Meditation - How Will it Improve You?

Meditation is definitely good for you, the hard part is returning to your meditation each day. You have to do practice daily, to see meditation's effects arise in you. You have to trust that you will begin to notice them little by little. Keep practicing your meditation, using whichever meditation technique works for you. And after a time, you will begin noticing subtle differences in your way of looking at the world, of understanding the world.

Here are some benefits you will notice after having practiced meditation daily for some time. You will begin to notice that:

• You are not constantly pushed and pulled by chaotic circumstances around you.
• You maintain your emotional state more consistently and don't get thrown into a negative emotional state by things that happen to you.
• You have created a space for yourself, a refuge from the external world that you can come back to whenever you need to.
• You will find that you have become more centered, less affected by the circumstances swirling around you.
• You start to be able to dictate the pace at which you live your life.
• A reassuring calmness begins to be present in you.
• Material objects have less hold on you; you find you are not as attached to them as you were before.
• The constant seeking for entertainment lessens. You start to actually enjoy hanging out by yourself, with yourself.
• It is not as easy for other people to make you feel a certain way, to transfer their feelings to you. You find that because you are more centered within yourself thanks to meditation, it takes a lot more to make you angry, or that you are no longer as fearful of the future as before, and no longer as sad about the past.
• Meditation will clear the insanity from your life; it gives you the mental clarity to see things how they really are, not how we think they are or how we are told they are--but how they really are.

The quietness, peace, and inner strength that meditation helps develop within your Self will begin to ripple into other areas of your life. You will change for the better, because you will have a better understanding of your Self.

Autor: Alex Hroz

About the Author: Alex Hroz writes and meditates daily. He writes about meditation and methods, techniques to enter the meditative state from a 5-acre plot of land that has been purposefully kept in its natural state. To read more about how to meditate go to his site, http://www.squidoo.com/meditation-books You have full permission to reprint this article, provided this box is kept unchanged (links are not removed).

Added: July 3, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

How to Use the Sun to Avoid the 1 Mistake in Lucid Dreams How to Optimize Your Brain Chemistry

Here in Part 6 you'll find out how to use the sun to avoid the #1 mistake in O.B.E.s & how to optimize your brain chemistry.

Plus - The ONE O.B.E. induction I would use if I was not allowed to use any others.

The #1 Biggest Mistake Almost Everyone Makes!!

Here's a mistake I see almost EVERYBODY make. This is not their fault since most of the books on O.B.E.s are actually telling them to make this mistake. People often ask for advice on forums about how to induce O.B.E.s. The posts often start out saying: "Last night I went to bed to do an O.B.E."

Here they've actually already made the cardinal O.B.E mistake. The mistake is: Don't do your O.B.E. attempts at night (like most books say). Instead do them in the early morning!!!

Optimal Brain Chemistry Is All About Timing

Optimal O.B.E. brain chemistry is all about timing and your body's circadian rhythm. I've had literally thousands of O.B.E.s in the early morning. I've had fewer than ten at night.

Circadian Rhythm Brain Chemistry

The two main chemicals involved are called serotonin and melatonin

Serotonin Is Your 'On' Switch

Serotonin is your on switch and helps you stay alert and lucid. It's a "feel-good" neurotransmitter which helps your brain's neurons transmit signals more freely.

Melatonin Is Your 'Off' Switch

Your body uses serotonin to make melatonin which is your off switch and helps you relax. It tells your body to shut down for sleep and begin repairing. Melatonin stimulates the immune system. It's also associated with anti-aging and the human growth hormone and is an antioxidant.

The Melatonin Circadian Rhythm

Serotonin is made when your body is exposed to light. Melatonin is made from serotonin at night in the dark. Melatonin breaks down under light. This creates the melatonin circadian rhythm

At night time you have very little melatonin. It starts increasing around dusk and peaks around 2 to 4 AM. It then breaks down again at dawn.

The Cortisol Circadian Rhythm

The other secret ingredient is the 'fight or flight' hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is depleted throughout the day but then surges back in the early morning in preparation to wake you up. The interplay between cortisol and melatonin creates THE ideal sweet spot for O.B.E.s in the early morning.

The Circadian Sweet Spot: 4 To 5:30 Am

This sweet spot is between around 4 AM and 5:30 AM. During the sweet spot relaxation is easy because of relatively high melatonin levels and you've been relaxed for several hours during sleep. Alertness is easy because cortisol brings with it a rush of two other stimulants called epinephrine and norepinephrin. These stimulants are meant to help wake you up but you can use them for dream alertness instead

The Worst Time For O.B.E.s

Bed time is the single worst time of all for O.B.E.s because your brain chemistry is geared for the opposite of lucidity at that point. Instead it's geared for zonking out which is what always happens in the questions I see in forums. At bed time you're low on cortisol and melatonin. By the time you've relaxed enough to fall asleep your cortisol levels are so low you have virtually no chance or regaining lucidity.

