Peace, Love and Lavender is hosting a festival Saturday at the lavender farm on the northwest side of Johnson Lake.

The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

We will start out at 9:30 a.m. with qigong and at 10 we will talk about dowsing, said owner Cyndi Smith. Qigong is similar to tai chi.

Qigong and tai chi are both ancient Chinese forms of exercise.

Smith said there is also a Chartres meditation labyrinth where people can take some time to enjoy the quiet, peacefulness.

People can cut their own bunch of lavender, which I think is a lot of fun, Smith said. The lavender is $5 per bundle. I also have lavender plants and we have a gift shop.

Smith said she has a psychic from Kearney scheduled at 10:30 a.m.

She will talk about our angels, Smith said. And at 11 oclock I have a gal coming who will talk about how we can support bees.

At 11:30 a.m., Smith will talk with kids about ladybugs and praying mantis and then they will go look for ladybugs.

The Johnson Lake EMS will have their ambulance here, Smith said. Im collecting $1 per person at the gate that will be donated to them.

Cyndi and her husband, Dan, open the farm from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays through Labor Day weekend.

The Peace, Love and Lavender Facebook page has directions to their location at 42636 Road 751, Elwood. For more information, the Smiths may be contacted at 308-324-7397.

Original post:

Festival supports bees, meditation, more - North Platte Telegraph

The article titled Meditation for Beginners that appeared in Sunday's Gazette-Times leaves out some important information that I'd like to add.

Corvallis Zen Circle (www.corvalliszencircle.com) and Five Stones Sangha (http://www.fivestonessangha.org/) have both been go-to places for meditators for many years. Interestingly, Corvallis Zen Circle is about to complete the purchase of the first dedicated meditation center in Corvallis, which will be called Sangha Jewel Zen Center. You'll be hearing more about this wonderful new opportunity in the coming months.

In addition, a number of groups were omitted from the list: Insight Meditation (vipassana) has a group on campus at Westminster House, Mondays at 6:30 p.m. (open to everyone, not just Oregon State University students, staff and faculty members); another group meets at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Fridays at 10:15 a.m. And there are both Tibetan (Mondays, 6:30 p.m. at the Friends Meeting) and Self-Realization Fellowship (www.corvallismeditation.org) groups here too.

Our community does indeed have many resources for meditation instruction. You are welcome at any of them!

Originally posted here:

Letter: Meditation story missed spots - Corvallis Gazette Times

Photo: [emailprotected]

Spotting an old-school phone booth is about as rare as meeting someone with a pager. (Now those wifi hot-spots where you can charge your phone? Those arecool.) But one company is bringing em backwith a twist.

Lifestyle guru Francine Steadman-Krulak founded her company BuddhaBooth as a way to give stressed out people on-the-go (AKA pretty much, um, everyone) a way to meditate anywhereeven on a busy city street. The idea came to her when she was working as a consultant and starting to feel burned out. Having a hunch she wasnt the only one feeling that way, shesought out a designer and manufacturer to make pop-up mediation booths.

BuddhaBooths are starting to be planted at office spaces, schools, and studios (Well+Goods co-founder spotted one atShaktibarrein Brooklyn). And theyre pretty darn stylish too, with a Moroccan design and sleek wood. Inside each one is a soft rug, stool, and meditation pillows. Pretty dreamy, right?

What throwback is next? A revival of 90s clothingormood rings? Oh wait

If youre struggling to find a reason to meditate, you should know it could improve your sex life and and slow aging.

Follow this link:

It's official: Meditation booths are the new phone booths - Well+Good

NEVADA COUNTY, Calif. -- Sheriff's deputies are investigating a case of a man who drowned while apparently practicing a face-down meditation technique in a Northern California river, CBS Sacramento station KOVR-TV reports.

Deputies identified the victim as 33-year-old Yoav Timmer of Israel.

"There was nothing at that scene that led them to believe that it was suspicious," Nevada County Sheriff's Capt. Shannon Moon said.

Moon said the death was unlike any she's seen before.

"Face-down meditation is the first one I've heard of in 27 years," Moon said. "Kind of blocking out the distractions of mindfulness in a face-down position under water."

Deputies said Timmer drowned in a section of the Yuba River where the water pools and there's no strong current.

