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Meditation
Meditation

General information, impact & techniques

Meditation

What is meditation?

Some people believe that meditation is just an escape from our "normal" lives, from some painful feelings or situations we cannot bear or solve. In reality, we cannot look at meditation and denial of some life situation as something similar. Our experience showed us, that meditation is the exact opposite of the denial.

Meditation means to step out from the noisy confusion of the projected world and of ourselves for the simple and quiet clarity of here and now. Meditation is to stop and face up the reality with the acceptance and understanding. In meditation, we explore our minds openly and honestly without denying anything.


Meditation is when the meditator has their entire, or part of their attention directed inward to the thoughts, feelings, and the flow of energy monitoring and control. The meditator can search for the origin of thoughts, feelings and energy flows seen. Do you want to meditate and you don’t know how? Find instructions and guidance here!

meditation and magic

Do you need to slow down?
Do you want to understand in more detail your life and who you are?
Do you feel that something in your life is missing?
Do you feel empty and your life has no meaning?
Do you need to increase your self-confidence?
Do you need to understand your life and find your balance?

Why should I meditate?

Meditation

Alert and focused – these things are rare. Instead of being in the here and now. We can be distracted by our own worries and thoughts Meditation can counter these things. The benefit of meditation to our well-being has been demonstrated many times. Nevertheless, many believe meditation is not for them. Perhaps they know too little about this method.

The need to finally turn off to think about other things to leave the everyday rat race, to shake off the stress of space and perhaps to develop new ideas and goals – many of us can relate to this.

It is imperative that we feel equally at home in both states:

"Demands for a life of exertion and effort, to include periods of rest, relief and relaxation."

Usually we get the necessary balance in more detail, by simply sleeping, dozing off, dancing, or pursuing a hobby. But we are not always, able to let go of the tension in this way. And then what? Then we have to look for other ways. Meditation might be such a way, because it is first and foremost a method of relaxation.

And for all scientifically proven methods of relaxation: who controls them, not only learns serenity, but also alternative modes of action to respond to stress. The stress can be in everyday life, we can deal with stress better and learn to tolerate chronic pain.

Especially chronic stress, if we can not think of any possible solutions for the stress-causing situation and fail with all of the counter-strategies, it is helpful to pause to calm yourself and to look carefully at alternative ways of coping. The mediation techniques at hand will help you do just that.

Things I had to find out for myself

    How does the meditation work?

    Meditation

    Whether practicing yoga, Tai Chi, relaxation, aromatherapy or Zen meditation - all methods meets and declares similar things: "The meditating man deals with his mental states and processes, he exerts the conscious design of his own consciousness. "

    Meditation calms mind and body and the effect is that we have a more benevolent attitude towards ourselves. But how can this state be achieved? Just concentrating on your breath has proven itself. :

    "With a mindful breathing, we can exercise our inner need better and change towards the direction of peace and serenity."

    All these methods, which try to relax one's mind or focus inwards, help greatly to decrease our physical reactions to stress such as heart palpitations, and different feelings that are experienced as upsetting. That is the reason why after we meditate we feel not only physically relaxed but also mentally and emotionally "calmed down". The effect of meditation is not a mystical miracle. There is one fact, which can be proved: it is impossible to be relaxed and fearful at the same time.

    Since you are focusing on your breath, and consciously relaxing your body, you are able to step aside and to separate yourself from your thoughts. This interruption of thinking, that happens in the concentrated introspection, gives us even more opportunities than the short-term exit out of the stress: we get the chance to see our own situation from a different perspective - and possibly reinterpret it. If we feel stressed depends mainly on our assessment. Chronic, harmful stress, uncontrollable stress-response occurs only when we get stuck in a situation perceived as awkward and cannot get out of it with routine reactions. As we pause to recognise this, we may have the option to reinterpret what causes us stress as a "challenge" and thus it can be seen as a problem that must be tackled. For example, we could see a separation not as a disaster but as a chance to put things into new paths, a dismissal could provide the opportunity to consider again what kind of work you actually want to do. Perhaps, new ways of dealing with a chronic illness can show up as well.

    Therefore, a basic meditation practice is to look at your own thoughts “without judging them and let them go its own ways”. This may sound banal, but by watching our own thoughts from the outside and learning to see ourselves “thinking”, we gain fundamental new insights. Even this “view-in-distance” can help you to stop identifying with your own thoughts and it also contains the idea that we, theoretically, could think something different. Exactly that is the reason to ignore the rise of feelings, an itch on the foot, burning legs, while in meditation - we should sense it and let it go. Those who can do that, have already laid the foundation for the exit from the rat race..

    „The measurements of brain waves with the electroencephalography (EEG) and views from the interior of our Brain by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows us constant action in our head. By meditating the mind is also very active, but the pattern of activation and our mental state are fundamentally different. Instead of following the monkey who wants to be occupied, and to produce appropriate ideas, it looks calm calm.

    "By exercising to look at things from a different perspective, we are no longer completely identified with all the feelings and thoughts. This distance creates a growing confidence that even dissolves the biggest inner dramas, if we manage not to respond to our thoughts."

    Meditating not only strenghtens trust and confidence of being able to control your feelings. With focused introspection, we will also become more sensitive to everything we do. The beautiful colorful autumn foliage, the bright blue sky - these impressions we often don’t notice in everyday life.

    Literature:
    • Steve Hagen: Meditation – beginnt jetzt genau hier! Windpferd, Obersdorf 2010
    • Ulrich Ott: Meditation für Skeptiker. Ein Neurowissenschaftler erklärt den Weg zum Selbst. O. W. Barth, Frankfurt 2010

    Which position is best for meditation?

