Meditation is an intensely personal and spiritual experience. Indeed, it is a way of attaining balance and contentment even in adverse situations. If our minds are peaceful, we are free from worries and mental discomfort; but if our minds are not peaceful, we will not be happy, even if we are living with the most comfortable external conditions.

Meditation usually involves a persons attention, allowing it to turn into a single point of reference. Because of its effectiveness in leading a persons consciousness to a higher level than that of a common person, meditation is now being practiced by people all over the world.

In fact, the most elementary use of meditation is to relax the mind and the body. In modern times, it has been welcomed as a tool for relief in a stress-filled life. It is claimed that there are great effects from meditation, including the treatment of migraines, lowering blood pressure, decreasing stress on the heart, and strengthening the immune system.

All religions have introduced ways and approaches in their own characteristic styles to help people practice meditation. As meditation has a spiritual element, it forms an integral part of religions.

Meditation takes place in a state of inner and outer stillness, though its styles may vary according to the specific religious framework within which they are placed.

In Hinduism and Buddhism meditation is closely aligned to asceticism and mysticism. The Semitic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam on the other hand, have placed more emphasis on the common man in society by introducing regulatory laws to order day-to-day life; and for that reason, they afford to meditation only a comparatively subsidiary role.

Meditation in Hinduism

One of the religions known to practice meditation is Hinduism. It is considered the oldest religion that focuses on meditation as a spiritual and religious practice. There are several forms of meditation practiced by Hindus. Principal among them is Yoga, one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. It provides several types of meditation.

In Hinduism, the object of meditation is to achieve a calm state of mind. The Yoga philosopher Patanjalis Ashtanga Yoga gives a detailed analysis of meditation. (How to Meditate)

According to him, meditation has three stages: Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi.

Dharana literally means unmoving concentration of the mind. The objective in dharana is to steady the mind by focusing its attention upon some stable entity. One may practice focusing attention on a single inanimate object. After the mind becomes prepared for meditation, it is better able to focus efficiently on one subject or point of experience. It is emphasized that meditation is not meant as an escape from reality, but rather as a movement towards the perception of the true nature of Self. (How to Meditate)

Dhyana in Ashtanga Yoga, means worship or profound and abstract religious meditation. It involves concentration upon a point of focus with the intention of knowing the truth about it.

During dhyana, one learns to differentiate between the mind of the perceiver, the means of perception, and the objects perceived between words, their meanings and ideas, and even between all the levels of natural evolution.

Dhyana is apprehension of real identity among apparent differences. If dharana is the contact, then dhyana is the connection.

The final step in Ashtanga Yoga is Samadhi. Samadhi means to bring together, to merge. In samadhi, our personal identities completely disappear.

At the moment of samadhi none of that exists anymore. We become one with the Divine Entity. The person capable of samadhi retains his individuality and person, but is free of the emotional attachment to it.(Yoga and SPA)

The prerequisite of a meditative state of mind, according to Hindu philosophers, is an absolute harmony between our gross physical realm, sensual realm and our life energy. (Yoga and SPA)

Meditation in Judaism

Judaism has an uncertain relationship with meditation, and many Orthodox Jews question whether it is really Jewish to meditate.

It is pointed out that both ancient Kabbalic and Hasidic texts support the practice of gaining understanding through intense logical reflection. (Meditation Expert)

Meditation conducted otherwise is considered non-Jewish in nature and delusional. For Jews, enlightenment follows from a deep, concentrated and analytical understanding of the Torah (the Old Testament).

Many Jews argue that contemplative, non-rational meditation is useful for developing a better understanding of God, with some claiming that meditation was clearly practised by Old Testament prophets.

According to Avram Davis, who wrote The Way of Flame, an introduction to the practice of meditation, Judaism embraces the idea of relationships, love, passion. In Judaism these are the keys to unlocking the doors of enlightenment. (Meditation brings mindfulness to Judaism, last accessed onAugust 31, 2009)

Davis says there is a longing for stillness in people, especially now, when most people live busy and complicated lives.

Jewish meditation tradition has been hidden for centuries, since rabbis worried that it might lead to idolatry, or that might be of danger to uninitiated people. At the time of emancipation, meditation was strongly disavowed by secularized Jews because it was reminder of ghetto life considered old-fashioned. During the Holocaust, most of the Eastern European rabbis who had held on to the knowledge of it were killed.

Jewish meditation as described is any kind of meditation done in a Jewish context, in the service of Jewish spiritual activity. The basic definition and aim of Jewish meditation is stabilizing the mind. (Jewish Meditation)

One of the techniques used in Jewish meditation is accurately visualizing a letter (aleph-bet); and this is considered to be a very powerful meditative technique. And another one is using prayers; and if one does not know what to say in prayer, then one may just repeat the phrase Ribbono shel Olam (master of the universe). The method used is traditional and timeless for arriving at a stabilized mind, which is believed to be the foundation for a good life and service of man and God. (Jewish Meditation)

Meditation in Christianity

As in Judaism, meditation does not have a central place in Christianity as well. At the same time, we find some importance given to it in Christian spiritual training. The objective is to become detached from thoughts and images and to open up silent gaps between them.

In Christian mystical practice, this is called contemplation.

According to Mary Jo Meadow, Christianity includes a call to meditate, but it never provides a method of meditating. (Buddhism When Christianity Meet Buddhism) Mary Jo Meadow as well as Kevin Culligan and Daniel Chowning her co-authors of the book, Christian Insight Meditation: Following in the Footsteps of John of the Cross integrate ancient Buddhist meditation within a Christian contemplative prayer tradition.

They are often called Buddhist Christians, as they apply Buddhist techniques to their spiritual exploration of Christianity.

Christopher Boozell, author of Tantric Christianity employs Buddhist techniques of meditation expressed through the rich imagery of Christianity to address this yearning for direct experience. (Tantric Christianity) Christian meditation is said to have begun with the early Christians. But with the Protestant Reformation, meditation was rejected along with other practices. Yet it is still understood as a part of the Christian tradition by the Catholic and Episcopal traditions.

Meditation in Islam

Islam does not permit a spiritual life that is completely separate from ones worldly life. It rejects the purely ascetic view of life that looks down upon Gods blessings in this world.

From the Islamic point of view, the spiritual development of humans is possible only in this world, and not outside of it, as lonely places fit for solitary hermits.

