Tag: meditation

by James Adam

4 Benefits of Mindfulness and Meditation


People

We live in a hectic world where it’s easy to feel pulled in lots of directions all at once. Instead of starting the day in a peaceful way, we often wake up to the ping of office emails and jump immediately into the fray. Social media feeds incessantly demand our attention and, all too often, breakfast is in a cardboard cup in the microwave and the leisurely cup of coffee is forsaken for a rush through the drive through window at the local coffee shop. With all the demands in life, it’s understandable that we feel out of balance and super stressed. Fortunately, there are mindfulness and meditation tools that can ground us and help us feel much more peaceful in the world. The following are just four of the many benefits of mindfulness and meditation.

Increases Your Self-Awareness

When you use regular meditation and mindfulness practices, you learn to center inside and feel the peacefulness within. This exploration leads to an awareness of your emotions and you learn to become detached from the emotional way you used to react to the world. By calming all the noise inside, you begin to see and understand your true nature and live within the essence of who you truly are.

Reduces Stress

With all the stress in life, your mind can sometimes resemble a blender of out of control thoughts whirring at high speed. Meditation helps calm your mind and body and usher in a deep sense of serenity within. As you focus on settling your emotions, you detach from the stressors and your emotional reaction to them. You become relaxed and peaceful. That said, it’s important to change the things that are putting pressure on you first.

If you are a recent college graduate and you’re stressing about high monthly student loan payments, think about refinancing your student loans. You’ll reduce your payment to a much more affordable, stress-free amount. If there’s a relationship that’s causing you strain, think about what you can do to better that situation. Would counselling help? Maybe a sit down and good chat is all that’s needed to clear the air? Or perhaps you know you need to cut this person out of your life? Whatever is worrying you, only when you take the steps to reduce the stressors in your life will you truly realize the benefits of meditation.

Improves Your Concentration

It’s amazing how powerful the mind can be when it’s calm and the loudness of stray thoughts has settled down. A daily meditation practice really enhances your energy and clarity, thus allowing you to approach your daily tasks with clear focus. De-cluttering the mind through meditation frees up your brainpower and greatly reduces the distractions so you can give undivided attention to the things you really want or need to do.

Enhances Your Happiness

When you practice meditation and mindfulness techniques, you actually affect the physical signaling mechanisms within the brain. Prefrontal cortex activity on the left side, which controls positive emotions, increases while action on the right side, which covers negative emotions, decreases. The excess baggage of unwanted negative thoughts is cleared from the mind and replaced by a sense of peaceful centering. In a way, meditation is like a relaxing spa day for the brain. As you come from the true center of who you are you see the world through a different lens and feel increased levels of happiness.


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by Incredible Planet Staff

Taking That First Trip After Your Divorce


Lifestyle

Divorce can be an extremely upsetting experience for everyone involved, and it’s natural to find yourself experiencing a variety of conflicting, confusing feelings once your marriage has come to an end. On one hand, you are no longer married, and are without a partner for the first time in a long while. As anyone who has experienced a breakup of a long-term relationship would know, this can leave you with feelings of hurt, anger, sadness or possibly even guilt. You may feel lonely and vulnerable following your divorce, and it is perfectly normal if you do.

On the other hand, perhaps your recent divorce has left you feeling happier, stronger and ready to celebrate your newfound single status. This can be especially true if your marriage was the main source of any emotional pain or stress in your life, or if you were involved in an abusive or dysfunctional marriage.

If this is the case, finalizing your divorce may be a very uplifting and empowering event in your life. You may feel like you are ready to learn new skills, try out new hobbies, and perhaps even begin dating again. This is all normal behavior as well; just as every marriage is different, so is every divorce. Every emotion you have, both positive and negative, is absolutely valid at this time in your life.

Regardless of whether you are mourning the loss of your marriage or brimming with excitement about what lies ahead, taking a trip after finalizing your divorce can act as a means of closure for this chapter. Much like a marriage begins with a honeymoon to commemorate the beginning of a new life together, a post-divorce vacation can act as something of a “solo-moon,” as a way to reconnect with your feelings and manage the stress you have been coping with during the divorce process.