"Wake Back To Bed" Is The Single Most Powerful Trick!

So that's the wrong way to do it. Here's the right way to do it. In fact if there was only one method I could use, this is the one. It's called "wake-back-to-bed" and was invented by former NASA engineer Dr. Albert Taylor.

He's also the author of an excellent book called "Soul Traveler" which I definitely recommend.

How To Use The Circadian Sweet Spot

Here's how wake-back-to-bed works. Get up in the early morning during the O.B.E sweet spot, stay awake for a period of time then go back to sleep. Use the sleep paralysis methods we covered earlier and you'll likely have spontaneous O.B.E.s and lucid dreams. We'll use wake back to bed as the foundation for more an even more advanced induction later on called the timer method.

Why Wake Back To Bed Rocks The Hizzouse

The reason wake back to bed works so well is because of the fundamental theorem of sleep paralysis. If you wake up and fall asleep in the early morning you're pretty much begging for sleep paralysis and spontaneous lucid dreams. In fact before I knew anything about O.B.E.s I used to have waking paralysis episodes all the time and didn't know why. It was really irritating to wake up and not be able to move. I later realized it was because I was not sleeping well and was waking up for a few minutes and then going back to sleep without moving. That caused the paralysis and it's the basis for pretty much all our other induction tricks.

So how do you improve on wake back to bed? The immediate answer is to tweak the amount of time you stay awake before going to sleep again.

Tweaking The Time You Stay Up: Two Options

You have two options:

Option 1: Wbtb + No Movement

1.) The first is to stay up a short period. For this strategy you wake up, don't move at all (don't even move your eyes), fall back to sleep and keep awareness on your body for the sleep paralysis wave to come.

Option 2: Wbtb + Get Up In Between

2.) The second strategy is the long period. You wake up, get up, stay up for a while, then go back to bed.

Both approaches work well but which should you use?

Going right back to sleep without moving makes it very easy to fall asleep again. However it's very likely that you'll fall completely asleep and not become lucid. Even so this is the method I use most because it requires no planning or effort.

With option 2 where you get up from bed for a while, it's harder to fall asleep again. However it is very likely that you will become lucid if you do sleep. Research by Dr. Stephen LaBerge has shown getting up for an hour before going back to bed significantly increases lucidity.

My personal experience and most the people I've advised suggests 45 minutes works a slightly better than an hour. Several people who were not able to have success by staying up for an hour were able to have O.B.E.s simply by changing the wakefulness period to 45 minutes. Waiting until you start yawning again is a good rule of thumb.

Daytime Sunlight Increases O.B.Es

The amount of sun you get has a giant impact on your ability to have O.B.E.s because your body needs sun in order to make serotonin. Get at least an hour of outside sunlight at day break and sundown. Those are the best times to get sunlight without risk of a sunburn because the sun is so low in the sky.

1 Hour Of Gradual Darkness Before Bed Slays Insomnia

At night, make sure to turn the lights down at least an hour or so before going to bed. The body is not designed for the abrupt light to dark change that you get with artificial lighting. By turning the lights down gradually, you'll simulate sunset and greatly reduce and chance of insomnia.

Tv Before Bed Wrecks O.B.E Inductions

Finally, always avoid TV at night. The first problem with TV is that it prevents the gradual period of darkness you need before sleep.

The second problem is more subtle. Research by psychophysiologist Thomas Mulholland showed that within 30 seconds of watching TV your brain enters an alpha state. There isn't anything wrong with an alpha state by itself, in fact there are a lot of benefits to alpha waves which are beyond the scope of this section.

Tv & Pot Put The Brain In Alpha

The problem is that in alpha the mind is much more suggestible than normal. Alpha is actually the state the brain enters in response to smoking pot. Watching TV is not the same as smoking pot but that is the direction TV is taking your brain by putting it in alpha.

Tv Causes Switch To Emotional Thinking And Numbs Critical Thinking

Herbert Krugman also showed that TV causes the left hemisphere to virtually shut down and the right hemisphere to become twice as active as the left. The left hemisphere is what the brain uses for critical thinking and analysis while the right side is more emotional. This switch from left to right causes the brain to release a surge of opioids into the bloodstream which has an anesthetic effect on the mind.