    There are more possibilities and you can choose, what suits best for your current situation and needs. The solution for people, who are not able sit down and stay still without movement is to walk slowly and observe &/or introspect. The same effect have also slowly performed Yoga exercises like Sun Salutation. With the walk or yoga exercises we cannot go very deep, so they are suited for beginners or for periods of life with lots of organising activities and changes (when we have too many thoughts to focus properly).

    For deeper meditations it is necessary to choose stabile and comfortable position. I recommend you to try meditate in lying position or Lotus-Position. The Lotus Position is very suited also for astral travels. I recommend you to experiment with different positions and observe, which position relax your body in a way, that you don't start to feel some tension or pain after several minutes of practicing of meditation. Sometimes is the lying position not good, because you can fall asleep (especially in the evening). So, the answer lies in your own practice and experience.

    Success & Discipline: Why we should enjoy the meditation?


    We can be good and successful only with things, we like and enjoy. This is relevant also for meditation. Meditation should be enjoyable. And should bring satisfaction. To feel like a reward. Don't push yourself anywhere. Of course, in order to have positive results, certain level of repetition and discipline is necessary. This is the essence of learning.

    Different people have different ways, how to rewards themselves. Some people reward themselves with a glass of good wine, some with cigarettes, or with sex. Others see reward in meditation, reading spiritual or motivational book or going to nature.

    Our recommendation is, not to set some special or huge "goals". For example, becoming more attractive, powerful, more spiritual or having special supernatural abilities.

    Meditation is a way, how to be happy. And being happy is the reward worthy trying. Of course, there are many other benefits, like increasing certain abilities and improving our capacity. But these things cannot be achieved by pushing and by force. Meditation improve the self-awareness. Through the meditation, you can improve your power of:

    • observation
    • concentration
    • letting things happen naturally
    Meditation naturally increases your power and improves your results. So, take this as very pleasant side effects.
    enjoy the meditation

    Foto © Pavol Malenky I Marion Daghan-Malenky I Daghan-Malenky GmbH I Erfahrungen Espenauer Str. 10, 34246 Vellmar

    Which meditation techniques are the best for me?


    To observe and not to react? Breathing exercises and observation? Concentration on a mantra, a yantra, on an affirmation or a light? Concentration on an angel, introspection, astral traveling or visualization?
    This is good and adequate question. The choice of your meditation technique should be influenced by: how long are you practicing meditation and what progress have you already achieved. It also depends on the goal you want to achieve. It is not possible to give a general instructions or a correct answer. We can take an example of running. Which training module is the best? How long have you been already training? Are you beginner or advanced? What is your goal? To improve your 100 m sprint or to run a marathon?
    We will go through all techniques and explain their essence.

    1. To observe and not to react

    It is the best to start with a technique „To observe and not to react“. It means, you need to focus your attention on your breath, your body and your energy. When you realize that your focus is again on thinking, return gently back into observation of the breath and body. This is the basic meditation technique. You should do it regularly, it will help you to realize, that you are not just this body, but you are also what you think and feel, and that you are also something beyond that all- immortal eternal soul. After practicing regularly this technique for some time, you will realize, that some problematic thoughts will be returning back again and again. Which thoughts are the most frequent, depends on your deep priorities, desires and believes. Which situations in your life are important? Where do you say often yes or no? The situations, which are too much yes or no, can be divided into two groups.
    First group are those situations and problems, you can change, and the second are those, you cannot change. For example, if someone wants a dream partner through love magic in a way: „I want that man no matter what. He has to become my lover/husband“ She says to this situation/reality too much of Yes. That means, she has to divide this situation into two parts, the first, which can be changed/controlled by her and the second, which cannot be controlled or influenced. For example, she can influence, how does she look like, what she says, how she will communicate. If she makes the best what she can and despite that he is not interested, this part of the reality should be surrendered to the Higher Power. If you try to control, what is beyond your power, it will make you feel exhausted and depressed, so this is just wasting of your energy.

    2. Introspection

    The second basic technique is introspection. Introspection means to question yourself: Why do i think this way? Why do i feel what i feel? Is my belief/opinion the truth? What lies behind my emotions? Are certain thoughts or emotions useful for me? Do they support me or do they limit me?
    For example: I wake up in the morning and i think, that everything is bad.... Is that really so? What makes me think like this? Why am i depressed? Because my partner left me? Is it really so bad? Will i really be forever alone? Can i do something to fix this? Do i want to fix this? Maybe i can try it.... And now you can analyze which part of this situation you can change and what you need to surrender into the Higher Power. Introspection will show you your thinking and its patterns/ programs, and will help you to realize, which are useful and which are destructive. Which limits your development? Will the feeling of being guilty move me forward or solve my situation? No! Failure is the part of the life. Being guilty just makes the problem bigger and our progress much harder. So, it makes more sense to focus on what i want.
    It gives me nothing, if i take things too personally, or thing in black and white mode, or if i jump into conclusions and assumptions too early. These processes mentioned above belong to introspection. You don’t need to stay still and sit while you are doing introspection. In fact, you can do it all the time. For those people, who want to develop further, the first challenge is a meditation practice. Those who meditate find out quickly, that their meditation is sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Meditation is not happening at all, when you are focused on your negative thinking. Meditation then, should be the tool for recognizing of these thinking patterns and taking control over the mind. It is good to be active with one part of your attention and to practice introspection. That means, to think and feel in a conscious way. To introspect consciously give you a chance to understand, which thinking patterns and goals are useful and move you further, and which go against you. If you practice the introspection continuously, as things are appearing during the day, and you don’t wait till the evening meditation, then will be your evening meditation much deeper.

