Meditation: March 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

Meditation and Your Health

Imagine for a moment that you are holding your arm out to the side and you just hold it there. No big deal, right? But keep holding it there, and keep holding it there, and keep holding it there. With time your arm will begin to ache and become painful. Unless you do something, you will have to put your arm down because the pain will be too intense. Stress is very much like this. Stress is exposing yourself to something small over and over again for a short period of time. When it’s just for a short period of time it’s no big deal; however, after repeatedly exposing yourself to this stress over and over again it begins to take a toll on your body. It begins to wear on you and make you susceptible to illness or injury. It can end up as something as slight as aches and pains with muscles to slightly more severe as a cold or even more severe as cancer or heart disease. A good friend of mine who is a medical doctor once told me that he truly feels that about 80% of his patients he sees are in there because of stress related illnesses. He said that if he could help his patients alleviate the stress, many of them wouldn’t even need to be in to visit him.

Many people wrongly assume that stress is just “bad” things happening to you. This is not true. Many stressful events are wonderful and positive experiences also. For example if you spend a day in a big amusement park, it’s an enjoyable experience yet at the end of the day your body feels the aches and pains of the stress of the day. It was a positive event, yet it stressed your body and mind in many ways. The same holds true with events, such as weddings and parties. While the event itself is a positive experience and something we enjoy, preparing for the event and making sure things go well, getting through the entire process and finally enjoying the results will often lead you to collapsing in a chair at the end of the day from all the stress it has caused you. So stress is not always just negative events; however, negative stresses seem to be more obvious and stressful to us.

Meditation is a way to give your body “breaks” from this stress. It’s like putting that arm down and resting it and then putting it back up again. For most people, stress is a regular occurrence in life. Because stress is generally an everyday occurrence for many, I truly encourage meditating twice a day to give our bodies that break. It’s good for you in helping you to grow, find out who you are and develop a healthy, peaceful, wonderful life. It also is a good way to combat stress.

Stress breaks down our bodies much more quickly. Alleviating stress helps to keep our bodies running more smoothly. We all age, it’s a part of life; but also as a part of life is our body wearing down. Much like a car, the better care you take of it the longer it will last. Meditation will help you maintain your body, much like you maintain your car. It helps you to keep your body healthy and fit. It isn’t a guarantee of staying healthy but it does help our bodies deal with other things that we cannot control that happen in our bodies.

Since stress is a part of our life and is so hard on our bodies, I would like to encourage you to practice meditating regularly to counteract the attack of stress on your body. While meditating is not a guarantee to a healthy body with no illness I can say with confidence that it will help you endure the stressful times when you’re forced to deal with them. It will help both your body and mind, creating a better life in general.

Dr. Robert Puff, Ph.D. is a meditation expert, international speaker and the creator of the weekly Meditation For Health Podcast, available at http://www.MeditationForHealthPodcast.com He also creates a weekly podcast that explores the world of Enlightenment available at http://www.EnlightenmentPodcast.com If you would like to contact Dr. Puff, his e-mail address is DrPuff@cox.net

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Eating Well and Mindfully: Living a Meditative Life

   You may ask yourself, “What do meditation and eating have to do with each other?” The answer is that they actually have a great deal to do with each other. What happens in the day is that we tend to get so busy that we’re not 100% present with “what is” and we really miss out on wonderful experiences that occur throughout the day. This includes important moments in everyday life, like eating.

            I’d like you to make a conscious effort of the moment you are in while eating. When you are eating, eat slowly. Eat with presence and be 100% aware of what it is you are eating. Take a bite of whatever it is that you are eating and feel it in your mouth. Taste it and recognize all of the flavor it actually has. You will realize that food is so much better when you take your time and you eat it mindfully, with presence.

