Join us for a night of contemplation and melody as we dive into the taste of the seasons and our inner and outer worlds in celebration of the birthday of the trees, Tu BShevat. We will gather together, each from our own home, to partake in the symbolic fruits of the beautiful Tu BShevat seder as we honor the spiritual and ecological teachings of this tradition.

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Instructors: Jackson Mercer, musician, composer, Hebrew College rabbinical student and host of Hebrew Colleges Niggun Seminar, andShani Rosenbaum, Hebrew College rabbinical student and host of Hebrew Colleges Niggun Seminar.

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When

Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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Musical Meditation and Celebration of Tu B'Shevat - jewishboston.com

January 14, 2021

Produced by Brielle Scullark

Senior Director of the NFLPA, Dana Hammonds Shuler, participates in a brief meditation session during Dr. Jason Richardson's presentation at the 2019 NFLPA Joint Conference at the US Grant Hotel on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 in San Diego.

(Christy Radecic/AP Images for NFLPA)

There are elements of mindfulness and meditation that might seem like a fad, but thishas been around for millenia. Headspace was created in 2010 by Andi Putticome and Richard Pierson. It began with a mobile app and online services that teach mindfulness through guided meditation, breathing techniques, animation and storytelling. The idea is to make it easier to incorporate a mindfulness practice into everyday life.

Guests:

Morgan Selzer, Headspace Head of Content forExecutive Producer of Headspace Guide to Meditation

Christopher Menard, Mindfulness Training Director at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Psychology Clinical Assistant Professor at UIUC

Prepared for web by Zainab Qureshi

Help shape our coverage on The 21st by joining our texting group and answering weekly questions. To join,text TALK to217-803-0730or sign up with your phone number below:

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Meditation for the Masses | The 21st Show - WILL News - Illinois Public Media

High on stress but pressed for time? Same here. Even meditation teachers trained in the art of self-soothing dont always have bandwidth to unwind for an hour. Thats why its so important to keep a handful of five-minute meditations in your back pocket.

For meditation teacher Josephine Atluri, centering herself in these troubling times requires just minutes of out of each day. My Letting Go meditation is a quick five-minute practice that helps me move from the sympathetic nervous system response of fight or flight into the parasympathetic nervous system response of rest and digest' says Atluri. This activation in the nervous system is triggered by slow and deep breathing. Not only does the concentrated breathing move me from stress to relaxation, but it also helps me tune into the present moment.

This really matters when the present moment has you dwelling in a fear of the unknown.

A lot of our anxiety can come from dwelling on the past and worrying about the what-ifs of the future, Atluri says. When you ground yourself into the present moment via a breathing technique and meditation, you eliminate a lot of unnecessary stress.

Intrigued? Excellent. Get yourself comfortable, because well unpack just how to let go with this practice (plus three additional five-minute meditations you can work into your schedule).

For this meditation, lie down and stretch your arms out to the side of your body in a T formation and slightly lift up your chin to the sky. This position opens up my chest and neck where I hold a lot of tension and stress, says Atluri. When I feel anxious, it can feel hard to breathe, so opening up the chest counteracts that stress symptom.

Now, were beginning to settling into the present moment. Do this by taking several deep breaths, and witness how the breath is moving in and out of your body.

Melt away tensions you might be holding, and focus on the now.

Transition your breath into a deep inhale through your nose and as you exhale through your nose make the exhale twice as long as your inhale, says Atluri.

Once youve established a good pace for this breathing technique, pair it with the mantra, Let it go, says Atluri. Softly say these words in the back of your mind to help you release any stress and tension that may be weighing you down.

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Return back to the present moment by wiggling your fingers and toes and then gently opening your eyes, says Atluri.

Exactly what it sounds like, abody scan meditationis about recognizing points of tension on your person and releasing them. Our bodies are talking to us all the time, but our awareness is typically elsewhere, and we havent taken the time to learn our bodys language,Jenna Monaco, a certified meditation teacher and stress coach previously told Well+Good. You might find that one area of your body is really tight and needs stretching, or that youre holding tension in your belly, and youre more stressed than you realize.

A compassion meditation like LovingKindness allows us to provide self-gentleness when we feel isolated or overwhelmed. Our unprecedented times are pretty much structured for both of those thing to coincide, so its important to practice that TLC. And by the way, neuroscientists loveit for honing in on thefeel-good prosocial spheres of the brain.