    3. Breathing exercises and control of our breath

    The third meditation technique is „Breathing exercises and control of our breath“. Observation of your breathing can help you to go deeper into the meditation. There are moments, when you don’t have enough energy and/or you are anxious. In such moments, you can use your breath. In case of lack of energy, make your breathing deeper. This will bring more energy. This cannot be done too much, just in short time to balance the energy.
    After long and stressful day, it is also good to exhale really deeply, to breathe out all the air out of the lungs. This will make your inhalation also deeper. This will make you calmer and balance your energy. If you focus on your breathing consciously, it will free your mind from problems. This technique should not be applied for the whole meditation, just for the first 10 - 100 in and exhalations.

    4. Concentration

    The fourth technique we want to focus on is Concentration. In order to improve in this technique, you should start with focusing on something neutral like a light or color. You can choose different lights or colors to improve some quality or heal some chakra. Read here, which light represents which chakra. Later, you can focus on some mantra. Mantra is kind of a short prayer. Usually, the mantras in Sanskrit language begin with the word OM. Bible also says, that at the beginning, there was a word and this word was God. It is said, that the primordial sound is AUM (together OM), so mantra can begin with this sound and then continue with something else, like“Om SO ham“, or „OM, SO HAM SHRI DEVA PURISA MAHADEVAYA NAMAHA“, or „OM MANI PADME HUM“. Mantras don’t have to be in Sanskrit, but they should be said repeatedly, and serve as autohypnosis. For example, you can say mantra „Every next day, I feel better and better.“, „Every next day, I am closer to success.“ „Today, I am healthier than yesterday.“ You need to formulate mantras in a way, that you feel, they are correct, true. And you can identify with them. If you cannot believe in what you are saying, it will not work. Take this extreme example: someone has a cancer.
    If this person will repeat all the time something like I am healthy, then he cannot believe in this mantra, because he knows his diagnosis. And this way, it will not work.
    If one says: I am not only this body and mind, I am also immortal soul, this person understands, that soul is always healthy, so it would be wise to see oneself as soul. In such case, the mantra „I am healthy“, is truth. If someone doesn’t know, if there is soul inside of him, he should find another mantras he can identify with. For example: My body has its intelligence and this intelligence is healing me. It is important to feel, that your mantra is truth and you believe in what you say.
    These mantras connect you with your subconscious mind and give you a chance to re-program it. We recommend you to focus on mantras at the beginning or at the end of your meditation. You need to make your average meditation deeper, so that you can experience yourself in a thoughtless awareness as the Observer, or the soul. This experience will help you to re-program your mind to a positive mode. If you know, that you are immortal, you don’t have to fear anything. So, the meaning of your meditation is also to eliminate your fears and to live in more balance and joy.

    5. Visualization

    The fifth meditation technique is „Visualization“. We recommend you to use it at the beginning of your meditation together with breathing exercises. The main goal is to stay thoughtless, what can be sometimes really difficult. In order to be in the thoughtless awareness, one need to entertain the mind with something. You can use for this purpose mantras or sentences mentioned above. Your mind should serve you to achieve your goals, not to go against you. Therefore, you need to know, what are your goals. We recommend you to have a diary, where you can write your goals and desires from all possible areas of your life. You should write things as often as possible. This way, you will show your mind the direction it should go. If you are in a stressful situation, you should not focus on the problem, but on the solution. In difficult moments, you should focus on your goal.
    You need to search for possible solutions, not to allow negative thoughts to overwhelm our mind. It can be useful to focus at the beginning of your meditation on what you want to achieve. It is important to do it with positive emotions. There already are, somewhere in the Universal Mind, solutions, how to achieve your goals. Universe has a solution for everything! You need to focus on positive emotion, so that your subconscious mind is able to find it. Do not perform this technique for too long. If your goal lies on the top of the mountain, do not stare on the top all the time. Look also at the ground under your feet. When you are working with your visions, it is important to be in Here and Now. Create positive emotions, inside, and experience your vision here and now. This will help you keep the right direction. Then it is important to focus on the very next step, which you need to take and do what you have to do.

    6. Astral traveling

    The sixth meditation technique is astral traveling. This is completely different level which needs deeper meditation. During the transition to the astral plane, one looses contact with his/her body, like when we sleep. There are four phases of astral traveling:
    1. The state of trance
    2. Astral traveling of the first grade: this means to go consciously to the “place”, where people go when they sleep and have dreams, and then consciously to return back
    3. Astral traveling of the second grade: this means to go consciously to the “place”, where people go in their deep sleep, and then consciously to return back and remember everything
    4. Astral traveling of the third grade: this means to go consciously to the “place” where we all go after the death, one goers fully conscious there and returns back with information.
    These techniques are for advanced practitioners. You should try this after you are able to achieve thoughtless awareness and you know yourself well and you are able to control your emotions and life. To have control means to control all five elements within, to control the voices of these five essences in our mind. We recommend to read the article about Five inner voices. If you are interested to achieve such deep states, we recommend you to focus during your meditation on Shri Yantra and the flower of life. We recommend you to get up early in the morning, to meditate during the sunrise. After the meditation, you should go back to bed and try to sleep. One is in the state of shallow sleep, which is good for training of transition between state of being awake and sleep. After the concentration on Shri Yantra or Flower of life, you should go sleep. This technique is good for the training of astral traveling. For more information about the astral traveling, read the article here.

    Meditation

    SHATSAMPATTI – the six treasures

    In our mind are six very special hidden skills that will help us to certify the spiritual influence and overcome the internal barriers.

    Through meditation and observance of ethical principles, we can clean our mind, consciousness, intellect and ego to overcome false and poor adhesion and convert its destructive energy into good.

    These treasures are:Shama, Dama, Shraddha, Titiksha, Uparati, Samadhana.

    Shama is inner peace and serenity. This we achieve by withdrawing the mind and senses from the transmission of the external world and centering it in the inner self..