Mankinds God-appointed status as Gods vicegerent on earth demands that it should direct all its energies towards regulating the affairs of this world in the way Godwants them to be regulated. In Islam, spiritual development is synonymous with nearness to God; and nearness to God can be achieved only through unconditional obedience to Him. From the Islamic point of view, therefore, religious people are not recluses. They have to engage in this world like secular people, with the difference that all their efforts are made with the knowledge that they are answerable to God, so that all their actions will be in accordance with Gods laws. The first condition for spiritual progression in Islam is faith, the mind and heart of a person should always be aware: Godalone is his or her Master, Sovereign, and Deity. The second condition is obedience, meaning that the person gives up his or her independence and accepts subservience to God. This subservience effectively means that he or she should fashion his or her entire life in obedience to Gods laws. The third condition is piety (God-consciousness). Pietymeans desisting from everything God has forbidden; so that we are ready to observe the distinctions between the lawful and the unlawful in all areas of life.

The last condition is that of perfect righteousness. It signifies that people should strive for harmonizing their wills with the will of God. People who reach this stage attain the highest pinnacle of spirituality and are nearest to God. (The Spiritual Path of Islam) Islams methods of spiritual development rest on the Five Pillars:

The first is the Prayer (salah), which brings man into communion with God five times a day. The second is fasting (sawm), which for a full month every year trains each person individually in righteousness and self-restraint. The third is the obligatory almsgiving (zakah)which develops the sense of monetary sacrifice, sympathy, and co-operation among people. The fourth is the pilgrimage (hajj), which aims at the fostering of the universal brotherhood of the faithful based on the worship of God. Five times a day, during the ritual Prayer called salah, Muslims should be in a meditative frame of mind, if their prayers are to be effective.

True prayer is visualizing the presence of God in a contemplative frame of mind as the it is offered; and certainly this is a powerful spiritual experience. While in Makkah, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) used to spend days and nights in the Cave of Mount Hira meditating.

Apart from the Prayer, meditation is at the center of fasting in the month of Ramadan. Islamic meditation is based on contemplation, called tafakkur in the Quran, which is a reflection upon the wonders of the universe leading to a worshipful appreciation of Allah Almightys creative power. (Meditation in Islam)

Some mysticalforms of meditation, developed by some Sufis in a later period of Islam are controversial, as they sometimes lead to practices antithetical to Islamic teachings. Proper Islamic meditation is in conformity with the principles and practices of the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

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Meditation is widely touted by wellness experts as a means to reduce stress, increase self-awareness, and encourage a healthy lifestyle. But it's not all zen and self-actualization. In fact, a new study says the practice can result in distressing and potentially impairing experiences along the way.

The study, released Wednesday by Brown University researchers who interviewed nearly 100 meditators and meditation teachers, revealed frequently reported side effects, including hypersensitivity to light or sound. Insomnia and involuntary body movements was also reported, in addition to feelings of fear, anxiety, and panic.

Meditation can help relieve stress and provide calmness, but also brought up fear and anxiety for some people.

Were not trying to scare people away from trying meditation, Jared Lindahl, a visiting assistant professor at Browns Cogut Center for the Humanities and co-lead researcher of the study told TODAY. There is data that many people find tremendous benefits from meditating."

With so many different types of meditation, teachers, and apps, people who want to meditate need to understand their goals and find a teacher or form that matches what they're looking for, Lindahl said.

The duration of the negative effects like insomnia or a loss of emotions varied from person to person, anywhere from a few days to more than a decade, according to the study, which was published Wednesday in the science journal Plos One.

Sometimes experiences were ostensibly desirable, such as feelings of unity or oneness with others. But some meditators reported them going too far, lasting too long or feeling violated, exposed or disoriented, said Britton. "Others who had meditation experiences that felt positive during retreats reported that the persistence of these experiences interfered with their ability to function or work when they left the retreat and returned to normal life.

Its important to note that the researchers sought out meditators and teachers who have had challenging experiences because there isnt much research on the subject. During their five-year process, they talked to practitioners from the three main types of meditation: Theravada, Zen and Tibetan.

Willoughby Britton, the other co-lead researcher, explained the purpose of the study was not to determine the rate of negative experiences but to document them and find potential influencing factors. Some of those potential red flags which warrant more study, he said, include frequency and type of meditation practice, psychiatric and trauma history, and the relationship the meditator has with his or her teacher.

The science behind meditation is still in early stages. Previous research has found that mindful meditation, which focuses on breathing, can reduce pain. Certain types of meditation, combined with exercise, can ease symptoms of depression, according to a recent study.Sharon Salzberg, a meditation teacher and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, acknowledged that unexpected or uncomfortable experiences can sometimes arise during meditation and applauded the study for examining an under-researched area.

Certainly people at different times may go through some degree of difficulty. But its not everybody, said Saltzberg. I wouldnt go into meditation thinking its going to be dreadful. The quality of instructor, the nature of the community and the ongoing support system makes a difference in how we handle the feelings that arise.

RELATED:

What the science shows about mediation

Pain relief may be as simple as taking a breath

Originally posted here:

Meditation may cause negative feelings for some, study finds - Today.com

A one-hour meditation class incorporating sound and scent is coming to North Fork Yoga Shala in Greenport this weekend.

The event, dubbed Sounds for a Calm Mind: Magnetic Sound Bath Meditation with Aromatherapy,will take place at 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 27.

If you read the above headline, you might be wondering what a magnetic sound bath meditation is. So first, an explanation.

Invented by sound artist and creative technologist MJ Caselden, magnetic sound bath creates mantra-like vibrations that guide listeners into deep states of rest for relaxation, contemplation and clarity, reads a description of the event.

It creates vibrations, said Maria Christodoulou, founder of the wellness retreat planning service Bliss Without Bother, the events organizer.Youre laying down, listening and meditating without having to do anything. You go into a dreamlike state.

Christina Daigneault, founder of Orchard Aromatherapy and co-author of a forthcoming book, Plant-Powered Beauty (2018), will provide aromatic scents from organic essential oils during the meditation to complement the vibrations of magnetic sound.

You do not need to be a practicing meditator to participate.

Anybody can do this, Christodoulou said. You really just lay there and relax. You let the sounds and scents immerse you and you let things go.

Meditators are then encouraged to talk about their experience following the session. Participants can also enjoy herbal tea from the Greenport boutiqueTea & Tchotchkes.

The studio also occupies a former Masonic temple, an inviting space that sets the stage for relaxation.