            What often happens is that we can get so busy and caught up in our day that even the most scrumptious meal is lost in haste. Sometimes you will think back on a holiday that someone prepared a wonderful meal for you and you literally scoffed it down so quickly that you didn’t truly appreciate all the work, all the flavor and all the content of what you enjoyed. Perhaps your mother or your grandmother put so much work into making this meal and was so proud of it, yet you didn’t truly get the opportunity to enjoy it to its fullest because of the “rush” of the holiday. You rushed to continue on with the festivities and didn’t realize until later how wonderful or how much thought and love was put into that dinner created especially for you! It’s the same way in your everyday moments of eating. We get caught up in what has to be done and where we have to be next. We rush through a drive-thru and place a mindless order to simply fill our immediate need of quieting our stomach. Sometimes we even eat without realizing what or how much we eat. This is mindless eating and what I want you to start doing is the exact opposite of “mindless” eating. I want you to begin “mindful” eating. I want you to realize how good food can taste, how relaxing it can be to take the time to sit, relax and be in the moment with your food.

            What you will find when you take the time to eat with presence, with mindfulness, is that food is so much better. Meditation is all about following your breath, being present in the moment and using these techniques while eating will allow you to realize that the food tastes better. It will give you a pleasurable experience because you have taken the time to enjoy each and every little part of the food you are enjoying. When you are hurried through your eating what you really miss out on is allowing the food and the pleasure of eating it to occur.

            Why we suffer through life so much is because we often miss out on what’s around us. We don’t savor the moments, savor the view, or savor the life. It’s the same way with eating. You need to stop and savor the food. Enjoy being with the food, enjoy tasting the food and enjoy slowing down to enjoy the entire experience. Spend time with your taste buds that God gave you and you will find your meals will become a wonderful, pleasant experience.

            Of course this means that you need to set aside time for eating. Don’t rush; don’t eat while doing other things. You will begin to realize that food can have flavor and be a good, beautiful experience. A wonderful side effect of this is that you will find you have given your stomach the chance to realize it’s full. You will eat less because you are enjoying the food slowly. You will enjoy the moment with the food you have chosen and realize the flavors and the beautiful experience of nourishing your body with both mindful eating and mindful thoughts. I think you will be surprised at how much better your experience with food will be when you approach eating like you approach meditating. You will find enjoyment in taking the time to relax and eat slowly. Your body will enjoy the time it gets to truly experience the food you are giving it and it will repay you by acknowledging a feeling of content from the nourishment you have provided.

Resource box:

Dr. Robert Puff, Ph.D. is a meditation expert, international speaker and the creator of the weekly Meditation For Health Podcast, available at http://www.MeditationForHealthPodcast.com He also creates a weekly podcast that explores the world of Enlightenment available at http://www.EnlightenmentPodcast.com If you would like to contact Dr. Puff, his e-mail address is DrPuff@cox.net

Meditators, Dancers, & Mind-Body Awareness

Have you ever gone through a day when you’re very, very busy and you have to get things done so even though you are hungry you just keep going and slowly that hunger sensation turns into a headache? I’ve seen this happen to my wife a lot when she’s busy and she just forgets about, or puts aside eating and a few hours later she gets a terrible headache. It can happen to a lot of us; we just get busy, we don’t focus on what our bodies are doing, and things go wrong. Our bodies and our minds are connected.

For example a patient of mine came in one time and before she even said anything I could tell something was wrong. She was hunched over, she looked very sad and her body reflected this sadness. I found out shortly later that her mother had just died and she was grieving for her mother. This is called the mind body connection. Our minds and our bodies are connected. Our bodies affect our minds and our minds affect our bodies.

Try this some time; just act as if you are really angry. Don’t really be angry but let your body be expressive of anger. Let your body be tense, taut, and ready for a fight and see if it doesn’t affect the way your mind feels. Or vice versa, start thinking about something that makes you very angry and see if your body doesn’t reflect your anger.

Researchers from the University of Berkley recently wanted to look into this mind body connection. They reported in the 2010 issue of Emotion, how people who have been practicing meditation for two years or longer are very good at reading the mind body connection. They’re much better than people who are dancers or just the general public. Let’s take a closer look, in depth at this research information.