Theres a reason why people tell you to just breathe when youre feeling panicked. When we can get out of our mind and get into our body, and the breath can break down all of the stuck emotions in our system, we leave the breathwork session feeling clear, more powerful, more aligned, and just more awake,Samantha Skelly, founder ofPause Breathwork, previously told Well+Good. Weaving abreathwork meditationinto your hectic day can be a very literal sigh of relief.

Oh hi! You look like someone who loves free workouts, discounts for cult-fave wellness brands, and exclusive Well+Good content.Sign up for Well+, our online community of wellness insiders, and unlock your rewards instantly.

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Im a Meditation Teacher, and This Is How I Use 5 Minutes To Let Go of Something Each Day - Well+Good

At this point, many people have turned to their phone for mindfulness instruction; and, given that the market for meditation and mindfulness apps is expected to more than double to about $342 million by 2029, more are sure to join their ranks in the coming years. But despite its loyal and growing consumer base and capital support, diverse voices on meditation apps are scarce. While many prominent apps feature women and people with non-American accents, voices belonging to Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) instructors are almost nonexistent on the top 10 most-downloaded apps on the Apple iTunes store. Its a fact that disenfranchises marginalized and minority populations, andin order to provide effective tools for healing and self care to these groupsmust change.

I think we heal better when we hear things in our own voice, says Nicole Cardoza, a yoga teacher and founder of Anti-Racism Dailyand Wellemental, which is an inclusive meditation and movement app for children that launched in the fall of 2020. When people arent able to hear voices that sound like their own on a meditation and mindfulness app, the express purpose for using the app in the first place becomes ineffective.

When you dont see yourself in a wellness space, or a space thats supposed to be about healingit comes off as [saying my healing] is not being treated as a priority. Neeti Narula, a yoga and meditation instructor

When you dont see yourself in a wellness space, or a space thats supposed to be about healing, its kind of like, Well, what does that say about how I should heal? What does that say about the way these spaces are prioritizing my healing and my communitys mental well-being? It comes off as [saying my healing] is not being treated as a priority, says Neeti Narula, a yoga and meditation instructor in New York City. Just like seeing someone who looks like you in a physical space can function as a signal to you that you belong and are welcome, hearing a voice that sounds like yours can can be auditory assurance that your experience is valid and acknowledged. And thats why, when the murder of George Floyd brought issues of race and colonization to the forefront of public conversation, Narula found herself searching for other Indian yoga teachers to befriend and collaborate with.

That search for likenessvia voice or other meansis an essential component of being human, according to Farha Abbasi, MD, a cultural psychiatrist at Michigan State University. Whenever we are stressed, we want to go back to something familiar that has been comforting to us in the past, says Dr. Abbasi. Psychologists have traced this instinct back to childhood, when your brain first learns what and whom to associate with emotion. The same logic can apply to wellness practices. Your youngest sources of comfort extend to adulthood, so if young people dont hear themselves in meditation apps, they dont have the same access as people who do to cultivate a comfort-based, healing-based, or stress-relieving-based association with the programs.

This means that diverse voices on meditation apps benefit both children and adults. Every time a child meditates (and 2019 research indicates that about 5 percent are doing so), they further define how they will interact with the practice later in life. And every time an adult meditates, its all about the freedom of finding healing, as Cardoza says, in their own voicea voice they may remember from childhood. It follows that, in light of racially-charged murders, a history of systemic racism, and other traumatic events, many meditators of color may find traumanot solacein hearing white voices. By design, meditations purpose is to create a safe internal space inside oneself; for many meditators who are BIPOC, hearing white voices that stir up feelings of oppression, violence, and injustice perhaps isnt the best way to facilitate that healing.

In recent years, research has also begun illuminating the connection between voice underrepresentation and perpetuating stereotypes, says Okim Yang, PhD, a linguistics professor at Northern Arizona University. You may hear a lot of childrens movies and TV shows still where the main characters are always having this white standard accent, and all the bad guys tend to have some kind of [other] accent, says Dr. Yang. Thats why all the princesses and princeswhether the movies based on Chinese culture or African culture or European culturesall these main actors have a standard white accent. When children grow up only hearing these accents in specific ways like such, Dr. Yangs research has found that they develop stereotypes that match. Some children will grow up to hear white voices as more trustworthy when accents obviously dont indicate intelligence or truthfulness.

Diverse voices on media like meditation apps will combat linguistic discrimination by introducing children and adults to myriad speech types.

