Young Writers Project is an independent nonprofit that engages students to write, helps them improve and connects them with authentic audiences in newspapers, before live audiences and online. YWP also publishes an annual anthology and The Voice, a digital magazine featuring YWPs best writing and images. More info: youngwritersproject.org or contact YWP at sreid@youngwritersproject.org or 802-324-9538.

This week, we present responses to the following challenges: Meditation. Sit still in a quiet place with your eyes closed for five minutes, and try to empty your mind of any thoughts. Does one thought keep pushing its way through? Vent about it or use it as inspiration to write. And general writing.

Prompt: Meditation

By Grace Nostrant

Age 14, Bradford, Vt.

Meditation

what does it even mean? To let go.

Why cant I just let go,

let my mind fade to nothingness?

Its as if there were a flock of geese

where my brain should be,

with their loud-squawking thoughts

pecking at my forehead

an unimaginable headache.

I open my eyes, rub my head.

I see everyone in front of me.

The silence is nice, the serenity.

Now I know the answer to my question.

As I sit here and ponder,

I realize that meditation does not mean

to let go of ones thoughts.

It means to focus, to reflect, to relax

to simply be present in ones thoughts.

Meditation is a state of simply being.

By Kelly Daigle

Age 17, Bradford, Vt.

I sit in the silence

with the windows open,

the wind blowing gently,

and try not to think.

But the music, the music, the music...

No.

I imagine the silence,

refuse to listen to my own mind.

The absence of anything

is calming, refreshing, and

It creeps up behind,

the melody inching upon my consciousness

like the song of

Stop it, Mind.

I dont want to be listening to the music,

the silent music of my mind

that oddly sounds like

my seventh-grade music festival song ...

The notes stream past my barriers,

harmonies overlapping with

I box myself in nothing,

hoping that it will be enough,

that Ill finally be at peace

Full-force music from the ensemble comes in,

sounds stumbling over one another,

divided and yet coinciding

to create the mystical

Nope, nope, nope.

piece from the

Fine.

I let the music surround me,

and begrudgingly enjoy

the song stuck in my head.

See the rest here:

YWP: Exploring meditation and its discontents - Valley News

Nov. 29, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC / Source: StackCommerce

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As Black Friday deals enable you to invest in the tech devices you use for apps from laptops to tablets and smartphones the apps themselves sometimes come with a pricetag, too. And to align with Black Friday sales, some app subscriptions are on sale right now.

So whether you're in the market for a top-notch VPN service, cloud storage or even relaxing guided meditation, there's likely a discount on one of them worth checking out. Below, we rounded up 10 affordable apps that are worth shopping this week.

Bonus: Enter code BFSAVE40 at checkout, to get 40 percent off of the prices listed below.

Turn your startup idea into a reality with Bizplan, a step-by-step business building app that provides you with templates, dashboards and a network of investors that will help streamline your projects in an attempt to help get your business funded.

Looking for a mindful new year? Grab a lifetime subscription to Aura Meditation, which features a variety of science-backed guided meditation sessions aimed to help relieve stress and anxiety.

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.

The best passwords have randomized character strings that feature numbers and special symbols. The issue is that they also tend to be the hardest to remember. This service can auto-fill usernames and passwords for all your online accounts to make that process much easier.

Another way you can keep your information private is with the help of a VPN. These help ensure that when you're using public WiFi networks, your personal data is kept away from prying eyes.

Home renovation isn't as easy as HGTV makes it out to be. For people who need help visualizing what their redesign projects will look like, Live Home 3D Pro can help. The app allows you to design advanced floor plans with easy-to-use point-and-click tools.

Babbel, a popular language learning app, was made with the help of more than 100 expert linguists with the goal of getting you speaking a foreign language confidently in as little as one month. All of its lessons are bite-sized (about 10 to 15 minutes in total) so that you can more easily fit them into your schedule, and they focus on real-life topics you'll get the most use out of, such as business, food and travel.

