Saturday 31 August 2013

Music For Meditation

by

Jacob Jarden

From the very early days of meditation becoming popular, music has been a integral to it's effectiveness. There are certain strains of music that are known to have particularly beneficial effects. Music quickly alters ones state of mind, whether it be rock music to get the pumping, sad music to stir emotion, or meditative music to relax the mind. The most common effect of meditation music is the relaxing power to induce feeling of calmness and pleasant mood in the person meditating. A few other special tribal and meditation types of music hold a cleansing quality. This type of music generally has an effect on your "Chakras". Specific wavelengths and vibrations tide up your "chakras" and spiritual blockages.

Together with other equipment of meditation like meditation chairs, meditation music has also been flying off the shelves. In forums conducted for meditation, there is a roaring trade for quality meditation music. In fact, as long as the music fulfills its sole purpose of relaxing the mind and pleasing the temperament, listening to any of the music varieties is helpful.

The most fundamental reason why people partake in meditative activities is that they want to address the unbalanced moments and aspects of their lives as calmly as possible, and this is where music helps them release from the chaotic world around them. Although their are some specific meditation music styles that are highly recommended, you may stumble across your ideal audio tracks somewhere else, simply find the music that helps you relax and allows you to clear your mind completely.

No one can say that bringing your heart, mind and body as well as your spirit into a peaceful harmony and alignment can ever be an easy task. But meditation music makes the whole process all the easier for you. With the right genre of music, meditation will remove all material and emotional interruptions from your mind and allow you to discover new levels of deepest concentration.

You will soon notice a change in the way your body feels, a if positive energy is literally flowing through your body. No matter how much a stressed lifestyle you live, when meditation time comes around, everything about you and around you feels tranquil.

In order to truly achieve inner-peace, you will need to learn to work on strengthening the relationship of your mind & body, a feat that is much easier to achieve by embracing the power of sound, a sense that is often overlooked with many mind and self improvement techniques.

There are many aspects to think about, when looking for music to meditate to. The music strain should have the quality to act as a stress manager. It's important you understand that the right type of meditation music depends on your meditation plan. For example, morning meditation is not similar to meditation in the evening. For your morning meditation session, look for music that is fresh and energizing, ready to give you a truly natural kickstart. At night, the music you will use will be relaxing and work to relieve the stress of the day that has passed.

Remember, that 'Meditation Music' doesn't have to be instrumental. Some of the most effective meditation tracks simply use nature noises, such as the cliche sea or forest noises. The point is to ensure that the pace of the meditation music matches the particular ambience and mood that you are looking to achieve in your meditation environment.


About the author:


Jake Jarden lives in Indiana with his wife and son. He offers a free publication on common sleep disorders [http://relaxandmeditate.net/sleep-disorders.php] and effective cures. His recent writings include research into the healing powers of different meditation techniques [http://relaxandmeditate.net/meditation-techniques.php]. Visit relaxandmeditate.net for more info.

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Learning from Fear

by

Dr. Tim Ong, M.B.B.S.


Nobody likes to feel fearful and because of that, most people will habitually react to fear by avoiding, repressing or suppressing it.  It takes courage and wisdom to see that our fear can be our greatest teacher.

When we examine our fear, we will often discover that it is irrational.  There is no real basis or substance to our fear.  That is why fear is often described as "False Evidence Appearing Real".  Fear is a self created illusion built upon past experiences or imprints.  The situation may have changed but the imprints compel us to react in a knee jerk manner without proper examination and re-evaluation of the new situation.

The good news is that this habit or tendency CAN be transformed.


The Fear of Rejection


One of the most common fears is the fear of rejection.  This fear comes in many forms.

For example, a person with this fear often feels it a challenge to talk to authority figures, whether these be their parents, teachers, superiors or even government bodies.  They are especially fearful to ask for or request things from these people.  The feeling of fear of rejection is an automatic response that arises from past experience of rejections from these same authority figures.

