Meditation Positions

Mention meditation positions and people usually think the lotus posture. See any meditation image in a magazine and you will undoubtedly find someone calm and peaceful, sitting without any apparent distress in the lotus position. The lotus position is a yoga posture that’s a sturdy one for sitting meditations, but by no means the required position for meditation.
For people that spend all day sitting in front of a computer screen such as me, sitting in lotus is a strain for a long period of time. So I don’t do it. I prefer to lay down with the shades drawn. But that is just me. It took me awhile to find the best meditation position for my needs..
Meditation is about your inner world, not the outer world. So whatever position gets you comfortable is the right position for most meditations. There are a few specific meditation styles that require specific postures but those are few and far between.

Meditation Positions

Lotus Position
Sitting on the floor, take your right leg and fold it at the knee until your right ankle is high up on your left thigh. Then fold your left leg at the knee and cross it on top of your right leg, resting the ankle high up on your left thigh. Place both hand extended straight out with elbows almost locked. Palms face the ceiling and curl your pointer finger and thumb until they touch at the tip. Keep your spine straightened and lower your chin until it touches your chest.
This is a position to meditate and the most commonly depicted. But as I said above, don’t have this position even remotely distract you from the goal of meditation. If you are flexible enough to assume this position, and that is also the position that you are most comfortable with, then use Lotus. Otherwise use one of the other positions described below.

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Half-Lotus Position
This meditation position is an alternative to Lotus position if you are determined to achieve the Lotus position eventually. Sitting on the floor, take your right leg and fold it at the knee until your right ankle is high up on your left thigh. Then fold your left leg at the knee but keep it on the floor so that the left ankle touches the right knee. Place both hand extended straight out with elbows almost locked. Palms face the ceiling and curl your pointer finger and thumb until they touch at the tip. Keep your spine straightened and lower your chin until it touches your chest.

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Indian Style Position
Sometimes you have a meditation that requires an erect spine. Kundalini meditations are a type of meditation that require a sitting with erect spine posture. In the cases where you need to be sitting, but your knees or hips are too tight for lotus or half-lotus, go with Indian-style.

For Indian-style, sit on the floor and bend your right leg until your right ankle is touching your left thing just above your knee, but your right ankle is still touching the floor. Cross your left shin over your right shin so that the left ankle touches the right lower thing while the ankle still touches the floor. Place both hand extended straight out with elbows almost locked. Palms face the ceiling and curl your pointer finger and thumb until they touch at the tip. Keep your spine straightened and lower your chin until it touches your chest.

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Laying Down Position

I might be too lazy but I prefer to just lay down for meditation. It is comfortable, relaxing, and I can let my body go and be supported while I focus my concentration inside. Unless you are in an active meditation with movement, or a kundalini meditation that requires energy to travel up and down your spine, laying down to meditate has no downside versus the sitting positions described above.

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The goal of meditation is to retreat from the outer world and go within yourself. You don’t want your body distracting your mind because you are trying to hold a yoga posture that requires more flexibility than you can comfortably give. Choose the best meditation position above to support your meditation journey.

Stages of Meditation

The stages of meditation vary depending on the intention of your meditation. Goal or purpose orientated meditations have distinct differences from general deep free-form mediation. Here is a breakdown of the meditation stages:

1. Initial relaxation – You can’t meditate when your body is tense. The first stage of meditation is to relax your body and get comfortable.
2. Quieting Mental Chatter – This is the second stage, but it will be a repeated challenge throughout meditation. The inner dialogue that runs in our minds all day has to be silenced.
3. Raise Energy – Now that the mind has stopped chattering, chanting, repeating one sound, visualization, or some other means are employed to raise your energy level. Think of this step is the meditative equivalent of a cup of strong coffee.
4. Set Intention – The goal of the meditation is stated mentally and focused on. This could be “I am going to relax now”, “I am losing weight and feeling more healthy”, or “I am experiencing deep meditation” among other intentions.
5. Go Deep Into Meditation – Now that you are relaxed, mentally quiet, energetically primed, and your intention has been made, it is now time to go deep within yourself and just be. A number of sensations can occur at this time. You may feel as though time has not passed, or that a great deal of time is passing. A deep heavy pleasant blissful feeling might come over you. You could spend the time in creative visualization, embedded in your dream situations picturing them manifested in your life. Or you might just feel a deep connection to a source within yourself.
6. Affirmations – When listening to a guided meditation cd, at the end of the deep meditation portion, the guide will normally have you mentally repeat affirmations that support your intention stated earlier.
7. Come Back Towards Present Consciousness – Gently you raise your consciousness level back towards your waking state.

