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What is Yoga |
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Everyone has a
threshold for what they can handle coming at
them from the world. When that threshold is
exceeded, we attempt to deal with being pushed
over it with a variety of coping mechanisms,
including anxiety, anger, depression,
overwhelm, sadness, substance abuse, and many
others. The main thing Meditation does is to
provide a stimulus to the brain that pushes
that threshold higher.
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Improves moment-to-moment awareness of self
and others. |
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Increases awareness, concentration,
flexibility, insight and calmness. |
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Lessens reactivity to stressful situations as
intense anger, anxiety, depression and pain
are either reduced or responded to in a
different way. |
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Heightens feelings of choice about how to
behave in uncomfortable situations. |
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Heals unresolved emotional issues at the
deepest level, including anxiety, depression,
anger, substance-abuse, fear and many other
dysfunctional feelings. |
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Meditation is
frequently confused with various forms of
concentration. The purpose of concentration
exercises is to focus our full undivided
attention on a specific aspect of functioning
of our mind and/or the body in order to
accomplish a certain goal or develop a certain
skill. Exercises such as yoga, tai-chi,
breathing exercises, visualization are all
forms of concentration.
In contrast, meditation is an exercise, aiming
to prevent thoughts in a natural way, by
deeply relaxing the physical body and then
trying to keep the mind completely "blank"
with no thoughts whatsoever. This state may be
maintained for a few seconds or a few hours,
depending on your skill. Purity of the mind
achieved during meditation is essential to
gain access to Higher Self. It seems that our
Higher Self does not admit any impurities. |
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Mantras |
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1. mantra is a very
simple thought. It becomes very familiar to us when
we repeat it in our mind. This thought is used to
replace any thought that may come to our mind. Every
time a thought comes during meditation, we use
mantra to replace it.
2. When we practice meditation regularly using the
same mantra (whatever it is), soon we train our mind
to associate the mantra with a calm meditative
state. This association is called an "anchor" by
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioners.
After such self-training, even if we are agitated, a
thought of mantra usually brings an immediate calm
of the mind. This makes our mantra a very powerful
tool to deal with stressful situations in our life,
a tool which we can develop ourselves as a result of
a regular meditation practice.
Mantras are usually composed from alternative vowel
and nasal sounds and may contain several words. The
most widely known mantra is "ooohmmm" or "aaaaummm",
but any other similar word will do when we extend
vowel and nasal sounds (home, room, zoom, moon, zen,
boom etc..). It is best if mantra is an exotic word
or a series of words (syllables) not encountered in
everyday conversation. |
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Posture |
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The posture during meditation is also important. The
easiest posture is a comfortable sitting position,
with your spine straight and erect. If you lay down
you will most likely fall asleep. Joining your hands
and crossing your legs is desirable, because you
make the bio-energy field around you more compact
and therefore more intensive. Sitting cross legged
is another good position, but requires some fitness
and training. Yet another good position, although
rarely used today is a squatting position with your
arms crossed over you knees, resembling position of
a foetus in a womb. |
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Self Healing |
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Our mind body system is designed to HEAL ITSELF. All
we need to do is to REMOVE OBSTACLES from the body
and from the mind. This can be accomplished with or
without the help of others.
If you cut your finger with a sharp object, the
wound HEALS ITSELF and if the damage is not
extensive, the repair job is SO perfect, that after
a few weeks you cannot even remember which finger
was hurt. Even the fingerprints are reconstructed.
Of course self-healing is not limited to scratches
and bruises. Exactly the same self-healing processes
occur ALL THE TIME in ALL POSSIBLE organs of the
body.
Even if we abuse our body, it tries to heal itself,
unless the damage is extensive and we continue doing
mistakes for years. Severe illnesses are largely
result of our complete ignorance on both: the
physical level (diet, poisoning, lifestyle) as well
as on the mental level (bad mental hygiene and
discipline, wrong understanding of purpose of life).
Pain and suffering are just signals to our conscious
mind that we have to CHANGE our ways. When we do, in
the right direction, we "miraculously" recover. When
we follow the flock, and resist Nature, we suffer.
This is the law of Nature.
The mind-body system has almost unlimited self
repair capabilities, but most of people deny
themselves any access to them. |
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