For example, one of Dr. Yangs forthcoming studies asked participants to identify spoken sentences that were grammatically incorrect. When those who have non-white standard accents, as Dr. Yang calls it, spoke, participants were more likely to say their sentences were ungrammatical compared to when those who spoke with a white standard accent. In reality, there was no difference in the sentences or grammar presented to the participants. These findings indicate that participants were already carrying biases for the accent before they even began to talk, says Dr. Yang. These stereotypes make an impact on childrens judgment, and they can grow significantly over time without [anyone] realizing it. Parents dont realize it. Children dont realize it. Therefore, it gradually creates linguistic discrimination. In time, Dr. Yang believes that the presence of diverse voices on media like meditation apps will combat linguistic discrimination by introducing children and adults to myriad speech types.

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Iman Gibson, a health educator and meditation teacher, says that beyond inviting BIPOC into previously white-centered healing spaces and combatting biases, inclusive meditation voices also send the message to white and white-passing folks that meditation is available to all. She likens the shift to the body acceptance movement now taking place with certain apparel brands, like Girlfriend Collective or Outdoor Voices. In their ads, they have women who are older, they have women who have vitiligo, they have plus-sized women. What this does over time is normalize for everyone else that this is what our world is. This is who we are as a society. It makes you start to de-center yourself and center a more representative picture of what the world around you [looks like], says Gibson. Imagine the same level of diversity, but in a meditation apps library.

BIPOC creators have started to bring their visions of what inclusive meditation offerings can be to the app store. Liberate ($10 per month) launched in May 2019 with 40-plus BIPOC teachers who hail from different meditation lineages and backgrounds and Shinea Black-cofounded wellness app that offers meditationwas selected as one of Apples Best Apps of 2020. And with more development, pressing play on meditations will soon mean dialing into a mode of healing thats open to allnot just white folks.

Oh hi! You look like someone who loves free workouts, discounts for cult-fave wellness brands, and exclusive Well+Good content. Sign up for Well+, our online community of wellness insiders, and unlock your rewards instantly.

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Why Wellness and Meditation Apps Need More Diverse Voices (Literally) - Well+Good

The Muse S is a wearable that's designed to keep you calm through meditation and the power of neuroscience.

You may have heard of Muse before but the 'S' in this model stands for sleep.

And unlike the Muse 2, which we reviewed in 2019, makers InteraXon now want to help you sleep better too.

It uses the same EEG sensors to interpret your mental activity, but now adds the ability to monitor sleep.

The Muse S doesn't replace the Muse 2, with the non-sleep tracking option still available to buy. Those extra features do inevitably come at a greater cost.

It's priced at 289.99 and is also as available as bundle with a guided meditations subscription, which comes in at 316.98.

The Muse 2 in comparison comes in at 209.99 with a similar bundle on offer that sits just under 250.

With more lockdowns to play havoc with our sleep time, it was the perfect time to put the Muse S to the test. Here's how we got on when we took it to bed.

With the Muse S designed to be something you'd want to sleep with, it had to move away from the rigid look of its previous iterations.

It's ditched the hard plastic frame for a soft fabric headband with a module that magnetically clips into place and sits on the outside of the band on your forehead. That fabric band is a massive departure from the feel of wearing the Muse 2. While the previous design was nice and light, this look not only feels more comfortable, it should ensure sensors are sat close enough to the skin to do their job properly.

The fabric sits snug on and around the sides of the head and there's the ability to adjust the fit around the back to get a tighter or looser fit.

Inside of the headband lies the same EEG sensors though the exposed copper sensors are now covered up and don't really look like sensors that are going to tap into your brain activity.

In the new detachable module, there's also accelerometer sensors to enable sleep tracking and a gyroscope that's tied to tracking your breathing. That's also where you'll find the PPG sensor, which delivers heart rate monitoring and pulse oximetry data.

That module also houses the battery, which can deliver up to 10 hours of battery life and is charged via the integrated microUSB port. That means you only get one night of use, before you need to recharge.

Elsewhere, there's a button to turn the device on and a set of LED notification lights that indicate when the headband is successfully paired to your phone and tell you how much battery life you have left to play with.

To wear for mediation sessions, we have no real issues to report here. The move to fabric is welcomed and there seems to be less of the issues around making sure the sensors are close enough to the skin to monitor activity.

The module doesn't weigh heavy either, but it definitely needs to be smaller in our opinion. When it's clipped in, you can feel it resting on your forehead. It's doesn't rest heavy there, but you can notice it, which does make it a little questionable for long time use during sleep.

