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zacbryce · 4 years

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Mindfulness Meditation Schools-Online step-by-step and Self Paced

Learning to meditate can be challenging and difficult. With access to the internet it gives you millions of results if you were to search meditation. Its just overwhelming and you don't even know were to start. Then it comes to deciding what source to learn meditation from. The millions of results can make this decision very difficult. I have been meditating for about 20 years and I have gone trough several courses, books, and how to's on the internet and let me say, when it comes to mindfulness meditation schools, Live and Dare has one of the best programs I have every found and it took me a long time to find them. What is Mindfulness Meditation Mindfulness meditation is a type of meditation were you relax and focus your awareness on your breathing, feelings, emotions, and thoughts. This meditation practice promotes a balanced mental and physical health. It is a more modern version derived from traditional Buddhist meditation practices. Mindfulness is a western translation of the Buddhist term sati. Anapanasati, which means "mindfulness of breathing". Why Choose Live and Dare over other Mindfulness Meditation Schools?

Live and Dare is a series of online meditation classes that are self paced. Live and Dare was created by Giovanni Dienstmann. Giovanni Dienstmann is an international author, meditation teacher, coach and speaker. His Live and dare site is also the fifth most popular meditation blog in the world. He is the author of the best-selling book Practical Meditation, which is available in seven different languages and is often referred to as the meditation bible. Giovanni Dienstmann has years of meditation experience. His personal training in meditation: Practiced meditation daily for the past 18 years

Giovanni Dienstmann Over 9,000 hours of practiced Tried 70+ different techniques Studied 200+ books on the topic Was formally initiated into 4 different meditation traditions. Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Raja Yoga, Mantra Yoga Spent 10 weeks training in a Monastery in France Nearly became a monk twice in his journey His work as a meditation teacher: Certified meditation teacher with Meditation Association of Australia (categories of “Personal Development Meditation” and “Spiritual Meditation”) Completed the Yoga and Meditation Teacher Training Course with the Satyananda School of Yoga (Level 1) Trained in Neurocoaching Experience leading retreats, workshops, and group classes Have spoken about meditation and mindfulness at schools, hospitals, non-for-profits, and spiritual centers Worked as a consultant to award-winning meditation apps, including creating custom content and meditation scripts Translated meditation books and texts into Portuguese Taught thousands of people how to meditate through the Limitless Life program and Master Your Mind courses Appeared in several podcasts and radio interviews Featured top meditation coach on Coach.me, and top meditation writer on Quora As you can see his meditation experience as a practitioner and teacher is quite extensive. There are many benefits to joining Live and Dare. Don't learn meditation on your own. Learning from a teacher who has already gone trough the trials and errors and has tons of experience can expedite your training. Don't get stuck and don't know what to do next. Learn from someone who knows how to meditate. When you join Live and Dare you will have email support with Giovanni so you can ask any questions you might have. There is also options to have monthly phone training with Giovanni and private coaching. Another, great benefit, is Live and Dare has an online network for all the students. This online network allows students to talk to each other and ask each other questions so you can learn from each other and grow together. Having support in your journey is huge, its like having a training coach at the gym, you are just way more likely to succeed in meditation when there are other people going through it with you and supporting you along your meditation journey.

Meditation Courses Available I'm just going to briefly describe each course to give you a basic idea of what each course is about. If, you want to learn more about any specific course click here then choose your desired course in the menu. Calm and Free– calm and free is a short course that will teach you the first steps to beating anxiety. Learn 3 powerful techniques for overcoming anxiety, overcoming fear, reducing stress, and managing anger. Master your mind beginners– This is a 5-week course. You will learn meditation, develop a habit of meditating daily, find the ideal technique for you, have optimal attitude towards meditation, learn to deepen your meditation, apply mindfulness into your daily life. Master your mind intermediate– This is a 40-day course. You’ll learn 10 different meditation techniques, choose the ideal technique for you, better integrate meditation into daily life, develop 10 key personal strengths related to meditation. Deep Sleep– This is a 21-day course. You will learn meditations and techniques that will teach you to deep sleep and wake up feeling great. To get consistent deep sleep you will learn how to truly relax your body and turn off your mind. Overcoming Fear of Failure– Overcome Fear of Failure is a 12-week coaching program. You will learn to stop letting fear hold you back from taking action, living fully, and creating your dream life. Letting go Letting Be– This is a 3-week online course. In this course you will learn to free yourself from your past, release regret, resentment, shame, and quilt to better your life. Private Coaching– Private coaching is available with Giovanni Dienstmann, the creator of Live and Dare. He offers anxiety coaching, self-discipline coaching, meditation coaching, and spiritual coaching. Limitless life– This is the most popular among students. For a small monthly fee you can become a student and have access to every meditation course available, 50+ guided meditations, an online student network for helping each other and asking questions, and email support. I think the Limitless Life program is the best deal Live and Dare offer. If, you add up all the courses separately compared to the small monthly fee you can have access to every course available and a lot more. Since I'm partnered with Live and Dare Ive been given this promo so don't miss out. For a limited time only you can try the Limitless Life program for 30 days for only $1. Yes ONE DOLLAR. I know crazy right. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to change your life for the better. One more thing for any reason if you don't like the course Live and Dare offers a 30 day 100% money back guarantee. The only thing asked is you at least give the course a try.