Its a beautiful building. The energy in the room really spoke to me, Christodoulou said.

Pre-registration is recommended and can be done here. The fee is $40. For more information e-mail Christodoulou atmaria@blisswithoutbother.com.

North Fork Yoga Shala is located at 430 Main Street in Greenport.

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Magnetic sound bath meditation and aromatherapy in Greenport this weekend - Northforker (blog)

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Kaia Yoga owner Gina Norman practices yoga at her business in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Kaia Yoga owner Gina Norman practices yoga at her business in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Kaia Yoga owner Gina Norman practices yoga at her business in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Kaia Yoga owner Gina Norman practices yoga at her business in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Ashley Mossberg of Kaia Yoga speaks about yoga training at Kaia Yoga in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Ashley Mossberg of Kaia Yoga speaks about yoga training at Kaia Yoga in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Kaia Yoga owner Gina Norman speaks about meditation at her yoga business in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Kaia Yoga owner Gina Norman speaks about meditation at her yoga business in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Yoga training program information can be seen on the wall at Kaia Yoga in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Yoga training program information can be seen on the wall at Kaia Yoga in Old Greenwich, Conn., Thursday, May 18, 2017.

Kaia Yoga expands meditation course offerings

Local studio Kaia Yoga will soon host new meditation teaching classes in response to a booming demand nationally for meditation and mindfulness training. The industry passed the $1 billion revenue mark in 2015, according to industry research group IBISWorld, with much of that coming from the corporate sector.

More than 20 percent of companies had adopted mindfulness training programs as of a 2016 study by the National Business Group on Health and Fidelity Investments. An additional 21 percent planned to introduce programs this year, the study found.

Kaia Yoga, which has two locations in Greenwich as well as in Darien and Westport, has witnessed increasing demand from businesses and local schools asking them to lead wellness days and people wanting to learn how to teach the practices, said Kaia co-owner Gina Norman.

Since Norman and her husband, fellow yoga instructor Stan Woodman, opened their first yoga studio in Greenwich in 2006, their brand has grown to four locations employing roughly 70 instructors. Lately, theyre focused on increasing their educational elements as they need more teachers and people look to learn the details of meditation.

Meditations popularity has grown dramatically in the last few years, Norman said. People are finally seeped in yoga enough that theyre looking for the next step, she said. And, theres science behind it now. There are lots of studies showing how it changes the brain.

In response to the trend, Kaia Yoga plans to introduce a new meditation teaching program that builds on other classes it has long hosted and will begin the first weekend in July. Kaias new yoga 100 hour meditation program begins by introducing students to the basics and developing their own practice, which includes studying mindfulness as a component. Its geared toward yoga students and teachers as well as other professionals who can use it in their work such as social workers, teachers and therapists, Norman said.

The full program takes place over four intense weekends spread out over several months that include full 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. days over a Friday and Saturday and costs $1,700. The program also includes required reading, some papers and weekly study groups. With most peoples schedules, it typically takes six to seven months to complete, Norman said.

To earn the resulting mediation teaching certification, students are then required to complete a written and oral exam. The 100-hours program also includes a second track, where students can choose to focus on Buddhist studies instead of meditation instructing.

The interest has been growing a lot in meditation, so weve been working on developing our education pieces to expand and strengthen peoples knowledge. ...We want to build a community, Norman said.

There are many types of meditation, she added, and the one being taught through the upcoming courses she calls the brushing teeth meditation, because it keeps you in a healthy place. We teach pure mindfulness meditation, which teaches you how to be awake so you know how to be present, she said.

There are a number of misconceptions about meditation, she said, and one of them is that all types are about keeping you zen all the time.

Were not necessarily trying to shut thoughts down (through meditation), but distinguish between thoughts and being present.

Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com

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Kaia Yoga expands meditation course offerings - Greenwich Time

In our first installment of the Meditation How-Tos marriage advice series, the Kundalini guide behind Benshen , Desiree Pais, gives you the step-by-step methods you need to practice to stay focused and calm before, during, and after you tie the knot.

Im about to tell you the secret to planning the best wedding of your life. No, I dont have the worlds top wedding planner in my phone book, and I cant lend you my best friend who would make THE greatest maid of honor (well, maybe we can negotiate that...she IS a Sagittarius and loves a good party). The secret to planning the best wedding of your life is adding meditation to your daily routine.

Planning one of the most important days of your life can, unfortunately, come with a heavy dose of stress . From finding the dream venue to dealing with family, trying to make everything perfect can leave you more frazzled than Anne Hathaways hair in the beginning of The Devil Wears Prada . Everyone knows the benefits of meditation when it comes to overall health and wellnesswhy not apply it when life gets a little (or a lot) crazier while planning your big day? And trust me, I know you already have a lot going on and learning how to meditate can seem like learning Mandarin, so Im going to teach you a simple meditation that is almost effortless. If practiced daily, it will leave you feeling calm , yet energized and will diminish the stress when it pops up.

See more: Say Namaste to These Luxe Yoga Retreats, Perfect for Bachelorette Parties

When were stressed out , our body secretes hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that, over time, leave us feeling agitated, irritated, and, eventually, exhausted. This stress is caused by our sympathetic nervous systemthe trigger for our fight-or-flight instinctkicking in to deal with whatever pressure is in front of us, like when mom and dad want a big wedding in Houston but you really want that dreamy small wedding off the coast of Italy. Over the course of the many months it takes to plan a wedding, all these incidents can leave our sympathetic nervous system firing at full capacity all the time, wreaking havoc on our bodies. One of the best ways to counteract this is a three-minute meditation called left-nostril breathingit activates our parasympathetic nervous system, the part of our brain that signals our body to rest and relax. It's simple, extremely effective, and if practiced daily, will leave you feeling calm and radiant leading all the way up to your big day (and beyond!).

Thats it!

Desiree Pais is a meditation and Kundalini yoga guide, and a natural beauty alchemist. She is currently pursuing a master's degree at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and studied Daoist Healing with Grandmaster Sung Baek. She teaches Kundalini yoga and meditation classes and workshops around New York City. She aims to make these ancient practices available to anyone who is interested in using this profound practice to create the life they want to experience.

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Marriage Advice 101: Meditation How-Tos From a Kundalini Guide - Brides.com

Stephen Adams, KCEN 6:27 PM. CDT May 23, 2017

TEMPLE - The Hindu Temple of Central Texas will host the grand opening of its meditation hall (Dhyana Mandapam) Saturday afternoon and evening in Temple.