Brain Mush Mode Is Bad News For O.B.E.s

This is why watching TV for a long time makes it feel like your brain has turned to mush. The combination of these three effects:

First being awash in opioids, secondly having a numbed left hemisphere and third being tuned to an alpha state leaves the brain very susceptible to suggestion.

Brain mush mode opens the gate for all the commercials and other junk on TV to go directly past the mind's usual critical thinking defenses. If you go to sleep in that state it leads to hazy dreams. If you do have an O.B.E in that state it's very unlikely to be very clear.

In the next section we'll cover the fastest way ever to have O.B.E.s and lucid dreams. This technique is the missing piece that I wish I'd had when I first started doing O.B.E.s. It's is called "the timer method" and allows you to cheat and easily trigger as many O.B.E.s as you want - without using visualizations at any point.

Autor: Nick Newport Nick Newport
Level: Basic PLUS
Want to lucid dream tonight? Check out the free guide I wrote: "How To Trick Your Body Into Falling Asleep To Have Lots of Amazing ... ...

Want to see how to lucid dream tonight? Nick is the author of "Lucidology 101: How To Trick Your Body Into Falling Asleep To Have Lots of Amazing Lucid Dreams". Click the link to download it free and watch free videos on how to optimize brain chemistry for lucid dreaming

Added: July 2, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Binaural Beats Make Meditation Easier and More Rewarding

It is generally known that meditation is very helpful for relieving stress, overcoming depression, improving creativity, better health and a whole host of other benefits. There is no question that it is worth the effort to learn how to meditate effectively, but learning and implementing takes time and dedication. The technology of a binaural beats mp3 can make the meditation process easier, quicker, and more enjoyable and productive.

The focus of meditation is to relax the body and mind so that we can open the door to the subconscious mind. It is while the brain is in the subconscious state that we can make positive changes that will manifest themselves in our daily activities, outlook on life, and improved interactions with people.

In order to get into a subconscious state, brainwave activity must be lowered from the high range of beta (12-20Hz) into the alpha range (8-12Hz). Alpha is a state of total relaxation but still with a certain level of consciousness and awareness. You can feel an alpha state of mind when you close your eyes and allow yourself to relax for a moment.

In normal meditation you try to relax and clear your mind to allow the brain to slow down. But this can be a battle if the mind is constantly racing with thoughts of all your daily problems. As a result you are never able to fully get into and maintain the relaxed alpha state, so meditation efforts are not as productive as they should be.

A binaural beats mp3 helps to achieve these objectives by coaxing the brain into the alpha state. It does this by creating a low frequency tone to synchronize both hemispheres of the brain to the frequency range of 8-12 Hz. This external stimulus is accomplished by listening to the specially designed binaural beats recordings while wearing a set of stereo headphones.

Maintaining a deep meditative state is crucial to get good results. The binaural beats recordings are sort of like training wheel on a bike. They help you get where you want to go more quickly and easily and without falling down.

Autor: Jim Woodruff Jim Woodruff
Level: Platinum
Jim Woodruff, MBA, is a management consultant who writes on issues that confront business owners and individuals. These include management issues, health, and income producing ... ...

To get a free sample recording and for more understanding about binaural beats and meditation, visit http://www.squidoo.com/Binaural-Beats-MP3 Learn right now how to download binaural beats mp3's and start getting positive results from your meditation sessions today.

Jim is a management consultant who helps individuals and business owners with stress management, motivation, confidence building, improving performance, and overcoming addictions.

Added: June 27, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

How to Meditate For Beginners in a Relaxing Manner

Meditation provides many benefits if done properly. How to meditate for beginners in a relaxing manner? This question requires sufficient explanation. The key to success for beginners lies in the adherence to the rules of meditation so that there is something that stimulates the body and provides a nice feeling. Meditation can be completed by doing simple steps. Once the beginners complete meditation, it helps them unwind and be more positive in the surrounding environmental conditions. The success of medication will bring a sense of relief and satisfaction in the body of the person doing it.

The rule number one is to locate a secluded and hushed environment that will help you complete the simple steps of meditation. No external disturbances should be allowed during the meditation process. The Individual should concentrate and focus on meditation without paying attention to external disturbances. This will lead to a satisfying feeling.

Rule number two is to focus on your body parts and try to relax them. This should start with the feet and then spread to other parts of the body. Once the body is relaxed, start with pranayam, the slow breathing exercise. This meditation technique will provide spiritual power and enhance the body forces for your well-being.

Rule number three is to try out pratyahara, the meditation technique that pulls you apart from the worldly distractions and helps you be a silent observer of every thought of your soul and mind. This is done in a neutral way and you should not try to prevent the flow of thoughts in your body. It should be allowed to flow normally.

