posture and balance of our muscles and less emphasis given to the size of say, a bicep, we could all have a better chance of staying pain-free.
Re-learning simple tasks like walking or painting can be therapeutic and rewarding. We can see these actions for the simple movements that they are but if we study them closer, focussing on the flow of each movement, the engagement of our muscle motor neurons to produce delicate & intricate steps/strokes, we can see the true beauty in such basic motions that we are able to produce with our bodies.
Making each footstep slow and deliberate is a form of meditative yoga practice, as is the focus on breathing. If we think of movements as a way to connect with the air and earth, each movement has more significance in what we do.
Painting brush strokes can also be focussed on to quieten the busy mind and allow clarity to come through. Because when every stroke is applied carefully and deliberately, we can immerse ourselves in the 'now' moment. It's amazing to see that also practicing deliberate yoga breathing techniques while painting, a state of zen can be entered, equal to that felt while doing a martial art like Qi Gong. I don't think my painting partner was aware of these thoughts while singing along to a tune from Kiss FM....Still, I'm reminded of a great scene from an '80's film that relays these thoughts perfectly.
After having such a frantic work life in an office for many years where I was caught up in so many mindfully stressful situations, I've now managed to find working pleasurable again, at the end of a brush.
I've deliberately taken a very low-brow, low-stress, low-responsibility position in my current role - my only focus being on the painting. How rich and rewarding this position has been, seeing the immediate results of my work manifest in front of my eyes all the while leaving my mind to be free from noise.
While I am able to continue working this way, It's my aim to invest my full attention to this new painting task, just as the sushi apprentice does repeatedly, in perfecting the rice for their master over many years.
Focussing on the self. At the centre of our being is an intangible force - something that drives, motivates, steers us and sets our intentions. This is our 'self'. It is the centre of who we are that needs to be kept in balance for happiness and harmony in our lives.
This 'self', found by practising meditation and discovered in quiet moments of self reflection is, over time, coated in 'ideas' - learned information, built up in layer upon layer. These chunks of information, nearer the core, are the first learned truths from being a child - fears and preservation truths - like knowing not to touch a hot saucepan. Layered over the top of these older layers and getting nearer the outer surface, are the more recently learned habits and traits. Things like being seen to do the right thing by a partner or friends, to fit into society. These are not our true 'selves' but they become entwined and set in a way - mixed up as part of the core at the heart of everything we believe in.
When we are following our true paths, it is our core identity that is strengthened and we feel satisfaction - a reaffirmation that we are fulfilling our true intentions. However, sometimes we get so layered in our 'ideas' and so mixed up with our identity, that we can't distinguish who we were once before this excessive layering occurred and what our true intentions really are. We become confused, 'lost' and doubts start to set in about what we are doing and the paths we are taking. This is where we need to get back to our truest selves and core intentions.
If we can take the time away from distractions, we get back to the true 'self'. This can only be attained through quiet inward-searching moments of solitude and via practiced meditation. We simply need to take this time alone, to best strip away the coating of hardened outer 'plaque' built up over time - and remove the set ideas & habits that block out who we truly are. This will, over time, help us to recognise what 'we are not' and enable freedom for us to live as the person we truly desire to be.
Hiking long distances over rugged terrain in places of sublime natural beauty, can help open the mind for thoughts to flow and evoke a consciousness akin to that experienced when meditating. The very act of walking can bring about a sense of calm and isolation in the mountains is not the only way to access this mental state. Walking even short distances across a busy city like London, can bring about a clarity of thought that cuts through the noise and allows us to sense things around us and discover them as they really are.
This is how I, after many years of living in London, discovered parts of my home city that I'd never realised were there before and rediscovered those that I thought I knew well. Walking slowly from Wapping to Waterloo along the north rather than the south bank of the river, allowed me to take on a different perspective and view of the buildings, bridges and ships that line the Thames. Allowing more time than would usually take me to walk this route - essentially halving my usual double pace and regularly stopping to look about me, gave much pleasure and feelings of adventure. Sitting on benches never before sat on, gave yet another perspective as my eyes were fully opened to observe the ornate details on the bench itself and admire the hard work an artist had put in to create a beautifully detailed and interesting mosaic, tucked away from sight just a moment away from the busy main road.
The West Highland Way
It was four years ago today that we were walking through the Scottish Highlands on the famous West Highland Way. It wasn't the right time for me to really appreciate a walk of almost 100 miles back then. I mostly recall thoughts of boredom and not ones of great revelation as I stayed fixated on the end of the journey rather than fully appreciating the moments as I journeyed along. I know I'd treat this kind of adventure differently if taken today.
I'm currently reading an amazing book by Rory Stewart called, The Places in Between. In it, Rory talks about one man's journey walking through some of the planet's most inhospitable terrain, encountering cultures cut off from the rest of the world, often putting himself in life-threatening situations but at the same time experiencing the raw vibrancy of life by taking on an adventure into the unknown. I can't say I was in any real danger yesterday but I had an amazing journey of discovery and wonder that was found here - right on my doorstep.
We can all experience this feeling of adventure if we allow ourselves time and space to really use our senses for experiencing the environment and all the amazing things that surround us every day.