Keep track of your finances and pinpoint areas where you can cut back on your expenses with CoinKeeper. The personal finance tool can help you create a monthly budget, monitor your expenditures, set spending limits and notify you when you're overspending.

For people who want to be caught up on all the latest bestselling titles but don't have time to read them all in-depth, 12min Micro Book synthesizes a variety of books into short articles so that you can digest all the important information in as little as 12 minutes.

Dubbed as the Swiss Army Knife of iPhone management, iMazing is a Mac/Windows app that allows you to browse and manage your iPhone's backups, extract your text message information, copy your favorite songs, export your photos and access the history of your notes.

You've got plenty of videos, photos, audio content and documents that you need safely stored. A cloud service like ThunderDrive allows you to keep your most important files safe and accessible.

Read the rest here:

Black Friday gets you tech devices here's how to save on apps - NBC News

With all the travel, family and overall hustle and bustle of the holidays this time of year can be very stressful.

So finding some time for yourself is very important.

Even if that means just a few minutes finding your center.

We spend so much time putting our energy outward," said meditation facilitator at the Lotus in Helena LuAnn Whale. "Doing errands, talking on the phone, doing chores, being at work. You know. Theres so many distractions so it moves you away from your center. So meditation and even breathing brings you back into you center.

Meditation can be a small practice with big benefits.

Even according to the world renowned Mayo Clinic, the practice of meditation can offer many benefits, including stress reduction. A great aid to any doctor prescribed plan you may be working with.

The practice of yoga is indicated for all kinds of things in terms of alleviating and lifting people out of depression and anxiety, said mental health therapist and yoga instructor Heidi Opitz.

And practicing meditation doesnt mean you have to light candles and grow a ponytail.

Even doing dishes can be a meditative practice because meditation is just being about in the present moment, added LuAnn.

Taking any time out of your day to put your mind at ease and focus on the moment can be meditation.

Its beneficial at all times for stress and anxiety and of course that kind of gets amped up for the holidays and its really, really good for that," continued Whale. "And its not that you wont have the stress and anxiety but it will lessen it and youll handle it in a better way than you would have if you were not meditating.

Meditation is a really wonderful tool that you can tap into wherever you are," said Shannon Reed, who is a student at the Lotus. "Whether you are standing in line waiting for a checkout after youve made a huge grab of presents. Whether its dealing with family members or just work issues you can just quiet immediately go into a space of quiet and sit and just let it go. Just let it go."

So remember, when you are overwhelmed this holiday to take a moment.

Stop.

Breathe.

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Don't fall victim to the holiday hustle: Some advice to make the holidays less stressful - KPAX-TV

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Meditation with Tea Tasting: Rare, Premium Teas | Universal Chan: Buddhist Zen Center | Culinary Events, Religion/Spirit - East Bay Express

My journey with mindfulness and meditation started in late 2015. I was dissatisfied in most areas of my life, on anti-depressants , and really not sure what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go (metaphorically speaking). To the outside world ,I had it all, I was married, had two lovely boys, a job, a great social life etc etc. I knew I needed to do something for me and that I needed to be actively involved in making decisions to make me happier and more confident. I happened across a local mindfulness meditation teacher on Facebook and decided to get in touch. It was a decision that proved to profoundly change my life. I was not happy in my relationship and meditation and mindfulness helped me to develop the understanding and self belief that it was OK to put me first, that I deserved to be put first, to be happy and not to feel guilty about this. My practice, over time, enabled me to have conversations about separation and to work the separation out in a compassionate and positive way. The negative judgments that I had on myself, which were many and frequent, are now less frequent and no way near as strong. I am able to question the judgments or the stories that I create for myself about what other people think, feel and say about me, by asking for the evidence to support the judgement or thought, and to focus on what I know and what I can control. This way, I am now spending less energy on rumination, worry (and sometimes despair) and I have more energy for me; to appreciate the good that I have in my life and to be grateful for what I have and can see around me. I just didnt see this or took it all for granted before, but meditation and mindfulness has shown me there is another side to my life and it is so much better! It isnt just within my personal life that this change has happened though. My practice means that I am less stressed and overwhelmed at work, but when those feelings do show up (and they still do because they are a normal part of life), I am able to accept them and work with them in a more effective way, focusing on what I can control and what is happening right now. The overthinking about that meeting that I just had where I said something silly in front of senior management or the presentation I have coming up, are now not focuses of my thinking, but are set to one side so I can focus on the here and now. During frustrating conversations at work, I am able to take a moment, realise that they are just trying their best. Meditation and mindfulness have increased my ability to be patient; I dont know whats going on in their life, and my practice helps me to be less judgmental about them and the tone of voice they are using in that moment. The result is often an easier, more positive conversation which can result in both sides benefiting from the situation. I now spend time meditating with my children as well. Without my meditation and mindfulness practice, I am certain I wouldnt be where I am today so I ensure I get at least 5 minutes of practice in a day to ensure that I can continue to live my best life.