Wearing it to sleep is something that does take getting used to. We had nights when we didn't notice that module and others where we just wished that box was smaller and lighter.

The process of using the Muse S is near identical to using the Muse 2. There's Bluetooth to pair the band to the companion app, which is available on Android and iOS. We spent our testing time with the Android version first but then switched to iOS, which offered a more reliable experience.

The layout is largely the same as before. In the Meditate tab, you can pick from mediations based on mind, heart rate, body and breath. There's also guided meditations and courses with some samples available and payment required to access the entire collection.

Lastly, you've got a basic timer option where you can pick the length of time you want to mediate for and the sound to accompany that time. In fact, you don't need the headband at all for these sessions.

When you've picked your headband-centric meditation, you'll need to calibrate the sensors with the app, which means keeping still to reliably pick up signals. It's an aspect of previous Muse devices that can be a bit temperamental, especially in the case of heart rate monitoring. Though it seems offloading that sensor to the module has improved things on that front.

Another aspect of the meditation process that's worth mentioning here is headphones. You can play audio from your phone, but ideally having some truly wireless headphones or alternatively pairing up your phone with a speaker will make for a far more immersive experience.

If you've come to the Muse S for its meditation abilities, well, it's pretty much what you get on the Muse 2 is replicated here. It's the same soundscapes and exercises so we won't exhaustively go into huge detail here.

Basically, it's at the heart of what Muse does and it's very good at doing it.

Whether you're doing heart rate based sessions or focusing on breath to clear your mind, it's a really useful wearable to use in the morning, but more so for us, before going to bed. One thing we've noticed that seems to have slightly changed is the soundscape adjustment when you lose your focus or get distracted.

That soundscape change doesn't sound as harsh or jarring as before, which did make some modes like mind meditations challenging to use for long periods if you're easily distracted.

It's really all about the introduction of dedicated sleep features here though. The new Sleep tab unlocks the ability to track your sleep using a similar sleep tracking method as most fitness trackers and smartwatches. It uses sleep-focused voice guides and soundscapes that get you in the sleeping mood.

When those are completed, it will continue tracking sleep until you have to manually stop it in the morning.

It records sleep stages, resting heart rate, sleep position and stillness. You'll get a sleep score a bit like you'll now get from wrist-based sleep trackers and you can mark in your journal how you felt when you woke up.

To test the accuracy, we put it up against the Fitbit Sense, which we consider one of the most reliable wrist-based sleep monitors. What we found in general is that sleep scores were similar as were the breakdown of sleep stages. Resting heart rate seemed a little higher on the Muse S in general than the Sense, but it wasn't wildly off from a heart rate monitor that's well equipped for delivering reliable resting heart rate data.

Sleep tracking compared: Muse S (left) and Fitbit Sense (centre and right)

The addition of sleep position and stillness insights are unique pieces of sleep data you don't find on a lot of sleep trackers, though there's isn't much in the way of explaining why this is important data to capture how it might influence your quality of sleep. If it does at all.

Muse S also records sleep position and stillness during sleep

As mentioned, Muse provides Journeys or Soundscapes to help you get prepared for sleep. The latter works much in the same way as the other meditation modes letting you choose the sounds and length of time they play.

With Journeys, it mixes voice guidance with soundscapes to help get you into a more relaxed, sleepy state. There's a good selection available ranging from 10 minutes to longer 30 minutes options if you need a bit more time to get set.

As far as helping us get to sleep, the Muse S is pretty effective in doing that job. Though we'd say the Muse 2 was already pretty good at doing that.

The ideal setup is definitely pairing it up with headphones and with the new sleep-focused soundscapes and voice guides, it's pretty effective in clearing your mind and getting you to focus on feeling more relaxed.

In terms of using it to track your sleep, we'd say it's a mixed experience. For starters, we had to switch from the Android app to the iPhone version as sleep tracking simply didn't work.

People are certainly going to have mixed experience about how comfortable wearing the headband is, largley because of that box up front.

The app doesn't run in the background either, so you can't turn your phone screen off. Nobody likes a glimmer of phone light when they're trying to get to sleep.

Even if it's on the lowest brightness setting. Another issue here is that if you get up in the night to make a visit to the toilet, you'd need to remember to pick up your phone as well. That's because it's likely to lose Bluetooth connection with the app, which means pairing and resuming the sleep tracking.