There's some real-life X-Men/Women out there that have learned to harness the power of the universe to do great things. Through their focus and dedication to self mastery, they can use their body and minds to achieve seemingly supernatural feats. Monks practicing ancient energy harnessing techniques, appear to have these supernatural powers. They repeatedly train their minds and bodies to do some amazing physical acts through using Tummo breathing techniques and energy harnessing Qi Gong.
Meditation techniques have shown that we can raise our body temperature to withstand the cold. This isn't just exclusive to monks either. Anyone can do it through practice. Dutchman, Wim Hof has trained (and actually changed) his body over the last 20+ years to withstand extreme cold through using meditation. He's proven that we can obtain supper human powers through the practice & learning the techniques, focussed/applied training, and shown that we can even survive in extreme life-threatening temperatures, as his climbing mount Everest in just a pair of shorts and sandals shows!
These monks demonstrate the Tummo technique which is used to raise their core temperatures enough to dry a wet shirt - even in a cold environment:
Other masters have chosen different ways to harness and accomplish super-human feats. Take this real life ninja who can chop a pellet in half with his Samurai sword that's been fired from a gun:
There's many other examples of people with super powers out there - either inherited or developed through dedicated training. Some masters like Iron Shirt and other martial artists have closely studied different fighting styles to emulate the speed, balance and strength of animals like tigers, snakes, cranes and in this bizarre example, a praying mantis.
Whether it's in the realm of difficult to explain phenomena like telekinesis & echolocation, practiced feats of strength, endurance, speed, flexibility or just a dedication & focus for a longer life through eating/exercise for increased wellbeing, it's evidence that we all have the capabilities to learn how to absorb universal energy and potentially become super humans ourselves.
Look around you. How many people are aware of their surroundings? Who's switched on & savvy and who's present in the moment? Not many. And that's because most people are somewhere else while they go about their day. The way you can tell is to look people in the face. They should be able to pick up your gaze even with only their peripheral vision, but a lot of people will not even see you looking at them if you're directly in their field of vision. These are life's sleepwalkers.
A lot of the time, we slip into our autopilot mode - the threat of danger is low and we either switch off completely or we allow this time to think of banal thoughts, like what's for dinner etc. Sure, having a nice tea is good but why not keep your mind primed and really focus on making your thoughts more effective instead? I found some great techniques for developing your situational awareness which will help you to remember places, people and events - boost memory and elevate levels of consciousness. I'm already realising how important meditation is for setting up your mind after waking and before sleeping - and these extra techniques should help for memory retention.
Practicing a little bit of self-awareness every day is great for improving observation of the world around us. What I'd also like to do at some point in the near future, is dig deeper to really get to know myself by taking a very powerful course at a silent retreat. The participants stay still and silent for 10 days and in this time discover many things about themselves. It's called Vipassana meditation and there are centres all around the world. The centres, funded by donations only, are becoming very popular as more people choose to learn about themselves, so advance booking at one of these centres is often required.
Being a very active person - my mind races all over the place, so, Very likely, it is going to be tough for me to remain quiet and meditate for so many hours but I've read about people getting some amazing results by stripping away all the noise and getting to know who they truly are.
There's some extraordinary people out there who are doing things that defy science and logic. Ram Bomjon Gadhi is one of those people. I was looking up some info today on meditation as it's something I'd like to introduce into my day, when I stumbled upon this boy and was so transfixed, I ended up watching the entire documentary. The BBC initially visited India, in order to film Ram over a few days. They wanted to see if the meditation and boy's alleged divinity was all just an elaborate hoax because there were claims the boy had remained in the same mediative state without food or water for 10 months. Ram was actually planning on meditating for 6 years as did Budha, who was born very close to Ram in the same area of India. The documentary discusses with 'professionals' the life-threatening symptoms we would normally expect to see when a person stops taking nourishment for only a few days. We get to hear from other holy men that have supposedly gone without any food or drink for many years. There appears to be no solid scientific explanations for any of these amazing feats of endurance and ability to exert such control over the body.
The power of meditation
I've watched another powerful documentary recently about prisoners in one of America's toughest jails, who have taken up Buddhism. The story follows the lives of some of the most violent and dangerous prisoners as they use their House of Healing meditation techniques for self-healing and to face up to their demons. The documentary, The Dhamma Brothers, is available on Youtube and Netflix.
There are some things that we just cannot explain through science. The world is a wondrous place and there's so many amazing people in it. There's stuff we'll never understand and if these prisoners have shown me anything - it's re-affirmation that we have the capacity to look inwards and never too late to make great changes. I believe we should help our prisoners find themselves again and allow them the chance to give back to society. If this means they do good things from the confines of a cell - ie. too much of a risk and never to be released or if they are non serious offences and can be re-educated in order to work again within society - it's going to be better than just locking them up.
Fine Dining at Brixton Prison
I'm going to check out The Clink over the next week or two - which is a charity that supports prisoners by educating them to work in kitchens. There has been a huge success rate for lowering the re-offence figures of those that have taken the programme.
The Supernatural
Seeing as I was drawn to supernatural feats this morning - I also watched another interesting documentary called The Boy Who Lived Before, about a boy who claimed to have been re-incarnated. It was pretty eerie stuff - and there were so many coincidences in this documentary that it's given some good reason to believe that reincarnation is real...