The man's body was discovered by his friend. They were practicing the same meditation technique side by side.

People using the river, where temperatures are colder than normal, were surprised anyone would attempt the risky move.

"If you love your life and love being here," Lucca McCaleb said, "then sometimes I think it's not worth it to kind of take big risks."

Moon said in this particular case the move wasn't safe.

"Don't do this," she said.

The sheriff's department has contacted an Israeli consulate to get in touch with Timmer's family.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

See the article here:

Man dies while performing face-down meditation in river - CBS News

But this process can drain mental resources, she says, just as physical labor tires the body. In past studies at her lab and elsewhere, researchers have found that military recruits and other people experiencing periods of unusually high and sustained stress, especially if the stress is both physical and emotional, begin to perform more poorly on tests of their attention and general happiness.

So for the new study, which was published in April in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, she and her colleagues wondered whether teaching people to relax or to hone their focus might improve their overall well-being. In effect, they wanted to find out whether training the athletes minds while they were also taxing their bodies might help to mitigate some of the undesirable effects of exercise on their thinking and emotions.

To find out, she and her colleagues turned to a group of athletes who face reliably outsize levels of physical and mental stress: Division I football players.

With the cooperation of the teams coaches and student captains, Dr. Jha and her colleagues gathered players for the University of Miami team just as they were about to start four weeks of preseason training. During this time, the players would be attending summer classes while also undertaking a grueling regimen of aerobic and strength training, culminating in evaluations from coaches about starting positions. It is a particularly stressful period for the athletes.

Dr. Jha and her colleagues asked each player to complete a computerized test of his ability to focus and rapidly respond to various combinations of numbers flashing on the screen. The players also filled out questionnaires about their current mood and sense of well-being.

The researchers then divided 100 of the athletes into two groups.

One began a program of supervised relaxation training, during which they listened to calming music and learned to systematically relax their muscles.

The other group was taught mindfulness meditation, which involves paying close attention to breathing and to the present moment.

These sessions, whether of relaxation or meditation, were short, lasting for about 12 minutes, and usually took place immediately after the players had finished strength training and were still gathered in the team gym. The students also were asked to practice the same mental techniques on their own throughout the week.

The mental training was voluntary, though, and some players attended more sessions and practiced more frequently at home than others.

At the end of four weeks of the intense preseason, the players repeated the original tests of their attention and happiness.

The results showed that, in general, they were feeling the strain. For most of them, performance on the test of sustained attention dropped significantly, meaning that they were far more apt to lose focus now. They also were gloomier, according to questionnaires about their moods.

But there were differences. The more an athlete in the relaxation group had practiced relaxing, the less his mood had tended to decline, the researchers found.

And those in the meditation group, if they had practiced often, showed considerable mental resilience, with higher scores than the other athletes in either group on the measures of both attention and mood.

Over all, these data suggest that mental training of almost any kind may help to alleviate some of the emotional and cognitive strains that otherwise occur during physical training, Dr. Jha says.

But mindfulness meditation was more effective than simple relaxation at helping athletes to maintain their ability to focus, she points out.

This study was, of course, specialized, involving young, male, elite football players, whose lives and bodies are not representative of those of the rest of us. The study was also short-term and its scope limited. The researchers did not examine whether mental training improved players performance on the field, although Dr. Jha says that they hope to study that issue in the future.

Still, the results are promising, she says, in part because the commitment required was so slight.

We only asked for about 12 minutes a day of mental training, Dr. Jha says.

For the rest of us, she says, the studys message would seem to be that if we plan to substantially ramp up our normal exercise routine, perhaps in anticipation of our first triathlon or a faster 5-kilometer race time, we might wish also to learn to mindfully meditate. (You can find advice about how to start in the Well Meditation Guide.)

Read more:

To Train an Athlete, Add 12 Minutes of Meditation to the Daily Mix - New York Times

This fall, scientist, chef, and author Nathan Myhrvold, baker Francisco Migoya, and the team behind culinary incubator Modernist Cuisine release the much-anticipated Modernist Bread, a miniature library of five volumes of study, meditation, and recipes for bread. This is the groups first multi-volume release since 2011s groundbreaking Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.

Modernist Bread: The Art and Science was originally to be published this past spring, but now arrives in November. Composed of 2,642 pages and more than 1,200 recipes, the book represents four years of study and testing.