If you have been dealing with feelings of sadness, anger, anxiety or depression, a quiet, self-reflective trip may be what you need to get yourself back on track. An outdoor camping or hiking adventure, sun-filled beach vacation, or one of the more affordable yoga retreats are all good options for a peaceful post-divorce journey to reclaim your spirit. Recently-divorced people who want to clear their minds and restore their inner peace may opt to travel alone, or they may choose to go with a trusted friend or family member to provide support and motivate them to try new experiences.

Then again, maybe finalizing your divorce has left you in the mood to party, and you want to celebrate your newly-divorced status with a fun-filled Caribbean cruise, a beach vacation in Mexico, or a wild Vegas weekend. There’s certainly nothing wrong with wanting to welcome yourself back to the single scene with a bang! We all process life changes in our own ways, and if you’re in the mood to hit the road with a couple of friends, or take a solo trip to a place on your bucket list, you should take the opportunity and go where your heart leads you.

During your first post-divorce trip, you may find yourself experiencing conflicting emotions at times, and that’s a completely normal part of the healing process. For instance, someone who first felt depressed and miserable at the end of their marriage may wake up one morning to that he or she feels excitement or even joy about the day ahead. Conversely, in the midst of celebrating your divorce with a nonstop party weekend, you may suddenly feel alone in a crowd, and find yourself taking a quiet moment to process the pain, loss or sadness from your ordeal. According to Chicago divorce mediation experts SplitSimple, neither of these reactions is wrong or abnormal in any way. We are all individuals and recover from upsetting life events in different ways, at different speeds. There is no prescribed way to feel or act at any given moment- allowing yourself to feel what you need to feel, when you need to feel it, will help expedite your healing process and help you process your post-divorce emotions in a healthy way.

Choosing divorce mediation over a traditional courtroom divorce is one way to get through the divorce process simply, quickly, and relatively painlessly. With divorce mediation, you can have just as satisfactory of an outcome as you can with a traditional courtroom divorce, with a lot less stress, time, and cost. Choosing divorce mediation may be a good solution for dissolving your marriage as quickly and simply as possible, so you can get to a stage where you are ready to travel as a solo act. Whenever you are ready to take that first post-divorce trip, you will be able to begin the next leg of your journey, and hopefully find peace and happiness in your life.

by Incredible Planet Staff

How to use Mindfulness Meditation to Cope with Work-Related Stress


Lifestyle

In the United States, recent reports have indicated that the menace of stress is rising and it is affecting more workers. While it is difficult to avoid stress entirely, everyone should make efforts to overcome stress because its consequences are not good.

People contending with stress experience health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, etc. it is also the cause of emotional and psychological issues. Stress is usually accompanied by worry, insecurity, and the individual will end up living an unhealthy and unfulfilled life. There are however some useful solutions that can be used to overcome stress.

Mindfulness meditation has been proven to be effective against stress. The following suggestions will help you adopt mindfulness meditation as an effective way to cope with stress in the workplace.

Adopt a pattern that allows you to meditate regularly

Meditation should be approached from the perspective of living in the present. Forgetting all worries and the past events, while focusing on your rhythmic breath promotes your attention to meditation. This is the principle of the mindful meditation

Gaining control of your mind to focus on only the positive is one of the benefits of mindfulness meditation. To get started you need to find a place where you can sit quietly for a few minutes. Close your eyes and listen to your breath. Feel the air on your skin as it passes through your nose. Count your breaths from one to five silently in your mind. Counting should be repeated while maintaining the position.

You should continue counting even when you experience a distraction. Regain your focus and continue counting. After few minutes, your mind will attain a slow, calm state.

Mindfulness meditation can be enhanced by placing a figurine of Buddha in your meditation room or area. The Buddha figurine is known to inspire inner peace and strength. It will help you achieve the meditation state and the accompanying feelings. The use of meditation figurines is to help you attain a higher level of peace, relaxation, and serenity.