The researchers were more interested in studying dancers because they spend a lot of time with their body, getting it strong, making it resilient, agile and very functional; so they wanted to find out if meditators or dancers were better at reading the mind body connection. They had three study groups. One group of 21 dancers had at least two years of training in modern dance or ballet. Group two was comprised of 21 seasoned meditators who had at least two years of Vipassana practice. Vipassana, or mindfulness meditation, is a technique focused on observing breathing, heartbeat, thoughts and feelings without judgement. They also had a control group of 21 regular people, not dancers or meditators.

All three groups were exposed to emotionally charged movies and at the same time they were to respond on how they were feeling inside at the time. They were hooked up to electrodes so that the scientists could read what their bodies were doing and whether their perception of how they were feeling was actually accurate to what the electrodes were saying their bodies were doing. What did they find? The dancers in the controlled group showed no correlation between their emotions and their accurately predicting the speed of their heart; however, the meditators showed a very strong correlation between their feelings and the speed of their heart.

So what does this mean to us? Why does this matter? I believe it’s important because if we are more in tune to our body we can then better respond to it, listen to it and make choices that keep us healthy. If we are not in tune to our body then things can go awry without us being aware of things. Awareness is my favorite word in the universe. We can’t change something unless we are aware of it. I believe what meditation does is make us become “super awareness” people. It’s not that things can’t go awry but we are probably going to be more aware that “yup, I’m going to get a headache here if I don’t eat” instead of “Oh, how did I get this headache?”

By being more in tune, more aware of our bodily sensations; of how we are feeling physically and emotionally, we can then better make choices to fix what’s happening inside of us. If we’re not aware and we’re more like puppets where life just happens to us, meditation helps us to make changes. It helps us to be more aware and in the long run, more healthy in so many ways.

So let’s start taking the time to meditate. I recommend twice a day, once in the morning when you first wake up and once in the evening just before going to bed. This truly is the most wonderful way to practice meditation and improve our mind body connection.

Resource box:

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Stabilizing Power of Meditation

As we go through life things happen to us to get us off course. Things that make us wonder about the true benevolence, kindness and love of life and the universe. The beauty of meditation is that when you meditate you truly get grounded with life and you are able to see how everything is really well and going the way it’s supposed to. You are doing your part, others are doing their part and together the world is a beautiful place for everyone to live in. As corny as it may sound, I truly believe you will find that meditation brings you to the point of recognizing the beauty of the world around you simply by forcing you to stop and recognize it.

But of course in this beautiful world we live in there is pain and there is suffering. When we are faced with this pain and suffering we are faced with two choices. One choice is to get stuck in that pain and we stay there for days, weeks, months, years, even an entire lifetime. The other choice is that we can work through that pain, come to terms with what it means for our life, how it’s actually there to help us grow and then grow from it. Because of these challenges in life it is important to stay grounded. It is important to stay close to the center of what life is all about, the beauty of life, the wonder of life. Meditation is really the most powerful tool, the most powerful force that you can draw upon to get through your day, through your year, through your life. When those challenges come, if you’re meditating every day, every night, it doesn’t take long to get re-grounded and re-centered back to why you are here, what your purpose is and what you’re supposed to learn from the challenges that are facing you right now.

Challenges will come; it’s a part of living. They help us grow, they help us become stronger and as we get stronger more challenges come. What meditation does is keep you so that when challenges come you are able to face them with a full cup. You’re able to face it grounded and with everything you have inside of you because you know and you are aware of who and what you are through meditation. There have been many challenges throughout my life and I feel that I have been blessed through each and every one of them because no matter what comes from each and every one of them I know that from my own personal experience, that no matter what comes my way I’m taking care of myself. I’m grounded in the purpose and meaning of life by being still, by being silent, by being present with what is.