The event -- which is open to the public -- begins with a cultural program of music and dance from 3-5 p.m. Saturday, followed by the official opening of the Dhyana Mandapamfrom 5-6 p.m. The latter portion will also include the unveiling of 'OM' -- the sacred icon of Hinduism. The unveiling will be done by Temple Mayor Danny Dunn.

After the unveiling, Swami Shivatmanandaof Chinmaya Mission Austin will lead a discourse on 'OM.' The conversation will be followed by a Garba (dance) and then dinner from 6-7 p.m.

The Hindu Temple of Central Texas is located at 4309 Midway Dr. in Temple.

Learn for about the Hindu Temple by clicking here.

2017 KCEN-TV

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Hindu Temple of Central Texas opens meditation hall Saturday - kcentv.com

Beginning Meditation with Donna Wednesdays, May 3-24, 7-8:30pm Meditation is the heart of yoga practice, a method for acquiring a clear and tranquil mind. Learn the basics: a comfortable sitting posture, diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation methods, and essential concentration techniques used in the yoga tradition. Discover a new level of peace within yourself. Fee: $48 (ID#: S42) The Art of Joyful Living with Tracy Thursdays, May 25-June 8, 7-8:30pm In his book The Art of Joyful Living, Swami Rama tells us that Happiness is of Our Own Creation. It is our responsibility as human beings to learn how to uncover our intrinsic joy. A life that is happy and fulfilling is possible if we have the means. Yoga Science gives us the tools to rid ourselves of negative states of being and to understand our true nature balanced and free. In this course, we will explore yoga philosophy and practice while developing personal techniques for cultivating peace and joy. Each class will include lecture/discussion, journaling, gentle asana, relaxation and meditation. Fee: $40 (ID#: S48) Spiritual Study and Practice Group for Women with Donna Thursday, June 1, 7-8:30pm Join us on our year-long study of Awakening Shakti, The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga by Sally Kempton (available in the bookstore). Awakening Shakti provides a practical guide for activating the currents of the divine feminine in every aspect of your life. We will discuss Chapter 6. Fee: $5 (ID#: S49) Beginning Meditation with Donna Tuesdays, June 6-27, 9:30-11am Meditation is the heart of yoga practice, a method for acquiring a clear and tranquil mind. Learn the basics: a comfortable sitting posture, diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation methods, and essential concentration techniques used in the yoga tradition. Discover a new level of peace within yourself. Fee: $48 (ID#: S51) Full Moon Meditation with Tracy Friday, June 9, 7-8:30pm Come together with your kalyana mitras (spiritual friends) and celebrate the light of the Himalayan Tradition. Each month, on the Full Moon, we are committed to practicing as a group with the intention of promoting peacefulness in our community and our own inner development. Tonights class will include gentle asana, relaxation, and meditation. We will recite the Maha Mrityunjaya mantra, the great healing mantra, 108 times. No previous experience with the mantra required. Lokas samastas sukhino bhavantu: "May the whole world attain peace and harmony." Fee: $12 (ID#: S52)

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Meditation

AS FAR AS mental skills techniques go, there are few more powerful than meditation.

I see meditation as being as important for an athlete as engine oil is for a high-performance engine.

Think of it in the following ways:

While there are many other benefits to meditation, including pain reduction and a healthier immune system some core central benefits are increased focus and discipline.

I was introduced to meditation in 1993, it is very important part of any success I have had as a sportsman, a coach but also as a person.

I learned how to have more control over my thoughts and concentrating a lot was important (for performance). All of a sudden I became a much better player because I wasnt getting distracted and my confidence wasnt taking big hits.

I was a lot more consistent in my thought process, a lot more consistent in where my energy had to go and much more consistent therefore in my performances.

Justin Langer ex professional cricketer and coach.

When introducing meditation to athletes or teams, I always let them know that there is not one specific way to mediate. In fact, there are lots.

Many people first experience meditation in a free class or weekend workshop, where an instructor may say slow your breathing, clear your mind or be at peace.

Cricket legend Justin Langer got great benefits from meditation. Source: INPHO

Instructions like these can be frustrating and can initially put people off. Clearing your mind or being at peace is not easy to do, especially when our minds are very active.

Even breathing is not that straightforward if stress chemicals are active, or if the person feels very self-conscious sitting in a group.

Many people also try meditation at home but still find it difficult, beingplagued by the many thoughts that randomly bombard our minds.

If this is you dont worry.

Two things: One, you are not alone and two, we all know how to meditate naturally!

All we need to do is to bring a bit more awareness and structure to it, and it becomes a very useful mental skill.

The Process

The process of clearing ones mind is not instant, but can be learned through technique and practice.

To be at peace can be a little misleading. Usually what is being referred to here is being very present and in the moment, as opposed to being about peace as we might know it.

A very obvious example of natural meditation is simply experiencing weather appreciating the quietness of snow, the sound of rain or the smell of a breeze.

Or the simple act of sunbathing sitting or lying and just listening, feeling the heat on your body and being semi-conscious of the noises around you.

The Seattle Seahawks are one of many NFL teams who practise meditation. Source: Rich Graessle

Listening to music is another good example of meditation being so absorbed in the music that time means nothing.

At the heart of meditation is the ability to be either very relaxed and at ease, or very focused on something (a thought, feelings, physical sensations, external noises, an object).

Make it Simple

In its simplest form, meditation is a process of going in (internal focus) or going out (external focus), or a combination of both.

For athletes, the most successful type of meditation is a structured meditation which can be practised and trained over time.

This can also be booked into a hectic schedule. Experience shows that booking it in makes it happen. Not booking it in usually means it gets forgotten about.

A key to consistent performance success is the ability to habit form.

Initially, this means practising daily for just a few minutes. This can easily be achieved by setting a phone or watch alarm.

Many mediations start with focusing on breathing, but what is often missed out is the important phrase I am.

This phrase allows the mind and body to be more located in place and time, anchoring it more to the exercise.

So that means actually saying I am breathing in I am breathing out in ones mind while doing so.

This phrase needs to be repeated regularly with each breath and especially if the mind (thoughts) go elsewhere. This exercise is building discipline of mind.

Discipline

Another of the beauties of this exercise is that it builds focus. Both discipline and focus are highly sought after for sporting success.

A combination is to focus on discipline through meditation.

To do this, begin as always with the phrase I am breathing in I am breathing out and repeat this for a number of minutes.