Live and Dare-the Best Choice Obviously I believe in Live and Dare. I meditate daily and I couldn't see my life without it. Meditation has helped me overcome anxiety, worrying too much, and for me anger. I used to be se angry and I couldn't control it, I even punched through a solid oak cabinet one time and shattered my hand. Yes, I had to get surgery and it cost a lot of money. Now days I can't even remember the last time I was mad and didn't wake up with a smile on my face. My kids see other parents getting mad at their kids and they have asked me before, "do you never get mad because you meditate". The answer is yes. Its nice to be in control of your emotions and "you" decide how you feel. No Worries Nothing to lose Still not to sure? I wasn't to sure either when I first started, I just kept wondering, "does it work and is this for me". So if your still not sure I encourage to at least sign up and receive your free course. Click here to get a free course from Live and Dare. Well this concludes my review on mindfulness meditation schools. Please feel free to leave and questions or comments below and I will gladly get back with you. To aid your meditations click here to view meditation supplies. Thanks, Zac Read the full article

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nancygduarteus · 5 years

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How Buddhism Became Therapy

Dressed in flowing gold robes, the bald female meditation teacher told us to do nothing. We were to sit silently in our plastic chairs, close our eyes, and focus on our breath. I had never meditated, but I’d gone to church, so I instinctively bowed my head. Then I realized that, since this would last for 15 minutes, I should probably find a more comfortable long-term neck position.

This was the first of two meditation sessions of the Kadampa Buddhism class I attended this week near my house in Northern Virginia, and I did not reach nirvana. Since we were in a major city, occasional sirens outside blasted through the quiet, and since this was a church basement, people were laughing and talking in the hallways. One guy wandered in to ask if this was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The more we focused on our breath, the teacher assured us, the more these distractions would fade away.

After we had meditated for 15 minutes, the teacher shifted focus to the topic of the class: Letting go of resentments. This was the real reason I had come to this meditation class, rather than simply meditating on my own at home with an app. I wanted to learn more about Buddhism and how its teachings might be able to improve my mental health—and that of the myriads of other Americans who have flocked to some form of the religion in recent years. These newcomers aren’t necessarily seeking spiritual enlightenment or a faith community, but rather a quick boost of cognitive healing.

The people I spoke with were young and old, but rarely Buddhist by birth. Perhaps some have just run out of options: Mental-health disorders are up in Western societies, and the answer doesn’t seem to be church attendance, which is down. There’s always therapy, but it’s so expensive. My meditation class was $12.

As she opened a book on Buddhist teachings, the teacher told the class it’s harmful to hold grudges. Resentment feels like holding on to a burning stick and complaining that it’s burning us. And yet, being harmed by someone also hurts. So, the teacher said, the question was this: “What do I do with my mind if I feel like I’ve been harmed by someone?”

Americans everywhere seem to be asking themselves variations on this very question: What do we do with our minds?

The forty-something dad in Los Angeles was plateauing. He had achieved most of his career goals, rising to the level of senior manager at a large company. But the competitive nature of the work had taken its toll on his marriage, and he was in the process of getting a divorce. He rarely saw his grown children. “In short, I am going through a midlife crisis,” the dad told me via email, a few days before I attended the meditation class. (He asked to remain anonymous because his divorce and other struggles aren’t public.)

Last year, this dad turned to traditional psychotherapy for a few months, but he didn’t see as much of a benefit from it as he had hoped. He felt like he was mostly being taught to justify destructive emotions and behaviors. His therapist did, however, recommend two books that were helpful: How to Be an Adult in Relationships, by David Richo, and The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield. Both authors work in Buddhist themes and ideas, and earlier this year they introduced him to the practice of meditation.