So while it does a good job getting you sleepy, there's a so much more to factor in when you want to use it to track that time. It can track that time accurately from our experience, but there's a lot that can impact on how good that sleep tracking is.

In the goal to help us sleep, the Muse S delivered on that promise. It's a much nicer smart headband to mediate in bed with than the Muse 2. As far as using it for sleep tracking, it's capable of delivering reliable data, but it might be a mixed experience getting it. There's aspects in the setup that needs to improve to make it ideal for monitoring that slumber time. If you're sold on Muse's mediation skills, we say go for the cheaper Muse 2 instead. If you want that more comfortable design and own an iPhone, then there might be reason to spend more.

Excerpt from:

Muse S review: meditation and sleep wearable is no dream come true - Wareable

OAK CREEK (CBS 58)--Elevate Your Vibration with Sound! Enjoy an evening of an enhanced sound experience to relax your mind and ignite your spirit! Join Djuro Rodic as he uses the gentle vibrations from gongs, drums, singing bowls, chimes, and rattles to connect mind, body, and spirit. His passion is the sacred art of sound healing and sharing it with others. Time will be allowed to socialize to build camaraderie and learn more about the instruments, benefits, and art of sound healing.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Gathering limited to 12 to follow social distancing and group gathering requirements. Masks required. Please bring a mat, blanket, pillow, and whatever you need to be completely comfortable.

The address is 8612 S. Market Place in Oak Creek. The next class is on Wednesday, January 27th at 6 pm. It lasts an hour an a half. But there are many others to follow. Click hereto see what's available.

The rest is here:

Sounds of silence & some noise make for the perfect meditation at "Angelic Roots" - WDJT

I started hosting daily meditation sessions on YouTube: How an assistant professor at U of T is helping himself (and his subscribers) get through Covid

John Vervaeke has been meditating for 30 years and teaching meditation for 20. When the pandemic hit, he moved his sessions online. Here, he talks about how to silence monkey mind and stay connected in a time of separation.

As told to Liza Agrba

Im an assistant professorand the director of the cognitive science program at the University of Toronto. My work focuses on what Ive called the meaning crisis: that the processes that give you the capacity to adapt to a changing world are also those that make you susceptible to self-deception. They undermine your connections to the world and other people. My solution to this is a system that incorporates teachings from a number of wisdom traditions, like tai chi chuan, Vipassana meditation and Stoic practices. They afford me cognitive flexibility: in other words, the ability to adapt to complex, novel and uncertain situations. Which, of course, is what were all dealing with during the pandemic.

Covid has put our connections at risk. We need to be in the same space and breathe the same air as other people. We need to share meals. We need to share dwellings. Its affected some of the relationships that matter most to me, with my students, my friends and my colleagues.

In April, I started livestreaming a daily meditation practice on YouTube called Meditating With John Vervaeke.Iteach practices from various wisdom traditions, how to build on them, and how to build a community around them. I live in an apartment with my son, and Ive basically turned it into a studio. Ive replaced a blackboard with a whiteboard, got my own camera and figured out how to do the lighting. I cant see reactions, so I have to train my imagination to fill in that hole and get that flow going. Thats essential for this type of teaching, because Im not just trying to give people information; Im trying to draw them into a process. The very thing Im teachingcognitive flexibilityis helping me teach.

People feel their lives are shrinking. They feel disconnected. Everything seems surreal to them. And what these practices do is give them the tools to recover the sense of realness were all craving right now, the sense of connection, the sense of belonging, the sense of place. One of the practices I have people do is address inner chatter, or monkey mind, when theyre trying to meditate. You teach them to step back and look at their thinking, rather than do the thinking.

When I dont do my practices, even for a day, I can feel it. Its like missing a loved one. And that metaphor works both ways, because when I cultivate my practices, its like creating a best friend who accompanies me throughout the day. These practices give you an opportunity to befriend yourself.

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I started hosting daily meditation sessions on YouTube: How an assistant professor at U of T is helping himself (and his subscribers) get through...

Part of my plan this new year is to get back on track with my health and wellness goals. Yep, it includes whittling my weight back down, exercise, and eating healthfully. It also means Including daily meditation--a highly underrated part of wellness, in my opinion.

Meditation for me is like dropping an emotional plumb-line.It's a way to restore a sense of clarity. When I meditate, the tone of my entire day changes. When I'm NOT meditating, even thought I already know its benefits---it's easy to let a meditation practice seem like something you can do without. At least for one day. Then one day becomes two, and then weeks go by.