Read the original post:

Meditation and my well-being - Thrive Global

If youve been meditating for years or just starting out, follow these tips to get the most from your meditation practice.

Tip 1: Be sure to find a space to sit down comfortably in a quiet place with no distractions. You do not have to sit in a traditional yoga posture but do not lay down. You can sit on the floor or on a chair. Whats important is that you are comfortable.

Tip 2: Let go of expectations about meditation. Some people want to have a mystical experience based on the stories they heard from others. Let go of any beliefs and expectations. Let go of all beliefs and expectations before each meditation. Let go of any ideas of what mediation is, what you want from it, and what it is supposed to do for you. Mediation is not a means to an end. Mediation is a tool. Give all your attention to this current moment, then meditation will reveal its benefits. Be open to any experience that may occur.

Tip 3: Relax all your muscles and close your eyes. Do not squint your eyes or keep the muscles in a tight focused position. Relax. Check inside and do a body scan and become aware of how much tension you are holding, and then release it.

Tip 4: Use binaural beats or theta waves to help you go deeper into your meditation. Guided mediation is wonderful, but using binaural beats to train your brain to match the frequency helps you go deeper into your practice. This tip is not necessary but excellent for someone who may have a hard time shutting off the mind.

Tip 5: Crate an anchor. There are anchors you can create to help you focus during your meditation. The first anchor is the breath. The breath is the bridge between the seen and the unseen. When you find yourself going with the mind, become aware by putting your awareness on your breath. Another anchor you can create is using binaural beats to help bring you back to your awareness. When you find youve gone off with your thoughts, become aware and focus your attention on the sound of the theta waves while you listen. If youre not listening to binaural beats during your meditation another option is to feel your body. Connect with how your body feels and body awareness to bring you back to your meditation. What these anchors do is take your focus, awareness and attention off the mind or distraction and put it on something else and then keep it there. You are training your focus, awareness and attention when you meditate.

Tip 6: Disengage. You will drift off or go off with the mind, however, every time you notice youve drifted off and you notice youre engaged with the mind, the moment you become aware, disengage. Dont beat yourself up for not staying focused. Every time you catch yourself in thought, commit to disengage. Let them go. How you ask? Bring your focus, awareness and attention back to the body and breath or the sound of the binaural beats. This is a shift to what you want to stay focused on. In the beginning you will find your attention is short, but keep training your attention. This is the practice. It doesnt matter how many times your attention goes off during your meditation. Keep bringing it back to the body and breath. For many just starting out in the beginning realize this can be hard work. Stick with it! The results are priceless!

Tip 7: Commit to 15 to 30 minutes every single day. It must be everyday, not a hit or miss practice. If you really want the benefits of meditation, and want to deepen your meditation and gain insights and understanding life and reality at another level, then you must practice every single day. For the 15 to 30 minutes you are continuously bringing your focus, awareness and attention back, again, and again, and again.