Hungry for more, the dad recently attended a Buddhist meditation class in Hollywood, where he learned ways to deepen his own meditation practice and to change his approach to relationships. Now, he feels more open and is willing to be more vulnerable around his family and friends. “As a Catholic, I struggle with some of the religious concepts,” he says, “But it doesn’t prevent me from adopting the Buddhist techniques and philosophies.” Besides, he told me, it really does seem like the universe is putting Buddhism in front of him now.

Though precise numbers on its popularity are hard to come by, Buddhism does seem to be emerging in the Western, type-A universe. The journalist Robert Wright’s Why Buddhism is True became a bestseller in 2017. Buddhist meditation centers have recently popped up in places like Knoxville, Tennessee, and Lakewood, Ohio. There are now dozens of Buddhist podcasts, which doesn’t include all the apps and playlists that are geared specifically toward personal, non-Buddhist meditation. Four in 10 American adults now say they meditate at least weekly.

Hugh Byrne, the director of the Center for Mindful Living meditation center in Washington, D.C., says the local meditation community has “blossomed in the past few years.” As I stress-Ubered from meeting to meeting in D.C. recently, I noticed a few “meditation spaces” have opened up where far more consumerist establishments used to be. Academic research on mindfulness meditation has also exploded, making what in the West was once an esoteric practice for hippies more akin to a life-hack for all.

Buddhism has been popular in various forms among certain celebrities and tech elites, but the religion’s primary draw for many Americans now appears to be mental health. The ancient religion, some find, helps them manage the slings and arrows and subtweets of modern life. Many people are stressed out by the constant drama of the current administration, and work hours have overwhelmed the day. There’s something newly appealing about a practice that instructs you to just sit, be aware, and realize nothing lasts forever. Perhaps it’s simply comforting to know that the problems that bedevil humans have been around since long before Gmail.

A few themes and ideas seem to unite the disparate experiences of the people I interviewed. The Buddha’s first “Noble Truth” is that “life is suffering,” and many of Buddhism’s newly minted Western practitioners have interpreted this to mean that accepting emotional pain might be preferable to trying to alleviate it. “Buddhism admits that suffering is inevitable,” says Daniel Sanchez, a 24-year-old in New Jersey. “I shouldn’t focus on avoiding suffering, but learn how to deal with suffering.”

In addition to meditating every morning and night, Sanchez reads the Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra, texts from the early Middle Ages, and listens to zen talks. The sutras are quite a departure from the normal content of psychotherapy, in which one might ponder what truly makes one happy. Buddhist thought suggests that one should not compulsively crave comfort and avoid discomfort, which some see as permission to hop off the hedonic treadmill.

A Colorado life coach named Galen Bernard told me that Comfortable with Uncertainty, by the Buddhist nun Pema Chodron, has influenced his well-being more than anything, except perhaps his very first experience on Prozac. He says the book and its teachings have helped him avoid labeling certain experiences as negative by default. For example, transitioning to a friendship with an ex-girlfriend after a breakup was painful for him at first, but Chodron’s and others’ writings helped him see that “it might seem like too much pain,” he says, “but actually it’s just an experience I’m having that … can actually be a portal to joy on the other side.”

For decades, people have been attempting self-improvement through classes and seminars, many of which incorporated elements of Eastern religions. The Human Potential Movement of the 1960s influenced the work of the foundational psychologist Abraham Maslow and, perhaps less positively, the Rajneesh movement documented in the Netflix show Wild Wild Country. In the 1970s, the organization Erhard Seminars Training, or EST, offered courses on how to “take responsibility for your life” and “get it.”

What’s different—and perhaps comforting—about Buddhism is that it’s an existing religion practiced by half a billion people. Because relatively few caucasian Americans grew up Buddhist, they generally don’t associate any familial baggage with it like some do with, say, the Christianity or Judaism of their childhoods. While liberating, this also means that the practice of secular Buddhism often differs dramatically from the religion itself. All of the secular practitioners I spoke with for this piece are reading different books, listening to different podcasts, and following different teachers and traditions. Their interpretations of Buddhist teachings aren’t necessarily consistent with one another or with traditional texts.

I ran some of their insights by an expert in Buddhism, David McMahan at Franklin and Marshall College, who said some of these Western interpretations are slightly morphed from Buddhism’s original cultures and contexts. Buddhism carries with it a set of values and morals that white Americans don’t always live by. Much like “Cafeteria Catholics” ignore parts of the religion that don’t resonate with them, some Westerners focus on only certain elements of Buddhist philosophy and don’t endorse, say, Buddhism’s view of reincarnation or worship of the Buddha. Call them Buffet Buddhists.