Rob Kearney has previously spoken about the benefits of meditation. Source: Colm O'Neill/INPHO

Good discipline here is to use a stopwatch to set the length of time you wish to repeat this phrase.

Then begin to repeat the word Discipline in your mind. If the mind begins to wander, bring it back to the word Discipline.

Over time and with practice, the mind will attach the habit connected to this word, anchoring it to this physical state and focusing the mind whenever the word is repeated in the mind.

If there are then external distractions (like various noises), it is easily brought back to this sense of focus by simply thinking the word Discipline.

This is an easily learned and powerful mental skill that anyone can initiate and practice themselves.

Results will come through daily focus. Enjoy.

Jason Brennan is an international mental skills coach who has worked with the Hurricanes, the Wellington Lions, the NZ White Ferns and many other professional and amateur sports teams, as well as a wide range of businesses and non-sporting clients.

If you want to know to share a comment with Jason, you can email him atjason@thinkwell.se

Check out more of Jasons columnshere.

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Meditation will help you perform better, so here's how to get started - The42

Welcome toShow Me the Evidence,where we go beyond the frenzy of daily headlines to take a deeper look at the state of science around the most pressing health questions of the day.

First period, 8:45 am, a circle of high school students sits so quietly that all you can hear is the whirl of computer fans.

Todays lesson: attention to breathing.

Just notice your breath, says the instructor, Satyani McPherson, where it manifests in the body and the abdomen. ... And whatever is appearing, just allow it to be there.

A student walks in late, and the door slams. No one moves. Eyes are closed. Fourteen chests rise and fall.

****

The juniors and seniors in this international baccalaureate class at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, DC, are stressed out. I asked Raven Wright, a senior, to list all the things she has deal with in a given day. Be on time. Homework. Applications. Scholarship essays. Two jobs: Chipotle and Macys. Mentoring a younger student. Driving lessons. Exhausting.

Once a week for a semester, as part of their IB philosophy class Theory of Knowledge, Wright and her classmates take a break from classwork to meditate. Eastern is one of hundreds of K-12 schools many of them in urban areas, attended mainly by minority students who qualify for free school lunch in the US participating in an unconventional, informal experiment in training students to become more focused and less reactive.

Anecdotally, the students at Eastern love it. Mindfulness is gonna stay with me for the rest of my life, Alayza Mitchel, a student who struggles with the autoimmune disease lupus, says. Especially with the fact of me being a lupus patient and always having to hear news about how it is going to affect me. With mindfulness, she says she can just take a moment to process feelings.

Teachers and administrators at schools like Eastern have welcomed it too. They see mindfulness as a powerful new skill to offer students, not just to manage stress but also to keep them from acting out.

The companies and foundations largely responsible for introducing mindfulness programing into schools tout its psychological benefits such as reduced stress and increased attention. And they say the evidence for mindfulness is based on decades of scientific research.

But research quality is not the same as quantity. And considering that more and more US schools are embracing it, I decided to take a look through the literature: What does the science actually say about mindfulness in kids?

I read more than a dozen studies including systematic meta-reviews, which account for thousands of other papers analyzing the best available research on mindfulness (in both students and adults) and talked to researchers and advocates involved in the work. I asked these experts what questions and concerns parents should have when they hear mindfulness is coming to their schools. (Scroll down for those questions.)

The short of it: The relatively few studies we have on mindfulness in schools suggest a generally positive effect on decreasing anxiety and increasing cognitive performance. But the hype around mindfulness also seems to be outpacing the science, especially when it comes to teaching these practices to children.

Mindfulness is about noticing. Noticing your breathing. Noticing how your emotions manifest in your body. The essence of mindfulness is just tolerating experiencing sensations that come into your body, other than trying to get [them] to stop immediately, Jeff Bostic, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Georgetown University, says. The one fundamental concept thats shared by all the branches [of mindfulness practice] is the awareness that you accept sensations ... and that you can make sense of what triggered them.

You can think of mindfulness as state of mind, an ability, and a practice. It can be traced all the way back to the early teachings of Buddhism (though its not exclusive to Buddhism). And it has an immediate intuitive appeal in a world thats more distracting and fast-moving than ever before.

Mindfulness is now taught in hospitals and Silicon Valley corporate seminars, and is popular on the TED circuit. More than 14 million people have downloaded the Headspace app for its simple 10-minute meditation exercises. Theres an entire academic journal, Mindfulness, devoted to its study.

There are spiritual, philosophical, and cultural dimensions to this movement, for sure. But researchers from fields ranging from neuroscience to psychiatry have been fascinated by it too. According to Bostic, mindfulness attenuates the more evolutionarily primitive areas of our brains the amygdala, the brain stem, etc. the areas that provoke us to fight, be frightened, or flee, and turn up activation in our frontal lobes, the reasoning center.

Mindfulness is thought to have wide-ranging effects, from lessening depressive symptoms to reducing anxiety and helping to deal with chronic pain and trauma. There are studies that find mindfulness reduces the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Neuroimaging studies have shown increases of brain matter density in regions linked to learning and memory (though we cant always assume more brain matter equals better). And some behavioral studies find increases in working memory and decreases in mind wandering.

Whats less well understood is how effective it is as an intervention in other words, if you want to use it to change mental health or behavior.

Video from our trips to Eastern High School in Washington, DC.

In the 1970s, Jon Kabat-Zinn, a molecular biologist at University of Massachusetts and practitioner of Zen Buddhist mediation, began developing a mindfulness program for adults in clinical settings. He called it mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and designed an eight-week course to teach participants how to deal with the pain and stress of chronic illness thats still very popular today.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, mindfulness continued to grow as a complement to traditional medicine and pain management. And it started to make its way into schools in ad hoc, idiosyncratic ways, says Oren J. Sofer, senior program manager at Mindful Schools, which provides mindfulness training instruction for educators. Theres still no formal, national accreditation for mindfulness instruction in schools. But it's become a bit more centralized.

Today mindfulness enters schools through several routes. There are regional-based nonprofits like Minds Incorporated in the DC area that offer mindfulness instruction (sometimes free of charge) to local schools. There are national organizations such as Mindful Schools, which has trained around 14,000 educators and professionals who work with youth in mindfulness instruction (the starter course costs $125). And its being written into textbooks from publishers like Scholastic.

Some schools are even trying it as an alternative approach to discipline.