Tip 8: Learn to recognize what remains when there are no thoughts. Once you understand how to bring back your focus, awareness and attention, when you are fully focused on your binaural beats, breath or the sense of your body, youll notice thoughts do stop if maybe for a few seconds. In these moments notice what remains. The sense of I AM is all that remains.

In the beginning when you are just starting to meditate, be aware of this last tip. Continue to focus on disengaging from the mind. When gaps in thought become clear, then connect to what remains. YOU!

Meditation is getting to know this larger part of YOU and training your focus, attention, and awareness.

Your focus, awareness and attention is your most precious gift. Make mediation the most important part of your day!

Read the original here:

8 tips to get the most from your meditation - Thrive Global

PORTVILLE Officials at the Pfeiffer Nature Center have announced two holiday programs will be offered to the public on Dec. 7.

The first is the Holiday Nature Crafts for Kids program from 10:30 to noon at the Portville Free Library at 2 N. Main St. All ages will enjoy creating fun crafts using items which come directly from nature. Santa Claus will visit and there will be lots of other library craft activities going on as well. The activity is free and open to the public and pre-registration is not required. Minors must be accompanied by an adult, however.

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The second event is the Forest Bathing-Moving Meditation session from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Lillibridge location. Forest bathing, also known in Japanese culture as taking in the forest atmosphere or shinrin-yoku, is a moving meditation surrounded by nature. Participants will meet in the parking lot and wander through the woods, taking in the wonders of the beautiful location through all five physical senses as well as our sixth, intuitive sense. Led by Jessie Lampack Slattery, local registered yoga teacher, the session will focus on slowing down amidst a busy season and reflecting on 2019. The program is open to all ages as long as children can remain quiet in order to allow all participants to reap the healing benefits of such an experience. The cost is $5 per person and pre-registration is not required. In the event of freezing rain or extreme temperatures, the program will be moved to Dec. 14 at the same time. If the weather appears questionable, look for a change of date notice on the top of the Centers website home page.

Read the original post:

Pfeiffer to offer holiday nature crafts and meditation programs - Olean Times Herald

In a world thats always on the go, how can one find time to smell the roses? Or, less ambitiously, at least take a break that clears your mindspace? Your smartphone can help, if you stay away from social media and designate those five-to-10 minute breaks to the right mindfulness and meditation app.

Insight Timer, which has been voted the happiest app in the world, stands out for not only its quality sessions but for being able to provide short meditations on the go, and making it a daily habit.

The company claims that across the world more time is spent meditating on Insight Timer than all other meditation apps. According to the website, people spend 63 percent time on Insight Timer, as compared to 17 percent on Calm, 13 percent on Headspace, and seven percent on other mindfulness apps.

Insight Timer has a 4.8 rating on Play Store and has been downloaded more than one million times.

Lets explore the app to find out if it actually scores over others and makes you more mindful.

On Insight Timer, you can start meditating without creating a login. You can log in to see which of your friends in the online world are using the app. It also lets you set language separately for both interface and content. The app is available in two Indian languages as well, Hindi and Punjabi.

The homepage also tells you how many other users are meditating right at that moment. Early mornings and late nights see the highest numbers like we meditated alongside 10,000 people in the morning. When we opened the app, there were 10.9 million meditators on the app; of these, 564,000 used it that day and some 10,000 were meditating across the world in real time.

The UI of the app is impressive, as it shows a graphical representation of users across geographies. If nothing, it helps in motivating you to practise this habit and show you that you are not alone.

The bottom strip of the homepage has five tabs: Today, Meditation, Timer, Courses, and Profile. Timer is the most useful feature if you are using this app during your breaks in a busy day. Just set a time and sit in silence. If you want, you can add interval bells, ambient sound, and an ending bell. This is an impressive feature, especially if you dont want to choose a particular track and are just looking for five minutes of deep breathing or mindfulness.