Taken out of their Buddhist context, practices like meditation “become like a dry sponge,” McMahan said, “soaking up whatever values are around.” Traditional monks don’t “meditate for business.”

This so-called “secular Buddhism,” says Autry Johnson, a Colorado bartender and tourism worker who meditates regularly, “is a little more accessible to people that wouldn’t primarily identify as Buddhists, or already identify with another religion or philosophy but want to adopt aspects of Buddhist practice to supplement their current worldview.” (Indeed, many meditation centers emphasize that you don’t have to be Buddhist to attend sessions.)

Buffet Buddhism may not be traditional, but its flexibility does allow its adherents to more easily employ the philosophy for an anti-depressive jolt. Some people practice Buddhism and meditation as an alternative to psychotherapy or psychiatric medication, given mental health care’s cost and scarcity: Sixty percent of counties in the U.S. don’t have a single psychiatrist. “I have pretty good health insurance,” Bernard says, “but if I want support, it’s a month and a half to see someone new. Having a resource that I can pop open is invaluable.”

Some people turn to both Buddhism and psychotherapy. “There’s an overlap between the reason people will come to therapy and the reason they come to meditation,” says Byrne, the director of the Center for Mindful Living. Some therapists are even starting to incorporate Buddhist concepts into their practices. Tara Brach, a psychologist and the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C., offers meditations and talks with titles like “From Human Doing to Human Being” on her website. In Texas, the psychologist Molly Layton encourages clients to mindfully “sit with their thoughts,” rather than to “jump into the cycle of their thinking.”

Mary Liz Austin, who practices psychotherapy at the Center for Mindful Living, similarly helps clients see that “it’s the attachment to the outcome that really causes suffering.” Another favorite teaching of hers is Chodron’s aphorism that “everything is workable.” This means, essentially, that something good might come out of even the worst moments. “I’m having an experience right now with my father in law. He’s dying of cancer. It’s a shitty situation,” Austin says. “But what I’m seeing is that the fruits of this cancer diagnosis is everyone is by his bedside, everyone is showing amazing love to him, and that allows the people in your life to show up in a way that you see so much what matters.”

At times, it’s the meditation teachers who sound more like psychotherapists, offering practical tips for dealing with existential quandaries. Byrne, a meditation teacher, wrote a book about the power of mindfulness for habit change. He uses mindfulness meditation to help people understand impermanence, another Buddhist teaching. The idea is to see your emotions and experiences—including anxiety or pain—as constantly changing, “like a weather system coming through,” Byrne says. Everything, eventually, ends.

Cecilia Saad found this to be an especially attractive element of Buddhism. A close friend of hers was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, and Saad was impressed by how calm she remained throughout her diagnosis and treatment. “We’ve talked a lot about her outlook, and she always goes back to her Buddhism,” she says. Now, when Saad is stressed about something, the concept of impermanence helps her to imagine that she’s already survived the event she’s dreading.

At my meditation class, the teacher read from her book in her even, perfectly unaccented voice. The book told us to consider that there are two reasons someone might cause us harm: It’s their nature to be harmful, or a temporary circumstance caused them to act in a harmful way. Either way, the teacher said, it doesn’t make sense to be angry at the person. The nature of water is wet, so you wouldn’t rage at the rain for getting you wet. And you wouldn’t curse the clouds for temporarily having a weather system that causes a downpour.

“When are we compelled to hurt people?” she asked, rhetorically. “When we’re in pain. It’s easy, if you see the fear, to have some compassion.”

She asked us to close our eyes and meditate again, this time while thinking about letting go of resentment toward someone who had harmed us. I shifted awkwardly and wondered how the burly guy sitting in front of me wearing a “Lift Life” t-shirt felt. I was having trouble focusing on resentment, and my eyes flickered open involuntarily. It was 30 degrees outside, yet most of the seats were taken. The fullness was uplifting. Still, it was remarkable that so many of us were willing to stumble through the freezing dark just to take in some basic wisdom about how to be less sad.

In Sunday school, when you opened your eyes during prayer, other kids would tell on you, thereby implicating themselves as having opened their eyes, too. That’s how people are sometimes, I thought: They’ll burn themselves for the chance to harm someone else. I took a deep breath and tried to have compassion for them anyway.

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/buddhism-meditation-anxiety-therapy/584308/?utm_source=feed

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ionecoffman · 5 years

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How Buddhism Became Therapy

Americans everywhere seem to be asking themselves variations on this very question: What do we do with our minds?

“When are we compelled to hurt people?” she asked, rhetorically. “When we’re in pain. It’s easy, if you see the fear, to have some compassion.”