Heres a first look at the books lengthy table of contents:

Volume 1 details breads history from ancient times to the future; the science and physics of bread, and how its consumption affects human health. Volume 2 deals with bread basics and its building blocks, from grains to leavening. Volume 3 gets into technique and baking; Volumes 4 and 5 include a variety of recipes from starters and basic loaves to enriched breads and bread machine breads. A sixth book in the set is a spiral-bound recipe manual meant for kitchen use (so you dont get the five bound books messy with flour or dough).

Myhrvold worked closely with Migoya an ex-pastry chef at the French Laundry and culinary instructor at the Culinary Institute of America to look into the history of every aspect of yeasted doughs. Though European techniques are discussed at length, the book also details recipes for injera, dosa, naan, and bao.

Heres a first look inside the book, below. As was to be expected, using photographs and graphic design, the authors break each topic into easily digestible visual spreads, much like a textbook.

Techniques such as bread scoring are explained and demonstrated in successions of photographs.

After Modernist Cuisine, Myhrvold and his team put out Modernist Cuisine at Home in 2012 and the Photography of Modernist Cuisine in 2013. Modernist Bread: The Art and Science, the groups fourth publication, is available for pre-order now. Its listed retail price is $625 but its been marked down to $562 on Amazon. Here, below, is what the covers look like.

Exclusive: 'Modernist Bread' Is Six Volumes of Extreme Bread Geekery [E]

See the original post:

Peek Inside 'Modernist Bread,' a Five-Volume Meditation on Bread - Eater

When it comes to doing something good for your cognitive health, skip the brain games and try meditation. Regular meditation has proven benefits for your brain, which can sharpen your memory, boost your mood, and even make you more compassionate.

Build Your Brain

A major health benefit of regular meditation is that it reduces stress, which prevents a lot of wear and tear on our bodies, as well as prevents damage to our brains. More importantly, studies show that meditation can actually grow, or increase the volume of, areas of the brain responsible for:

complex cognitive processes including planning, goal setting, decision making, attention, and short-term memory

positive mood

improving awareness of body, gut feeling, and empathy

long-term memory

paying attention (which is crucial to improving memory)

When you meditate, you are training your attention by tuning out the information overload and jumbled thoughts we live with constantlyand better attention means a sharper memory. Preliminary research seems to strengthen this theory, suggesting that mindfulness meditation may enhance certain brain functions, including working memory.

A Local Example

Residents of Splendido, an all-inclusive community in Tucson for those 55 and better, have the opportunity to take a weekly class led by a trained instructor who leads them through an hour-long meditation.

Florence Jaffe takes the class because she is familiar with research findings on meditation and brain health benefits. I try to practice on my own a few times during the week, she says. Ive noticed I have a little bit less stress.

Cathy White has lived at Splendido for nearly nine years and says, Theyve had several meditation classes while Ive been here, and Ive participated in all of them. I cant quantify the benefits the class has given me, but I know Ive benefitted.

She says that meditation helps with some of her symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Depression and anxiety are a couple of the psychological effects of MS, Cathy explains. I was never an anxious person before, but now I do have some anxiety. This class is sort of a lifeline in terms of connecting me to how I want to be. These emotional benefits carry over to days between classes.

Chuck Jonaitis has practiced spiritual meditation for many years, and enjoys the Splendido class as well. My wife and I try to attend every week when were not traveling, he says. I believe were getting [the brain benefits] from regular mediation.

Types of Meditation

Meditation is simple and takes as little as a few minutes a day. But rememberif you want to enjoy the brain benefits, youll need to meditate regularly, and ideally that means every day.

Here are a few types of meditation to consider:

Mindfulness sitting meditation is the most common form of meditation. Sit comfortably with your back, neck, and head straight but not stiff. Concentrate on your breathing and the sensations it creates. When your mind wanders or you become distracted, gently return your focus to your breath. Try this for just five minutes at first, gradually increasing the time.

Visualization meditation involves mental visualization of an image, which is usually meaningful or religious. While you meditate (as above), you try to mentally visualize your chosen image in as much detail as possible. As you do so, you may also reflect on the meaning of your image.