    Dama means self-control. When we restrain the senses, thoughts and feelings by mind (Buddhi), so that they do not run away like wild horses, we can avoid ill-considered actions and spare ourselves the resulting problems and suffering.

    Shradda is trust. Trust is something very fundamental in spiritual and secular realtions in every respect. Where faith is lacking, doubts arise and gradually destroy love.

    Whom should I trust? First of all, yourself. Many people have lost their confidence.

    Furthermore have faith in your path and your mission, so that nothing can distract you or even lead you astray. The path to perfection requires absolute confidence.

    Once you've chosen a path, do not be discouraged by difficulties. Truly believe in what you want to achieve and say to yourself, with inner certainty, "I will make it". Do not think: "I'll try it. " If so you're only paralyzing yourself. Bravely take the chance which fate gave you and put the result of your efforts in God's hands.

    Third, believe in your master and God with absolute trust. If you always doubt, you can not see the truth, even if it would be right in front your eyes.

    meditation qualities

    Uparati means to stand above things to depend on nothing and to fear nothing. If you are facing everything you encounter with a positive attitude, nothing can really harm you, because you can also draw valuable lessons from accidents. Fears and problems always arise when one fears to lose something. A rich man who surrounds himself with guards, locks and bars, is actually a prisoner of his property.

    Titiksha is equanimity and inner strength. Everyone knows that in life we are confronted with obstacles and difficulties over and over again. When was existence ever entirely free of problems? Don’t lose your nerves, even if the situation seems hopeless. Remember that nothing lasts forever. Only the self is immutable and eternal. Everything else is impermanent and transitory, beacuse the time proceeds inexorably. The body is changing every second, as well as the thoughts, feelings and situations. Never despair, even if you are doing badly. Pray to God for Titiksha, inner strength, courage and fortitude..

    Samadhana, the last of the six known treasures, means the inner awarness and goal-orientation. Never lose sight of the goal. If you encounter problems and resistance, sit down quietly, close your eyes and think about the situation. When an outburst of anger and rage threatens to overwhelm you, do not act immediately. Hold your distance and only observe the feelings.

    Mahaprabhuji said: "In high seas one should not be diving for pearls." Wait until the internal waves have smoothed back and ask yourself very gently and calmly the following questions.

    Therefore, Samadhana generally means to step back and observe. When the internal waves have calmed down, we can dive deep into our self. Only then we can see the truth and reality and understand the meaning of all the difficulties and suffering. By withdrawing the mind from external things, we can connect with the higher consciousness within us which knows the answer to all questions.

    What is meditation? Learn to meditate!

    Meditation is not a matter of faith


    The diverse effects of this relaxation method have now been scientifically proven!

    Recently, meditation, and concentrated introspection, have experienced a veritable boom in research: three quarters of all studies that have been published in the last five years. One basis of this research is the still relatively new knowledge, that our brain is still capable of learning in adulthood. Depending on how we use it, it builds up to our actions. A famous example is a study that examined the brains of London taxi drivers. It turned out that the areas for the "spatial memory" were much larger than for other people.

    Conclusions such as those were discovered only a few decades ago with the so-called "imaging". High-resolution pictures of brain structure provide, for example, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Not only that, because active neurons have higher oxygen and energy requirements, neuroscientists can even watch where in the brain those cells work. More recently, brain researchers now compare, what happens in the mind of meditators and non-meditators - and indeed have found evidence that points to many of the alleged effects on self-development.

    Meditation increases alertness, clarity and awareness: In one study, subjects were asked to simply react to the “right” stimulus among many others, presented in rapid succession. After just three-months of training in Vipassana meditation, the persons who practiced were more successful with this method than others. Also their brains began to act less against the unimportant stimuli.

    The fact, that in a short time of meditation, people may find it easier to deal with stress and their immune system is strengthened, suggests another recent study. Here, subjects responded after a six-week training in "compassion-meditation" less nervous when they were deliberately put under pressure - they were asked to give a lecture to an audience. Findings of a blood test pointed to better health of their immune system as well.

    Furthermore, researchers found in a brain region, the orbi frontal cortex, consistently more gray cells in meditators than in others. According to scientists, this area handles how we assess situations and react emotionally to them. Another study revealed that the density of nerve cells in this brain region is higher the longer someone practices meditation.

    Meditation improves the interpersonal interaction. By only a few minutes of meditating on "loving kindness”, study participants behaved more friendly to strangers and reacted less suspicious afterwards than others who had participated in a neutral Imagination exercise of equal duration.
    The neuroscientists Ulrich Ott subsumed in his book - Meditation for Skeptics - the research results: All previous studies, in which meditators were compared with others, show a higher density of gray matter, or an increase in brain areas, that are responsible for the following feelings, thoughts or actions:

    - body awareness and movement control - sense regulation and relearning for unpleasant experiences - Emotional assessment of situations and reactions - feelings of presence, joy and connectedness - focusing and maintaining attention - respiratory and circulatory regulation.

    Which diseases heals meditation, where can I find reliable empirical results?

    Especially for pain disorders, depression and anxiety disorders research results have proven the effect of meditation. Recently, meditation has also been successfully used in the treatment of eating disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD. Most studies exist for the effect of stress. Here is "Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction" (MBRS), currently the most researched program. An overview study, published in late 2009, showed positive results- after the eight-week training, participants had significantly fewer symptoms.

    What do I need to do in order to meditate without religious obligations?

    You can look around, where there are groups in your area that have a similar interest in the method without incorporating it into dogmatic thoughts. Groups that practice Zen are often highly interested in the method and practice meditation for self-purification, free from religious content. But not all groups are equal. It is best to check what each group offers. Look at the people and see exactly who you want to rely on in such a process of self development. I would suggest to make this decision based on the people and the feeling that you have around them - regardless of the method. There are, for example, in transcendental meditation, or Sahaja Yoga good people, that don’t have anything to do with the “surroundings” of the movement – which I personally see as very critical. In Buddhism, in Christianity, including yoga, everywhere you can find those self-declared gurus and charlatans - as well as centers with people who are clear, sincere and don’t want others to indoctrinating.