Article source here:The Atlantic

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remedialmassage · 7 years

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When Yoga's Not Enough, Do You Need Orgasmic Meditation?

The word "OM" may have spiritual meaning for you, and it’s likely a key part of your yoga practice. But you probably don’t associate it with orgasms—until now.

Enter OneTaste, the San Francisco company behind orgasmic meditation (OM) founded in 2004 by Zen Buddhist Nicole Daedone.

So, What Is Orgasmic Meditation?

Orgasmic meditation is a wellness practice where for 15 minutes a partner strokes a woman’s clitoris with no goal other than for both people to be present moment to moment, explains OneTaste President Maya Block. “Just like meditation is about goalless attention on the present moment and the breath, OMing is also a mindfulness practice that focuses on the sensations of body," Block explains. "What you practice when you OM is learning how to let go with every single stroke. You can have an OM where the whole experience of is like those places you go in meditation where you feel completely clear in your head, all of the monkey mind goes away, and you feel completely open and present."

Other purported benefits include increasing your capacity for intimacy, empathy, and sensitivity; reducing stress; and helping you create a deeper connection with yourself, your body, and your partner. “As you sensitize more and open parts of yourself, you have more access to your desire in everything, and a more felt sense of what you want," Block adds.

But before you start wondering how this seemingly kooky sexual practice got mixed up with meditation, take a deep breath and consider the facts. When you sign up for a OneTaste class, coaches simply demonstrate the practice. If you wish to practice OMing, you do so privately on your own time, either with your romantic partner, or a partner you meet within the OneTaste community. Gloves are recommended, even for married partners. And despite the title of the practice, having an orgasm is not the goal here, technically speaking.

See also The Meditation You Need to Try Before You Have Sex Tonight

Redefining the Orgasm

“We are redefining orgasm," Block says. "Our concept of orgasm is very outdated, goal-oriented, and static. The obsession our culture has with climax creates a pathology that doesn’t exist. Every woman is orgasmic. They’ve medicalized women who can’t climax or who don’t climax the way they think they should, when our definition is if your body is not going there, that might be not how your body is supposed to react. Disappointment happens when we are pressuring ourselves with some expectation that we should be getting somewhere. The next thought is, ‘Something wrong with me.’"

Although OneTaste doesn’t discourage climaxing—“It can be totally amazing if it happens,” Block says—OMing is less about climax and more about experiencing what OneTaste refers to as “the orgasm state.”

“Climax is a few seconds of physical experience, whereas the state of orgasm is continuous—more akin to an optimal state of consciousness brought about from the activation of the sex impulse,” she explains. “It’s that feeling of being so completely absorbed in an experience that there is no psychic chatter, no being ‘stuck in your head’; a falling away of the ego. When this happens, our sense of limitations falls away as well. In the orgasm state, we feel totally present and connected, as if a deeper intuitive sense has awakened. The state occurs both in the practice of OM itself, and it has cumulative positive effects that carry over into everyday life.”

Even though OneTaste has been around for more than a decade, it’s attracting newfound attention, thanks to Nicole Prause, Ph.D., one of the leading sex researchers in the world. Prause is conducting the first IRB-approved clinical trials of partnered stimulation in the U.S. The study aims to demonstrate what happens in the brains and bodies of both partners during the orgasm state. The results are expected to be published in March 2018. Block hopes this study will validate the efficacy of the methodology of OM.

See also 10 Ways Yoga Leads to Better Sex

What’s in It for the Guys?

Unlike meditation and other yoga and wellness practices, you can't OM alone. “You always have to have a partner, and part of that is because it’s a meditation in connection," Block explains.

The stroker can be male or female, but you need to have a clitoris in order to be stroked. Yet Block says the practice is as much for men as it is for women,and that plenty of men sign up for the class, even without partners.

“Men so deeply want to understand connection,” Block says. “Culturally it’s the thing they’ve been the most blocked from; they’re told to not feel, to man up. For some people the deeper thing is what opens in the man as he’s stroking—the ability to have empathy, and connection to his emotions and feelings. Women are conditioned to temper their sexuality, and men are conditioned to temper their emotions and emotional receptivity. Our lifelong work is to break through these areas of conditioning. When a man is practicing, the only thing he is doing is feeling. He is not looking at [his OM partner] for performance. The only thing that can guide him is his ability to feel in each moment where there’s the most resonance. How do you stroke with right resonance to have it be on the right spot and create the most connection?"