Different meditation techniques and guides use their own process. The stages of meditation listed above cover many meditation scripts and processes.

How to Realize Your Wildest Dream

By Mary Jaksch

What is your wildest dream? Maybe you want to do something or become something that seems impossible right now? I’ve been spending time reviewing goals and setting new ones in the last few weeks. I could sense that something was missing, but I couldn’t figure out what I had left out.
And then it struck me: I left out my wild, seemingly impossible dream! Why? Because I daren’t tell even myself about it… Ok, yes – I will tell you what my ‘seemingly impossible’ dream is, but I first have to gather some courage…gulp.
What is your wildest dream?
The one that seems too big. The one that you don’t even confide to your best friend. I think we all have a secret dream. But that dream seems so far away that we can’t imagine how it could ever happen. And we fear that if we talk about the dream, we will be ridiculed and someone will rip our precious dream apart. Because of this fear, we never activate the dream Activate? Well, a dream stays just that:  a dream. But when we turn a dream into a goal, we activate it. It then becomes like a heat-seeking missile – it’s impossible to miss.

Activating a dream means making it public.

When we start to own the dream and share it with others, we start the journey of realizing it. There are two steps to realizing the wildest dream:

Step #1 Speak about your wildest dream to others

Step #2 Take one small step towards your dream

Here’s what triggered my wild dream: A couple of years ago I visited Morocco. One day we visited the Cascade D’Ouzoud, a spectacular series of falls. After we had explored the falls, my brother George said:

“Why don’t we go for a little stroll and explore the ancient olive groves above the falls?”

For a moment I was fooled. I forgot that a ‘little stroll’ in my brother’s language means something like the ‘pleasant ten-day bike ride’ that took him from Germany to Portugal – over the Alps and Pyrenees! Three hours later we saw a steep hill in front of us. The sun was beating down on us and we had no water. George was still enthusiastic:

“Oh, look at that nice hill! Let’s go up and take a look at the view around us!”

There was a collective groan from the three others of our group. When we finally arrived at the top of the hill, we found a family living in a little walled compound. They offered us their hospitality and we sat on the earthen floor in their main room, gratefully sipping sweet mint tea. The parents introduced their five children to us. The oldest two were a fourteen year old girl called Aneesa and her younger brother, Thamar. They both looked alert and interested.

I asked the boy, “How do you get water up here?” ” I bring it up with the donkey each day.” “What about school?” “Oh yes, Aneesa and I go to school.”

I turned to Aneesa:

“What do you want to do when you finish school?” “I want to become a police woman!” “And you, Thamar?” “I want to be a teacher!”

The mother shook her head.

“It’s not going to happen,” she said sadly. “Because there’s no high school they can go to here.” “But, what about Aneesa,” I said, “can’t she go to a high school that’s further away?” “Yes, she could. We could send her to relatives in Marrakesh. But we would have to give them some money and we only have just enough to live on.”