The essence of mindful breathing

One of the best ideas from mindful meditation is that you can practice mindful breathing anywhere and at any time of the day. All you need to do is to take three to five mindful breaths and then continue with your tasks. Mindful breathing simply means your concentration is on your breathing while your mind is free from other thoughts. It helps you remain calm when faced with disturbing situations by slowing down your mind to prevent agitation.

Frequently engage in mindful walking

Walking is another great time to meditate. You can take out some time while walking to practice mindful walking. Following the same principles as mindful breathing, focus your concentration on your steps without heading in any particular direction then slow down your pace. By slowing down, you compel your mind to become calm.

Benefiting from deep listening

A total focus on what people are saying without letting your mind wander is your goal in this exercise. By practicing deep listening, you can improve your communication and relationships with people who will appreciate your interest in listening to what they are saying. Deep listening is also regarded as a form of respect, and it helps to promote healing and internal transformation.

 

by Incredible Planet Staff

6 Ways to Stay Fit Even When You’re Busy at Work


Lifestyle

Being busy shouldn’t stop you from finding ways to stay fit. In fact, if you are juggling multiple roles and responsibilities in your work and personal life, then you should prioritize your health even more.

You would not be at your best at the office and at home if you are sick or stressed.

Here are some smart hacks to help you stay fit even when you’re busy:

  1. Hydrate

Our bodies need water for it to function well. The well-documented benefits of staying properly hydrated include better digestion, stronger immune system, and improved focus.

Drinking water could also help you achieve your weight loss goals, so make sure you get enough of it every day.

One way to make sure that you drink enough water is to bring a portable water bottle with you so you can easily refill it and rehydrate wherever you go.

If you hate the taste of bland water, mix in fresh fruits into your water to give it more flavor, encouraging you to drink more.

  1. Stay Sober and Clean

Stress from work can tempt one into taking performance enhancing supplements and drugs. However, taking those will only be harmful in the long term.

Thus, it’s important to keep healthy and not have any harmful substances in your body.

If you’ve been exposed to any toxins, you can use proven detox kits to get rid of those chemicals and purge your body clean.

  1. Meditate

What does Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins, and Eric Rippert have in common? Aside from being prolific in their respective fields, these three professionals practice meditation.

Meditation works like a detox kit for the mind and soul. It can reduce stress, improve focus and boost the immune system.

You can easily practice meditation on your own, wherever you are. You can start your morning by spending about 10 minutes meditating and preparing your mind and body for the day ahead.

Another simple way to integrate meditation into your busy lifestyle is to take quick breaks between work and do breathing exercises.

  1. Batch Prepare Your Meals

A balanced diet is key to staying fit, but there are so many ways you can sabotage eating healthy.

For example, your busy schedule during the week may make it impossible for you to prepare a healthy meal each day, and so you end up eating processed meals and fast food.

To overcome this unhealthy habit, plan out your nutritious meals in advance, then batch cook them over the weekend.

Store your food in portable containers so you can simply grab and go when you’re rushing to work in the morning.

  1. Do Exercises at Home

Regular exercise will help you stay in shape and manage stress from your busy lifestyle. Don’t worry if your schedule is too hectic or don’t have the budget to get a gym membership.

There are plenty of exercises that you can do in the comforts of your own home and without the need of complicated workout equipment.

Burpees, for example, are a great way to burn calories and strengthen your muscles. You can easily do these for half an hour in your living room.

Other simple exercises you can do at home include crunches, sit-ups, and push-ups.

  1. Get Enough Sleep

The negative effects of having poor quality sleep include anxiety, lack of focus, and decreased cognitive abilities.

Plus, when you do not get enough sleep, your body makes up for the lack of energy by making you eat more food.

Prioritize good quality sleep, especially when you have a lot of things on your plate. You can do this by making your bedroom inductive for sleep, such as removing any gadgets and television and by installing a white noise machine.

  • Stay Healthy, Live Long, and Prosper

Don’t let your busy schedule get in the way of your health. An unhealthy life is a short life.

Always maintain good health so that you can reap the benefits of your work.