If you learn to practice meditation every day you will find that when you are grounded you will be prepared for anything. When challenges come, because you are grounded and meditation has taught you that all is well, you will be able to face life’s challenges with understanding. It’s a feeling, a sense of “all is well” even if all right now doesn’t feel well or seem well to the immediate mind; yet deep inside, meditation helps us to be grounded and face the challenges in life with equanimity, with peace, with truly believing that in the end all will be well. Meditation teaches you to live in the here and now. No matter what’s happening right here, right now there’s always something beautiful to be with. Meditation also teaches us that when we focus on the now we lose the fear of what could be, what has been, because there is nothing that we cannot handle one breath at a time right now. It teaches us to say “What do I need to do right here and now to get over this hurdle at this moment?” and then approach the challenge grounded and capable. When you practice and live by this you will find that no matter how much you feel overwhelmed, over time you will be able to overcome any hurdle no matter how high it seems. This is why I encourage you to meditate every morning, every night; so that when life does challenge you – and it will – you will be able to handle these challenges one step at a time. You will be able to replenish yourself, fill yourself back up so that you can wake and approach each new day and the challenges that come with it.

Resource box:

Saturday, March 12, 2011

How to Overcome Obstacles That Keep Us From Meditating

There are many reasons why we don’t do things that we know are good for us. When I first was exposed to meditation, at about 19 years of age, I was working on my first academic degree. I had begun studying the positive effects of meditation. My exposure to meditation was very scientific, very medical. I learned how meditation was good for your heart, your stress levels and just overall good for your health. I would describe it all in very scientific and medical descriptions exclusively. While I knew it was good for me to meditate I wasn’t overly concerned with keeping my blood pressure down and such. I was a typical 19 year old student and didn’t worry about “long term effects”. Luckily, I did enjoy the benefits of meditation from the very beginning; however, I think that what I didn’t realize at the time that I wasn’t meditating regularly because I didn’t make the time to meditate. While I enjoyed meditating I was “too busy” to take the time out regularly to practice it. I basically practiced meditating intermittently and not on a consistent basis.

What changed for me was when, years ago, I started meeting people who had been meditating for a very long time. These people shared with me the positive effects of growth with meditation. They explained that meditation was a good way to grow emotionally and spiritually as well as physically. Once I understood that meditation was far more than just a good idea for “medical/physical” reasons, I realized that I had to start practicing regularly myself. Having been intrigued with “growth” since I was very young, I knew this was my path. Immediately, I got a book on meditation and began studying and practicing regularly. I started meditating every day, twice a day because growing while I’m here on this planet is very important to me and always has been.

I think that one thing that can really help anyone with meditating on a regular basis is to find that “reason” you meditate. If you don’t have a real drive or reason for meditating, other things become a priority before meditating. If making money, going out, socializing, working, and such all take priority in your life you will find yourself making time for these things while making it harder to find the time for meditation. If you see that meditation provides far more than just medical benefits, that it increases your happiness, your spiritual well-being and so much more, you will find that these are the real reasons to make time to meditate.

I think another thing that keeps many of us from meditating is that meditation, at first, can be difficult. When we first start out it can sometimes be hard for our minds to go into a stillness. It can be a challenge to sit and quiet our minds in the beginning. It takes practice to get to the point where we can sit still, not fidget and bring our minds to a peaceful stillness of meditation. I find that often, the solution to this problem is using a “Guided Meditation”. You can utilize my own guided meditations online, my audio CD or utilize several other places that offer both free or paid guided meditations. I have found that people who are beginning and use guided meditations have an easier time learning how to meditate and truly bring yourself into the quietness you need. You may also find that you prefer guided meditations or meditating with others. It’s much like learning how to ride a bike; once you have training wheels you can take off easily and learn the tricks to go off by yourself eventually.

That brings me to another reason why some people don’t continue to meditate; some people don’t like to be alone. What I mean by that is that, it’s not that they dislike being by themselves as much as they dislike being by their emotional selves. When you meditate you get to learn about you and what’s inside of you. Things come up which you may have ignored emotionally for a long time. You may find there are things you need to work on emotionally; things that have been hidden in the corner of your mind and need to be brought out, dusted off and healed. I highly suggest meditation as a way of finding out if there are things that you need to work out emotionally within yourself. Sometimes being faced with this can provoke a person to step away from meditation because they don’t want to face these emotions ,but I cannot stress enough how important it is to work through these feelings and thoughts using meditation techniques. I think you will find yourself less stressed and more relaxed once you approach these issues using meditation.