    Stressed out? Manager? Athlete? We offer customized stress management and meditation seminars!
    What is permanent in this world? Our body changes, our thoughts and emotions are like clouds on the sky, even our personality evolves… Wise men say, that only the point, from which everything has emerged, is permanent. It cannot be described, because it is above everything. Beyond everything, beyond all forms from smallest piece dust to biggest stars, there is hidden source of creation, the absolute Being, which is still and was never born. This Zero dwells in everything as Awareness, Light and subtle Joy without reason. In many sacred books is written, that a man can experience this state, this Being. Through meditation. In meditation, we can unify what is visible with those things, which are not visible. This way, we can achieve knowledge and enlightment.

    Meditation and Introspection

    In previous articles we spoke about benefits of meditation, we tried to explain, what meditation is and what it is not. We connected meditation with thoughtless awareness and ability to step aside and watch own thoughts. Improvements in this area can be achieved only by practice, no explanation, no instructions can help enough. The most effective help is the guidance of someone, who achieved the meditation state of awareness. The positive results in this area are about ability to control our mind. We all are unique personalities full of own abilities and also limits. Some people consider quite easy to watch own thoughts, other people with strong will have ability to stop the flow of thoughts for certain period. But there are also people, who cannot (especially at the beginning) sit quietly or they are not able to achieve thoughtless awareness. These people can be demotivated and say for themselves "This simply doesn't work on me."
    There is a way, how to achieve results also for these people. The tool is introspection. Introspection is defined as: "the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes". Most people have problems to control of thoughts, because they are not aware, how their inner world works. If we are for example very stressed, we simply cannot stop thinking. Why? Because our mind considers some life situation as emergency and has to be focused on this situation day and night, because "not to be focused there" could bring life danger!
    Know yourself!!! Search for the answers: "Why is this situation so strong?" "Is this stress or fear real?" "Am I really in emergency?" "What will happen to me, if my nightmare comes true?" The answers to these questions can reveal reality and maybe you realise, that some situation is not so dangerous for you and therefore you can be more relaxed. Your mind doesn't have to be so focused on something and your flow of thoughts won't be so intense.
    Or, there is another extreme, some dream we have. If we want something very much, we thing repeatedly about the situation, we play this movie about desired result again and again. This way, although it goes to positive feelings, is our mind also thinking too much. There is no space for peace there. Our nerves cannot relax and the reality of our life is again covered in smoke of thoughts.
    Introspection can give you real treasure: knowledge and peace. This is my own experience. More knowledge about myself is in me, more I am aware of reality, more peace is coming. And as the result of this, my mind is automatically calmer, I have no need to think too much about life and my vision is clear. Thoughtless awareness comes without special effort, because "there is nothing to think about".

