Meditation

 What is meditation

 Gratitude is a fullness of heart
that moves you from limitation and fear
to expansion and love.
When you're appreciating something,
your ego moves out of the way.
You can't have your attention on ego
and gratitude at the same time.
You can't have your attention on fear
and gratitude at the same time.
When you're grateful, fear disappears.
When you're grateful, stress disappears.
Gratitude helps us connect with something outside ourselves,
often transcendent and larger than ourselves.
By the end of this exercise,
you'll find a positive emotional state
by simply focusing on the parts of your life
that you are most thankful for.
Appreciate the abundance in your life.
Being grateful is an energizing way to start your day
and a relaxing way to end it.
Gently close your eyes.
Place both of your hands on your heart,
and relax your whole body,
and take a feel deep breath
(instructor breathes in and out deeply)
and breathing slowly through your nose.
(instructor breathes in and out slowly)
Ask for the feeling of gratitude
to show up in your body now.
If you feel nothing, just wait and be patient.
Maybe you'll feel just a warmth
or maybe a little pressure or movement.
Be patient, whatever the feeling is,
don't discount it, just move your awareness to it.
Who do you appreciate?
Visualize their faces.
Yes, and physically reach out in the air
with both of your hands, and grab them,
and put them in your heart.

Who are you grateful for for having in your life today?
Maybe it's your spouse, your loved ones,
your family, your kids, and your friends.
Picture them one by one.
Yes, and grab them, and put them in your heart
as if you're giving them a big hug, yes.
Who else are you grateful for for having in your life today?
How are you fortunate?
What are you grateful for?
Go ahead and say it.
Yes, touch it, physically grab it and put it in your heart.
What are you grateful for?
Say it.
Now, notice your improved feeling,
and be appreciative of the way you feel,
and ask for the feeling to amplify
10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times.
And what material possessions are you thankful for?
Picture them and physically grab them,
and put them in your heart.
Go for it now!
What abilities do you have that you are grateful for?
Visualize them and physically grab them,
and put them in your heart now.
Pay attention to your senses.
Everything is seeing, hearing, feeling, and smelling,
maybe even tasting, and see how many things
you can find to be grateful for.
What an amazing and blissful feeling.
In the center of gratitude, you are everything
and have everything anyone could ever want.
What relationships are you thankful for?
Feel the love, compassion, and understanding
that gratitude brings into your heart.
What are you taking for granted that,
if you stop to think about it, you are grateful for?
What is there about the challenges and difficulties
you have experienced that you can be thankful for?
Yes, what have you learned?
How have you grown?
Feel the love, feel the joy,
feel the happiness, own it.
It's all yours.
Notice how the anger disappears.
Notice how the guilt disappears.
Notice how the fear disappears.
Imagine losing some of the things
that you take for granted
such as your home,
your ability to see or hear,
your ability to walk,
or anything that currently gives you comfort.
Then, imagine getting each one of those things back,
grab them one by one, faster yes, put them in your heart
and consider how grateful you would be
for each and every thing you already have.
And ask for the feeling to amplify
10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times.
And notice how the feelings get stronger and stronger.
And, just for a few moments, consider the things
you have in your life that you could be grateful for,
all the nurturing relationships, the material comforts,
body and the mind that allows you to understand yourself
and everything around you.
Just breathe and be grateful for the air
that is filling your lungs and making your life possible.
Simply feel your body and your aliveness,
and acknowledge what a miracle it is
just to be alive right now.
Allow your awareness to appreciate what you're seeing,
smelling, and touching just at this moment,
and you will find yourself in the middle
of the stream of life without trying at all.
Now continuing in this relaxed state of gratitude,
you're going to allow yourself to take a journey.
Feeling relaxed, peaceful, and calm,
allow yourself to imagine your ideal life.
This is your personal vision for yourself.
As negative thoughts like I can't have that,
I can't do that or that's not possible arise,
gently release them.
Right now, you can create any life you want,
and you won't need any baggage for this trip.
Take a moment and pack up your worries
and cares in a suitcase.
Actually, physically close the case.
Put it down and leave it there.
Imagine yourself leaving it behind
feeling peaceful and relaxed.
Let's begin your journey.
Put both of your hands in the air.
Imagine a bright white light shining above your head.
Let the light fill your whole being with peace and love.
Let it penetrate every cell in your body,
every tissue in every organ.
Imagine that you're traveling into your ideal life,
a life in which you can and have achieved your dreams.
See the person you are in this vision.
Everything that you have wanted
has come into your world.
Your dreams effortlessly came true.
Your dreams effortlessly came true.
Your confidence is restored and your trust
and believe all of who you are.
You no longer question anything you desire,
you trust the universe.
What are you doing?
Yes, see it, feel it, live it.
Where do you live?
Who are you with?
Notice everything you see
and take a moment to absorb it all.
How are you making a living?
How are your finances?
See everything in as much detail as possible,
and ask for further clarity if you need.
What are your surroundings like?
What are you doing for spiritual growth?
How do you spend your leisure time?
Yes, how does it feel to be you?
And notice everything that you see,
and take a moment to absorb it all.
Is there anything that could make this vision even better?
Remember, there's no boundary to your thoughts.
Go for it now!
On the count of one, two, three,
I want you to say the word freedom.
One, two, three, go for it!
On the count of one, two, three,
I want you to say the word freedom twice as loud.
One, two, three.
And on the count of one, two, three,
I want you to say the word freedom one last time
as loud as you could.
One, two, three!
See it, feel it, live it!
In a few moments, we will prepare
to return from our journey.
Is there anything more you would like to explore
before we leave this vision?
Take a moment to express gratitude
for all you have seen in your vision.
Imagine yourself slowly traveling back to the present
enriched by this vision, and when you're ready,
slowly open your eyes.
Take a moment and see your life and yourself
in the present through those eyes.

