| Do you feel that life takes on a life of its own? | | | | health. Often stress can manifest itself in the |
| Our daily lives have become a ritual of hectic | | | | form of allergies, anxiety disorders, asthma, binge |
| demands and along with those demands comes | | | | eating, cancer, depression, fatigue, heart disease, |
| keeping a hectic pace to keep up with life's | | | | high blood pressure, pain, sleep problems, and |
| demands. As such, we feel stressed and | | | | even substance abuse. Many healthy people use |
| over-worked. There is simply is no time to meet | | | | meditation as a means to relax the body and |
| all of the demands in a day's time. By not meeting | | | | reduce stress. With any medical condition that |
| those demands, we are left feeling stressed and | | | | may be worsened by stress, meditation helps to |
| pressured. In turn, stress can even affect our | | | | promote physical and emotional well being. During |
| health. Due the daily pace that we keep, you may | | | | meditation, you focus your attention and eliminate |
| want to consider practicing meditation. At this | | | | the stream of 'mind chatter' that often crowds |
| point, I may have lost you since the next | | | | your mind and causes increased stressed. You |
| question is how can I squeeze an additional ten to | | | | clear away the mind overload that builds up daily, |
| fifteen minutes a day by doing meditation? The | | | | and also contributes to our stress. The |
| mere thought spawns another round of stress. | | | | visualization of images enables you to visualize |
| To stop the mind chatter, consider for a moment | | | | solutions to your problems, creates a happy being |
| that meditation can be practiced anywhere and | | | | both internally and externally, and keeps the mind |
| anytime. Yes, you read it correctly. If we can find | | | | focused on positive results. The benefits do not |
| those precious minutes to invest, we can open up | | | | end when the meditation session has ended but |
| ourselves to a calmer mind and to be more | | | | can help carry you more calmly through the day. |
| focused to accomplish the daily demands of our | | | | The simple truth is that meditation can be |
| life. The practice of meditation helps us to better | | | | practiced by anyone, is simple and inexpensive, |
| understand our own mind. By spending ten to | | | | and does not require any special equipment. The |
| fifteen minutes a day, we can open ourselves to | | | | beauty is it can be practiced anywhere, anytime |
| overcoming stress, find inner peace, and find | | | | since we are constantly in touch with any one of |
| balance. Guided meditation can utilize the | | | | our senses at any given time. How often do we |
| assistance of an instructor or guide in order to | | | | find ourselves waiting for something or someone. |
| transform our thought processes from negative | | | | Did I trigger one of your senses so that you |
| to positive, from troubled to calm, and from sad | | | | found those ten or fifteen minutes to meditate |
| to happy through visualization. | | | | daily? By listening to a guided meditation CD during |
| To transform our stressful life into a more happy | | | | your commute to work, you have just began |
| and fulfilled one, the key with guided meditation is | | | | your day (or ended) on the right note. Or, think |
| to try to use as many of the senses as possible, | | | | of the time spent waiting in a doctor's office for |
| such as smells, sights, sounds and textures, in | | | | your appointment. During that time, you can |
| order to assist with creating visual images. The | | | | productively use that time for a greater cause, |
| goal is to get beyond reflective thinking but into a | | | | and that is you. For those moments waiting, you |
| deeper state of relaxation or awareness. The | | | | can visualize to relax your mind and your body. |
| instructor or guide will gently prompt visualizations | | | | The point is you do not have to attend a yoga |
| in order to assist you in answering questions or | | | | meditation class in order to reap the benefits of |
| problems. The emotional benefits to meditation | | | | guided meditation. However, if you like assistance |
| include gaining a new perspective on stressful | | | | by an instructor or guide, you can find on-line |
| situations, assisting with building skills to manage | | | | tools through various websites for on-line |
| stress, increasing self-awareness, retooling | | | | assistance and through the use of audio tools, |
| refocusing thoughts on the present, and reducing | | | | such as CDs, etc. Just find what works for you |
| negative emotions. | | | | and do it. |
| Studies have shown that stress can affect our | | | | |