    Introspection uncovers also another important thing: our perception of "reality" can be changed. "Reality" is in fact very relative and illusive. Modern disciplines like NLP call this phenomena the mental filters. Everyone has his/her own perception of reality, his own filter and put into consciousness only things, which resonate with his/her thinking patterns and conviction, how the world is and works.
    For example. Take to the summer park three different people, and they will see completely different things! Old lady will spot the plastic bottle on the grass and starts to complain, how this young people are rude. And if she won't spot any rubbish on the ground, she will complain about too warm weather. Young man, who likes nature, will speak about how beautiful the summer park is. Teenager will ask you, why you came to this weird place with strange green things everywhere….she simply likes more her social networks world with lots of friends and fun…
    Introspection will also help you to identify, which of your thinking patterns go against you and create in your life meaningless pain and suffering. Here are some most frequent thinking patterns, which put us down (because they distort the real situation, show you just one small piece of the puzzle and want you to believe, that it is the whole picture):
    1. Guilt. If we feel guilty, it means, that the situation will return back again. Why? Where is our focus, there flows also our energy and that thing grows. It is not important, if we focus on "yes" or "no". For example, a kid is learning riding a bike and mom tells him:"Be careful, there is a stone in the middle of the road!" A child spots the stone, get scared and rides directly into that stone. What will happen? Mother says:"O, you don't listen to me! I said don't do that!" Child thinks how stupid he is and feels guilty. This pattern repeats in many variations in many life situations. If we cannot do something, our attention is on what not to do, our focus is on the situation we don't want. This focus is an energy flow, and it leads us into the undesired situation. How to stop it? Adapt new life strategy:" There is nothing I should feel guilty about! Mistakes are human and I am a human. Mistakes are the part of final success. I need to try doing things again and again, failing many times, only then I can become a Master.
    introspection
    2. Taking things personally. For example, a boss is in a bad mood and he criticises his assistant. So, the assistant feels miserable, she thinks her work is bad or is angry, how unfair he is. But, in fact, this criticism has nothing to do with her or her work. In reality, the boss feels stressed and under pressure and this is only his unconscious reaction to his situation. Criticism is never personal and is not connected with the addressed person. In situation of being criticised, one should ask a question: "Are these words adequate? Is it really me, who is the cause of bad temper of that person?"
    3. Labelling (ourselves and others). We all have certain image about ourselves, what we can and what we cannot do. We put labels. For example:"I cannot do this. I was always good at math, but I cannot learn any foreign languages. Or you think "all black people are lazy", or "white people cannot be sensitive". These labels create negative feeling. These negative feelings reflect in our behaviour. And many people believe their emotions are proof of their "truth". For example:"I have a feeling that this guy is bad, so he has to be bad." Or: "I woke up with bad feeling, that means, something wrong is going to happen today." In reality it is not truth and we should stop these thoughts and say "NO". Simply observe, what is happening around you. Bad feeling doesn't mean that something bad is going to happen (only if we strongly believe it, then, we attract bad situation). Bad temper is many times the result of low energy level, lack of certain vitamins, lack of sleep…
    4. Thoughts "I have to" or "I should" are creating within us an emotional pressure. This pressure makes us feel stressed and sometimes prevents us from doing things we want or need to do. We often think:"I have to achieve this. (Otherwise I am not good enough.) I have to be a good mother. I mustn't be lazy…" In this life, there is no "I have to". There is only "I would like to …" or " I will do my best…"
    5. Under and Overestimation is, when we often say:" I already experienced this, so I cannot do this or that." Or "I did it 10x and it didn't work, so I am not able to achieve it." Or "This problem is too big to solve it". Or "Others need for doing this one week and I am not able to achieve it within two weeks…" All of these statements create negativity within us. Introspection can find them and stop them.
    6. Jumping into conclusions is negative thinking pattern, in which is person like a clairvoyant and thinks s/he knows in advance, how will the situation develop and what will happen… Even the wise men don't know, what will happen! And, once again, we want to emphasise, that if we focus on something negative, we attract it. Therefore, the introspection is good time to realise, that what didn't happened yet, is not real and we can still change it. And whatever will come, we will do our best and take from the situation the best for us.
    7. Disqualification of positive is very frequent thinking failure and very strong. If there are 100 reasons why to be happy, people with this thinking pattern will see only one reason, why to be sad. They simply exclude positive things from their counting. In fact, all situations are neutral, the label positive or negative comes just from our mind. If we look at every situation from this point of view, and we just take the best from everything, even the worse situation in life will have at least some learning for us. Take an example of a glass with water. Is it half empty or half full? The reality is "half". And both, half empty and half full is also the truth. The difference is in my point of view. What seems better for me, which attitude helps me more? Half empty or half full? Do you understand?
    8. Generalisation. For example, a woman had unhappy relationship, her partner left her. Now, she thinks, that all men are bad, they only want to use you and then they leave. So, she bitterly thinks, she will never believe anyone of them again. It is healthy to choose partners carefully. But is it healthy and rational to think, that all people (we don't even know them) are bad??
    9. All or nothing thinking is unhealthy perfectionism. For example: a student has always best grades and now he failed one exam. He thinks he is a failure and has no meaning to stay at the college and is necessary to leave. We don't want to say, that people shouldn't do their best, we should try to do the best, but it is nonsense to think that we should do everything and always perfectly. If we do our best, nothing more is needed. Sometimes, we don't have enough knowledge or information to do the things absolutely right. To blame ourselves brings nothing, only decreases our personal power. It is then healthy to accept, that we are not perfect and cannot do things perfectly all the time.

    Blaming oneself & feeling guilty

    What is really happening?

    Blaming oneself or feeling guilty – both are very counter-productive activities. Being in this pattern, we are focusing on things, which we don't want to happen. Our attention is the energy, and by focusing on blame or guilt we are actually making them stronger. We attract. This means, that this way, we create the conditions for repeating things again! The person, who thinks in such mode, will do the similar things again.
    This is one of the main reasons, why people addicted to drugs, games or alcohol continue in their toxic habits. When they woke up from addiction, they strongly blame themselves and feel guilty. They stay in these feelings and thoughts for hours, they make it even stronger and then, they do it again.
    People who have this thinking habit, are in the circle and they have to repeat it again and again, even when they don't want to. The only way out is to start doing things in a different way:
    A.) To stop focusing on that, not giving it any attention/ energy.
    B.) Understand the reason, WHY I am doing such a thing.
    C.) To focus energy/ attention on things, which I want instead of old things.
    It is important to find and then to connect with the idea, what we want to come and happen. Next step is to be active- to do every day something, what help us to make this idea real!

    Human body and spiritual development

    When we speak about a spiritual development, we have to take into consideration not only our mind, thoughts or emotions, but also our bodies. We all know that body is a doorway, than it is a temple for spirit and that everything what we have in our lives is reflecting inside of our bodies. But what does it mean?
    We said that human body is a place, where everything is happening. It means, that even our thoughts and emotions reflect and manifest in the body. And when they come into the body, it produces in us certain sensation, reaction, behaviour or movement. So, our thoughts and emotions directly influence health of the body, as well as a way we stand, speak or move.
    For example: a boss said towards me something unfair. First, this information came into my mind, The mind analysed it and produced a thought, that this is rude and unfair. This thought activated reaction in form of emotion, in this case anger. And what did anger? The reaction in my body. It created heat in the body, face went red and I started defence myself loudly or, if I am submissive, I just swallowed it and left and then, my mood was gone for a whole day, and angry thoughts were running inside my head. Such situation creates stress inside of the body. And the stress in the body makes the immune system weak, so long-term repeated reaction like this will certainly create some health problem.
    The body has also the capacity to learn. It has even its own memory. If we repeat some movements or way of behaviour often, it will become a habit. When the body learns such behaviours and reactions, it starts to use it dominantly in all relevant situations. Many times, such a habitual behaviour limits us, because with automatic reaction we do not react to certain situation properly, but without thinking, automatically (this is exactly described in the phrase „to be out of one's mind“).
    What we feel in our bodies is the work of our nervous system, and the impulse came from the mind. The sensations like happiness or misery are also the products of our nervous system. Therefore, when we know, how it works, we have the freedom to decide, what we want to feel! The thing is, we need to train it. What is mostly in our mind, that prevails. If we are in our thoughts more positive than negative, we produce more states of being happy/satisfied, and this way, we create a habit, how to experience things and what perspective to have. We can only conclude, that happiness is more a learned skill and healthy choice, than a reaction to outer circumstances.
    How can we use this knowledge in our spiritual development? We can use it to take control over our harmful actions and reactions, unhealthy habits, and toxic behaviours. And we can consciously substitute them with more pleasant and healthy sensations like balance, peace or happiness. This is called somatic awareness.
    How to do that? Through observation of our body. Be aware of what is happening with you body, when you get angry, when you are nervous or frustrated. Where do you feel it? What exactly do you feel? If you are able to be aware of this, you will be also able to stop emotion to develop into the harmful and unhealthy level. First step is to identify it after the situation. Then, one day, you will be able to observe it, when it arises. And at this point, you will have finally a choice- to continue or to stop it, calm down and react in healthy way.
    The real output of meditation and spiritual work is not just to increase knowledge and meditation skill, but, first of all, to improve our own life, lives of others and make our existence on this earth to shine. Therefore, we need to put everything we learn into practice, into life, into our body…
    Do you need to slow down, understand in more detail your life and who you are? Do you need to increase your self-confidence? Speak with us!