This conversation stayed with me. It seems such a waste that intelligent young people like Aneesa and Thamare are denied education! Especially as Morocco, like many other African countries, is heading towards a grim future because of global warming. What they need now and in the future is enlightened leaders. That experience triggered my wildest dream.
Which is…
I want to become a philanthropist!
Ulitmately, I want to start a charity that helps gifted children from poor families to get an education. The way I envisage it, this charity would follow individual children through their education, rather like Kiva gives micro-loans to named individuals.
Phew…I’ve said it publicly!
I’ve now taken step #1 of realizing my wildest dream.
Now for step #2: taking one, small step towards one’s wildest dream.
In my mind I always put up conditions, liker5f
“Maybe one day, if I make some money on the Net, I’ll become a philanthropist.” Because I set seemingly impossible conditions, I didn’t need to take responsibility for actually making the dream happen.
What conditions do you set for your wildest dream?
Setting seemingly impossible conditions is an interesting move, don’t you think? It means that even if we never attain our dream, we can’t blame ourselves. We can always say, “Oh well,  the conditions weren’t right.”
To achieve anything worthwhile, we need to take responsibility for our actions.
So, let me tell you how I took responsibility for my dream. I thought, “What’s the smallest step I could take towards my wildest dream?” And I came up with something very simple. I joined Kiva a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.

And then I lent $25 to Ndaga Beye Mbaye, a woman who sells jewellery and ready-to-wear clothing for children in Senegal, so that she can buy more stock and continue to feed her family. (You can read my post about this here)

Afterwards, I felt uplifted and full of hope.

9 Ways to Develop Your Intelligence at Any Age

By Mary Jaksch

Forget depressing stories about the brain. That it’s at its best in our twenties, then slowly declines – until we are left in old age with tatters instead of dendrites in the brain and can’t even remember our own name. Forget that. It’s not true.

The great news is that the brain is plastic: it can develop throughout life. Like muscles develop with a physical workout, intelligence can be shaped up through brain exercises.
There are many different facets of intelligence that all make up our mind. Personal growth means fostering and training the many different kinds of intelligence available to us. Read on to find out which are the nine different forms of intelligence and how to develop each one.

1. Verbal Intelligence .

Involves reading, writing, speaking, and conversing. You can exercise it through learning a new language,  reading interesting books, playing word games, listening to recordings, using a computer, and participating in conversation and discussions online. The interesting thing about learning a new language is that each language has expressions and concepts that don’t appear in others. A new language also means a new way of seeing the world. .

2. Logical Intelligence

Involves number and computing skills, recognizing patterns and relationships, timeliness and order, and the ability to solve different kinds of problems through logic. You can  exercise it through classifying and sequencing activities, playing number and logic games, and solving various kinds of puzzles. Personally, I have a Sodoku book in the bathroom and do a little each day.

3. Spatial Intelligence .

Involves visual perception of the environment, the ability to create and manipulate mental images. You can develop it through drawing, painting, sculpting, sharpening observation skills, solving mazes and other spatial tasks, and exercises in imagery and active imagination. I have very little talent in the fine arts field. But I use mindmaps to develop skills and practise some Japanese calligraphy. These are my ways of practising Spatial Intelligence . .

4. Body Intelligence

Involves physical coordination and dexterity, using fine and gross motor skills, and expressing oneself or learning through physical activities. You can develop Body Intelligence by playing dancing, playing various active sports and games, as well as taking up martial arts or yoga.

5. Musical Intelligence

Involves understanding and expressing oneself through music and rhythmic movements or dance, or composing, playing, or conducting music. We can practise it by listening to a variety of recordings, and singing, dancing, or playing an instrument.

6. Social Intelligence

Involves understanding how to communicate with, and understand other people, and how to work collaboratively. We can develop it through cooperative games, group projects and discussions, as well as dramatic activities or role-playing. Daniel Goleman has written a very interesting book about this, called Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships.

7. Emotional Intelligence

Involves understanding one’s inner world of emotions and thoughts, and growing in the ability to control them and work with them consciously.  As Daniel Goleman explains in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, we can develop it through participating in independent projects, reading illuminating books,  journal-writing, imaginative activities and games, counseling, and quiet reflection.