Another manifestation of this fear of rejection is in the inability to say "no" to other people's requests.  This is the other end of the spectrum and arises because of the fear of being rejected by the person who made the request.


Confront Your Fear


The best way to overcome your fear is to confront it.  However, there are two opposing ways of confrontation.  You can confront your fear with great compassion and gentleness, or you can confront it combatively.  The more skillful and effective way is naturally to confront it compassionately.

When you confront your fear compassionately, you'll soon discover the underlying false belief that gives rise to that fear.  You'll learn that the external situation is merely a mirror reflection of your inner mental state. That false belief gives rise to a correspondingly false perception of reality, thus the irrationality of the fear.

Confronting your fear compassionately means to see it without any judgment and blame.  It means to take responsibility for your emotion and even to embrace it with love.  When you can do this, you'll be grateful for your fear because you know it is there only as a teacher.  It is there to help you see your real self.

So the next time you experience fear, pause for a moment and examine it with love and compassion.  Allow this teacher to show you the lesson you need to learn.

As they said, "Do the things you fear and the death of fear is certain."


About the author:


Dr. Tim Ong is a medical doctor with keen interests in self improvement, mind science and spirituality. He is the author of "From Fear to Love: A Spiritual Journey" and a contributor to "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life: Volume 3" together with other authors like Ken Blanchard, Byron Katie, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Brown.

Saturday 24 August 2013

Heal Your Self Esteem

by

Sandy Tashi Hounsell


Our true sense of self esteem that is wholly sustaining and enriching comes from within. It is not something that can be bestowed on us that is outside of us, or is something that can be taken from us by others.

Life experiences can erode our sense of self esteem. So too our personal belief systems and behaviours can and do, perpetuate a lack of self esteem in many instances.

But a real lasting, meaningful and empowering feeling of our own true worth is intrinsic to each and every one of us. We are of Source, created from love, coming into being, at our very beginning, as a spark of universal life force - S.O.U.L. Created without condition; endowed with free will and the ability to create from within our selves, from our core centre of being.

When we accept that thought and allow it to frame our personal thinking we can soon realise that everything that we are, everything in our lives is created from us. That means that we are each limitless and powerful in our ability to both manifest and create.

It is when we consciously create from our core centre, we create with loving intent that results in loving, positive outcomes. Our sense of self esteem is then no longer in doubt. We only see our self as love!

If you are not feeling that sense of self esteem, here are 10 tips that you can adopt right now to help you come to know yourself as true and meaningful:

1. Maintain Presence. Be present with your self in all of your thoughts and actions each and every day, by seeing and feeling yourself at the centre of your world. Become consciously aware of you in each moment. That way you get to consider your own feelings and how you feel about something before you take any action. And you never lose sight of who you are.

2. Acknowledge. Acknowledge your feelings whatever they are. Do not dismiss one single part of yourself. That way you become more trusting of your feelings, your thoughts and who you are and no longer doubt.

3. Cease the judgement. Don't exercise any judgement or criticism over how and what you feel. That way you give your self both the option and chance to heal.

4. Stop the chiding: Stop blaming yourself or finding fault. Instead journal on why you do that and keep asking as you dig down to find the root cause. Then decide, if you wish, to heal it.

5. Have fun: Each day do something that creates a giggle inside. Then feel the giggling spread throughout your entire body. It's a lovely sound when we hear our cells laughing. And a lovely feeling we feel our cells smiling.

6. Learn something new. Become inspired by way of learning something new that you are passionate about. Or take up that hobby you have always promised yourself. Just make a start!

7. Go Within. When feeling down withdraw into your heart chakra by focusing on a rose there. As you slowly open the petals set the intent that as each petal opens, you open yourself to love. Ask that your Soul flow into the darkest places and fill them with your Soul's divine presence, so that you feel safe, secure and trusting of who you are.

8. Assert yourself lovingly and compassionately. Everything that we do; everything that we are is created from within each one of us. So when you learn to create your thoughts and actions from a loving mindset, you naturally create loving outcomes that are uplifting for all.