    Visions in the Meditation

    or How to measure our success in meditation?

    Everyone is special, we differ from each other. Our reactions, perception and experiencing of things in certain situation are very different. So, we are very different also in the area of meditation and spiritual development. There are people, who have often visions and see for example light or angels, or they speak with some spirits. Others feel nothing „special“. And they begin to ask: „Why are others able to see things and I see nothing? What is wrong with me?“
    The truth is, that it is not really importnat, if someone has visions or not. We can compare the astral plane to internet. There are lots of good and useful things there, but there are also many rubish information or untruths. The astral plane is the same. For example, there is someone, who can speak with archangel Gabriel. We can ask the question, if their conversation was about something important or it was just a „smalltalk“??
    meditation info

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    Or someone tells you he was speaking with an entity, which explained him, how pyramids were built... Ok, so what??? Are these things relevant to your life right now or not? I don't say that visions are bad, or that they are good. They are as they are. Every vision is just an information, an energy. What will people do with their visions and experiences is their business. There are also certain people, who believe, that, because they have certain visions or contacts with spirits or angels, they are something special, superior to other people, who cannot achieve this. This way, they are creating something what we call „spiritual egoism“. And egoism of any kind can be really a big problem for further development.
    Such people can get themselves in ordinary life into difficult situations. For example, archangel Gabriel says to someone not to work as he do right now, because he was born for something bigger. So, it could happen, that he will leave his work and he, in the worst case, has no money for his living and is starving. What advantage is then the ability to speak with archangel Gabriel? If someone leaves his job in order to write some spiritual superbook which helps lots of people? Then it is super. But what if not?

    For me are important, especially at the beginning, these four indicators (and the number of visions is not one of them):
    1. The degree of reactivity in critical situations
    How do I react in situations like lack of money, serious illness, death of close person? Am I calm? Nervous? Depressed? Or deeply touched? It doesn't mean, that one cannot feel fear, sadness or anger. It is about not being destroyed by the situation and lose control over one's life.


    2. The ability to feel happy and satisfied with what is.
    Am I grateful for what is? How it is with my complaining? Am I enjoying the life?


    3. The ability to stay in the thoughtless awareness.
    This doesn't mean, that one cannot think. It is about not being involved in compulsive thinking process. It is to be behind it, to be able to stop this buzz and gain back inner peace. This point is very important.


    4. The contribution of visions and information from other worlds to everyday life of a person or other people.
    Have I experienced something, what is important and relevant for current life or life of others? Does this knowledge help me to be better and stronger person? It could be for example inspiration for my book, song or my work or answer to some question, which moves me forward...
    You should meditate 20 minutes a day. If you are too busy to do so, you should meditate one hour.
    When someone, for example Neale Donald Walsch, had some "higher" experience and it brought him an inspiration to write a book which helped millions of people, then is this experience wonderful and significant. People can be inspired and create wonderful music, or find a solution to some problem, which helps to improve their life or lives of others. In that case it is very useful and right to follow visions in form of images or sounds and bring them to this material world.
    But when someone speaks with certain entity two hours about something insignificant, which he probably already knows and that knowledge brings no additional value, then is this conversation only the way, how to increase one's spiritual ego. People with spiritual ego think, that they are better or "higher" than others, because they are privileged to speak with some "top" entity. Spiritual ego is then the major obstacle in a spiritual journey. In order to continue, it should be in certain point left behind. It doesn't mean, that we should completely abandon or delete our egos. Ego is important part of our human life. But it should be observed and controlled. Ego should serve us, not rule us. One man once asked a buddhist monk: "Could you explain me in one sentence the essence of the Buddha teaching?" The monk answered: „No Ego - no Problem!“
    learn meditation

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    There is a nice story about meeting of two disciples of different masters. The first disciple explains to his friend: „My Master is so strong, that when he stands on the riverbank and moves his hand, you feel that slap also standing on the other side of a river“.
    Then he asks:“And what can do your master?“ He answers: „You know, my Master, when he sleeps, he sleeps. When he eats, he eats.“

    This is the real mastery. To be exactly where you are- here and now. In here and now no problem can be created. And this the level, which one can achieve with daily meditation. Get personal powers is not a competition. It is not about who has more visions or how many special powers one has.These will come naturally with the higher level of consciousness.
    The mechanism of increasing personal power is simple and effective. If someone wants to know himself, he receives special powers and visions on the path of his spiritual development as a side effect. If someone goes on spiritual path in order to gain supernatural powers and special visions, he won't succeed. It is because second motivator will lead human being to bigger ego and big ego is the basic obstacle of personal spiritual progress.