But there's a reason it's called a "practice." It's ongoing and seems to have exponentially positive, cumulative effects on your sense of mental well-being. Just like brushing your teeth, it has to be etched into your permanent routine. Meditation apps can be hugely helpful in building this habit. I highly recommend for beginners, especially.

But now, there's an even EASIER way to get started. If you're a Netflix subscriber, please check out the new Headspace series. Seriously, each episode is only about 20 minutes and provides a good foundation of knowledge, in a delightfully easy to understand way, that can get you started...or at least considering...making meditation a part of your routine.

After watching, I hope you'll consider the app, too. I use it every single day.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the Netflix series.

See the original post:

I Recommend Meditation: The Headspace Series On Netflix Will Help - knue.com

Finding Release From Meditation

The fast-paced world of network news leaves little time for self-reflection. ABC News reporter/anchor Dan Harris didnt give much thought to meditation, until he had a panic attack in front of 5 million people while reading the news live on Good Morning America.

I noticed that my palms were sweating, my mouth had dried up, my heart was racing, my lungs had seized up. I couldnt breathe, which is pretty inconvenient when youre trying to anchor the news, he tells SurvivorNet.

Related: Survivor Champion Ethan Zohn Says Meditation & Mindfulness Helped Him Battle Lymphoma

A visit to his doctor revealed the cause of Harriss panic attack. Stress had led him to self-medicate with cocaine and other recreational drugs. He asked me a bunch of questions, including Do you do drugs? And I kind of sheepishly said, Yeah, I do.

Thats when Harris discovered the power of meditation to overcome lifes stresses. While it is not a panacea, meditation can be very useful, he says.

Meditation brings about what Harvard professor and cardiologist Dr. Herbert Bensontermed the relaxation response. It triggers the release of brain chemicals and signals that promote a deep sense of calm and ease stress.

Related: Feel the Fear, and Let it Go Meditation for Cancer Survivors

Benson and his team worked on that research for about 20 years to show the effects that [meditation] has on increasing the parasympathetic tone, decreasing the sympathetic nerve tone, and putting you into a very relaxed state, which has powerful other effects, Dr. Brian Berman, professor of family and community medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, toldSurvivorNetin a previous interview. Ideally, meditating like that once or twice a day for about 10, 15 minutes will give you these effects.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Mariana Strongin, on the value of self-soothing during stressful times

After discovering the value of meditation in his own life, Dan Harris decided to share what hed learned. He penned two books: 10% Happierin 2014, and Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics in 2017. My goal was to write a book that was funny and embarrassing and used the F word a lot. Most meditation books arent that way, he says. I thought it would make a difference.

His hope is that a dose of meditation might also relieve the stress of cancer survivors. His wife, Dr. Bianca Harris, underwent a double mastectomy for breast cancer, so I know a little bit of what its like to experience that kind of fear and pain, he says.

How to find courage in a time of uncertainty

Meditation involves anchoring yourself in the present moment and focusing on your breath as it moves in and out of your nose and mouth. As thoughts flit through your mind, acknowledge them, and then let them go. It can take some time to get comfortable meditating, but its a gradual process, similar to strength training.

The goal in meditation is to focus your mind for just a few nanoseconds at a time. And then youre going to get carried away and you start again and again and again. Starting again is the key move. I refer to it as a bicep curl for your brain, Harris adds.

Related: Dont Buy into the Backlash the Science on Meditation is Clear

If youre interested in trying meditation, use this guided meditationcreated by Dr. Berman exclusively for the SurvivorNet community.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

I noticed that my palms were sweating, my mouth had dried up, my heart was racing, my lungs had seized up. I couldnt breathe, which is pretty inconvenient when youre trying to anchor the news, he tells SurvivorNet.

A visit to his doctor revealed the cause of Harriss panic attack. Stress had led him to self-medicate with cocaine and other recreational drugs. He asked me a bunch of questions, including Do you do drugs? And I kind of sheepishly said, Yeah, I do.

Thats when Harris discovered the power of meditation to overcome lifes stresses. While it is not a panacea, meditation can be very useful, he says.

Meditation brings about what Harvard professor and cardiologist Dr. Herbert Bensontermed the relaxation response. It triggers the release of brain chemicals and signals that promote a deep sense of calm and ease stress.