8. Spiritual Intelligence

Danah Zohar – a management thought leader, physicist, philosopher, added Spiritual Intelligence to the list of intelligences. She wrote a very interesting book, called SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence in which she describes the intelligence with which we access our deepest meanings, purposes, and highest motivation. We can develop it by finding quiet places for reflection, or by practising meditation or prayer. I think that there is another intelligence which is not part of any official list:

9. Creative Intelligence

Involves creating something new with your mind or with your body. We can develop Creative Intelligence by participating in plays or make-believe games, by writing, painting, decorating, handicrafts, cooking and so on. There are some activities that tick more than one box. For example, when you dance you are honing your Spatial Intelligence (because you are learning patterns), Social Intelligence, Musical Intelligence, and Bodily Intelligence. Formal study is also a way to keep the brain young and to grow as a human being. A few years ago I decided to go back to university and do a Masters. Studying sharpens your Logical Intelligence, Verbal Intelligence, Creative Intelligence, as well as your Social Intelligence and your Emotional Intelligence. Another way to keep the brain in training is to change your job at times. Brain scientist Dr. Robert Sylwester says:

I’ve always thought that it’s a good idea to make a change every ten years or so and do something different – either within the same organization or to move to another one.

De-stress, Unwind: The True Value of Silence

Is stress driving you round the bend? Do you feel something has to give in your life? There is a simple remedy: Silence
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Check out your soundscape at the moment. What do you hear?

I bet it’s not waves lapping at the shore, or a dawn chorus! It’s more likely to be traffic noise, or music, or the neighbors TV, or a distant police siren, or voices in the street – especially if you live in a big city.
What I remember most about my one visit to New York was the fact that I could always hear a siren somewhere in the distance. There was always the sound of an ambulance racing to hospital or police rushing to a disaster. This leads to noise stress.
Some of the noises we are subjected too are unavoidable. But maybe you choose to be in a noisy environment? Let me ask you some questions: Do you play music a lot of the time? Do you leave the TV playing whilst you do other tasks? If so, you are adding to noise stress.
Our central nervous system responds to each sound. In response, hormones course through our body, our heart-rate rises or falls, our blood pressure changes.
Some sounds are so calming, they act as lullabies. Imagine camping near a stream in the wilds. You can hear the soft wind in trees, a brook tinkling nearby, the evening song of birds: your mind expands and your body relaxes. Even just imagining such sounds can make you feel more relaxed. But ad to the mix the crunch of steps closing in, or the roar of a tiger and your body immediately responds with high alert!
Sounds are outer noise. But there is also inner noise.

Take a moment to observe what thoughts are rushing though your mind. Most likely you’ll notice a jumble of thoughts. Some may be worries,  “Oh, what’ll happen if …” Others may be plans, “I must ring her and let her know…” And then there are random thoughts, memories, flashes of insight, melody jingles, images – rather like a crazy warehouse stuffed to the roof.
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Particularly pesky are the planning thoughts. The more stressed we are, the more often they appear in our brain. Mostly because we are worried about forgetting them. A good way to deal with them is to write them down.

Other sticky thoughts are ones that are fuelled by intense emotion, such as anger, jealousy, or fear. The underlying emotion triggers the particular thought again and again. One way to deal with that is to pinpoint and mention the relevant emotion.
Another way to deal with pressing thoughts is to do a full-on workout.  Try a run, a yoga class, martial arts training, an aerobics workout.

A great way to create space and silence in your mind is to meditate. If you aren’t sure to meditate, check out my article How to Start Meditating: 10 Important Tips.