At Robert Coleman Elementary in Baltimore, students are sent to a Mindful Moment room in lieu of traditional detention. When students enter the room decked out with tie-dye tablecloths and purple beanbags staff from a nonprofit called the Holistic Life Foundation ask students to explain what happened. Then they practice breathing or yoga with the students though sometimes they just play a game. School officials have told reporters the mindful moment room has helped reduce the number of suspensions.

Mindfulness clearly has attracted a lot of buzz. Were almost getting to the point now where the efficacy is taking for granted, said Timothy Caulfield, who studies health and public policy at the University of Alberta and is skeptical of the research.

So to really know if mindfulness training works for kids, for adults, for anyone we need to zoom out a bit and look at the sum of the research we have.

When researchers want to evaluate an intervention like mindfulness, here are the main questions they ask:

1) Does days or weeks of mindfulness instruction lead to any reductions in psychological stress?

2) Is mindfulness any more effective than other stress reduction therapies?

3) Does it work in the school setting?

4) If it does work, why?

5) Is the research high quality, well controlled, and free of bias?

Lets start with the first question.

In 2014, JAMA Internal Medicine published an exhaustive systematic review on mindfulness studies that looked at measures of psychological stress and well-being. In all, the studies included 3,500 adult participants. The analysis included studies that used mindfulness-based stress reduction, transcendental mediation, or mantra-based techniques, and tracked participants on a variety of outcomes like anxiety, depression, and stress scores.

One of the biggest criticism of mindfulness that I kept encountering in reporting: Its all kind of vague.

The results of the JAMA meta-review were generally positive. These programs seem to slightly move the needle on anxiety and depressive symptoms to a degree comparable with what would be expected from the use of an antidepressant in a primary care population, the study concluded.

But heres a caveat: The analysis found that mindfulness was no more effective than other wellness interventions like exercise, muscle relaxation, or cognitive behavioral therapy.

This is a glass-half-empty or half-full type of finding. On one hand, it could mean mindfulness training is as effective as these other treatments. On the other hand, it doesnt show that its magical, said Caulfield.

Overall, at this point in time, the quantity and quality of evidence on mindfulness practices is pretty weak. The JAMA study authors started out with a huge stack of 18,000-plus citations on mindfulness in the literature. But only 47 of those studies had a methodology strong enough to be included in the trial.

The modest benefit found in the study ... begs the question of why, in the absence of strong scientifically vetted evidence, meditation in particularly and complementary measures in general have become so popular, especially among the influential and well educated, Allan Goroll, a professor of medicine at Harvard, wrote in a commentary published alongside the JAMA paper.

So if you want to see the effectiveness of mediation, youd compare people who received instruction for a few weeks with those who did not. Right? The problem is that you cant have the control group do nothing. What if the benefit of being in a mindfulness program is derived from spending time in a classroom setting? Or just paying attention to an instructor?

These variables are really hard to control for, but researchers try by having the control groups engage in some other activity like educational programming, which takes the same amount of time and relative level of engagement. Other studies use active controls, where participants do exercise, undergo massage, or do some other type of therapy where theres an expectation of getting better.

But even with these controls, its still hard to control for peoples expectations. Its not like a clinical drug trial where the control and experimental groups are taking an identical-looking pill. In these studies, people know what group theyve been sorted into. It could be that people who get sorted into mindfulness groups expect greater improvements and are then likely to tell their evaluators they improved. (These studies largely rely on participant self-reports in their data collection.)

"If it is being presented as a worldview, or almost as a philosophy ... thats one thing. But the problem is that it is increasingly being framed as an intervention.

There's nothing wrong with placebo effects except that they often aren't enduring, says James Coyne, emeritus professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania (and a vociferous critic of psychological research methods).

The mindfulness literature also suffers from other methodological limitations. Studies vary greatly in the populations of their subject pools the JAMA review included studies on alcoholics, asthma sufferers, and people who have a constant ringing in their ears as well as in the dosage of the treatment (how long and how often participants train), and in the type and quality of the instructions. Which makes it hard to understand if mindfulness gains in one group will generalize to another. There are a lot of variables at play.

A recent PLOS One study found evidence that the whole field of mindfulness studies suffers from publication bias that is, a tendency for only positive results to be reported, leaving contradictory evidence collecting dust in researchers file drawers.

The PLOS authors McGill University psychologists did a systematic review of the literature, finding 124 randomized controlled studies on mindfulness. Ninety percent of the studies showed positive results, which is a lot higher than youd expect given the small sample sizes used in the mindfulness studies. (The percentage of positive results should, according to their calculations, be closer to 65 percent.)

The authors also took a look at mindfulness studies whose methods were registered before the trials began. (Preregistration is now seen as a research best practice, as it limits researchers ability to skew conclusions after the data comes in.) They found 21 registered trials, but only eight of these locked-in study designs yielded publishable results. That suggests that many studies that go unregistered and do not find positive results are simply forgotten.

Im not against mindfulness, Brett Thombs, an author of the study, told Nature. I think that we need to have honestly and completely reported evidence to figure out for whom it works and how much.

(A note: Mindfulness research is hardly the only field of psychological study that suffers from publication bias. Researchers throughout social and biomedical sciences are amid a revolution to demand more rigorous data collection procedures.)

Okay. The JAMA analysis only covered research on adult subjects. What about research on kids? It seemed from my time at Eastern High School that the kids were benefiting from the instruction, at least anecdotally.

Yarnetta Leonard, 17, an Eastern student, says the mindfulness class is helping her manage sad and angry feelings. After the woman who was raising her in southern Virginia died, Leonard was forced to move to DC to live with her biological mother. Coming here, being in a space where I can just think instead of retaliate and be mad and be sad I can think of my actions and do better for myself, she says.

High schools like Eastern where the kids are mostly of color and qualify for free school lunch are commonly targeted for mindfulness interventions. And increasingly, theres high-quality research on whether mindfulness programs can help.

Over the past few years, Erica Sibinga, pediatrician who was one of the co-authors on the JAMA study, and her colleagues at Johns Hopkins, have been conducting well-controlled trials of using mindfulness in some of Baltimores poorest public schools, which would have a lot to gain from a program that reliably reduces stress.

Thats because the chronic stress of growing up poor puts kids at a disadvantage for long-term well-being. Its thought that chronic stress from poverty, from violence, from lack of good nutrition activates cellular pathways that make our bodies more prone to inflammation and less able to fight off infections. Some studies suggest people who grow up poor are even more susceptible to the common cold later in life. If were able to provide youth with tools that may reduce the negative impact of trauma that may potentially have long lasting effects, Sibinga says.