Benefits of Meditation

For thousands of years people have practiced meditation for spiritual, emotional, and physical
well being. But from a scientific perspective, how exactly does meditating affect your body?
Does it really do anything?
It all starts in the brain! During meditation, brain-scans see increased activity in regions
directly correlated with decreased anxiety and depression, along with increased pain
tolerance. The Default Mode Network, in particular, is activated when one’s mind is at rest
and not focusing on the outside world, and has been found to improve memory, self awareness
and goal setting. Want to be more caring to your friends and family? When scientists compared
the brains of Buddhist monks to new meditators, they found the region of the brain associated
with empathy to be much more pronounced in the monks. It also literally changes your
brain waves - and we can measure these frequencies. Meditators have higher levels of Alpha waves,
which have been shown to reduce feelings of negative mood, tension, sadness and anger.
And if that wasn’t enough, it also physically changes our brain shape and size. Studies
found that after 8 weeks of a meditation program, gray matter was more dense in areas associated
with learning, memory processing, and emotion regulation. And yet the amygdala, which deals
with stress, blood pressure and fear, had decreased gray matter!
When we look at the entire body, not only do we see decreased blood pressure, but it
can also increase the variability of your heart rate. While this may sound harmful,
it actually plays a critical role in properly transporting Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide throughout
your body. Think your getting sick? In a study where both meditators and non-mediators were
given the flu virus, meditators were able to produce a greater number of antibodies
and had increased immune function.
If we go a little deeper, we can even see changes on a cellular level. Your chromosomes
have protective protein complexes called telomeres, which help reduce damage to your DNA and lower
cell death. And a shortened telomere length has been linked to several disease such as
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cancer. Amazingly, when cancer survivors
completed a meditation program, their bodies showed significant increases in telomere length.
It’s believed that psychological intervention, particularly decreasing stress, has a direct
effect on the enzyme telomerase, which has been shown to counteract shortening by adding
DNA to the shrinking telomeres.
Of course, meditation is not a substitute for other medical advice or a healthy lifestyle
- we don’t want you leaving this video thinking it will cure cancer. But much like hitting
the gym can grow your muscles and increase your overall health, it seems that meditation
may be a way of ‘working out’ your brain with extra health benefits. And since your
brain controls, well...all of you, why not relax and say ‘om’ every once in a while.