9. Remember who you are: You are S.O.U.L ( Source of Unconditional Love, Source of Universal Life Force). That means that you are internally very powerful, strong and limitless. Ponder on the words. Meditate upon that thought and so allow the love of your Soul to lovingly and naturally transform your thinking and your life.

10. You are truth: Be guided by your own intrinsic truth by paying attention to your intuition and so be less affected by external distractions or by the judgement of others.


About the Author:


Sandy Hounsell founder of Soulawaken is on a mission to clear the toxic dustbin that is holding people back from stepping forward into the vibrant, healthy joyful lives they deserve.

Sandy hosts complimentary monthly webinars, sharing invaluable soul wisdom helping you live from your most truest self, your soul. Join her by registering here and you will be provided with all the details in plenty of time: http://soulawaken.com/webinar-registration-form/.

You can also take advantage of her free eBook, "Living Without Fear Or Limitations', 32 pages packed with over 100 tips and insights and a deeply healing meditation, "Opening To Love", by going here: http://bit.ly/10LO47c

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Believe in Yourself

by

Ryan D Neely

You may have heard on multiple occasions that it is important to believe in yourself. You may have even responded when hearing the phrase with, "I do have faith in myself." However, the question I have for you is do you really have confidence in yourself?

Do you really believe that you can do the things you want to do? Do you truly think you can accomplish the goals you have set out to accomplish? Do you honestly see yourself living the life you have dreamed of living? Or, do you simply hope to see your dreams come true? Altogether, why do you and what leads you to believe in yourself?

There are many good reasons to have faith in your abilities. First, you must stand behind yourself in order to make things happen. Next, you must trust who you are and what you do so that others do too. Last but not the least, it is essential for you to have confidence in yourself in order to be who you were created to be.

As you begin to make things happen, your self confidence will be increased and you will draw attention from other people. They will see your motivation and determination and see you as somebody who they can depend on. After they see you as a dependable person, they will want to promote you as they will see you as someone they can trust.

When others respect your self confidence, they will not want to say anything bad about. Instead, they will want to be friends with you. Also, people of the opposite sex will want to date you.

Because of your courage, you will live the life you were put on Earth to live. You will meet the people you are supposed to meet. You will go to the places you are supposed to go and do what you are supposed to do.

Things that should lead you to believe in yourself are your goals, the people in your life, and your passions or desires. Your goals should encourage you to want to reach for the stars. The people in your life should show you the importance of loving people. Your passions and desires should lead you to seek the things you want and need to be happy. With all these things encouraging you, you will soon be lead to believe in yourself as you will have a good outlook for the future.

As you can see, believing in yourself is very important as your life depends on it. Therefore, never doubt yourself and complete your mission as you fulfill your destiny.

I hope this article has been very enlightening to you. If you enjoyed what you read, and would like more advice, check out my ebook entitled 100 Thoughts to Improve Your Life!

Saturday 17 August 2013

I Worked So Hard I Forgot My Dreams

by

Weldon Smith

There have been many times where I have been so busy with the nitty-gritty of life that I have forgotten my dreams. It's easy to do. We certainly do need to work hard enough to be able to afford a comfortable, secure, and healthful life. But we need to rest and dream too. It's what makes us human. Of course, animals dream when they're asleep. They may have wishes and desires. But they have little ability to realize their dreams, and their desires are simplistic.

If we humans spend all our time just staying alive, we negate a lot of what makes us human. Birds, animals, fish, and insects spend most of their time just making sure they have food to eat and somewhere to sleep. If that's essentially what we do, then we are quite animalistic. We might have a palatial place to sleep, we might be able to eat every meal at the best restaurants, and we might have the sexiest automobile that exists in order to travel to where we get paid to afford our lives, but if we spend all our time and energy essentially acquiring food to eat and a place to sleep, and little more, we are not appreciably better than animals.