What is not answered is whether the true contribution is the mindfulness practice itself.

She and her colleagues recently conducted a randomized clinical trial with 300 fifth- to eighth-graders in two Baltimore city schools. Half the students got mindfulness instruction for 12 weeks. The other half got 12 weeks of health education, and were the studys controls. Sibinga and her colleagues tried hard to match the instructors for both the health class and the mindfulness class in terms of engagement and skill level. They tried to make the health class engaging and exciting.

Here, mindfulness seemed to move the needle. On depression, [students] moved from the borderline concerning levels to the normal level, Sibinga explains. Does that mean each kid in the intervention group has moved? No, it doesnt. But the average has moved. The study found similar improvements in anxiety levels, self-hostility, coping, and post-traumatic symptoms.

Again, thats only one study. I only found two recent systematic reviews on the use of mindfulness and meditation practices in schools. Like the JAMA study with adults, they generally find positive results, but note methodological flaws in the literature.

A 2014 review published in Frontiers in Psychology found, across 24 studies (11 which had not been published in peer-reviewed journals), that mindfulness improved measures of cognitive performance but had less of an impact on stress and coping.

What we see from the data, people who suffer, whether they are kids or whether they are adults, they profit the most, say Harald Walach, a psychologist who studies complementary medicine in Germany and who was co-author of that review. They are at a low point, and from the low point it is always going upward. If you have kids with real emotional problems, you would likely see a larger effect than if you have normal kids who are doing well at school and have a good family background.

A second 2014 meta-analysis published in Education Psychological Review looked at 15 studies of school meditation programs (which included transcendental mediation as well as mindfulness), and found school based meditation is beneficial in the majority of cases, but the majority of effects of mediation upon student outcomes are small.

Because mindfulness sessions are composed of a grab bag of activities concentrating on breathing, concentrating on sounds, group discussions of the mind-body connection its hard to know what, exactly, the mechanism for these positive changes is, and if that mechanism is unique to mindfulness.

What is not answered is whether the true contribution is the mindfulness practice itself, Walach says. The effect could be from just taking time out from the normal classroom schedule, or taking part in a group activity, or being taught by an inspired teacher. Or do you need all of that together that, we dont know, because it hasnt been studied very well, he says.

And thats one of the biggest criticism of mindfulness that I kept encountering in reporting: Its all kind of vague. Mindfulness a collection of disparate concentration activities targets broad regions in the brain and broadly helps people on a number of things.

It may look like its all over the place , Sibinga admits. But it may be whats changing is upstream of all of those things. By upstream, shes talking about overall systemic changes in the brain or in patterns of thinking. The uncertainties dont scare her away from the research. We know our whole body and brain and mind function together, she says. But we dont know exactly how. Im fascinating by that question. It makes me think we need to explore it further.

She hopes more schools that are inviting in mindfulness training will also invite in those from the research community to study it.

Nothing is for everyone. The same goes for mindfulness.

Though the researchers and studies I consulted agree that its basically harmless, I asked Sibinga, the pediatrician, if there are any cases where kids shouldnt be involved with mindfulness programs. The cases are rare, but she says schizophrenics and people suffering from other thought disorders are not advised to seek out mindfulness training, as it may not be helpful to be mindful about thoughts or delusions that dont have any basis in reality.

The other contraindication is for people who have suffered a severe recent trauma. Their ability to compartmentalize and wall that [trauma] off is closely related to their ability to cope, she says. Mindfulness can be an invitation to tear down those mental walls too soon. (And thats why its important, she says, for mindfulness instructors and students to be well trained, and to look out for these vulnerable youth.)

Do we as adults and educators in society have a responsibility to teach children to be self-aware? You dont need a research study answer that question.

Researchers have also been looking into potential negative effects of mindfulness. One 2015 study in Psychological Science found that 15 minutes of mindfulness instruction made study participants (college undergrads) more susceptible to forming false memories.

In the case of this study, the participants were shown a list of words like garbage, waste, can, refuse, and sewage. Participants who did mindfulness training were more likely to misremember reading the word trash, which is similar to those words but didnt actually appear on the list.

Why? The authors guess when you turn your thoughts inward during meditation, you may be more likely to mix up reality with imaginative assumptions. Mindfulness meditation appears to reduce reality-monitoring accuracy, the authors of the paper concluded. (Its unclear how practically significant misremembering one word on a list is for classroom instruction. Perhaps if students are daydreaming, Brent Wilson, the UC San Diego psychological researcher who led the study, says, theyll have trouble telling if a thought came from the daydream or the teacher.)

And then, finally, some people just dont enjoy introspection, especially when it comes to negative emotions. It is not uncommon for participants in mindfulness interventions to report various unpleasant reactions, such as agitation, anxiety, discomfort, or confusion, during formal mindfulness training exercises, a 2016 review of the state of the field reported. (Though dealing with tough emotions is a core feature of the therapy, not a bug.)

The state of the evidence here is frustrating. Overall, theres evidence that suggests mindfulness has a positive effect for kids on anxiety and cognitive measures. But the research isnt clear on why, whom its most beneficial for (a recent small study found mindfulness training may work better in women), or whether the effect is specific to mindfulness instruction.

There's a lot we still have to learn about what we're doing, Tish Jennings, a professor of education at the University of Virginia, says. Shes generally in favor of mindfulness, and has used it with teachers to help them cope with the stress of their demanding jobs. But she cautions that theres still a lot we dont know.

Such as: How long do the effects last? And in what populations? Whats developmentally appropriate for kids of different ages? What types of meditations are more effective than others?

Often those of us who are developing these programs, we combine a lot of these [meditation] activities, because we're not exactly sure which one is going to work for what person, she says. Because the other thing we don't know is [whether] some people might benefit more from one kind of activity than another.

Mindfulness is an interesting and experimental approach to providing kids with a way to reduce stress. But its not a home run.

Its okay to keep an open mind about this stuff; we just need to be really careful not to hype the potential benefits associate with it, Caulfield says. It would be great if something as simple and straightforward as mindfulness really did have all these incredible benefits, but were not there yet. When it comes to programs touting mental health benefits for youth, he says, we should demand a high bar of evidence.