They key to peacefulness is to let go of  both outer and inner noise to eliminate stress.
If you want to simplify your life and reduce stress, try silence.
Here are some suggestions that will help you reduce stress:

1. Eliminate background music. Only play music if you are going to listen to it with full attention.
2. Turn the TV off if you are not watching it.
3. Sleep with earplugs if your street is noisy
4. Clear your mind with daily exercise
5. Meditate daily for at least 10 minutes.
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Do You Suffer from Spiritual Fatigue? How to Recover in 1 Day or Less

Do you sometimes feel droopy, exhausted, dry, joyless, irritated or anxious? Is life sometimes on fast-forward, and you can’t catch up? Are you sometimes too tired to be inspired, motivated, or uplifted?
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You may be suffering from spiritual fatigue.
It means that your soul is exhausted, not just your body.  Spiritual fatigue is a sign that we have become separated from ourselves somewhere along the way and need to reconnect. Luckily, you don’t need an expensive holiday on a tropical island in order to recover. If you follow the steps below, you will notice a definite improvement after even just one day.
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There is a simple way to replenish our spiritual energy: through stillness.
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Stillness is a beautiful word. It conjures up images of a relaxed body, a peaceful mind, and silence. In the busy world of today, stillness tends to get lost. However, there are simple ways to include stillness in our life. Even just one day with some stillness goes a long way to help you recover from spiritual fatigue.
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To recover from spiritual fatigue is isn’t difficult. All you have to do, is to follow the seven (and-a- half) tips below

1. Rest the body.

When we suffer from fatigue, we feel as if we could sleep for a whole week. But when we go to bed, we often toss and turn and can’t get the sleep we so desperately need. In my experience, it isn’t sleep we need, it’s rest. We need to rest our body, and rest our mind.
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In order to feel rested, power naps are more useful than long sleeps. I use a sleep hypnosis tape in order to relax and nap.

• Lie down and cover yourself to stay warm
• Set your alarm so that you wake up after not more than 30 minutes
• Listen to a relaxation audio. There is a good sleep hypnosis recording, created by Jon Rhodes.

2. Find the mind of peace.

When the mind is at rest, we feel peaceful. But this is sometimes difficult  to achieve in a stressful life. There are so many things that disturb the mind. To find stillness is to be like a rock in the midst of a turbulent stream: we remain steady even when everything around us is turbulent. Here are three simple things you can do to quieten your mind..

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• Spend a day without reading newspapers or watching the news on TV or reading about it on the Internet.
• Spend a day interacting as little as possible with people who make you feel agitated.
• Use the Three Breaths Meditation at least 3 times a day in order to calm your mind. The Three Breath Meditation only takes about one minute. It consists of paying tender regard to three complete breaths (watch the short video below on how to do it).

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3. Let silence heal you.

Noise is a stress factor. If you live in a big city, you are constantly bombarded with noise. We also add to the constant assault of sounds through listening to the radio or TV, playing music, and so on. Silence can heal because it brings us to our center. Here are some simple ways you can invite silence into your day in order to recover:

• Eliminate background music
• Go on a TV diet and turn it off for a complete day.
• Only speak when you really want to communicate. Otherwise be silent. Try to use a smile instead of words.

4. Have a laugh with friends.

Laughter is a great way to let go of tension. And good friends have a way of putting things back into perspective. Ring up a friend, or connect with them on the Internet.

5. Reconnect with nature.

Going for a walk in nature is a wonderful way to connect with ourselves and with the world around us. There are some important points to remember: keep your head up, and let go of anxious thoughts. You can find  tips on how to use walking as a spiritual practice here.

6. Use your comfort rituals.

Each one of us has some private comfort rituals. Maybe you enjoy drinking a cup of tea first thing in the morning, or doing a stretch at the open window, eating something you particularly enjoy, or tucking up in bed and reading a novel. Whatever your comfort rituals are, make sure that you take the time to do them. All to often we forget to take our small pleasures because they seem ‘unimportant’. But actually, they are a way to show kindness to ourselves.

