How to Be Present and Peaceful When You Can't Stop Thinking “Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.” ~Eckhart Tolle When I first started practicing Zen (or presence), I used to believe I could become completely thoughtless. Making my bed, no-thought. But it wasn’t like what I thought it would be. The reality is my mind was on full throttle all the time. In a panic, I thought about all those concepts I'd learned. The harder I forced myself, the noisier my mind became. During my first few years of practicing Zen and meditation, I was never at peace. As I learned more about spirituality, I finally found the answer. Here is what I learned, and how you can do the same. 1. It’s human to have thoughts. Just like our eyes see, our ears hear, our nose smells, our tongue tastes, and our body feels, our mind thinks. When I tried to stop my mind, I was actually doing the impossible. 2. A quiet mind is not a mind with no thoughts. So don’t resist your thoughts. If you try to fight it, you resist what is inevitable. 3. 4.
10 Yoga Poses for Faster Weight Loss Best Yoga Poses for Weight Loss Save That’s right, these ten yoga poses for weight loss will help you achieve your fitness goals faster! Most people don’t connect yoga with weight loss, yet if you step into an advanced class at a yoga studio you’ll see the crowd is full of toned, healthy individuals. This is because yoga, when done routinely and correctly, is actually an incredibly powerful weight-loss tool. You’ll notice your muscles burn and shake with energy as you hold a balanced position, which means that you’ve engaged the muscle, in much the same way you engage it while lifting weights. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite yoga poses for weight loss. What you’ll need: Yoga mat What to do: Hold each move for 30 seconds, or to your comfort level. 1. Save The chair is like holding a squat, so it really gets your quads, hamstrings, and calves burning. 2. Save The longer you hold warrior I pose, the more you will challenge your thighs. 3. Save 4. Save When you’re really ready for a challenge, try Warrior III. 5. Save 6.
Mindful movement - Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance - Monash University Mindfulness doesn’t just mean sitting around with our eyes closed. We can practice it in any moment. An excellent way to do this is through movement. Mindful movement simply means to bring a curious, open, nonjudgmental awareness to whatever activity we are engaged in in any moment. Even if we are walking quickly because we are late for our train, keeping the attention with the body prevents us from starting to worry or obsess about missing the train and what will happen if we do. Many elite sporting people and their coaching staff are turning to mindful movement to improve performance. National Basketball Association (NBA) coach Phil Jackson (who won nine championships) famously used mindfulness with his players, teaching them body awareness and efficient movement. Here are some suggestions for helping you to do any physical activity in a more mindful way. In the morning, take a few moments to stretch and breathe before getting up (or reaching for your phone).
Buddha's Brain Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates (11/28/11) People often wonder why we seem to remember negative experiences more, noticing how negative thoughts can spiral us down into a deep, dark hole. … Some answers on how to shift to a more positive outlook can be found in Rick Hanson’s book, Buddhaʼs Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. Dr. Hanson is a neuropsychologist who has practiced Buddhist Mindful Meditation for many years. Drawing from his personal experience, professional knowledge and research, he shows us how we can shape and change our brain to affect and enhance well-being, reduce suffering, and develop inner peace. By studying the brainwaves of those who maintain a contemplative or meditative practice, scientists have learned a great deal about the brain states that underlie wholesome mental states, and how to activate those states. Research has been able to show us that our mind can change our brain, and vice versa, and in some instances, our genes!
7 ways to practice emotional first aid You put a bandage on a cut or take antibiotics to treat an infection, right? No questions asked. In fact, questions would be asked if you didn’t apply first aid when necessary. So why isn’t the same true of our mental health? We are expected to just “get over” psychological wounds — when as anyone who’s ever ruminated over rejection or agonized over a failure knows only too well, emotional injuries can be just as crippling as physical ones. Pay attention to emotional pain — recognize it when it happens and work to treat it before it feels all-encompassing. Yes, practicing emotional hygiene takes a little time and effort, but it will seriously elevate your entire quality of life. See Guy Winch’s TED Talk, Why we all need to practice emotional first aid.
Yoga for Hip Pain: 5 Yoga Hip Openers to Alleviate Discomfort If you’re experiencing pain or discomfort in your hips, then yoga might be the perfect remedy! We tend to carry a lot of tension and stress in our hips, and yoga for hip pain is a great way to reduce this tension and manage stress levels. In fact, there are certain yoga poses that are specifically targeted toward stretching the hips and gaining flexibility in that area. Whether you have tight hips from sitting at a desk all day or you’re feeling sore from a really tough workout, there are some really great yoga hip openers that may help to alleviate some of your hip pain. Yoga for Hip Pain – Practice These 5 Yoga Hip Openers to Melt Away Your Discomfort: 1. Low Lunge will help to bring your front hip into flexion and your back hip into extension, so it’s a well-rounded hip opener to help you reduce tension and gain flexibility as well. Let’s try it: 2. Bridge Pose is a backbend, but it also stretches the front of your hips and quads. 3. 4. 5. Need more yoga hip openers?
Mindful eating - Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance - Monash University Eating, just like breathing, is something that we often take completely for granted. Think about the last thing you ate. Did you pay full attention to the taste, the texture, the smell? Did you stop to notice what it looked like? There is a better than average chance that the answer to at least some of these questions is No. When we do something repeatedly, we often go off into automatic pilot. We practise mindful eating for two main reasons. Really eating our food When we are eating mindlessly, we tend to be restricted to tasting (and perhaps smelling) our food. We can start to do this by feeling the texture of what we are eating, either in our fingers or in our mouth. We can take time to become aware of who and what was involved in getting the food to us. This helps to prevent us from taking eating for granted. The health benefits of eating mindfully As we start to eat with more awareness and engagement, we connect more fully with our food and with the act of eating it. Chewing our food
by Kristin Neff, Ph.D. By Kristin Neff, Ph.D.Released by William Morrow April 2011 The relentless search for high self-esteem has become a virtual religion; and a tyrannical one at that. Our competitive culture tells us we need to be special and above average to feel good about ourselves, but we can’t all be above average at the same time. Fortunately, there is an alternative to self-esteem that many psychologists believe is a better and more effective path to happiness: self-compassion. Dr. This groundbreaking book shows readers how to let go of their constant, debilitating self-judgment and finally learn to be kind to themselves. Foreign Editions Buy the Book
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