What It's Really Like—Orgasmic Meditators Open Up

Aimee Batuski, a 25-year-old life coach from Los Angeles, says she first learned about OMing from a YouTube video, and she was “totally disturbed, disgusted, and terrified.” “I never wanted anything to do with it,” she recalls. Two years later, two trusted girlfriends recommended the practice in the same week, so even though it “freaked her out,” Batuski signed up for a OneTaste intro class in Los Angeles a little over a year ago.

“I thought it was really powerful and beautiful,” says Batuski, who ended up signing up for OneTaste’s 6-month coaching program that same day. "I didn’t have a romantic partner when I went. I was very scared to do OM—even after the intro class, I did not do the experience for two months. I was traveling in New York, and I connected with some people in the OneTaste community. I OMed with somebody who had been OMing for 2–3 years. Now I OM with whomever I feel comfortable with, if I like their vibe and feel I can trust them, and they take the practice seriously."

Like Block, Batuski maintains that OMing is very different from having sex. “I wouldn’t have sex with most of my OM partners. You don’t need to have the same attraction—the purpose is to feel and go into a meditative state. I’ve OMed with gay men, with women…it’s the practice, connection, and meditation—it’s not about sexuality. The person being stroked is being trained to feel rather than be in her head. The person stroking has his or her full attention on one part of another person’s body and one point of connection. You’re so clear and connected that everything else falls away. It’s the best focus-training practice that exists, in my opinion."

Hugh Brockington, 32, an OMer of about a year and a half who lives in Los Angeles, says OMing has improved his intuition, his relationships, his business, and his sex life, too. "My experience with OM, as a male, has been that of wake up. I’ve noticed that I don’t take things personally so much anymore, that my intuition has increased, and that I've awakened a whole new aspect of my sexuality [that I had] never experienced," the health coach, fitness trainer, and singer/performer tells YJ. "Before OM, I had never had sex with a woman; I automatically assumed I was only sexually attracted to men and [had] played out my life in only that space. I had a belief that no woman would want to experiment/play with me. Through OM, I got to step through a portal that was safe and effective in allowing me to overcome my mental blocks. I've [opened my sex life] to women and in the process, my sex with men and all over has been explosive, powerful, and fun."

Ultimately, OMing is really about connection, Batuski says. "It translates into conversations with family, friends, your boss, your sex life, your relationships. The way [people who OM] can listen and connect is night and day from people who don’t OM."

For more information see:

Slow Sex by Nicole Daedone

OneTaste's free online class

The OM App, which includes a virtual guide in how to learn the stroking technique and also a guided timer that takes you through the practice.

In-person classes at OneTaste's four locations: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London.

Private coaching

See also 4 Poses to Deepen Intimacy and Strengthen Relationships

from Yoga Journal http://ift.tt/2AntMsI

#Yoga Journal

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sarahburness · 7 years

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Why Learning to Let Go and Adapt Is a Shortcut to Happiness

Charles Darwin is believed to have said that in nature, it’s not the strongest or most intelligent that survives but those who are most adaptable to change.

No matter what kind of life we live, we all need to learn to adapt, because everything changes. Good and bad come and go in everybody’s life. It’s one of the reasons resilience is so critical.

We plan our lives expecting good to come our way, to get what we want, and for things to work out how we planned. At the same time we’re chasing the good, we try to avoid the bad.

One of the biggest sources of our unhappiness and discontent is not being able to adapt to change; instead, we cling to things we’ve lost or get upset because things don’t unfold as we want them to.

What we overlook is that this is a fundamental law of life, the ups and downs, ebbs and flows. Things come and go, nothing stays the same, and we can’t control most of the things we’d like to. Accepting this and learning to adapt and go with the flow brings us one step closer to happiness.

I’ve just come back from a meditation retreat. It sounds relaxing, and it was, but it was also difficult in many ways.

I had to adapt to a new routine, which meant a 5:30am alarm, sitting for long periods of meditation, and periods of complete silence and solitude.

And there were lots of other changes: Not having my morning cup of tea or evening chocolate—or any caffeine or dairy—and adjusting to a vegan diet. Being without WiFi and my cell phone, and braving the sub zero temperatures up in the mountains of NZ in winter. Having to do karma yoga work—things like cleaning toilets and stacking wood.

Not to mention the kind of emotions, thoughts, and feelings we’re confronted with when we start to disconnect from the world and spend time with ourselves.

I was so pleased to be returning home, but then instantly thrown into the chaos of a busy airport with all flights grounded due to fog. I then realized that I would not be going home, and to attempt that tomorrow meant a bus ride to the next airport and finding some overnight accommodation to wait it out with the hope that the weather would be fit for flying in the morning.