Rule number four is related to the benefits of doing meditation on a daily basis. The beginners should follow a meditation routine. There should be an attempt to do meditation twice a day. Certain meditation related objects or candle should be used for concentration enhancement. This object should be located 30 cm away from the place where you are meditating. You should gaze at the object, and then relax. This will ultimately help in concentration improvement.

Autor: Trevor Johnson

Find the easiest way to meditate for beginners and discover the best meditation method for you.

Added: June 24, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

The Law of Attraction Part 2 - Powerful Meditation Techniques to Manifest Intention

In my last article about the Law of Attraction, I outlined 4 steps in a process of manifesting intent in your life. In this follow up article, I want to give specific ways that you can make your intentions more powerful and real. The more vivid, clear, and concrete your intention is, the quicker and closer the outcome will be to what you imagine.

See yourself in it: When you see yourself inside the scene that you wish to happen, you make it that much more powerful. Imagine seeing yourself in the exact mood, surrounding, and situation that you would like to happen, you can even bring in other people that will help you make this manifestation become reality. Clarity, focus, and realism are key.

Action: When you see the scene happening, try to create action, aliveness, and vividness. If there are people, they can be moving, talking, cheering, smiling. If there are no people, see yourself in motion, get some feeling into this mental movie and make sure you can actually feel the motion in your body, that is one sign that your body is going along with the mental movie.

Focused: Make sure that you clear your mind, before beginning this meditation. A clear mind is able to focus much more then a distracted and scattered one. It is the difference between a light bulb that scatters light everywhere and a laser beam that hits a small spot with all it's power - 100' away from the source. You want your intention to be that focused, and clear so that there can be no doubt or confusion as to what you want to manifest.

Multi-sensory: Because life is perceived through all of the senses, the mental movie should mimic real life as much as possible. Therefore, if your intention is to have the perfect chocolate cake on Thursday, you should be seeing the cake, smelling the cake, tasting the cake. Meanwhile, imagine the feeling of holding that fork in your hand as you bring the first piece to your mouth. The more senses are involved, the stronger the intention will be.

Time: The frequency with which you repeat this meditation will also determine the speed with which it manifests itself. In my own life, if I want to attract something or somebody, I practice this meditation daily until the imaginary outcome becomes the real thing. Running through this exercise for the first time may take a while, but once it is well formed it becomes easy, quick, and much more clear. The power and effect increase dramatically with every repetition similar to practicing any other skill, the more you do it, the better you get.

Autor: Vlad Moskovski Vlad Moskovski
Level: Platinum
Vlad Moskovski was born in Russia and at a young age moved with first to Israel and then to the United States. Intrigued by yoga ... ...

To learn more about the Law of Attraction visit my previous article here. Visit his website at: http://www.meditationsecretsrevealed.com/ to discover meditation secrets and techniques to unlock your maximum potential

Vlad Moskovski was born in Russia and at a young age moved with first to Israel and then to the United States. Intrigued by yoga from a young ago, Vlad began his studies of yoga while attending Rutgers University in NJ. During that time, he began exploring additional meditative traditions and working with Zen, Taoist and Tai Chi practitioners. A recent graduate of the NLP Center of NY, he has recently begun writing and teaching about meditation in order to inform a wide audience about the benefits of this ancient tradition.

Added: June 22, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Increase Your Energy With Binaural Beats

The main reason for writing this small article is to help bring to the forefront this amazing new technology and acquainting you with binaural beats. If you are going to use this technology you need to know how it works and the potential benefits.

Using binaural beats can help to liberate you from past traumas, emotional baggage, negative self-defeating beliefs and reprogram your mind by freeing you and your thoughts from these chains of self oppression. The one question on everyone's mind is does this technology work? We must learn more about this technology before we can answer that.

Binaural Beats are specific frequencies that take you into a deep state of meditation using the latest innovations in sound technology. This can be accomplished by mixing different audio frequencies, which are specifically intended to alter the brain waves of the person listening to the recording. Using a set of headphones is necessary in achieving the specific Alpha, Beta and Theta brainwave states.

Brain wave changes bring about a chemical change in our bodies and can produce a significant overall change in us both emotionally and physically. There is a similar effect between using binaural beats and using different meditation techniques to cause profound physical and emotional changes. One important thing to mention is that there are very few people that can get to these advanced states without many years of meditation. The benefits of using binaural beats as a means to reaching these deeper levels of insight are becoming more obvious.

