Now is all you ever have. Our minds tend to live in the past and the future, rarely in the present moment. We dwell on the past, we get anxious about the future, but we hardly live right here, right now in this moment. We tend to get stuck in these trances and many never escape the whirlwind of thoughts that virtually do not exist. Meditation is performed to awaken from the trance of living in the past and future into the present.
When we sit still, we begin to see with new eyes, we become more aware of our internal self. There is a huge misconception that meditation will help us to achieve eternal bliss with God, Allah, the Universe etc. This may eventually happen, for a very short time period-seconds, but it is not the goal. The point of meditation is awareness, to become aware. We get trapped into the trance of everyday life and we hardly realize this because it is all we've ever known for our entire lives up until this point. When this happens, the mind begins to create stories and we hardly realize what's truly in front of us. The mind is like a muscle, we can train it just as we can do bicep curls and sprinting to train the musculature of the physical body.
So, why meditate? To become aware...yes, to escape the trance...yes, and to become fully alive. Some people live their entire lives being asleep-they skip from one thing to the next without ever slowing down, or getting to truly know themselves or what they were birthed on this planet to do. When we slow down, when we become quiet, we begin to unwrap the gifts that have been within us all along, and we begin to share those gifts with humanity. One of my teachers says that a truly healthy individual is free from selfishness, free from the ego, that selfless people help humanity and that selfish people destroy it. When we establish a meditation practice, we begin to cultivate selflessness, we start to quiet and transform the ego into compassion, gratitude and grace. Meditation also helps us to start cleaning up our moral and ethical behavior and helps us to practice contentment-intentionally being content.
One of the greatest gifts you will cultivate through a daily meditation routine is patience. Patience is a virtue, inwhich we all could use a little more of.
Where to Start:
1) Begin by sitting down, sitting in a chair, standing-whatever you are most comfortable with. Take several deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling. My teacher always starts meditation by saying, "I sit down, I breath in, I breath out, and I smile".
2) After several breaths, begin to focus your awareness on one object. Often, the breath is the best object to begin with. Focus on the inhale-how it feels going through your nose all the way down to your kidneys, and then exhale focusing on releasing from the lungs. Just watching, observing, seeing.
3) As the mind wanders, do not get upset with yourself, do not self-criticize, notice where your mind drifts to and come back to focusing on the breath. Remember, this practice is about cultivating compassion, so have compassion for yourself, especially as the mind wanders.
4) Continue to focus on the breath, the rising, the pause, the exhale for 10 minutes-1 hour per day. Set an alarm clock if you need so that you're not continuously checking the clock. End the practice by silently (or aloud) saying what you are grateful for. It is OK to start with shorter duration, try to increase the length every week or so. A regular meditation practice will absolutely transform your life in remarkable ways. Good luck and I would love to hear about your experiences!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Decreasing Plastics = Balanced Hormones=Healthy Environment
Many of our modern day diseases and illnesses are significantly influenced by the choices we make (and corporations we support!). Typically, when we make sub-par health decisions, they tend to simultaneously be harmful choices for our environment. One of the single best ways to improve our health and the health of our environment is to avoid or significantly decrease our use of plastics.
Our endocrine systems, specifically the female and male reproductive systems, are often vulnerable areas that environmental toxins attack. This is due to the ever-growing man-made chemical constituents that are being released into our landscape, many of which act as pseudo-estrogens in the body. Pseudo-estrogens mimic the effects of estrogen and can result in estrogen linked illnesses. Specifically, plastics such as BPA (bisphenol A) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) have dramatic effects on our bodies, specifically our endocrine/hormonal systems. Both of these chemicals are found in plastic water bottles and a slew of other plastic goods as well such as baby bottles. If you look on a plastic water bottle, such as Dasani, Aquafina or any other water brand, you will see the letters PET or sometimes PETE next to the recycling symbol/code on the bottle. PET is a clear liquid made from refining crude oil! 80% of PET in the United States ends up in Nestle, Coke, or Pepsi beverage containers, which manifests a whole new bag of issues...
The first thing you can do to improve your health and the health of the environment is to stop buying bottled water and beverages in plastic bottles! This includes the larger 5 gallon jugs and harder plastics made of BPA. And as quoted by a scientist in the documentary "Tapped", "[BPA] leaches into water and is one of the most toxic chemicals known to man".
Generally, we seem to think that small doses of potentially harmful substances is safe. However, BPA, in very small doses, significantly compromises our body's health. I will try and save the "drinking water from a bottle is better for you" scandal for an upcoming post. However, it is crucial to be aware of its effects on one's health. Here are some of the health effects that plastics, especially in water bottles, water bottles that have been sitting in the sun or heated up, baby bottles and/or items microwaved in plastics etc may have:
* I am not responsible for your health. Please consult a physician and/or health care professional before starting any new lifestyle modification or change.
Our endocrine systems, specifically the female and male reproductive systems, are often vulnerable areas that environmental toxins attack. This is due to the ever-growing man-made chemical constituents that are being released into our landscape, many of which act as pseudo-estrogens in the body. Pseudo-estrogens mimic the effects of estrogen and can result in estrogen linked illnesses. Specifically, plastics such as BPA (bisphenol A) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) have dramatic effects on our bodies, specifically our endocrine/hormonal systems. Both of these chemicals are found in plastic water bottles and a slew of other plastic goods as well such as baby bottles. If you look on a plastic water bottle, such as Dasani, Aquafina or any other water brand, you will see the letters PET or sometimes PETE next to the recycling symbol/code on the bottle. PET is a clear liquid made from refining crude oil! 80% of PET in the United States ends up in Nestle, Coke, or Pepsi beverage containers, which manifests a whole new bag of issues...
The first thing you can do to improve your health and the health of the environment is to stop buying bottled water and beverages in plastic bottles! This includes the larger 5 gallon jugs and harder plastics made of BPA. And as quoted by a scientist in the documentary "Tapped", "[BPA] leaches into water and is one of the most toxic chemicals known to man".
Generally, we seem to think that small doses of potentially harmful substances is safe. However, BPA, in very small doses, significantly compromises our body's health. I will try and save the "drinking water from a bottle is better for you" scandal for an upcoming post. However, it is crucial to be aware of its effects on one's health. Here are some of the health effects that plastics, especially in water bottles, water bottles that have been sitting in the sun or heated up, baby bottles and/or items microwaved in plastics etc may have:
- Increase in birth defects
- Decreased fertility
- Male and female reproductive adversities
- Cancer, specifically breast cancer, ovarian/uterine cancer, prostate cancer
- Compromised Thyroid function
- Obesity
- ADD/ADHD
- Diabetes
- Decreased sperm count
- Consume 1 tsp Nordic Natural's Cod Liver oil daily
- Eat cold pressed, ground flaxseeds
- Consume cold pressed flax oil (keep refrigerated, use within one month of opening)
- Take Evening Primrose oil, Black current oil or Borage oil
- Eat organic hemp seeds
- Eat organic, grass fed and/or free range meats
- Supplement with Spirulina powder
- Avoid hydrogenated fats and oils (read labels!)
- Avoid fried and fatty foods
- Buy a water filter and/or drink tap water. Bring a glass jar to fill up water from a municipal source when you are away from home. Most natural grocers have filtered tap water available for free and tap water actually has much higher standards and regulations than bottled water companies (which don't really have any!). A reputable water filter brand is "New Wave Enviro Premium 10 Stage Water Filter System"
* I am not responsible for your health. Please consult a physician and/or health care professional before starting any new lifestyle modification or change.
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