Oren J Sofer, the senior program manager at Mindful Schools, disagrees with skeptics thinking that its too soon to bring mindfulness meditation into schools. You can overstate the research and make claims that havent been validated, but saying that its experimental I believe is understating the research, he says. I think its important to research this stuff, but at the same time, I think its important to have common sense. Do we as adults and educators in society have a responsibility to teach children to be self-aware? You dont need a research study answer that question.

Throughout my conversations, I had a lingering question: Does mindfulness need to have a scientifically approved psychological benefit for it to be useful or interesting for students? Its not just a psychological technique. Its a philosophy: a way of approaching life. At Eastern High School, teacher Rebecca Milner welcomed it into her classroom because it complemented the curricula she teaches Eastern philosophy in her course. A little stress reduction is an added benefit.

We dont demand humanities instruction have double-blind placebo strength evidence before teachers assign students to read Hamlet. Teachers assign Hamlet because its a great piece of literature that invites students to think about the characters, history, and the English language. Hamlet is taught because it is interesting to think about Hamlet. Mindfulness could be something similar: a toolset for a new, interesting way of thinking about the body, mind, and our emotions.

If it is being presented as a worldview, or almost as a philosophy or an approach to relaxing, thats one thing, Caulfield says. But the problem is that it is increasingly being framed as an intervention. If theyre making claims about specific clinical benefits, I do think we need research to support it. Or present it as experimental or possibly beneficial.

But heres the thing: Mindfulness instructors also like to avoid telling students about the religious and philosophical roots of these practices. And so they lean on the science in their pitches. We deal with [the religious issues] by being transparent and bringing in the science, says Bruce Gill, executive director of Minds Inc., the DC nonprofit that provided the mindfulness programming for Eastern High School. (To the organizations credit, the website does caution that much research is still to be done. And Gill was sure to point out the bulk of formal research has been done with adults.)

Should these open questions prevent further research efforts in schools? No. Not at all. If mindfulness is truly useful in reducing stress in children and adolescents, we should know that. There needs to be more high-quality research like Sibingas to better understand how this affects kids. (Theres a large randomized controlled study underway in 76 UK schools involving around 6,000 students, which should help.)

So parents should be mindful and ask some questions when mindfulness training comes to their school district. The experts I talked to suggested a few:

At the very least, Sibinga says, this research is a recognition is that children really need balance in their school day, and the notion of teaching for the test and trying to cram full the day with only academic work is limited.

If the benefit of mindfulness is simply taking time out of a busy school day, and just remembering to breathe, thats not such a bad thing.

Byrd Pinkerton and Liz Scheltens contributed reporting.

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Is mindfulness meditation good for kids? Here's what the science actually says. - Vox

Feeling stressed? Being hard on yourself? Overwhelmed at work? Freaked out bythe Trump administration?

Give your mind a break from theseeveryday anxietys and learn to find some inner peace with a free stoop-front meditation class this Thursday, May 25, in Clinton Hill.

Led by certified meditation teacher, Danielle Fazzolari, no experience is necessary to attendthe 30-minute session held outside of her building. Fazzolari conducted her first stoop meditation class last November, following Donald Trumps election into office.

The day after Trump was elected, Fazzolari sent an email to her neighbors asking, How did this happen? and What now?

I dont have the answers, but I strongly believe in unity and togetherness, she added. Lets regroup together, find some quiet space in our heartsand give ourselves what we need to move forward.

A small group gathered onher stoop the following morning. I think we had about 7 people. It was cold. Everyone had their hatsand gloves on, she recalls. It was great because people were meeting each other for the first time and they live on my block.

Its all guided. You dont have to have any experience. We hung out afterward. We talked about it and we got to know each other, she says of the community-focused event. After a few more sessions, the weather became too cold to continue, so Fazzolari decided to take a hiatus until the warmer weather returned. Her first spring class takes place at 7:30am this Thursday morning at 453 Washington Avenue.

Fazzolari previously worked on the business side of the fashion industry for ten years but always knew that she wanted to switch gears and do humanitarian work. For years I was just looking outward for advice and help and searching for what I [was] supposed to be doing, she says.

She quit her high-paying job in 2014 and booked a one-way ticket to India to do volunteer work.Whats the most important thing that we can do for ourselves? Whats the secret to a happy life?, Fazzolari asked manyolder people she met there.

Family and meditation, were the responses she kept hearing. I had never meditated before, she claims. [When] I came home, I sat down quietly and just started meditating [with the help of instructional apps].It was the first time I went inward and started getting to know myself and trusting myself to figure out how I could give back to the world, instead of going outward and asking everyone else for advice, she says.

I kept meditating because I slowly noticed a change in my every day. [I was] understanding emotions better, understanding the big picture of why were here and how we can show up to live presently, she recalls. Its not easy though.

Through meditation, Fazzolari says she discovered, Im being kinder to myself. Im understanding others better. Im having a different relationship with my emotions.

Fazzolari got a job working the front desk of MNDFL, a meditation studio located in Greenwich Village. She describes it as this open space for people to come and sit and learn how to meditate and do it together. Its a really strong community.

That place really started changing my life and shifting everything, and started to cultivate that inner peace that were all looking forgetting out of that inner dialogue in our heads, she explains. Fazzolari says she feelslucky to have found meditation, as she describes it, a life-changing tool, and decided that she had to share it with others.

She received her certification through MNDFLsintensive five-month teaching program and now teaches at theirstudio in Williamsburg. She is also currently studying to teach children how to meditate. I want to go to low income neighborhoods and schools where they dont have the resources and help these kids handle their emotions, she says.

Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment and not trying to change it, and not judging it, Fazzolari explains.

Our society is very like, Feel better. Keep busy. Self improve. Mindfulness is actually the opposite of that. Its really letting yourself be and accepting that and being kind however you feel, she explains.

From the minute we wake up were worrying about what we have to do for the dayworry about the past, future. [Meditation] gives you a break from that for just a moment, put[s] you into the present moment and then creates space to actually be able to feel, think, and move forward, Fazzolari says.

Youre retraining your system to live in the present moment instead of in your mind. When you sit on the cushion, just say, Okay, my mind is going crazy today. Im going to accept that. Im going to be kind. Thats retraining the heart to be gentle with ourselves.

Who couldnt use a little more kindness and mindfulness in their lives?

Stoop Meditation, Thursday, May 25, 7:30am to 8am at 453 Washington Avenue, Clinton Hill.

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Find Inner Peace With Stoop Meditation - BKLYNER