One important added benefit of using binaural beats is that it enables you to access your subconscious mind, that part of our consciousness, which remains just below our conscious threshold. In order to reach the deep meditative states of Alpha and Theta, you should use binaural technology along with other self improvement technologies such as bio-feedback. This technology will help you to change the deep seated beliefs you have about yourself and help you to heal yourself emotionally.

One other added benefit is the energy boost you get, which can equate to getting several hours of sleep. It is believed that using binaural beats on a daily basis can bring about the following benefits:

1. Create deep meditative states.
2. Super charged creativity and increased intelligence.
3. The aging process is slowed.
4. By removing emotional blocks and previous psychological traumas you will create many extraordinary changes.
5. Help to eliminate stress & anxiety.

The truly wonderful thing about using binaural beats is that the user doesn't have to do very much aside from just listening and reaping the benefits. Just put on a pair of headphones and let the technology go to work.

Autor: Kevin Forrester

Discover new ways of programming your subconscious for effortless personal growth by learning about the benefits of meditation and also taking your meditations to a new level with the aid of binaural beats. Visit How To Meditate for more tips and techniques.

Added: June 21, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

A Comprehensive Higher Balance Institute Review

I am sure that anyone interested in meditation and spirituality will find everything they are looking for in the Higher Balance Material.

I have been using this meditation program for three years now and I can tell you that I have had many wonderful experiences that can only be described as life altering. I have always just been a regular guy raising a family and trying to deal with the stresses of everyday life. What I found was much more.

It opened me up to the realization of how unique and powerful I really am. I now have the tools and insight I need to unlock the powers of my mind and has given me more prosperity than I ever could have imagined.

I am happier and more at ease with myself, and others around me. I have always been apprehensive and a little unsure of myself and others, but this has changed the way I now view reality and my place in this world. Through the use of the Higher Balance Meditation Program I was able to recognize the many different personalities that I identified as me and was able to break free from these illusions to discover the real me.

If you are like many of us, you have often thought about using meditation to improve many parts of your life. It's no secret that meditation can help you reduce anxiety, attract wealth, and even experience physical healing. The problem is that most people don't know how to meditate to gain all these positive benefits.

Lucky for us there is a very effective and easy to use system, which will show you how to get the most out of your meditations - It is the Higher Balance Meditation program.

Continually refining this system for the past 15 years, Eric Pepin has designed the Higher Balance Multi-Dimensional Meditation Technique to allow novices and experienced meditation practitioners alike to benefit from it immediately. Through this system for awaking dimensional consciousness, thousands of people have been able to tap into their full potential, and achieve more than they ever thought possible.

One of the most common reasons why people are unable to achieve their goals and live in a state of calm awareness is the presence of the "babbler". This inner voice is constantly distracting you with mindless chatter and filling your head with self defeating unproductive thoughts. Referred to as the "monkey mind" by Chinese Buddhists this negative, unfocused mind chatter more closely resembles that of an animal and not that of a human being. Still, many of us are unable to turn the "babbler" off - if we are even aware that it exists.

This unique meditation system has all the tools you need to completely quiet the "babbler" - regardless of what you are doing or where you are - so you will be able to focus on being more productive and enrich your meditations for a more positive outcome. There is no need to learn any complicated techniques to turn off the "babbler" - the Awakening Dimensional Consciousness program will teach you to quiet the "babbler" effortlessly with a 70 minute guided meditation audio technique. The more you listen to the guided meditation, the more easily you will be able to clear your thoughts.

Not only is quieting the "babbler" important to your overall health and personal achievement, it will allow you to get a much needed restful, healing sleep. You will finally begin to experience incredible energy and perfect health, which is the very basis of your emotional, spiritual and mental awakening.

The Higher Balance system will also help to lower your levels of cortisol and lactate-2, which are caused by increased stress and anxiety. These poisonous chemicals contribute to a wide range of ailments, including premature aging, diabetes, cancer, and strokes.

The incredible potential of meditation has remained a secret to many people, until now. The truth is that even now many people don't understand what meditation can help them achieve. The Higher Balance Meditation System is an excellent tool to use if you are ready to enjoy clarity of mind, superb health and life changing personal achievement. You get a truly unique, comprehensive program that is easy to use and takes all the guess work and mystery out of meditation and unlocks it's true power.

There is no need to wait any longer to experience the power of the Higher Balance Meditation System - The whole program is available right now for an immediate download. Find out in a few minutes how you can start enjoying better health, reduce your stress and anxiety,better sleep and achieving all the goals you never thought was possible.

Autor: Frank Iamin

The benefits of meditation can't be denied and after meditating for many years it is my opinion that we will all live a longer stress free life if we just learn how to meditate.
Learn even more about Higher Balance by visiting My Meditation Website.

Added: June 20, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/