http://www.populate.net/ Articles at Populate.NET en-us http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/giving-your-full-attention-to-who-you-are.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/giving-your-full-attention-to-who-you-are.html Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:35:35 -0700
Your chattering mind will not have you realizing who you are. It simply cannot because your mind knows nothing about this one. The chattering mind is worlds apart from your heart; it is not going to be of any help with any of this.

Neither can your mind get hold of this one that you are, for there is nothing to grasp or to claim. No, you are simply going to have to find where you already are, right now. And your mind is not going to like you doing it. In fact, your mind will make quite a noise.

Once you begin to learn to see past this noise, the chattering mind will then open its bags of subterfuge and it will go into stealth mode. What you can keep on learning through all of this, is that you are this one which is already right here and prior to this active and tricky mind that keeps demanding your attention.

This mind of yours does everything within its power to distract you from realizing who you are. It has so many tricks up its sleeve. It is adept in this art of distraction; it has it all down to a very fine art. However in every moment that you see the mind's game, you can simply shift your attention away from your thoughts to this aliveness that is flowing through your eyes.

As you continue to find who you are, you will see that this mind has amazing capacities for distracting you from simply being deeply at rest in the realization of who you are. However, all it is really doing is attempting to ensure its survival; like a small child seeking attention. And because this mind is not you, whenever you see that this is what it is doing, you can again shift your attention to who you are.

If you fall into the trap of thinking that you are realizing when it is only you trying to be something that you are not, then you create a very deep pit for yourself where realization will be lost to you. Your mind is not going to have you realizing - not ever.

The mind is ingenious in its capacity to blind you from realizing who you actually are. You are not, as it would have you believe, under its thumb. It keeps distracting you back into believing that it is you. But you already stand before this mind even arises.

You are always here, right here before this mind. You can see this right now. Simply stop right now and focus your attention into this moment, into all that is around you. Here you are, before any labels, judgments, or descriptions made by the chattering mind.

Realization is very simple. But it has to be realized. You have to find where you actually are and stop right there. You are the aliveness that is flowing through your eyes right now. Bring all of your attention to this one and rest here before the thoughts, even as they continue.

Like learning to play an instrument or learning a new skill, realizing who you are requires you to give your full conscious attention. You begin this journey one conscious moment at a time.

It is a natural journey. It has you becoming much more aware of what is going on around you. It brings you fully into your body.

With this movement at the fore, you will naturally find yourself drawn to the things that remind you of who you are and leaving alone those things that are going to distract you from realizing who you are.

So give your full attention to the aliveness that is flowing through your eyes in this moment right now, stop right here and be this one. ]]> http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/what-you-need-to-do-to-setup-your-own-meditation-group.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/what-you-need-to-do-to-setup-your-own-meditation-group.html Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:31:13 -0700
If you are new to meditation then joining a meditation group is a great way to start. Sometimes you will find that there may not be a meditation group nearby so you can certainly start your own. When you do start your own meditation group there are a few things you need to consider.

First of all, you need to work out how many people you want to have in your meditation group. If you are new to meditation then it is recommended that you only have 3 or 4 people in your meditation group including yourself. If you have been meditating for some time then you may consider having anywhere up to 10 people however, when you have that many people in a room make sure that your meditation room is an appropriate size.

I recommend that when you are meditating with 10 people that you do it outside because it is much nicer and if you have 10 people outside rather than inside in a warm climate because you may find it gets very uncomfortable over a 20 to 30 minute mediation session. I certainly recommend that you have air-conditioning for this number of people in a small room.

When you are setting up your meditation group, you will need to develop a way to indicate to people how you will bring them out of their meditated state. In many cases the music you are using if it is designed for meditation will do this for you but there is nothing worse than to be brought out of a nice peaceful tranquil state by the blast of a whistle. One retreat I visited did this and they wondered why people got so agitated.

If you are going to host the meditation group at your home make sure that you find a suitable room with no distractions and very low noise. If you live in a suburb which is extremely noisy or next to a train station then your guest meditators may find it very difficult to get to the first stage in the meditation process so in this case you may consider hosting your meditation group at a local hall or community centre.

The next aspect you need to consider when setting up your meditation group is whether the group will be run as a guided meditation group or simply a group of people meditating together. I recommend that if you are starting out that you do run a guided meditation group and invite someone from one of your local meditation centres to guide each session. Ask them if they will run the session for free in return for them being able to offer their meditation tools at your meditation group. Some meditation practitioners will charge a fee regardless of you offer, simply because that is how they make a living which is fair enough.

If you are starting out I would encourage you to have the same meditation practitioner run guided meditation sessions for a period of up to six months, simply so that you can learn as much as possible from them and to get your basic meditation techniques down pat. After this period though, I would encourage you to invite other meditation practitioners to teach you their meditation techniques.

