Christmas Meditation - relieving stress at Xmas

Christmas can be a very stressful time, especially if you are responsible for buying all the presents, cooking the Christmas dinner, entertaining guests and attending lots of parties.

One way to relieve the stress is to use some Christmas Meditataions.

The following article has some great Christmas Meditation techniques and ways to help you relax over the festive season:

Using Meditation To Relieve Stress

Not long ago, meditation was seen as more of a joke than a useful therapy technique. I remember seeing many comedies where one person would be sitting with their legs crossed "ohm"ing while someone else made fun of them. Over the past few years, however, the benefits of meditation have become more widely accepted. One of the major benefits it offers is relief for stress and anxiety.

Why is meditation so helpful in relieving stress? Well, first of all it helps your mind to focus on something other than the causes of your stress. By focusing on one thing, it helps to release the anxiety.

Meditation also helps to repair the damage caused by stress - both physical and mental. Meditation helps promote certain chemical reactions in your body that help promote peace and relaxation.

These benefits are merely short-term, however. The real benefit to meditation is in its longer-term effects. By practicing it daily, it can help to keep hormone levels in balance, as well as other chemicals that affect stress and anxiety, from day to day - even when you're going about your daily routine.

One of the best things about meditation as a form of therapy is that it doesn't require any particular physical skills. Unlike yoga or other physical methods of relaxation, you do not need to be coordinated or in shape for it to be effective. You can begin with basic techniques and work your way into more advanced methods as you practice.

Here are four tips for getting started:

1. Find a quiet place where you won't be interrupted and sit in a position that is comfortable. There is no "right" position - you merely need to be comfortable and able to relax.

2. Close your eyes and allow your muscles to relax. The best way to do this is to focus on each muscle in your body, starting at your feet and working up.

3. Slow your breathing while repeating your mantra. A mantra can be something like the "ohm" that is the stereotypical example or something else that has meaning for you.

4. If you find your mind is starting to wander, don't get upset by it. Remain relaxed and direct your thoughts back on track. This is something that will improve with practice.

If you do this regularly, you will help your body and mind to be more peaceful and relaxed. You'll see results not only in lower levels of stress, but also physical and mental functions.

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Using these techniques over the Christmas period can help you to relax and feel more calm.

Can Meditation Prevent a Heart Attack?

Meditation is an easy thing to incorporate into your lifestyle and it has many benefits including a greater sense of well being, a reduction in anxiety and a reduction in stress. All of these things can help to prevent heart disease.

Patients in the many hospitals in the UK, who have suffered a heart attack receive an after care package. Included in the after care package is information on diet, exercise, and stress. The main way they teach you how to manage stress is by including CDs on mediation and relaxation.

The power of meditation has been clinically proven to reduce blood pressure by as much as 10 points. Furthermore it is claimed that Transcendental Meditation is the most effective form of meditation.There are some benefits of meditation that are not easy to quantify but it is clear that there are a lot of benefits including health benefits and spiritual benefits. These include a greater sense of well being, better concentration, a higher level of contentment and improved immunity.It is easy to make meditation a part of your every day lifestyle and all you need is to set aside half an hour a day away from all distractions.

Get started by visiting your local book shop or library and get a few books on meditation. There are also a few good web sites devoted to the topic, The main problem you might encounter is that among the few good sites there are a few sites specifically dedicated to lightening your wallet and furnishing you with little information in return.It is not essential, but it can often help if you choose a mantra as part of your meditation practise. A Mantra is a chant which helps you focus, concentrate and empty the mind.

Sit comfortably, gently close your eyes, take a deep breath in and allow your diapgragm (belly) to expand as you breath in and contract as you breath out. As you do this repeat your Mantra out loud. Continue doing this for a few minutes.

Continue mentally repeating your Mantra and try not to force your concentration on your Mantra. It should come easily and without effort. Soon your mind will become empty. To be really effective you should meditate twice a day, once in the morning before breakfast and in the afternoon before dinner.

Peace be with you - and happy meditation.

Ten Minute Meditation For A Relaxing Energy

Try this easy yoga and meditation routine to relax your body and energize your mind. Each pose can be done now at your computer. In other words, don't wait to "relax" when you are done working...DO IT NOW!!!!

With this meditation you can really increase your relaxation!!! It is convenient and really does work. It is all about getting your mind and body in "that zone".

Start out in a cross legged or any seated position. Pull you shoulders up, back, and then down. Lift your chest up to the sky, and contract your abs. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Use the back of your throat to create that raspy sound to control the air flow and prevent hyperventilation. When you breathe in through your nose, stick out your tummy. Stick it way out. Just like a baby when he breathes in. Visualize how a baby breathes, it's perfect. Then contract it back in when you breathe out through your mouth as if you are protecting yourself from a punch.

Lifting up through your cage, pull your chin in and open up the back of your neck. Now make a conscious effort to relax your hands, feet, and face muscles. You are going to start concentrating on your breathing. In through your nose, and out through your mouth.

Close your eyes now for three minutes or so now while using this "diaphragmatic breathing technique". After you open your eyes, rub your hands together then place them over your eyes for another two minutes give or take. When you open your eyes again, slightly lean forward...then back.....then to the right......then to the left.....then center yourself.

Close your eyes again for 2 more minutes and think of someone you love. Then dedicate this meditation to them. When you open your eyes for a third time, place your right hand over your forehead, as close to your skin as you can, with out actually touching it. Make small circles around that area.This area represents your "inner voice". Some people call it Gods voice or intuition.