I talk much more on this in my book “Anger Work: How to Express Your Anger and Still be Kind”; which is really a book about healing and how to heal. If you do find that you have things come up while you’re meditating, make sure that you take time to heal them. If you have wounds from the past or something that requires some healing it’s important to get that healing and meditating can be a good process in helping the healing process. Many people utilize meditation in conjunction with therapy, something I encourage when you have things that need to be healed. Meditation is an excellent barometer to let you know how you’re doing in your healing process because if you can be still and present with yourself then you’re doing pretty well.

Another reason I think people struggle with meditation is simply discipline. Many people have trouble with disciplining themselves to make the time to meditate. In the same way that many people won’t make the time to take care of their physical self at the gym regularly; people often won’t make the time to take care of their emotional and spiritual self by taking the time to meditate. There’s no question, it takes discipline to meditate. You have to set aside time each day to meditate and that’s why I encourage people to have a discipline of meditating when they first get up and when they go to bed at night. An easy way to discipline yourself is to set your morning alarm 30 minutes early to meditate in the mornings and go to bed 30 minutes before your normal bedtime so you can meditate before you go to bed. It’s easier to set aside that time in the beginning and end of each day, as opposed to trying to fit it in between a busy schedule. You will find that if meditation is important to you, you will set aside that time you need to practice it. It doesn’t matter when it is, as long as it works for you. I suggest the morning and bedtime meditation process because this seems easiest for people to fit into their schedules. Once you start doing this regularly, you will find yourself looking forward to these 30 minute periods you have set aside just for you.

I’d like to encourage you to utilize our online podcasts for meditation to help you become disciplined and take the time to meditate. With the help of our podcasts we can help you find the wonders, the beauty and the true bliss of meditation.

Resource Box:

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Getting Ready to Meditate: Meditation for Beginners or How to Mediate for Beginners

To help you in your journey in meditation it is important to have a regular place to go to for your meditation. I have found through the years that having a routine is helpful. Our bodies, soul and mind seem to respond to this, knowing that it’s time to relax, be peaceful, to meditate. So find a place in your home that is comfortable, relaxing and say “this is my place to meditate”. It can be anywhere, you bed, a couch, a corner, a chair. Also, put up a sign if you have the possibility of being disrupted. You want people to respect your need to be alone, comfortable and have a quiet place to meditate. What you may find with time is that it doesn’t really matter where you meditate because you can get into the here and now with a pair of headphones and “zone out”. You can sometimes muffle out the background noise and once you get into that meditative place it doesn’t matter what’s going on around you.

The nice thing about creating a routine in meditation is that it becomes easier to do with time. So tell your loved ones what you’re going to do and I think they’ll cooperate. Sometimes you may need to get up a little earlier or stay up a little later to take the time to meditate also, but those few extra minutes each day will prove beneficial.

Another thing I find helpful is to do Yoga and stretching to keep from getting too restless during the meditation time. It’s best if you can sit still, quietly and calmly throughout the meditation. It’s okay if you cannot be still for an extended period of time at first but try to get to that goal and stretching will help your body become more relaxed and ready also.

Eating can sometimes cause problems if you eat just prior to meditation. It makes it more difficult for your stomach to stay quiet and relaxed. It can be done and I have done this but it’s a better meditation when I wait and haven’t eaten recently. So don’t meditate right after you eat if at all possible. A good routine to have is to get up and meditate in the mornings before breakfast and then enjoy your morning meal. In the evening wait until just before bed, allowing dinner to rest and I think you will find it more comfortable than trying to relax and meditate directly after eating.

Clothes are an important aspect of meditation. You have to be comfortable. Wear clothes that are comfortable and stretch, particularly if you’re going to stretch or cross your legs during meditation. Comfort is what’s most important when it comes to your clothing and meditation.

