{"id":6340,"date":"2012-01-01T01:10:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T06:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=6524"},"modified":"2011-12-31T18:20:42","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T23:20:42","slug":"meditation-moment-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2012\/01\/01\/meditation-moment-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditation Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Meditation on Meditation for Beginners<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are 1440 minutes in every day.\u00a0 You can easily schedule 5 of them for yourself, right?<\/p>\n

Did you find yourself thinking about how many things you are going to change in 2012 over the holidays?\u00a0 Have you made resolutions, or set goals, to start on January 1st<\/sup>?<\/p>\n

Are you looking forward to starting a new year, or do you find yourself feeling down or anxious?<\/p>\n

Meditation as a daily practice has been scientifically (medically and psychologically) shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.\u00a0 It reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves the function of every cell, organ, and system in your body, and is apparently the best thing since sliced bread.\u00a0 Sliced gluten-free bread, even.<\/p>\n

Can you afford to give yourself five minutes a day?\u00a0 Would you be willing to give up a single press of the snooze button, a cigarette break if you suffer that particular addiction, or five whole minutes of Facebook time?<\/p>\n

Meditation doesn’t have to occur in a void.\u00a0 You don’t have to be alone, in a quiet dark comfortable place with burning candle and incense.\u00a0 You can meditate while you brush your teeth, or walk the dog.\u00a0 You can meditate while working out, dancing, coloring, painting, or even mowing the lawn or cleaning dishes.<\/p>\n

Meditation is a state of mind.\u00a0 It’s not something you do, it’s something you be.<\/p>\n

Many people fail at incorporating meditation as a daily practice because we are so used to thinking about our lengthy to do list, and it’s super difficult to make that inner ticker shut the heck up.\u00a0 How can you relax and just be if every cell in your body\u00a0 seems to be demanding you do something \u201cproductive?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is much easier to meditate while satisfying your left brain with action.\u00a0 Some people have little labyrinths they trace with their fingers while they let their minds quietly lead them to solutions to a problem.\u00a0 Some people have full size labyrinths they can walk for the same purpose.\u00a0 Some people meditate while coloring mandalas or beating a drum.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to invest in anything special to give meditation a try.\u00a0 If you decide to make daily meditation a goal for 2012, here’s one effective way to start:<\/p>\n

\u00f1\u00a0 Set an alarm if you need a time limit, before you start your task.<\/p>\n

\u00f1\u00a0 Choose a task you would be doing anyway, that you could do backwards in your sleep with one arm tied behind your back.\u00a0 For this example, I arbitrarily choose the task of a morning shower.<\/p>\n

– While you do your task, the first day focus one sense on what you are doing.\u00a0 Being hyper-aware of how the water feels on your skin, for example.<\/p>\n

– The next day, hyper-focus on a different sense, and every day after until you’ve covered the five senses.\u00a0 What do you smell, taste, see, hear?<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 On the sixth day, let go and see what your sixth sense might be trying to tell you.\u00a0 Allow yourself to receive messages from the Divine, from your guides, or your Higher Self.<\/p>\n

\u00f1\u00a0 On the seventh day, just breath.\u00a0 Count your breaths while you do your task of choice, or just allow your body to move while your mind enjoys are few moments of blessed peace.<\/p>\n

Tune in next month for a guided meditation on Imbolc. <3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Meditation on Meditation for Beginners There are 1440 minutes in every day.\u00a0 You can easily schedule 5 of them for yourself, right? Did you find yourself thinking about how many things you are going to change in 2012 over the holidays?\u00a0 Have you made resolutions, or set goals, to start on January 1st? Are you looking forward to starting a new year, or do you find yourself feeling down or anxious? Meditation as a daily practice has been scientifically (medically and psychologically) shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.\u00a0 It reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves the function of every cell, organ, and system in your body, and is apparently the best thing since sliced bread.\u00a0 Sliced gluten-free bread, even. Can you afford to give yourself five minutes a day?\u00a0 Would you be willing to give up a single press of the snooze button, a cigarette break if you suffer that particular addiction, or five whole minutes of Facebook time? Meditation doesn’t have to occur in a void.\u00a0 You don’t have to be alone, in a quiet dark comfortable place with burning candle and incense.\u00a0 You can meditate while you brush your teeth, or walk the dog.\u00a0 You can meditate while working out, dancing, coloring, painting, or even mowing the lawn or cleaning dishes. Meditation is a state of mind.\u00a0 It’s not something you do, it’s something you be. Many people fail at incorporating meditation as a daily practice because we are so used to thinking about our lengthy to do list, and it’s super difficult to make that inner ticker shut the heck up.\u00a0 How can you relax and just be if every cell in your body\u00a0 seems to be demanding you do something \u201cproductive?\u201d It is much easier to meditate while satisfying your left brain with action.\u00a0 Some people have little labyrinths they trace with their fingers while they let their minds quietly lead them to solutions to a problem.\u00a0 Some people have full size labyrinths they can walk for the same purpose.\u00a0 Some people meditate while coloring mandalas or beating a drum. You don’t have to invest in anything special to give meditation a try.\u00a0 If you decide to make daily meditation a goal for 2012, here’s one effective way to start: \u00f1\u00a0 Set an alarm if you need a time limit, before you start your task. \u00f1\u00a0 Choose a task you would be doing anyway, that you could do backwards in your sleep with one arm tied behind your back.\u00a0 For this example, I arbitrarily choose the task of a morning shower. – While you do your task, the first day focus one sense on what you are doing.\u00a0 Being hyper-aware of how the water feels on your skin, for example. – The next day, hyper-focus on a different sense, and every day after until you’ve covered the five senses.\u00a0 What do you smell, taste, see, hear? –\u00a0 On the sixth day, let go and see what your sixth sense might be trying to tell you.\u00a0 Allow yourself to receive messages from the Divine, from your guides, or your Higher Self. \u00f1\u00a0 On the seventh day, just breath.\u00a0 Count your breaths while you do your task of choice, or just allow your body to move while your mind enjoys are few moments of blessed peace. Tune in next month for a guided meditation on Imbolc. <3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}