Close your eyes and keep using the diaphramatic breathing technique and visualize a high vibrational energy made out of cool blue light breathing in thru that inner voice space on your forehead. Clearing it and opening it. While you breathe out thru your mouth, visualize any low vibrational energy or negative energy coming out. Open your eyes after 30 seconds.

You are then going to take your left hand over your throat and do the same thing and know that this area represents your self expression and confidence. 30 seconds with your hand over this area.

Ok, now take your right hand and place it over your heart. Know that this area represents peace, love, and harmony. Open this area up. Now close your eyes and do the same thing. Close your eyes for 30 seconds with your hand over this area.

Now take your left hand and place it over your solar plexis (Diaphram) and know that this area represents your confidence and strength. Imagine yourself strong and confident. Remember to continue imagining the high vibrational energy/light breathing in that area. Close your eyes for 30 seconds with your hand over this area.

Now your right hand goes over the area between your belly button and pubic bone. Breath in that high energy, remember out thru your mouth. This area will represent order, organization, and cleansing. Close your eyes for 30 seconds with your hand over this area.

Lastly, put both hands over either knee. This will represent your foundations. Visualize your home, school, social circles, etc.... as strong and supportive. Close your eyes for 30 seconds with your hands over these areas.

Now, close your eyes one more time for several minutes if you like and visualize yourself with the following gifts as if you are looking at a snap shot of yourself: a. intuitive b. self expressive c. in harmony and joy d.strong, very strong and confident e. in order and organized and f. in a supportive and friendly home, community , and universe.

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Gina Cool is the owner of http://www.CoolfitnessYOGA.com . She considers it an honor to help people get fit in mind, body, and spirit. She has been in the fitness industry for over 15 years. She has a BA in kinisiology.

Do I Have To Change My Religion/Philosophy for meditation?

You need not change your religion, philosophical or ethical beliefs. Or your lifestyle, for that matter. Transcendental Meditation (TM) does not involve any religion, philosophy or any particular lifestyle. It does not prescribe any kind of codes of conduct, ethical or moral guidelines. Nor does it ask you to perform any kind of worship.

TM, in fact, is a simple technique that will enhance your religious well-being, no matter which faith you belong to. Millions of people of all religions, including priests, practice TM. They say they can follow the tenets of their religion better as TM eliminates their stress and fatigue and increases energy and intelligence.

Here's what TM is not:

It's not a religion.TM is a meditation technique. Millions of people of all religions, including priests, practice TM and reap its benefits. It releases stress and purifies the mind, body, and emotions of the person who practices it, thus helping him/her to be more faithful to his/her religion. Meditation itself was a technique religiously followed by the Buddhists and later spread throughout the world as a popular medium to relieve stress and find all the benefits one may want to find and acquire in his life. The results are very encouraging for those who follow and meditation is followed by people of all faiths.

It's not a philosophy. While philosophical thoughts mainly dwell on theories, transcendental meditation is almost a science. We have seen people actively following it in their daily lifestyles and several cases of incredible benefits have been observed.TM is a simple, mechanical technique, like switching on a TV or computer. The technique is scientific too, because it is universally applicable, repeatable, and verifiable by anyone, anywhere.Scientific research on the Transcendental Meditation program proves that the technique works. Positive reports from people who practice the technique show that anyone can learn and enjoy it.

It's not a lifestyle. You don't need to change your lifestyle to start practicing TM. All you have to do is just learn it, practice it, and enjoy the benefits .You can have better memory, clearer and more orderly thinking, greater creativity and ability to focus, use of your whole brain and its full potential, sharper intellect, higher IQ, better grades, more alertness, expanded consciousness. Students following these techniques regularly have found out that they perform better at schools, get better grades and show their true potentials.

The best proof of the Transcendental Meditation program is in learning it yourself. The benefits come naturally and spontaneously.

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Why will meditation techniques not work for any one ? With proper guidance and all the best of mind tools, meditation can drmatically change your world.

How to be Natural with Yourself in Meditation

Meditation happens spontaneously when you have the right conditions and you allow the natural process to unfold. You don't have to force anything. The body, in its wisdom, seizes the opportunity to heal and balance if you give it half a chance. Meditation is that half a chance.
When meditating, you have marked the time out and said to the nervous system, "You are free. I won't make you do anything else right now."

The goal of all training is to be natural with yourself so that meditation does not feel like a technique at all but rather just a way of being with yourself. There is something wonderful and almost miraculous in how meditation works. If you do the simplest technique, in the easiest manner, you tend to enter a state of profound physical relaxation and regeneration.

When you are natural and unaffected with yourself, your experience changes continuously and your senses pulsate. You feel as though the knowledge of how to meditate is your own, that this wisdom comes from inside you.

Qualities of a Meditation Teacher

Whatever your expectations and preconceptions, you may need to set them aside when you look for a meditation teacher as he or she may appear in a guise you don't anticipate.

You may wish to compare your prospective teacher against the following checklist of characteristics that the best teachers should embody.

Not all teachers will have every one of these ideal characteristics, but the more, the better:

• They encourage independent thinking and open inquiry in their students, rather than blind obedience to a particular dogma or ideology
• They are mainly concerned with the spiritual development of their students, not with fame, power, influence, or the size of their organization
• They practice what they preach, rather than considering themselves exempt from the moral and ethical guidelines that others must follow.
• They are humble, ordinary, down-to-earth, not arrogant or inflated. In Zen monasteries, the head monk cleans the toilets.
• They are honest, straightforward, and clear without being evasive or defensive. As people gain spiritual maturity, they become increasingly free of psychological baggage
• They embody the highest spiritual qualities, such as kindness, patience, equanimity, joy, peace, love, and compassion.