So the general rules are, find a quiet, comfortable place to meditate. Stretch before you begin. Don’t mediate right after eating and always wear comfortable clothing. I think if you combine all of these things together you will find your experience with meditation will go well and you will enjoy and look forward to it. Of course, as all new things often can be, beginning meditation can be challenging. Don’t give up. Stick with it and keep trying. I’ve made many, many adjustments in my meditation throughout the years. Having flexibility and trying new things is important. For a season you may enjoy a guided meditation and then you may want to try the Breath Meditation. Try different things but stick to them for a while. Have a routine. I think you will find your experience with meditation will just get better and better if you follow these suggestions.

Resource Box:

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Meditation and Synchronicity: How Meditation Creates Amazing “Coincidences”

Synchronicity is actually related to probability. There are events that occur in life which have a small probability in life of happening, yet they happen. For instance you’re talking on the phone with a friend and you say something and they say to you, “I was just thinking that!” The chances of that actually happening are really small, yet it happens. Another example is perhaps you call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while. You come across their number and you decide to call them and check to see how they’re doing. When you call them you find that their grandmother had died and they really needed someone to talk to; you coincidentally happened to call them and were able to comfort them in this time of need. Because of their unique occurrence and because it occurs between two people, these happenings are often difficult for science to study them. They’re outside of the realm of science but they aren’t outside of your own experience. Even though they aren’t scientifically provable they are to your own experience and sharing your experience with other people is a powerful way of validating or proving a point. While some points are proven scientifically others, such as these, validate an occurrence because you’ve experienced them and can share the information with others.

Synchronicity occurs when something happens out of the ordinary, generally between two people. The chances are miniscule yet it happens. You see it, you experience it, it’s very real and poignant to you but because it happened to you it can’t necessarily be validated by other people.

I’d like to share a story to illustrate an example of synchronicity. Years ago I was working with a woman who was very, very busy. I would encourage her to take time and slow down for herself. I remember telling her that if she didn’t learn to slow down there could be serious consequences to her behavior. I didn’t tell her to frighten her but I was truly trying to make her understand she needed to take time for herself, if only for her own well-being.

Shortly after I had reminded her to slow down, she was driving on the thruway and as always was speeding along in a hurry. A truck in front of her went out of control and started spinning around. The truck came within inches of hitting her and killing her. As the truck spun by her, barely missing her, she could see in big, bold, black letters the words “Slow Down”. To her, that was a message. If she didn’t slow down there would be consequences. Later she joked asking if I had put that sign there to remind her that she needed to slow down. Of course, I hadn’t had anything to do with that sign but it was truly a strange coincidence. This was a moment of synchronicity.

Perhaps you too have had an incident like this where the universe, God, conspired to send you a message and it was so loud and clear that it got your attention. What does this have to do with meditation? The central goal of meditation is to help you slow down, quiet your mind and be still. What may happen is that as you slow down, as you quiet your mind, what you may find is synchronicity in your life begins to increase. Because meditation is such a powerful change agent and so helpful in a plethora of ways to change your life, I wonder if the universe or God doesn’t give back to us to let us know that we are on the right track and remind us to keep meditating. Synchronicities happen a lot more often when you’re meditating.

There’s a person that can help qualify or validate or disqualify this claim that I’m making; this claim that when you meditate synchronicities begin to happen more frequently in your life. That person is you. What I encourage you to do is keep a notebook or file of instances of things that happen that are “coincidental” or out of the ordinary. As you commit to meditation more and more see if these synchronicities don’t happen with more frequency. I like the idea of writing them down because as they begin happening to you it seems that synchronicities happen but the universe seems to make them disappear from our minds. We may notice them but we don’t become attached to them, which is a good thing. However, in this case I’d like you to keep a journal of these synchronicities to prove to yourself and to me that synchronicities do increase as you meditate. You may find that synchronicity is another benefit of meditation. Much like how people will notice how much more relaxed and happy you are now that you’re meditating, this is a by-product of meditation. It’s a positive by-product that when you take the time to realize these things are happening you realize what a change meditation is making on your life.

If you’d be willing to suspend judgement for a little while and just give it a try. Meditate regularly, once in the morning and one in the evening and see if life doesn’t just flow better. See if synchronicities don’t just happen to occur more often in your life.

Resource box: