If youve ever crawled under the covers worrying about a problem or a long to-do list, you know those racing thoughts may rob you of a good nights sleep. Sleep disturbances, like having a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep, affect millions of Americans.

The daytime sleepiness that follows can leave you feeling lousy and sap your productivity, and it may even harm your health. Now, a small study suggests that mindfulness meditation a mind-calming practice that focuses on breathing and awareness of the present moment can help.

The study, which appears in this weeks JAMA Internal Medicine, included 49 middle-aged and older adults who had trouble sleeping. Half completed a mindfulness awareness program that taught them meditation and other exercises designed to help them focus on moment-by-moment experiences, thoughts, and emotions. The other half completed a sleep education class that taught them ways to improve their sleep habits.

Both groups met six times, once a week for two hours. Compared with the people in the sleep education group, those in the mindfulness group had less insomnia, fatigue, and depression at the end of the six sessions.

The findings come as no surprise to Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. Mindfulness meditation is just one of a smorgasbord of techniques that evoke the relaxation response, says Dr. Benson.

The relaxation response, a term he coined in the 1970s, is a deep physiological shift in the body thats the opposite of the stress response. The relaxation response can help ease many stress-related ailments, including depression, pain, and high blood pressure. For many people, sleep disorders are closely tied to stress, says Dr. Benson.

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on your breathing and then bringing your minds attention to the present without drifting into concerns about the past or future. It helps you break the train of your everyday thoughts to evoke the relaxation response, using whatever technique feels right to you.

Dr. Benson recommends practicing mindfulness during the day, ideally for 20 minutes, the same amount suggested in the new study. The idea is to create a reflex to more easily bring forth a sense of relaxation, he says. That way, its easier to evoke the relaxation response at night when you cant sleep. In fact, the relaxation response is so, well, relaxing that your daytime practice should be done sitting up or moving (as in yoga or tai chi) so as to avoid nodding off.

To elicit the relaxation response, try these two simple steps:

Step 1: Choose a calming focus. Good examples are your breath, a sound (Om), a short prayer, a positive word (such as relax or peace), or a phrase (breathing in calm, breathing out tension; I am relaxed). If you choose a sound, repeat it aloud or silently as you inhale or exhale.

Step 2: Let go and relax. Dont worry about how youre doing. When you notice your mind has wandered, simply take a deep breath or say to yourself thinking, thinking and gently return your attention to your chosen focus.

To learn more about mindfulness meditation, try one of the free guided recordings by Dr. Ronald Siegel, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and faculty editor of the Positive Psychology Special Health Report. The recordings are available at http://www.mindfulness-solution.com.

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mindfulness meditation - Harvard Health Blog

Synchronicity High-Tech Meditation was created by Master Charles Cannon and is practiced by thousands of meditators world-wide for thirty years, provides a novel way to achieve balance, wholeness and fulfillment in a fast-paced Western lifestyle.

Designed to be practiced on a daily basis, High-Tech Meditation utilizes Synchronicity sonic technology (Holodynamics) to give individuals the opportunity to enjoy a precision meditation experience every time they meditate.

Synchronicity sonic technology utilizes comprehensive brain-wave entrainment technology combined with the energy frequencies of sacred geometry. It is the leading-edge of entrainment technologies designed to enhance the evolution of human consciousness.

The technology is available in the form of Alpha, Theta and Delta CDs (and downloads) that literally "meditate you," while they:

Over 20 beautiful meditation soundtracks available in CDs and Downloadable Soundtracks deliver precision High-Tech Meditation technology.

Recognitions is an at-home program of inspiration, education and High-Tech Meditation for actualizing modern spiritual experience in daily life.

Proceeds from sales go to benefit the Non-Profit Synchronicity Foundation

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Traditional methods of meditation worked when life was slow, quiet and simple. Today's high-tech, busy, noisy world makes it much more difficult to sit in peaceful contemplation. The many environmental factors beyond the meditator's control create a frustrating inconsistency in meditation experience.

Energetic environmental pollution and stress caused by television, computers, and microwaves as well as a world population of almost seven billion people, ever-increasing in conflict and dysfunction, all directly impact the human energy field, creating imbalance and making traditional methods used to experience stillness and expand holistic awareness trademarks of authentic meditation - largely ineffective.

Fortunately, Synchronicity's High-Tech Meditation harmonizes the chaotic energies that otherwise impede the meditative process. In addition, High-Tech Meditation requires no religious belief system or adaptation of the cultural conditioning often associated with traditional systems.

Research on Synchronicity meditators finds that:

Master Charles' work is on the cutting edgethese soundtracks allow people to quickly experience the benefits of long-term meditation.- Los Angeles Times

Master Charles' Synchronicity Contemporary Meditation Soundtracks combine science with the ancient art of meditationI found them to have an immediate effect, both calming and expanding, from the very first moment of hearing themof all the meditation soundtracks I have listened to over the last few years, I have never experienced any that delivered this particular noticeable effect so quickly.- Carol Kramer, EditorBody, Mind and Spirit

These soundtracks meditate you.- CBS Morning Show

Over 20 beautiful meditation soundtracks available in CDs and Downloadable Soundtracks deliver precision High-Tech Meditation technology.

Recognitions is an at-home program of inspiration, education and High-Tech Meditation for actualizing modern spiritual experience in daily life.

High-Tech Meditation works with all four brainwave frequencies -- Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta -- each of which correlates with specific states of consciousness. The one-of-a-kind "Brain Monitor" developed by Synchronicity Foundation's research team enables reliable measurement of actual brainwave changes over time.

Beta brainwave frequencies occur in the range from 14 - 24 Hz, and correspond to the typical "busy mind" experience common to most of us. The Beta frequency range is characterized by a chaotic, fragmented, unbalanced thinking typical of left brain dominance, commonly referred to as the "monkey mind."

The beginning of balanced brainwave activity occurs in the Alpha frequency range, between 8 -13 Hz. Alpha brain-waves are very often produced in bursts (trains of waves) or pulses (single waves), but experienced meditators tend to produce continuous trains of alpha waves. By looking at an individual's alpha brainwave production, it is possible to determine not only whether they are a meditator but also the length of time they have been practicing meditation. The more alpha waves that a person is able to produce in ordinary states of consciousness, the easier it is for them to access deeper meditative states. Alpha waves may occur when you are sitting or reclining with your eyes closed, and you may experience:

In the Theta frequency range, between 3.5 - 7 Hz, balanced brainwave activity increases. The Theta state corresponds to the experience of visionary, creative and intuitive levels of experience. It is characterized by "inner" images and visions that correlate with increased theta activity. At this stage, the meditator is likely to experience:

The Delta frequency range, between 0 -3.5Hz, brings a level of balance that corresponds to the "beyond the mind" experience at the subtlest levels of meditative awareness possible. This is the range in which meditators experience what is called unified consciousness (unity with all things). Deepened experience in the Delta range generates:

Synchronicity offers an at-home meditation correspondence course called The Recognitions Program which utilizes the Delta level of sonic entrainment technology.

Recognitions is an at-home program of inspiration, education and High-Tech Meditation for actualizing modern spiritual experience in daily life.

The most expansive level of Synchronicity digital technology is only available in the Recognitions Program. This is the leading - edge of the High-Tech Meditation experience.

Because of its impact, facilitation is required and included the support and guidance of anexperienced and qualified coach which is an integral part of the Recognitions Program.

The Recognitions Program also provides inspiration and education in the philosophic principles of modern spirituality which support the experience of living the Holistic Lifestyle and Meditating the High-Tech Way.

The Recognitions Program is modern spirituality in the digital age. It is the harnessing of technology for the evolution of consciousness.

Compared to those who utilize traditional, orthodox (low-tech) systems of meditation, Synchronicity meditators have been found to experience rapid and measurable changes in their states of consciousness. These results are based on studies comparing brainwave patterns of Synchronicity High-Tech Meditation users with those produced by individuals using traditional meditation systems.

There are a number of documented cases based on groups of meditators using classical methods of meditation. A study of the Dalai Lama's attendants (roughly twenty monks), was conducted during the early seventies. More recently, Tomio Hirai reported on a study of forty Zen monks in the book Zen Meditation and Psychotherapy.

These studies represent the very best results that can be expected from classical meditative disciplines, as these individuals were totally immersed in the contemplative lifestyle. Even residents at the Synchronicity Sanctuary do not have the fully structured, meditative lifestyle of cloistered monks. Further, most participants in the Synchronicity Recognitions Program live everyday lives in cities, work normal jobs, and raise families ... not at all what one would define as a contemplative lifestyle.

The results of the two studies of classical meditators revealed that:

Research on participants in the Synchronicity Recognitions Program showed the following:

The following Brain Monitor graphs are typical of our findings. These include both residents of the Synchronicity Sanctuary and non-resident participants in The Recognitions Program. None has more than seven years experience with Synchronicity High-Tech Meditation, yet they continually demonstrate brainwave patterns consistent with advanced meditators (twenty years or more experience) in the Buddhist monk studies. Thus, they empirically validate the fact that Synchronicity High-Tech Meditation represents a four-fold acceleration factor over classical methods of meditation.

I love the recognitions program as it is working on me from several different levels! I learn more about myself and am growing through working the the various components I study every month! Meditation is very deep and transforming! I started in march of this year and can definitely know I have changed! - Desmond Clark

My whole life was turned around when I met MC. I had taken time out from work and was pretty depressed, but one day I heard a tape a friend was playing and it entrained me into a meditative state - and while I was eating lunch! When I inquired about the music I discovered MC and as soon as I could arrange it I was on the Recognition program. Subsequently, I found myself in good health and back studying at University. Words cannot express my gratitude to MC for the support and encouragement he has given me over the years. - Phyl Graham

I am on Recognitions - Phase Three and although I am not really noticing anything special during my meditations, I notice that at times out of the blue I seem to be in a transcendent or translucent state of mind. At that time, it seems that nothing in my outer world is real or of any importance. There is a moment of inner laughter and joy. - IB

I was listening to the meditation soundtrack, while at the same time mentally reciting a mantra. All of a sudden, it was like a veil lifted, and the world utterly disappeared. There were no forms, bodies, or anything, only formless clarity and infinite Consciousness. When I finally came back to awareness of my body, I realized that I had been perfectly still for nearly three hours, almost as though my body locked in place during this time. I am not even sure if I was breathing! What I do know is that for weeks after I experienced a spiritual elation and the world seemed pervaded with sweetness. Everything is different now. - SB

The Recognitions Program is for anyone who wants to earnestly follow the path of meditation. This is not for those who only want to lower their blood pressure, although meditation can help with that. Recognitions is for the person that wishes to realize the benefits that come from daily practice of meditation and a balancing life style. My experience over the years and continuing today is that this meditation program works! It greatly assists me in going far into the fruits of meditation in a much shorter time frame than traditional non-technological meditation. I highly recommend the Recognitions Program! - CC

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High-Tech Meditation - Synchronicity Foundation for Modern ...

Weekend Events

Special events including Half DayWorkshops, Retreats, and Workshops are in EVENTS tab on top navigation.

Sundays are Family Days at Dipamkara Meditation Center in Huntington. Morning meditations begin at 10am with Clarity of Mind followed by Taking and Giving. Our Sunday Main Program:Practical Wisdom & Meditation with Resident Teacher Kadam Holly McGregor is 11:30am 1pm; we also have meditation for Children and Young Teens in the mid size meditation space and Meditation for Teens and Young Adults in the small meditation room. All meet afterwards to enjoy our popular brunch together. A wonderful way to pave the way for a peaceful week at school and work!

Sunday classes are held in Huntington (10:00am 1pm) Massapequa (11:30am 1pm); Port Jefferson (10:30am 12pm); and Sayville (class will resume in September)

Huntington has daily meditation classes every day during the week including Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday (Soup & Serenity) and Thursday.

Susan and Joel Brenner in Huntington on Wednesday 12-1:30pm, Maggie Cooper in Port Jefferson, and Ann and Dennis Kane in Massapequa, nourish both mind and body with this popular lunch time class. Guided meditation followed by lively conversation, good friends, and delicious homemade soup!

Monday evening Meditation & Mindfulness 7pm-7:45pm with Stephany Taylor and Wednesday evening Clarity of Mind 7-8pm with Kevin Potente. In addition, meditation is part of all our general programs including Tuesday evening 7-8:30pm with Bob Rice, Sunday Main Program 11:30 with Kadam Holly McGregor and Friday night Freedom from Addiction at 7:30pm on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month.

Drop In Classes, open to all, take place during all daytime and evening meditation classes. Our Main Center in Huntington has classes throughout the day on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and bi-weekly on Fridays; evening classes are held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Massapequa has evening classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; Port Jefferson on Tuesday evenings (Thursday evenings will resume in September). For our complete calendar schedule click here.

Dipamkara Meditation Center believes meditation should be accessible to everyone. Daily classes are open to all and are held in f0ur convenient locations: Huntington, Massapequa, Port Jefferson, and Sayville. (Click here for directions)

The purpose of meditation is to cultivate those states of mind that are conducive to peace and well-being, and to eradicate those that arent.

When we take a close look at our life, we discover that essentially, most of our time and energy is devoted to mundane activities, such as seeking material and emotional security, enjoying sensory pleasures, establishing a good reputation and so forth.

Although these things might make us happy for a short time, we need to ask if they are providing the deep lasting contentment that we long for. Is this as good as it gets? Sooner or later, we find that these moments of temporary happiness turn right back into dissatisfactions and once more we find ourselves engaged in the pursuit of more worldly pleasures.

And so goes the cycle.

This is where a meditation practice can be so extraordinarily helpful.

If true fulfillment cannot be found in the externals, then where can it be found? The answer: within. In our own mind. With meditation we come to understand that happiness is a state of mind. Therefore, the real source of happiness lies there, and not in external circumstances. If our mind is pure and peaceful, the world we experience will be pure and peaceful. Thats the goal.

This is what we do at Dipamkara Meditation Center.

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Meditation for Everyone - Meditation On Long Island

To reach the Higher Self it is best to concentrate on the source of the "inner sound", leading to the "inner light" - a nucleus of the Higher Self, which initially seems infinitely far "at the other side of a long dark tunnel". When we get sufficiently close to our Higher Self, the inner light becomes much brighter than the Sun, and when we are allowed to join it, the bliss cannot be described in any human language. To get that far, we have to achieve a complete purity of the mind during meditation, have pure intentions, and then intensively concentrate for some time on the "inner sound" and "inner light".

The most important role of a spiritual teacher is to show everyone his/her individual way to the Higher Self. Then, it is up to the individual to practice and reach the Higher Self.

From the above, meditation seems to be an essential skill to attain the ultimate enlightenment. There are quite a few techniques for meditation. Most of them use so-called "mantra" composed from a few words or sounds. Mantra is repeated mentally to help us achieve and maintain a "blank" state of mind.

Contrary to popular belief, promoted by people who attract followers and/or charge money to teach meditation, mantra has no sacred "meaning" and no mantra is essentially better than any other. However, regardless of its content, mantra has two important functions, which may greatly assist us in achieving and maintaining a meditative state of a blank mind.

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.

When we understand the above two functions of the mantra, it becomes clear that changing mantras may be not a very good idea. Changing mantras may be considered useful only in special situations, for example when we want to eliminate an undesirable meditation habit, preventing us from achieving a deep meditative state, and the existing mantra is identified as related to that habit.

Also it becomes logical that whatever mantra we use, we should keep it private and not tell it to other people. Otherwise we give others a way to control our subconscious mind by telepathically transmitting to us our own mantra. The best teachers will take time to give people individual mantras rather than teach everyone the same mantra.

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.

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.

If you have never tried any meditation, try to find a quiet place and try the following technique:1. take a comfortable meditation posture, one of the postures described above 2. close your eyes and relax all muscles in your body, including the face. A few alternate nostril yoga breaths is very helpful at the beginning of this stage - breathing in through one nostril and breathing out through another, closing nostrils with fingers and altering closed nostril with each breath. 3. disregard any thought as it comes - do not continue a kaleidoscope of thoughts - continue this for 20 minutes or so, maintaining your mind blank. You can use a mental sound "ooooohhmmm" (a mantra) every time you have a thought. Alternatively you may keep counting thoughts, discarding each one as it comes, without analysing it. When you go down to 2 or 3 thoughts in 5 minutes, you meditate successfully.

With practice you should be able to attain a blank mind anytime and anywhere, even in a crowd of people or a stressful situation with the help of your mantra. But do not use the mantra when stressed, until you are positive that you practice meditation long enough and the thought of mantra is firmly associated with your state of a calm mind.

One of many benefits of meditation is that it opens your mind to new ideas. When the bowl is full, trying to pour more water into it just causes an overflow. The same happens with our mind. When it is full of thoughts, there is no room for new ideas.

Meditation is a very effective technique for improving your creativity and problem solving capacity. "Talented" people do it naturally. Artists and poets call it "inspiration". Many famous people such as Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison were known to have practised various forms of meditation.

Meditation is sometimes described as "listening to the silence between thoughts". Our effort in meditation is directed towards consciously increasing the periods of such silence.

The ability to meditate is also a necessary condition to receive telepathic transmissions, including those from Higher Self and other people who may try to assist us. Without a true silence in your own thoughts, you cannot listen to thoughts of others.

Before meditation you may wish to define clearly what do you want to learn, what do you want to ask your Higher Self. During the meditation, do not expect an answer (although it is likely that it will come when your mind will be pure) - this is also a thought!

People who practice meditation on the regular basis look and feel typically 10 or even 15 years younger than other people at their age. Giving the mind a regular "break" and allowing our Nature to perform self-repairs everyday makes all the difference. Self-healing and rejuvenation seems to be within reach of everyone who is prepared to learn meditation and meditate regularly everyday.

Dr Tom J. Chalko 1997

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MEDITATION - Thiaoouba

Meditation, private devotion or mental exercise encompassing various techniques of concentration, contemplation, and abstraction, regarded as conducive to heightened spiritual awareness or somatic calm.

Meditation has been practiced throughout history by adherents of all the worlds religions. In Roman Catholicism, for example, meditation consists of active, voluntary, and systematic thinking about a biblical or theological topic. Mental images are cultivated and efforts are made to empathize with God or with figures from the Bible. Eastern religious practices that involve thinking in a controlled manner have been described as meditation in the West since the 19th century. The Hindu philosophical school of Yoga, for example, prescribes a highly elaborate process for the purification of body, mind, and soul. One aspect of Yoga practice, dhyana (Sanskrit: concentrated meditation), became the focus of the Buddhist school known as Chan in China and later as Zen in Japan. In the late 1960s the British rock group the Beatles sparked a vogue in the West for Hindu forms of meditation, and in the following decade Transcendental Meditation (TM) became the first of a variety of commercially successful South and East Asian meditative techniques imported by the West. Academic psychological studies of TM and other forms of meditation followed rapidly.

In numerous religions, spiritual purification may be sought through the verbal or mental repetition of a prescribed efficacious syllable, word, or text (e.g., the Hindu and Buddhist mantra, the Islamic dhikr, and the Eastern Christian Jesus Prayer). The focusing of attention upon a visual image (e.g., a flower or a distant mountain) is a common technique in informal contemplative practice and has been formalized in several traditions. Tibetan Buddhists, for example, regard the mandala (Sanskrit: circle) diagram as a collection point of universal forces, accessible to humans by meditation. Tactile and mechanical devices, such as the rosary and the prayer wheel, along with music, play a highly ritualized role in many contemplative traditions.

Most meditative practices concentrate attention in order to induce mystical experiences. Others are mindful of the mental character of all contents of consciousness and utilize this insight to detach the practitioner either from all thoughts or from a selected group of thoughtse.g., the ego (Buddhism) or the attractiveness of sin (Christianity). Meditation may also serve as a special, potent preparation for a physically demanding or otherwise strenuous activity, as in the case of the warrior before battle or the musician before performance.

Although the primary purpose of meditation is the realization of truth, the doctrinal and experiential truths claimed by different practices of meditation are often inconsistent with each other. Hinduism, for example, asserts that the self is divine, while other traditions claim that God alone exists (Sufism), that God is immediately present to the soul (Christianity and Judaism), and that all things are empty (Mahayana Buddhism).

In the West, scientific research on meditation from the 1970s focused on psychological and psychosomatic illnesses. Meditative techniques used by skilled practitioners proved to be effective in controlling pulse and respiratory rates and in alleviating symptoms of migraine headache, hypertension, and hemophilia, among other conditions.

Disenchantment with materialistic values led to an awakening of interest in Indian, Chinese, and Japanese philosophy and practice among primarily young people in many Western countries in the 1960s and 70s. The teaching and practice of numerous techniques of meditation, most based on Asian religious traditions, became a widespread phenomenon. For example, the practice of mindfulness meditation, an adaptation of Buddhist techniques, was popularized in the United States beginning in the 1980s. Its medical use as an adjunct to psychotherapy was widely embraced in the late 1990s, leading to its adoption in many psychiatric facilities.

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meditation | mental exercise | Britannica.com

What Is MBSR?

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program was originally developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the late 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. It is an eight-week, evidence-based, highly experiential course that is currently offered at more than 250 hospitals, universities, and clinical settings in the United States and around the world and has been featured recently in Newsweek, Time Magazine, and 60 Minutes.

MBSR's primary aim is to develop skills that can be flexibly applied in everyday life to stress, pain, and illness. Through experiential learning and discussion during class, as well as through daily mindfulness practice at home, participants learn and refine a range of self-regulatory skills that involve finely tuned attention to thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.

The MBSR Program Involves:

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, up to two-thirds of all office visits to family doctors are for stress-related symptoms. Depression and anxiety disorders are associated with chronic illness and chronic pain and should be addressed as part of the overall management of health problems. MBSR may help reduce medical symptoms and psychological distress as well as the need for clinical services.

Mindfulness meditation has been researched in conjunction with:

MBSR courses are typically offered in the winter / early spring, summer, and fall. To receive updates about newly scheduled courses, please email mindfulness@upmc.edu.

The winter MBSR course is currently being scheduled. Please check back for winter course information.

Please email grecocm@upmc.edu to receive updates.

You may register at an Orientation Session.

Attendance at an Orientation Session is required for MBSR course registration.

Orientations are free of charge and held from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Center for Integrative Medicine. Orientation attendance can be applied to registration in any future MBSR course at the Center for Integrative Medicine.

Continuing education (CEU) credits will be offered for nurses, psychologists, social workers, and licensed counselors through Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC.

Orientation Sessions and MBSR Courses are led by Carol M. Greco, PhD. Dr. Greco has practiced meditation for 23 years and is certified as an MBSR teacher by the UMass Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. She has taught MBSR courses at the Center for Integrative Medicine at UPMC Shadyside since 2005.

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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction/MBSR Clasees | UPMC

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Meditation altar | Etsy

I was recently invited to speak on a panel about mindfulness. Joining me was a Vedic practitioner, a well-established yoga teacher, and a shamanic meditation guide. Funny enough, I was the only person on the panel who actually practices mindfulness meditation daily.

What does mindfulness mean to you? was the first question. As the microphone went around, each individual very humbly explained their personal practice and how its not primarily mindfulness. Then they offered approximately the same traditional definition of that word. When it was my turn, I did feel compelled to point out that mindfulness and meditation, while intimately related, are not the same and both do, in fact, have proper definitions.

The great Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche had an amazing ability to work with the English language, and would often come up with new words to articulate the meaning of another, more established term. For example, he coined the word nownessas in the essence of being now in the present. That is one clear way to think of the term mindfulness. The ness aspect is the essence of, so we are saying that mindfulness is the essence of bringing your mind fully to one thing that is happening in the present moment.

The other day, someone on the social media team for MNDFL, the network of meditation studios that I co-founded, pinged me, asking if I could relate to a question posted on our Instagram feed. Apparently, she had posted a beautiful image of someone knitting and noted that while knitting is awesome, it is not meditation. A commenter had asked a good question: Whos to say knitting is not a form of mindful meditation just as walking can be a form of meditation? I really do love this question because it allowed me to geek out and clarify what mindful meditation is from a traditional point of view.

At the risk of being highly controversial amongst the mindful knitting community (which, Im guessing, does exist), one could mindfully knit or eat, but it is not a formal meditation technique, compared to those that have been transmitted over the centuries. Walking meditation is one of the four postures the Buddha discussed as a way to build mindfulness in his discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness some 2600 years ago. These postures fall under Mindfulness of the Body, which is under Right Mindfulness, which is part of the Eightfold Path. The other three, incidentally, are sitting, lying down and standing.

Now, heres the thing about mindfulness: The more you train in meditation, the more you are able to show up fully for the rest of your life, including things like knitting. But as mindfulness and meditation both become very popular, its important to distinguish what is and isnt meditation. So while you can mindfully knit (i.e., bring your mind fully to that one thing that is happening in the present moment), it is not a formal meditation practice. It is applying mindfulness, which can be cultivated in formal meditation practices to other aspects of your life, which is a lovely thing to do.

Meditation is a revolutionary practice for transforming your life by becoming familiar with, and ultimately, befriending all aspects of who you are. Running MNDFL, I encounter people every single day who have been led to believe that meditation is just one thing, and that one thing is whatever technique they were exposed to first. There are thousands of meditation techniques out there, but I will speak to some of those that are time-tested, having been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

One form of meditation is bringing your mind fully to the breath, whether that is relaxing with your existent breath as is taught in Buddhist traditions, or more controlled breathing, like what is sometimes found in Kundalini lineages. In the Buddhist tradition, this is known as mindfulness meditation because we are relaxing with and tuning into what is currently going on: The body breathing. The more you train in mindfulness meditation, the more you are able to be present in the rest of your life.

This is different than, say, Vedic or Transcendental Meditation, where you work with a mantra. These mantras are personal to you, having been offered by a trained teacher. The transcending aspect is actually repeating the mantra until it falls awaymeaning you transcend it and relax into how things are. As a Buddhist, I admit I am not the best person to address this practice and highly encourage you to seek out certified Vedic or TM teachers who can do this profound practice justice, but as you can likely already tell this is different than mindfulness of the breath.

Related: What Is Transcendental Meditation?

There are also contemplative practices, where you bring to mind a phrase or a question and create some mental space for wisdom to arise around it. Some might say you are listening to your gut or intuition in these practices, but really its a sense of getting out of your own way so that you can realize an experiential understanding of whatever you are contemplating, whether its the truth of your mortality or setting an intention for your day.

The last overarching style Ill share is visualization. Coming from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there are all sorts of visualizations one might bring to mind and allow as the object of meditation. These images are often representing your innate wakefulness. In a more public practice, such as that of loving-kindness, you may even bring to mind the image of someone you admire, the image of someone you dont know very well, or the image of someone you have a hard time with in order to fully open your heart to them and wish them happiness and freedom from suffering.

The above list of types of meditation is by no means exhaustive, but provide some guidelines for two points Id like to offer:

1. If you are receiving a meditation technique that is not time-tested and from a long-standing tradition, you may find that it is very different than these, and I dont necessarily recommend doing it.2. Mindfulness meditationoften considered the practice of being mindful of the breathis but one of many, many forms of meditation that are out there. I recommend that you try a number of forms of meditation and see if mindfulness is for you.

Sitting on the panel the other week, I could embrace and appreciate that all of these individuals were meditation practitioners and lovers of meditation, but they were not primarily mindfulness practitioners. That said, all of us have the opportunity to train in mindfulness meditation, stemming from the Buddhist tradition, and bring mindfulness into our knitting, eating, listening, and more. Its a powerful tool for everyday life that we all have access to as we all have one of the very basic meditation tools needed for it: The breath.

By Lodro RinzlerPublished on July 19, 2017

Excerpt from:

Mindfulness vs. Meditation: What's the Difference? - Sonima

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See the rest here:

Transcendental Meditation (TM) Technique - Reston, VA

During next season, 49ers fans will want Brian Hoyer to embody the cobra pose as opposed to downward-dog.

Niner Nation might raise an eyebrow at the 49ers quarterbacks take on yoga and meditation while appearing Wednesday on KNBR. Others may applaud Hoyer for using non-traditional training options to help his play.

You would train your body, why wouldnt you help train your mind, too? Hoyer told Murph & Mac. We have an app on our phone and you can go to it when you need it. I try to do it every day sometimes theres not always enough time in the day. But its something that I feel has really helped me.

The topic arose because 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan recently explained his appreciation for yoga and meditation to the Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. Hoyer certainly sounded on board when asked about the topic, offering an extended explanation on why hes latched on to Shanahans training regimen.

Its something that I really enjoy because its about being mindful and being in the moment, Hoyer told KNBR.And I think in this profession, you can get so caught up and so wrapped up and theres pressure all the time. And thats not a way to live life.

So, its about being where you are. So when Im at home, Im at home with my wife and kids and Im enjoying that time. And when Im at work, Im here at work andworking and taking time to meditate and just kind of clear your head.

And as far as the yoga its something we do weekly and I think its great not only for the mental aspect, but to stretch out and get some of that type of work involved in your routine.

Its very what you might call new school For me as a quarterback, of course I have to lift and be strong and be able to take hits. ButI alsoneed to flexible enough to be able to throw the football and be able to move around.

Hoyer is set to begin the season as the 49ers starting quarterback and only time will tell if he can become, like Tom Brady, a pro-yoga Pro Bowler.

Read more from the original source:

Brian Hoyer advocates for yoga and meditation, like Shanahan wants - The Mercury News