    Here is another story. A disciple asks his master: „What should I do in order to be enlightened?“ The master answers: “The enlightenment is just here and now with you.“ The disciple tries to see it, but when he sees nothing, he again asks his master:“Do you see it, can you achieve it?“ The master answers:“ The enlightenment is here, when the words „I“ „You“ „He“ have no meaning and they don't exist anymore.“
    The success in meditation can be seen also through observation of oneself. We can observe, how strong is our ego, what power it has over ourselves and how we are able to control it. We can evaluate, how we react in different situations and how fast we are able to come to our centre, to ourselves.
    Read also:

    Recommendations for advanced practitioners

    Learn Meditation

    At the beginning, the greatest challenge is to force oneself to meditate regularly. After some time, people notice, that daily meditation feels good and it is like a daily teeth cleaning: refreshing and purifying. To be clean inside means to be in harmony with oneself. We can often experience, that our head wants one thing, our heart another, body asks its own wishes and our personal duty goes completely different direction... This situation means, that we are not one with ourselves. Regular meditaiton unify all these wishes into one direction and there is just one Wholeness, which knows, what to desire, where to go, what is important and what is the meaning of one's life.

    Another very important feature of meditation is inner peace. At the beginnig, we should try to know different parts of reality, which causes our problems. They are thouse aituaitons in life, where we say too much “YES“ or "NO“. For example, I can think too much about money, lack of it at present or I can fear that I will have one day money problems...so, I think all the time, how should I prevent this situation, what to do... After the knowledge of problematic area comes, it is very important to let it go.

    Of course, there are many things which I can and should do – to find a job, increase my education etc. Sometimes, the situation in our country is not good and not everyone can find a job, you maybe need contacts or good luck. This cannot be solved or influenced and it is important to let it go to the hands of God/ Higher Power. My rational mind says: "You cannot do this". And this thought takes my energy away. Without energy I am not able to be active and do, what I can do and desire.

    Meditation can help us to divide this problem into two parts:
    - This is something I can do and I have resources for influencing my reality.
    - Those things I cannot influence, so I surrender them to Higher Powers.

    If I will practice this in my meditation, peace will come. In this peace and thoughtless awareness, I have access to my inner powers, which normally I am not aware of.

    Another important thing is to realize, that thoughts are not "real" or mine. There are many invisible thought currents or structures around us. The human mind is like a radio and is able to „catch“ or tune in to any current. The frequency, which „plays“ in our mind is the reflection of our inner state. And our inner mood attracts similar currents.
    The most important thing is to recognise, that „I AM NOT THIS THOUGHT. I AM AWARENESS BEHIND IT.“ I am the Observer, who can watch all this and I can choose, where I will give my attention and how will I react. This freedom comes, when I make during meditation the step aside, when I am conscious of reality and I know, I can, as the immortal eternal awareness, react or not react at will.

    When someone meditates daily, s/he probably knows, that meditation is different every day. The depth and quality of evening meditation depends mostly on how our day was. If my boss stressed me a lot, or I have a fight with my wife/man/kids..., my evening meditation is not so intense. Its quality improves, when I spend my day in peace and balance.
    So, we can improve the depth of our meditation, when we take care, how we spend our day, how we react or not react, how we „guard“ our emotions.
    Further step towards deeper meditation is to try to be in meditation whole day. This doesn't mean, that we are not aware of anything, like a „zombie“, but the part of our attention is always inside of us, we ask again and again, what is my mood, or where are my emotions. For example: „Now I am a bit scared from what my boss said to me.“ or „I am angry, because that man didn't do what I wanted him to do. This observation helps to be balanced easier and faster and this way, one can save his energy and nerves for evening meditation and achieving deeper levels. People, who are meditating longer time, already know this.

    At the beginning it is not important, what position for meditation we take. Later it becomes more important. For example, to have a back in straight position, slowly relaxing the body (with the purpose „I am not just this body“). Very useful is lotus position or meditation in lying position. The reason for this is, that when consciousness goes very deep and body relaxes, or we move deep into unconsciousness or astral plane, we can lost contact with our body and in these positions our body cannot fall down without control.
    It is important to go to this sleeping position, but not to sleep. Meditation is like a sleep, but the difference is, that we are conscious all the time.

    At the beginning, we need music to calm down after a busy day. Later, we realize, that we can meditate without music or silence everywhere. To reach the depth in meditation then won't depend on outer circumstances. This can be the test of our meditation skills. Are we able to meditate only in peaceful environment or can we do it also at busy and noisy places? The later means, we've made progress.
    Further, the progress depends on ability and degree of:
    1. Being calm, alert and happy through the day
    2. Doing our duties and activities lightly
    3. Reacting accurately in critical situations.

    You can see your progress in unpleasant situations like lack of money, health problems, losing a job, death of close friend or family member. Meditation can help in these situations to stay deep inside calm and peaceful. Of course, on the surface, we can feel and express feelings of sadness, anger, frustration. But if we are able to accept them and move on, our progress is very significant.

    Acceptance of things, which we cannot influence or change, is the step in the right direction and it is a sign, we understood something. Deeper we in meditation go, deeper experience we have and our knowledge turns into wisdom. We move from „I think“ through „I hope“ and „I believe“ into „I know“. Who experienced in meditation something, what we can call „ mystic experience“ already knows, that we are not this body, thoughts and emotions. We are immortal eternal souls, who are moving from one life in to another life. Belief doesn't help us. Only experience has the power. Only knowledge makes us free.

    Recommended book to read: Anastasia Novykh- Spiritual practices and meditations

    This Meditation will lead you to inner peace and place above time and space. Enjoy your life!

    This Song will help you to find joy, balance and inspiration for your day!

    Translated from Meditation

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    Improve yourself and become stronger and happier! Our meditation seminars can support you and guide you to reach life balance easily! We can teach you, how to live your life in harmony and happiness again!

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