Remember, there are many different meditation techniques that will help you to improve your life and the more people you get to meet to share there meditation techniques the more rounded and effective your meditation will become.

When you are setting up your meditation group it is also worthwhile trying to get all your meditation partners to be of a similar skill level especially if you are running a guided meditation session. Also make sure you have your room appropriately setup. For example if your meditation room has candles, incense and meditation music then makes sure you use those during your meditation session.

One issue you do need to consider is whether or not any person attending your meditation group is allergic to incense or essential oils. I am a strong believe in using a lavender based incense or essential oil for introductory meditation sessions. The lavender fragrance is the perfect fragrance for relaxing and has been used for many years by religious meditators because of its soothing nature. Other fragrance you may want to consider is sweet violets or oriental jasmine.

Make sure if you are running your meditation group in your meditation room that you have enough meditation pillows for everyone. There is nothing worse than to go to a meditation session only to find that you are sitting on the hard cold floor. It does make getting to that state of mind very difficult. Alternatively, encourage your meditation members to bring there own meditation pillows. Some meditators are very protective of their meditation pillows so do set some careful rules on meditators acceptable behaviour at your meditation group.

Finally, how to find your meditation partners …

The best way to find your meditation partners is to check out meditation websites in your local areas or the yellow pages. You will find there maybe a holistic or healing centre nearby. See if they are holding a group meditation session and go along. While you are there invite some of the attendees to have a private meditation session at your home. One thing I will note is that when you are inviting people into your home who you may not be familiar with always make sure that you secure your valuables and I always recommend having a friend you know really well with you so that if anything happens they can support you.

Setting up your own meditation group is a great way to get to know people and can lead to very long friendships. Remember when meditating in a group you are all taking the meditation voyage together as well as on your own. It is fantastic to share your meditation experiences and techniques that you have learned with each other so you can all try them out and help your meditation skills mature. ]]> http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/four-strategies-four-strategies-you-can-try-to-decrease-the-stress-with-the-children-inside-on-a-rainy-day.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/four-strategies-four-strategies-you-can-try-to-decrease-the-stress-with-the-children-inside-on-a-rainy-day.html Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:09:07 -0700
So what do you do?

Well as a parent it is your responsibility to help these children develop the skills to act in a responsible way. The most effective way, is to do that by getting all the children involved in activities together, with you. This will do two things, one it will help you set the ground rules on behavior in the house that is acceptable and two it will allow the children as a whole to socialise and to work as a group together. Learning the ability to socialise and to work together as a team will hold them in great stead as they enter university or go into the work force.

So how do we do that …I have outlined below four strategies that will help you to keep the children occupied whilst it is raining outside.

Strategy 1 - Play Group Games

In the hustle and bustle of our world today, far too many families do not spend enough time socialising with their children. One of the best ways to do this is to turn off the computer or computer games and to play a group game together regardless of the age of the children. That is right; you can include children as young as 2 and as old as sixteen with these games. The choice which is most important is the game you play.

When you are playing group games, everyone must have a role for each person or if someone is not included they are going to become disruptive and this strategy will not work. One of the games my parents used to play with me, my brother and our friends was Monopoly. Now I here you all saying it, how is a two year old going to play this game. Well, in reality, you need to include the younger people with the older children so that they can work as a team.

The older member makes the decision on what houses to buy, whether to build a hotel or how much rent to charge but the younger children, can role the dice and count to where the pieces need to go on the board, slightly older children at the age of 5 or 6 could actually read the Chance cards out. From an educational point of view, having the two year olds count the number of squares their piece needs to jump to will help with them learn their numbers for school. Getting the 5 or 6 year olds to read the Chance cards helps them to learn to read and being in a team with an older child will help them learn as a team and the older children learn the ability of patience and also how to work in a team with people of varying age. Plus the most important thing is that the older children learn the value of money.

Ultimately, playing group games like this will help all of the children and adolescents in their development towards becoming an adult and you as the parents will get to keep your sanity for another day. One thing I would strongly suggest is that you never tell a child they are to young to be involved, always find something for them to do in the game, so that they feel just as involved as the others. If you have ever watched a child grow up, they always tell you that they are a big kid now, help them to become one and play an important role in society as the skills you teach them now are what they will use as adults.

Strategy 2 - Have a Bake Off

Rainy Days are absolutely fantastic for Bake Off days. Now if you do not know what a bake off day is, it is a day where the kids make their own deserts for lunch or afternoon tea. These were fantastic times in our family and one of the key benefits it taught me was how to cook. In the days of fast food, many adults have seemed to by pass the art of cooking. When I met my wife, she was flat out boiling an egg but over the last few years she has become an accomplished cook.