7. Use touch for wholeness

To feel the hands of another on our skin is a basic human need. Babies fail to thrive – or even die – if they are deprived of human touch. In order to recover from spiritual fatigue, it is good to feel the gentle touch of a hand, or a warm, friendly hug. Ask your loved one for a soft embrace, hug a friend, or arrange a massage. It will refresh and relax you.
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As you can see the seven things we need to attend to in order to recover from spiritual fatigue are simple. If we allow the body to rest, the mind to quieten, and let silence be the balm that heals us – we recover quickly. And then there is tip number seven-and-a-half:
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Enjoy stolen moments
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In each day you can find stolen moments. Maybe you get stuck in a traffic jam, or you need to wait at the dentist. Instead of fuming at the wait, close your eyes and enjoy this little gift that life has offered you. These are perfect times to do the Three Breath Meditation, or even have a tiny nap. (I tried the ‘stolen moment’ technique at the dentist today. It worked in the waiting room, but I must admit that once the drill got going, I started to hyperventilate…)

Why Meditation Improves Brain Power

If you meditate regularly, you’ll know that even a short meditation in the mornings has the power to improve the way you experience your whole day. Not only will you feel more peaceful and relaxed, you’ll also be more alert, feel more positive, and have a greater sense of empathy.
That’s why meditation techniques have been refined over thousands of years.
But do you have to meditate for years in order to experience the benefits?

Recent research has proven that there are measurable brain changes after only eight weeks of meditating regularly. The research was conducted at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness

How we can change our brain

The brain is a complex network. People used to think that our brain is something we can’t influence. But in recent years, research has shown that the inherent plasticity of the brain means that we can create new neurons and lay down new pathways as the result of training.
The brain is like a muscle that we can train
Britta Hölzel, PhD, one of the leading authors of the research into mindfulness meditation, says:

It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life.

Awareness is a key aspect of meditation

Most forms of meditation revolve around awareness training. Awareness is different from concentration. To become aware means that we notice what is usually outside our conscious experience.
So, what does this actually mean? It’s hard to become aware of what seems ‘normal’ to us. If you were a fish, for example,  You wouldn’t be aware of water, would you? In order to understand ‘water’, a fish would have to be outside of its ‘normal’ element.
That’s exactly what meditation training does: we come aware of what is usually hidden by going outside of our ‘normal’ mode of experiencing. If you were a fish, for example, you would only understand water if you were lifted out of it.
In the process of training our awareness through meditation, we learn to understand how our habitual thoughts shape our  reality.
Let’s try a simple experiment:
Stop reading and notice the sounds around you.
When you start to attend to sounds, you’ll notice that sounds were going on all the time around you, but you somehow managed to screen them out.

What if you were screening out most of your experience?

Internal dialogues drown out most other experiences. That means that it’s possible to go through life, and only experience a fraction. If you spend a lot of time listening to your inner dialogue, you may be missing the small beauties of life: the warmth of sun on your skin, the smell of freshly ground coffee, the kindness with which a friend looks at you, or the delicate taste of the meal you’re eating. If you don’t want to miss out on life: start to meditate.
Meditation allows you to experience your life fully

What is your attention default?

What kind of thoughts does your mind return to most often? For most people the attention default is their internal dialogue. But we only notice what our attention default is when we start meditation, and experience inner and outer stillness. Again, it’s like taking a fish out of water in order to know about water.
Meditation helps us to change our attention default because it trains us to be more present. When we learn to become aware of  our moment-to-moment awareness, our life changes. We become more present, and less self-involved.
One of the changes in the brain through meditation is that affects we become more empathetic.  We become more in tune with others. When we emerge from the fog of our internal dialogue are we able to tune into the needs and hopes of others.
Use the breath as an anchor to the present moment

A simple way to retrain our attention is to use the breath as an anchor that brings us back to the present. Whenever we pay soft attention to our breath, it takes us out of our self-involved inner world. It also calms us and steadies us.

Who are you?

One of the main reasons why meditation changes us is because you can get a glimpse of who you really are – when you drop all ideas about yourself.
What you can notice is that we actually construct our sense of self from moment to moment. That’s the main function of the internal dialogue. When we meditate and are able to notice and let go of the constant chatter in the mind, we get to glimpse the reality of who we are in the depth.
Even if you only meditate for a short space of time each day, there will be a definite change in life after only eight weeks. There’s a radiance and serenity that comes with regular meditation. And, most of all, you’ll become present and really experience your life, instead of living in a fog of preoccupation.