Walking meditation is similar to sitting meditation. Slowly and comfortably walk, focusing your attention on each step, the movement of your body, and the feel of each foot on the ground. When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the movement of walking.

Loving-kindness meditation focuses on practicing compassion. As you practice cultivating feelings of loving kindness, gradually move your focus from feeling this toward yourself, then to loved ones, and then to people who are less close to you. The Splendido group occasionally adds a loving-kindness meditation. These meditations have changed my attitude toward other people, says Florence. I like that Im more objective, and not as judgmental.

Centering Prayer is a simple meditation that involves focusing for 20 minutes or longer on a word or a concept that has special meaning for you. The goal is to allow your mind to reflect on the qualities associated with your selected word or phrase.

Look for a local meditation class, or purchase audio recordings of guided meditations. Once youve mastered the basics of your chosen type of meditation, it will become a matter of practicingand enjoying the benefits that come with it.

Read the original:

Aging Well: The Many Ways That Meditation Benefits Your Brain - Tucson Local Media

Once considered too new age for most Westerners, meditation has become a respected leadership skill in the digital age and for good reason. Technology evolves almost overnight, changing business models and management paradigms in the process. And change is stressful. To transform businesses requires heavy lifting, new learning curves, taking risks and handling pushback from people who would prefer to remain in their comfort zones.

Its no surprise, then, that many Silicon Valley CEOs now practice mindfulness and Zen meditation techniques to combat these changes. However, this isnt the only C-suite role that can benefit from this kind of mental clarity. Here are some ways CIOs can incorporate meditation techniques into an agile routine as a natural way to neutralize stress and inspire innovation:

In todays fast-paced digital world, its not hard to believe mindfulness has become a billion-dollar industry, according to Fortune. However, its ironic that tech executives are among the loudest advocates for slowing down and disconnecting.

An early pioneer of Zen agility, Steve Jobs meditated for decades and credited this practice with helping him innovate, reported Inc. As he explained to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, if you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time, it does calm, and when it does, theres room to hear more subtle things. Thats when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more.

Jobs isnt alone. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google co-founder Sergey Brin all meditate and provide opportunities for their employees to meditate as well. For example, Forbes reported that at the urging of a group of Buddhist monks who visited the Salesforce headquarters, Benioff put meditation rooms on every floor of the tech firms new corporate offices in San Francisco.

Why has meditation become a high priority in the high-tech industry? According to Harvard Business Review, a mounting pile of scientific research shows it helps relieve stress and anxiety, improves concentration and memory, inspires creativity and strategic thinking and fosters a more collaborative environment all of which are competitive advantages for CEOs in Silicon Valley and for agile CIOs anywhere.

Learn how to relax and let your data work for you

Meditation for stress relief sounds good in theory, but for busy CIOs, the idea of adding one more thing to their to-do lists is stressful in itself. But, for one company, by instituting a mindfulness program they gained about $3,000 per employee in productivity and $2,000 per employee in healthcare costs. The health and monetary benefits are there, so how can CIOs make time to meditate during a hectic workday?

In Work: How to Find Joy and Meaning in Each Hour of the Day, internationally renowned Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh suggests 10 minutes of meditation first thing in the morning. By starting the day with just 10 minutes of mindfulness, rather than reaching for the closest internet-connected device, CIOs can approach each day with mental clarity, calm and focus.

For CIOs who are new to meditation or who need a refresher, there are plenty of books, podcasts and apps with guided meditations and instruction. For example, Simple Habit is a popular app designed by a team of Harvard psychologists and meditation experts that offers guided meditations that are personalized for many types of life situations.

Whats not on the calendar isnt a priority, and what isnt a priority usually doesnt get done. By blocking off 10 to 30 minutes for meditation each day, whether in the morning, in the middle of the day, or at night, CIOs acknowledge to themselves and their teams that meditation is not just a break. It has business value. It contributes to innovation and agility and is worthy of time on the CIOs schedule.

All it takes to meditate at work is a quiet mind and a quiet place an office or empty conference room will do. The Mindfulness Edge is a great podcast to listen to for leaders looking to learn more about how to rewire their brain for leadership and personal excellence without adding to their schedule.

Thirty minutes might sound impossible to busy executives, especially those who are new to meditation. The good news is that even a minute or two of meditation can be beneficial, and many meditation techniques can be practiced anywhere at any time.