We should have dreams, desires, and expectations of getting far beyond where we are now. In fun and excitement, yes, but also in making sure that what we spend most of our waking hours doing is of value to us and to many other people. That it's worthy of a human being.

I have dreams of traveling and spending time with people I love. I also have dreams of things I want to invent, businesses I want to start, books I want to write, people I want to help. I realize that I won't realize every one of my dreams. I am a big dreamer and I have thousands of things I would like to be successful at. I don't mind some of my dreams going to the grave with me because I have so many. I don't mind, that is, as long as I have worked steadily at bringing some of those dreams to life, and working at it all the time. But as I say, sometimes I wake up and realize that I have lost track of my dreams.

We've all heard the stories of people on their death beds saying that they wish they had played with the children more, they wish they had had more fun. They planned to visit Europe but never did. They wanted to start a business. They knew they would have been good at it, but things got in the way and they never did it. They wanted to spend some time helping people less fortunate than themselves but didn't do it. They spent too much time just staying alive, and little or no time being human. People sometimes have dreams in the backs of their minds, but they usually don't bring them to the front and work on them. They don't take charge of their own lives. They don't consider the things they might do to make life better and more rewarding for many people.

I have realized at times in my life that I was working very hard for not-enough-money. I put everything I had into trying to get not-enough-money. It seemed the thing to do at the time, but in retrospect, it seems pretty dumb. I have seen that I have a lot of company. Lots of people spend most of their time trying to get not-enough-money. Even if they have time in the evenings and on weekends to try to do something to get enough-money, they rarely do. The more time I work at getting not-enough-money, the less time I have to realize my dreams of enough-money and lots-of-money.

I heard or read something about there being three kinds of people: those who are going to write a book some day, those who are going to start a business, and those who are going to go to law school. I wish I could remember where I read or heard that. There may be more kinds of people, but really they are all the same kind of people. They are the kind of people who have shallow, undeveloped dreams, at best, and who more likely have vague wishes. If a genie granted them a wish they would go for it, but otherwise it's just something they say to try to convince themselves and others that their lives are worthwhile.

So have some dreams. All the way from very practical to pie in the sky. Then go to work on them. Think of them and work on them all the time. Even if we never attain ninety-five percent of our dreams, we are better for having tried.


Saturday 10 August 2013

Your Feelings Determine Your Reality

by

Muhammad Abdul Haq

The secret behind the law of attraction really comes down to common sense and paying attention not only to how you feel around certain people, but how the world reacts to you. It all begins with understanding how thoughts, feelings and perceptions alter your reality. For an example, have you ever been having a great day when all of a sudden a grouchy coworker or family member suddenly alters your mood in an instant? Well, the vibration you send out to the world around you can have the same effect on others, the perfect example of how your feelings determine your reality.

We all have to accept that the way we look at ourselves, and the vibes we wash over others, will shape the way we interact with the world (and the universe), and more importantly how it reacts to us. If you're living the life of your dreams, with enriching life experiences, you've already harnessed the secret law of attraction. If you're new to the law, with diligence and practice you can have it all as well.

The secret law of attraction is built around breaking negative habits and changing the way you feel to your core. If you act confident long enough, you'll start to feel more confident. On any average day we have nearly 60 thousand different thoughts; many are negative and can hinder us and limit the joy in our lives. If our thoughts are positive, life seems brighter and full of promise, ready to do whatever it takes to improve upon ourselves instead of feeling depressed or and envious of others. Having negative, self depreciating thoughts and living in a place of lack will not help improve your life. You can learn to silence these negative feelings by letting go of your damaging cognizant thoughts. Learning to ignore your negative inner voices and embracing the constructive ones will help promote unimaginable changes in your life and positively affect the world's reaction to you. You'll feel proud about every accomplishment, be able to handle life's often challenging situations with a smile on your face, and love the process.

All of the positive changes you make will create a ripple effect in your life which will have a life changing effect on your finances, your relationships, your job opportunities, your health, and even strengthen your faith. Every aspect of your life will be enhanced by a change of attitude because your feelings determine your reality.