The app offers around 24,000 free meditations to choose from, under various categories like guided and unguided meditations, calming music, talks, sleep, beginners, stress etc.

The app also offers short meditations for emergencies or the occasional random quiet moment.

What sets this app apart is that you can choose your meditation based on the time you have and your need. One can choose between time spans of zero-five minutes to 30 minutes-plus. You can also opt for a customised meditation track. For example, you can put on music, choose a female or male voice for audio, put in preferences like high spiritual content or religious content, and can filter by benefit, practice, and even origin. We have used a host of meditation apps, but found this this level of customisation only in Insight Timer.

The app has courses such as how to restore sound sleep, a 10-day course that needs you to put in 16 minutes each day, and others like getting over overeating. While the app is absolutely free and comes with some basic courses, premium courses need subscriptions. The Rs 5,000-per-year subscription unlocks a special catalogue of courses and will allow you free offline downloading of the meditations.

The app also shows charts and milestones on the progress of your meditation to ensure that you stick to the activity. The profile shows your activity, friends, groups, and stats. Some countries also have offline Insight Timer groups for mental wellbeing activities and discussions.

The app gives you the experience of taking an in-person class, but one that you can do anywhere. It is sure to get beginners started and help them stay the meditation course. We also like Insight Timers design, which includes a neat interface that has subtle illustrations and a well-organised library of courses.

So, starting today, we recommend that you use this app to calm the mind, manage stress, and enhance happiness. Yours, and that of others!

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

Also Read

Originally posted here:

[App Fridays] Hello peace and calm, bye-bye stress and anxiety with mindfulness app Insight Timer - YourStory

A version of this article first appeared at Antwerp Avenue.

If youre anything like us, youre probably exhausted from hearing people talk about the powers of mindfulness and meditation. Over the past few years, its been impossible to listen to a podcast or click on an Instagram page without the benefits of meditation being thrown in your face. Meditation is often associated with hippies sitting at a festival wearing tie-dye or doing 10 day silent retreats in the mountains of India. Sure, a lot of people who meditate fit into those categories. But recent research has shown that meditation has incredible benefits for people using it to boost their professional life. Here, I take a look at some of the ways meditation can help you achieve your business dreams.

The modern lifestyle is exhausting, no doubt about it. From the need to smash our goals at work and the gym, to the pressure of maintaining a social life that looks great on Instagram, it often feels like we need to be in a million places at once.

For entrepreneurs and freelancers, who often carry an extra financial burden, making time to relax can save you from a burnout and from developing stress related health issues. Meditation is a great form of stress relief because it can be performed anywhere, and without any specialist equipment. The basis of meditation is focusing on one thing or on nothing for an extended period of time essentially, being mindful. But if youre really busy, you can work meditation into your daily life. Next time youre walking somewhere, switch off your music and pay attention to your steps, and the way it feels when your feet touch the ground. Even taking a shower or doing the washing up mindfully can help try and stay in the moment and feel the water on your skin, slowing down to focus on the sensations. After all youve got to do the washing up anyway, so you may as well multi-task!

If youre facing a difficult situation at work and cant see a way out, meditation is here to help. We know how it goes youre trying to figure out how to solve a difficult supply problem, or how to break off a relationship with a client. Sometimes, you spend so long going over the problem in your mind that you cant seem to find a way out. Since it involves clearing your mind of outside distractions, meditation can give you a fresh perspective on a sticky situation. Next time youre struggling, take a few minutes to sit quietly and focus on breathing deeply and calmly and then go back and try and figure out your problem. Chances are, youll find it much easier to come to a solution once youve given your mind some distance.

Part of being an entrepreneur is being able to see into the future: things might not work out exactly how you planned, but its good to know the general direction you want your business to take. If youre at a crossroads and not sure what your business goals should be for the upcoming months, you guessed it! Meditation to the rescue again.