For example, mindful breathing and observation can be done standing or sitting and dont require a quiet place. The goal is simply to shut out all the noise by focusing on just one thing. With mindful breathing, the practitioner breathes in and out slowly for one minute, focusing only on their breath how it sounds and how it feels. With mindful observation, the practitioner focuses on a natural object (such as a flower, insect or tree) without thinking of anything other than the sight of it.

This can be especially helpful in high-stress situations in which the CIO is expected to be the ultimate decision-maker. Analytics is beneficial to fuel these types of decisions, but a conscious perspective must balance it out. Its crucial CIOs charge forward equipped not only with a concrete strategy, but most importantly, mental clarity. Sometimes all it takes is a short break to reset and discover the best way forward. To learn more about how to use meditation techniques as a leadership tool, CIOs should check out The Mindful Leader: Awakening Your Natural Management Skills Through Mindfulness and Meditation.

Most popular meditation books and mobile apps also offer short guided meditations that take no more than a couple minutes. So, whether CIOs are on the go, in between meetings or just need a short mental health break during a chaotic day, they can get a quick fix of Zen agility to help themselves and their teams.

See more here:

How meditation techniques and mindfulness boost CIO leadership skills - Mobile Business Insights (blog)

One of the first times Ross Hoffman met Headspace CEO Rich Pierson when talking about a role running the companys business, Pierson was not talking a lot about business. Instead, he was peppering Hoffman with questions about himself, telling stories about users, and talking about work ethos.

The business questions came later, of course, but that kind of introduction and vetting for a company built around a meditation app might not be all that surprising. and Headspace has now hired Hoffman to be its first chief business officer. Hoffman, who was most recently Twitters VP of global content partnerships, is joining the company at the beginning of July.

What we spoke about was, revenue is important but not why Headspace exists and the job is balancing those two things to make sure were upholding the culture and the product, Hoffman said. Its ensuring you can do that while building a business and not interfering with that mission.

Headspace last raised $30 million in 2015amid a big focus at least, in Silicon Valley on solving the problem of promoting mindfulness through an app. Its a totalSilicon Valley-ish thing to do, but Headspace recently revamped its app in order to help build those small meditation sessions into a daily habit. The company also recently hired a new chief scientist and head of growth in order to scale it up. Hoffman said those kinds of moves, plus the activity he saw online praising the app, were what finally wooed him.

Im on a 100 day run streak [in the app] myself, Hoffman said. Theres a cool thing in the office, a map of the world, and different quotes from different usersIts really incredible. I went on Twitter and saw what people are saying about Headspace. 99% of the Tweets are overwhelmingly positive. To have a [net promoter score] of a product thats that high, I thought it was really special.

There may be an opportunity here for Headspace and Hoffman if the company is able to convince large businesses that meditation can be a helpful and healthy activity for their employees. These kinds of companies, with wellness budgets and other kinds of funding, may see an opportunity to work with Headspace directly in order to keep their employees happy and performing. To do that, itll need someone with experience dealing with partnerships like Hoffman.

Theres plenty of competition for Headspace, including Calm and Aura Health, as well as your Apple Watch periodically telling you to breathe (whether thats meditative or not is sort of subjective). But convincing users to carve out a part of their day every day can create a heavily engaged customer that will be willing to pay in order to keep and promote that habit if they think its healthy something that could easily branch into larger and larger groups of people, like in corporations.

For Twitter, thats another loss on the executive team, which has more or less become the norm these days (though it did bring on a new lead for its live video business in May). To be sure, Hoffman had been at Twitter since 2011, so a departure after that long a tenure doesnt seem too out of the ordinary. AndHoffman, to his credit, has not fallen asleep during one of the meditation sessions.

More:

Meditation app Headspace hires a new chief business officer ... - TechCrunch

Sacramento Bee

Face-down meditation in Yuba River leads to death of Israeli man Sacramento Bee Two young men apparently drowned in cold Sierra waterways, including one man who was practicing face-down meditation in the Yuba River. Yoav Timmer, a 33-year-old Israeli citizen, died Friday on the Yuba River at Rice's Crossing, northwest of Nevada ...

Read the rest here:

Face-down meditation in Yuba River leads to death of Israeli man - Sacramento Bee