Despite my Zen-like state post-meditation, I was frustrated, upset, and I just wanted to get home to see my partner, sleep in my own bed, and not feel so helpless.

I had my plan, my expected outcome, and for reasons beyond everyone’s control, this wasn’t possible. I wasn’t going to get what I wanted.

Now, a week later, I find myself having to learn the skill of adaptability once again.

Many years ago I played soccer. I wasn’t bad, either. I loved it. It was my passion. As a kid, I’d play all day on my own in the garden, and once I found a team I’d never miss a match. However, my career was cut short in my early twenties after a ruptured cruciate ligament that was surgically repaired, re-ruptured.

I had to give up on my passion and for many years didn’t play soccer. It was as a result of this devastation that I found yoga—my new passion and lifesaver for the past seven years, something I do every day.

I’ve just had a further operation on this ailing knee, and while I’d adapted over the years from the injury, I found myself once again having to adapt to changes: Not being able to walk, being housebound, using crutches and the difficulties this brings. Finding a way of sleeping comfortably and seeing through the fog the painkillers seemed to create. Not being able to do my morning yoga routine and struggling to meditate because I couldn’t adopt my usual cross-legged ‘proper’ meditation position.

Sometimes what is, is good enough. Acceptance is key to helping us adapt.

If I can breathe, I can meditate, and I’ve enjoyed some of my lying down meditations (the ones where I’ve managed to stay awake!).

And now, as I reduce the meds and ease off the crutches, I can see positive change occurring. I can do a few standing yoga asanas and can take short walks with support.

The devastation of leaving my beloved sport morphed into another form of exercise I fell in love with that I may never have otherwise discovered. And my recent operation led me to new ways of enjoying this passion.

These recent lessons caused me to reflect on how life has changed for me over the last year or so and how I’ve been adapting along the way (sometimes kicking and screaming).

I’ve gone from a nomad traveling the world to settling down in a city I’d said I’d never live in due to the wind and the earthquakes. I’ve experienced some of the worst winds and biggest earthquakes of my life since being here and learned to love it all the same.

I’ve recognized the positives and come to love the bits that make this city (Wellington, NZ) great: the small town feel, the laid back lifestyle, the friendly residents, the ocean, the beach suburbs and beautiful scenery, the wonderful array of cafes and restaurants, not to mention the abundance of yoga, meditation, and wellness related activities.

I’ve gone from being single and happy to living with someone else and having to think about someone else, taking into account more needs than just my own.

I’ve had to learn to love again, take risks, and face fears while navigating a long-term relationship and our different wants and needs. I’ve had to learn to share a home and build a nest, and think about the future in ways I’d never have thought I could, feeling very blessed if also a little apprehensive and scared at the same time.

Very often those in long-term relationships may envy the free, single, fun life of others, while at the same time those who are single are chasing the dream of finding their soul mate and settling down like the married couples who envy them.

I’ve learned that everything has its pros and cons, each cloud has a silver lining, and each silver lining has a cloud. It’s what we choose to focus on that impacts our happiness.

We could always be chasing the next thing, looking for greener grass. But if we do this, the grass will always be greener even when we get there. And if we live like this, we miss out on all the good stuff we already have, all the silver linings that exist in the now in our current situation.

New relationships generally start well because it’s new and we’re in love. But what about when the novelty wears off, years down the track when we’re living together and bringing up kids?

We realize that our new love is, in fact, human. We get tired, we get irritated, we find they do actually leave clothes on the floor and leave the lid off the toothpaste.

In the same way our new, latest model dream car becomes not so new, or the dream job turns out to be a bit tougher than we thought.

Everything has good and bad, so stop expecting perfection and clinging onto an unrealistic ideal. This results in us always be disappointed.

Life changes as the seasons do. What we needed then may not be what we need now, and either way, we might not have control of what exactly is unfolding. Learn to adapt with these changes, not fight against them. Trying to keep everything the same is like trying to tell the leaves not to fall from the trees in autumn.

Whether the weather doesn’t hold during a party we’ve planned or a long-term relationship ends, things don’t always go to plan. Things change and we don’t always get to hold on to good stuff forever.

Embracing this is key to happiness, as is living in the present and enjoying each moment as it is. Whatever is happening now won’t last, which is great news if we’re going through a tough time but not so great if things are going well and we’ve just got the promotion we wanted or met our soul mate.

Life is not about what happens to us but how we react to it, and some of our biggest disappointments can lead to better things in life, bringing us new beginnings if we learn to adapt and embrace change.