Related: Feel the Fear, and Let it Go Meditation for Cancer Survivors

Benson and his team worked on that research for about 20 years to show the effects that [meditation] has on increasing the parasympathetic tone, decreasing the sympathetic nerve tone, and putting you into a very relaxed state, which has powerful other effects, Dr. Brian Berman, professor of family and community medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, toldSurvivorNetin a previous interview. Ideally, meditating like that once or twice a day for about 10, 15 minutes will give you these effects.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Mariana Strongin, on the value of self-soothing during stressful times

After discovering the value of meditation in his own life, Dan Harris decided to share what hed learned. He penned two books: 10% Happierin 2014, and Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics in 2017. My goal was to write a book that was funny and embarrassing and used the F word a lot. Most meditation books arent that way, he says. I thought it would make a difference.

His hope is that a dose of meditation might also relieve the stress of cancer survivors. His wife, Dr. Bianca Harris, underwent a double mastectomy for breast cancer, so I know a little bit of what its like to experience that kind of fear and pain, he says.

How to find courage in a time of uncertainty

Meditation involves anchoring yourself in the present moment and focusing on your breath as it moves in and out of your nose and mouth. As thoughts flit through your mind, acknowledge them, and then let them go. It can take some time to get comfortable meditating, but its a gradual process, similar to strength training.

The goal in meditation is to focus your mind for just a few nanoseconds at a time. And then youre going to get carried away and you start again and again and again. Starting again is the key move. I refer to it as a bicep curl for your brain, Harris adds.

Related: Dont Buy into the Backlash the Science on Meditation is Clear

If youre interested in trying meditation, use this guided meditationcreated by Dr. Berman exclusively for the SurvivorNet community.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Original post:

A Panic Attack While on ABCs GMA Led Anchor Dan Harris to Try Meditation & It Worked; Hes Hoping His Experience Can Help Others - SurvivorNet

THE Clinic star Leigh Arnold has revealed that meditation saved her life after she lost her baby son to cot death.

The actress and her husband Steve Davies were devastated when they lost their second son Flynn to sudden infant death syndrome in 2013 when he was just two weeks old.

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The mum - who also has children Hunter, eight, Piper, four, and 15-month-old Honey - and her family then moved to Ibiza where she and hubby Steve run wellness retreats.

Leigh, 41, admitted that she tried to get medical help to cope with her grief but found solace elsewhere.

Speaking to hosts Muireann O'Connell and Martin King on tonight's Six O'Clock Show she said: "I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if it wasn't for what happened to me personally.

"It was either I turn to conventional medicine, which I did, and personally it just didn't work for me.

"I had quite a bad reaction. Now that's not everyone's case, it works for a lot of people.

"But for me, my body just needed something more. I needed to stop living in this fight or flight, constant state of panic.

"I realised that by just stopping and learning to be in the present moment - I know this sounds hippy dippy but I think people are starting to understand it more and more.

"Just living in the moment, stopping and breathing and getting to go right inside to 'Who am I? What's going on in my life personally?'

"That's literally what I did and that's why we moved to Ibiza and this is, I think, becoming much more of a case in everyone's lives."

She explained that taking a pause is something that many people are doing every day to help their mental health.

She said: "People are going right back into the tools that we have within us, we hold the key inside us.

"We don't need to look outside and start things in our bodies that are not necessarily good for us, we can work on these things alone through various things that cost us nothing, that we have freely available to us in our own body and our own mind.

"It absolutely saved my life. Breathwork and meditation, if I didn't so it, I would not probably be standing here today."

When asked what advice she would give to those struggling during level restrictions, Leigh revealed her daily routine.

She said: "I start the day, as often as I can when I don't have a 15-month-old bouncing on my head, if I have those spare minutes, I try to start the day, just before I get out of bed to take a couple of breaths and just be kind to myself.

"Just say something good, say something positive about the day. I always try and set my intentions, you know, what do I want to achieve today? How do I want to feel about myself?

"Considering everything that's happened in my life, I'm blessed to have so many amazing things in my life as well.

"I have a beautiful family, beautiful friends, amazing life living here and I've got so much to be grateful for."

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She added: "We all do and even during these difficult times, remember you're loved.

"You are absolutely worthy of being here, you are worthy of every breath you take and just know you are loved.

"But you have to start loving yourself and if you don't start loving yourself, life is difficult enough."

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Original post:

The Clinic star Leigh Arnold reveals meditation saved life after loss of baby son to cot death - The Irish Sun