We all have the ability to change our feelings and create new, positive attitudes about ourselves and our circumstances. Just alter the feelings you want to change and replace them with the new empowering thoughts, repeating the words to yourself repeatedly with all your heart and soul, and be excited about it. Instead of saying things like "I can't do this!" Say "I can do anything I choose to and perfectly!" or "I'm too old" to "I have worlds of knowledge to share". Most important of all, take a chance; change your feelings and live the magnificent life you so deserve.

About the Author:


My name is M Abdul Haq and the Law of Attraction is my specialty. I am pleased to share with you the results of my life's research. It is my sincere desire that you, too, learn to use the Law of Attraction to get everything that your heart desires.  Visit http://perfectrealitynow.com/dreams-come-true/Home.html to Create Your Perfect Reality Now!


Thursday 1 August 2013

How to Achieve the Impossible

by

Alex Gunn

Now, this might sound like a rather extravagant claim. To be more accurate, a completely extravagant claim, but I promise that at the very least this will be useful information, and at best it will help you change your life and achieve the impossible.

Firstly let me ask you two questions. Do you believe that when you really, really make up your mind to do something you do it? Do you also believe that when you haven't really made up your mind, when your heart's not really in it, things don't work out? I would go one step further and say that most things we fail to achieve is purely because our heart is not really in it.

Think back over all the things you have managed to achieve in life and I bet that all of them were things that you really, really wanted; getting married, (getting divorced), passing exams, your driving test, having children, buying your house, getting your job. All of these things have one thing in common...you really wanted to make them happen.

Now think of all the things you have so far failed at; quitting smoking, cutting down on drinking, losing weight, becoming a millionaire, eating less junk food, living on a private Mediterranean island in a huge white villa with a swimming pool in the shape of a dove...or whatever. I bet you this second list, as desirable as it all might be, do not occupy as much time in your "top three important things in my life" list. And this, in a nutshell, is the problem.

So how do we bump all these things in our second list up to the first list? Believe it or not, it's quite straight forward.

I really began to get interested in what has now become known as Motivational Psychology twenty-two years ago while working as a psycho-therapist in a specialist clinic for people with alcohol problems. Why did some people seem to achieve the impossible and others, often returning home to more supportive environments, did not.

To begin the process of bumping things up to our first list,(the list of things that we achieve) we have to start, what is called in motivational psychology terms "increasing importance". This has been a special interest of mine for many years, probably because I have heard so many people, rather depressingly say "you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink"...oh yes you can.

Firstly target any one item on your second list (the "failed at so far" list) and give yourself a score out of ten of how important it really is to you. Not how important you would like it to be, but how important it really is, with ten being the most important thing in your world right now and zero being gloriously unimportant. Be honest.

Once you have got that number in your head think about why you have given yourself that number. Why is it as high as it is? What would help to increase your number by just one or two digits, or maybe more? Don't give yourself an easy time, ask your self these difficult questions and give yourself some honest answers.

The second thing to start doing is to identify what you are telling yourself about whatever it is you are thinking of and wheedle out all the self sabotaging statements. Why are you telling yourself that you can't stop smoking, or eat more healthily? There is more and more research piling up that suggests that the only thing stopping yourself achieving whatever it is you want is what you are telling yourself. It is summed up in a really useful quote coined by the psychologist Daryl Bem "we learn what we believe as we hear ourselves speak". So start speaking more positively, it will make a difference.

Now hopefully some of this information has been useful for you and I hope even life changing. Who knows, in a year from today you might be toddling out onto your verandah for a well earned swim in your own dove shaped pool.


About the Author


Alex Gunn invites you to find out how real people are making real changes in their lives at http://thelifechangepeople.com/read-my-story/153-elizabeths-story

Learn five important steps to changing your life http://thelifechangepeople.com/news-and-reviews/news/81-how-can-i-change-my-life