Expect life not to go to plan and then you won’t be so disappointed. Accept what is, look for the silver lining, and adapt. Keep looking for the good in every moment and learn from the tough ones.

This is how we not only survive but thrive: by embracing each moment for what it is and choosing to make the best of it.

About Jess Stuart

After a successful career in the corporate HR world Jess decided to follow her passion in Health and Wellness as a coach, speaker, and author. A qualified yoga instructor who has trained in Buddhist meditation and mindfulness, living and working in many countries Jess draws her life experience into her work to share the principles of health and happiness.

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The post Why Learning to Let Go and Adapt Is a Shortcut to Happiness appeared first on Tiny Buddha.

from Tiny Buddha https://tinybuddha.com/blog/why-learning-to-let-go-and-adapt-is-a-shortcut-to-happiness/

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zenway12 · 3 years

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Join the Changed Life Zen Way Program | Geoffrey X Lane

Are you going through some stress and you need a coach? Geoffrey Xlane is organizing the Zen Way Program for you, which can bring a lot of change to you and your professional life. If you want, then definitely join this program. For more information, you can visit our website - geoffreyxlane.com.

#zen meditation Buddhist meditation zen mindfulness training Life Coaching Zen Way Program

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holisticspaces · 7 years

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My Favorite Things: 5 Books to Warm Up With

Welcome to My Favorite Things! Each month, we highlight products to help you create a holistic lifestyle that inspires and nurtures you, so that you can be happier and feel supported.

As the seasons change and the weather gets colder, we find ourselves turning inward, both mentally and physically. Without the bright sun and warm temperatures to accompany us, spending time outdoors becomes less and less likely, and we find ourselves snuggled up in our favorite chairs under plush blankets. Even though we're shutting in, we can still let our minds roam free and plan for the new year, and we can't think of a better way than with our favorite books!

Awakening from the Daydream: Reimagining the Buddha's Wheel of Life

If you’ve ever wondered about Buddhism or seen the Buddhist painting called the Bhavachakra, or wheel of life, and wanted to know more about it, this book is for you!

David Nichtern is one of my meditation teachers, and it’s been transformative working with him so closely. He has an easy, yet precise, style of conveying Buddhist theory, especially in this book. In "Awakening from the Daydream," David encourages each of us to...well, awaken from the daydream with modern images, examples and meditations in his explanation of the Bhavachakra.

Available at: Amazon

Against All Grain: Delectable Paleo Recipes to Eat Well & Feel Great

My friend and health coach, Nancy Guberti, got me on the (mostly) paleo train, and for anyone else aboard, this cookbook is a dream!

The recipes are simple, the ingredients easy to find, and I even cooked some dishes for my “normal eating” family over the holidays with rave reviews. My favorite recipe is the banana bread. I’ve made it several times, and it's become one of my go-to's for breakfast, snack or dessert.

Available at: Amazon

108 Ways to Create Holistic Spaces: Feng Shui and Green Design for Healing and Organic Homes

As a feng shui practitioner, I know how life-changing this philosophy can be, but it's not always easy to understand. That's why I wrote this!

Of course, I always encourage seeking out a certified feng shui practitioner for in-depth questions and a more personal touch, but I've pulled together 108 tips for getting a pretty great start with using feng shui to enhance your life!

Available at: Amazon and Holistic Spaces

Flowerevolution: Blooming into Your Full Potential with the Magic of Flowers

If you love flowers, this book provides unique and inspiring insights on how to use them to transform ourselves and the world we live in.

This book, as well as the LotusWei products, have been deeply life-changing for me. I’ve also been very fortunate to meet Katie Hess, and she truly embodies all of her knowledge and teachings. Through her thoughtful and carefully chosen words, Katie encourages us to "Start a Flowerevolution!" because “we are vastly more powerful than we think we are."

Available at: Amazon

Zen in the Art of Flower Arrangement: The Classic Account of the Meaning and Symbolism of the Japanese Art of Ikebana

Ikebana, the Asian art of flower arranging, is a spiritual path in my life. First published in 1958, this book beautifully and elegantly shares with us the contemplative aspects of the art of flowers.

One of my favorite chapters illustrates “the ten virtues” of the flower path. #3: “Quiet, clear feeling. You can reach solutions without thinking.” Ms. Herrigel truly describes the magic and ceremony that flowers and ikebana embody. It’s not just about making a pretty flower arrangement.

Available at: Amazon

by Anjie Cho

Visit the Holistic Spaces Store

#My Favorite Things #anjie cho #holistic spaces #feng shui #books

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