When you have a bake off, cook simple things like cookies or muffins as these are really simple things to cook and all the children regardless of age can help. Whilst I do not condone 2- 8 year olds going anywhere near an oven (that is for grown ups) they can play an important role in putting all the ingredients together, mixing them, measuring them out and most importantly decorating them at the end. The key advantage of getting them to do the measuring them is to help them learn measurements, counting and numbers. You can also get them to read the instructions in the cook book or on the back of the packets.

When the cookies or muffins are ready to be decorated, play a game with the children in getting them to count the number of items they are going to put on their cookies or muffins. For example if they were going to put a face on the muffin, talk about how many eyes will you put on the muffin, where will you put the mouth on the muffin and how many ears will it have. Each of these discussions will help in learning to count and they will also improve their skills in expressing themselves.

Strategy 3 - Discuss A Book, Video or Computer Game Together

When people first here of the third strategy, they immediately think about books like the Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter but they do not have to be. Look when you have a number of children in your house, get them all together, read a book to them and then talk about the book. Doing this is going to help in their development and will give them a huge step forward when it comes to high school.

Learning to analyse a book and express what you think are the messages of the book will help your children immensely when they go to school. In High School today across the western world, one of the tasks in their English classes they are going to be expected to read a book and then write an essay about the messages they have found in the book and the sooner they learn these skills, the more effective they will be in their classes.

For younger children you might read a Dr Seuss book and then look at the pictures with them. Talk to your children about the pictures. For example if you are reading a book about hats and there is a hat on the ground, talk about what might be under the hat. Get the children to tell you the colour of the hat.

In essence it doe not matter whether you read a book, watch a video or play a computer game, to gain some educational value and to get your children thinking, simply talk about what they have seen or read. Get them to talk about the messages that may have been in the book or video and when it comes to computer games, talk to them in terms of strategy and how they can do better next time. Our children have an innate want to learn and the more we can foster that attitude the more your children will grow and learn and play an important role in society.

Strategy 4 - Make Meditation Into A Game

Meditation … I know, I saw you stop and think then. Meditation for kids, you have got to be kidding. No! If you can teach children how to meditate at a young age you will find that they will continue it as they get older. It has also been shown that children who know how to meditate will be much calmer and in control of their emotions. Further to this, it has been shown that adults who meditate over longer periods have less coronary disease. I watched a research documentary a few years ago where they took ten people who had never meditated and had incredibly high blood pressure and taught them to meditate. They found over a 6 month period those people were able to control their blood pressure more effectively. In fact when they began to meditate for a period of 20 minutes their blood pressure dropped dramatically.

Look the bottom line is this, Buddhist monks have been meditating as part of their religion for thousands of years and it amazes me to this day how many monks live to an age over 100 years so all I can say is there is definitely something in this. For the past 10 years I have used meditation to help control my stress levels and I feel much better for it.

Meditation for children must be fun and simple. The techniques for children never involve mantras or anything along those lines, they should simply teach the children how to relax and to focus on their inner self. There are lots of internet sites available on teaching children to meditate but one thing you must consider, be very cautious of the type of music you use for meditation. I recommend Baroque Meditation music that has 60 beats a minute as this is the heart rate we are supposed to have. Research has shown that baroque meditation music at 60 beats a minute actually promotes the release of alpha waves from both our left and right sides of our brains. These alpha waves help bring about a sense of calm and can also help in promoting creativity, learning and calmness.

Look the bottom line is this, if you want to decrease the stress in your house on those rainy days, then the best way is to occupy your children. By using these four strategies I have outlined, you are also helping your children in their development and as a parent that should always be the most important thing you need to consider. Your children are you future and the future of this world, by helping in their development, let us hope they will contribute to a much more safer world.

To finish off, I really want to take a moment to reiterate the Four Strategies once again:

Strategy 1 - Play Group Games

Strategy 2 - Have a Bake Off

Strategy 3 - Discuss A Book, Video or Computer Game Together

Strategy 4 - Make Meditation Into A Game ]]> http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/do-herbal-remedies-work.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/do-herbal-remedies-work.html Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/breathe-into-wholeness--meditation-using-wind-chimes.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/breathe-into-wholeness--meditation-using-wind-chimes.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/3-powerful-meditations-to-open-third-eye-chakra.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/3-powerful-meditations-to-open-third-eye-chakra.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/using-zen-meditation-techniques.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/using-zen-meditation-techniques.html Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/recalibrating-your-body-mind-to-stillness.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/recalibrating-your-body-mind-to-stillness.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/using-buddhist-meditation-techniques.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/using-buddhist-meditation-techniques.html Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/top-3-meditation-techniques-for-daily-practice.html http://www.populate.net/Health/Meditation/top-3-meditation-techniques-for-daily-practice.html Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700