This time, try taking some time away from distractions. Maybe go and sit in the park with your phone on flight mode, and just a notebook and a pen for company. Spend a few minutes sitting peacefully and give yourself the freedom to daydream about your business. In this state of semi-consciousness, new ideas can pop into your head, finally able to surface when the chatter in your brain calms down. This is a useful exercise to repeat regularly, even if you know exactly the direction you want your business to take. Who knows what million dollar ideas might be hiding in your mind, waiting for a quiet moment to appear

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How to use Mindfulness Meditation to Reach your Business Goals - Thrive Global

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Meditation requires sitting in comfortable stillness. In stillness, one is able to detach from the sensory and motor channels of experience and direct the awareness to the deeper levels of consciousness.

Movement provokes unneeded stimulus thus causing the mind to wander and to break concentration. Vrittis or waves are formed in absence of stillness that causes fluctuations in the body-mind complex, making meditation a difficult practice.

To attain the state of stillness, one can train the body and mind through asanas and pranayam. The preparatory practices allow one to slip into the state of deep meditative relaxation. In sage Patanjalis yogsutra that mentions eight limbs or steps of yoga; asanas and pranayam form the third and the fourth component, precursor elements to the meditation which occupies the seventh place.

The body, mind and breath are connected. This is noticeable by witnessing the breath at different emotional and mental states that you go through during your waking hours. How is your breath when you are nervous or anxious? How is it when you are relaxed or in the state of contentment? Move from the breath and witness the bodily changes when you are angry, excited or crying. Also, note how your body and mind respond when you become aware of your emotions and thoughts.

Awareness is the key to the self. It unlocks you. For awareness, self-observation is necessary. Are you aware that while reading this article, you are also breathing?

Asanas are done with awareness and in the rhythm of the breathing cycle. As one can easily notice, any muscular tension in the body changes the rate and rhythm of the breath. You, your body, your mind, your breath are all connected. Doing asanas slowly and comfortably brings the energy flow to the internal organs, glands and muscles to relax the organs and the nerves. Asanas or postural patterns integrate the mind and body. Asanas release mental tensions dealing with them at physical level through body to the mind and vice versa.

Pran is the cosmic life force or the vital energy. It is more than the literal translation of breath, breath control or infusion of oxygen in the body. Pranayam techniques activates and regulates the life force to attain higher state of awareness. Pranayam practices energise the nadi system or the subtle energy channels, purifying, regulating and amplifying the life force. This induces physical and mental stability promoting the state of required stillness for meditation.

Breathing techniques help one to get rid of several mind-body ailments as well. More often than not, there is a tendency to breathe incorrectly and use only a small part of the lung capacity. This is due to lack of awareness of the breathing process. Incorrect breathing causes dis-ease in the body.

In pranayam, with awareness, one engages in rhythmic, deep and slow inhalation-exhalation, thereby stimulating a calm and content state of mind. And a calm mind in turn, stimulates a deep and long respiration. As the natural rhythms of the mind and body are restored, dis-eases are eliminated, when ease returns.

When asanas and pranayam are done with conscious awareness, it establishes a connection between the conscious and subconscious mind. This is when positive affirmations are most effective and this is the state when self-healing is possible.

As articulated earlier, the mind-body complex is one. Every physical, muscular knot has a corresponding mental or emotional knot. Stiffness in the body is due to blocked pran and accumulation of the impurities of thoughts and emotions. When the body is infused with energy or pran, the impurities are removed. Pran is visible on the physical plane as motion and action, and on the mental plane as thought (Swami Sivananda).

So, when the thoughts and actions are purified, tranquillity is attained and this allows meditation to become an easy, effortless and joyous practice.

Disclaimer: Urmila Rao is a chakra balancing meditation coach, Theta Healer and a sound therapist. All the ideas expressed herein are her own and not professional advice or medical prescription. She can be reached at: milarao2018@gmail.com.

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Meditate with Urmila: Find balance of body, mind and breath - Gulf News