Speak to Your Soul with Love

“Meditation is a heighten level of living, and helps you feel more energised, engaged, productive and fulfilled. Meditation is a way to speak to your soul, and to listen to your soul speak back. It's probably the most important question and answer session of your life.”
— Mickie Kent

According to the Oxford dictionary, to meditate is to engage in contemplation; to plan mentally. Meditating is sometimes referred to as a workout for the soul, a source of mental cleansing. It is a personal time out, an exercise in finding inner peace and quietude.

Traditionally, the purposes and benefits of meditation have been spiritual in nature - becoming one with God, attaining enlightenment, achieving selflessness. While many people practice meditation today for spiritual purposes, just as many practice simply as a way of relaxing.

Meditation is described as spiritual practice, because it's a way to connect with the soul, to develop you intuition, and give your spirit the sustenance it needs by using the power of the mind. George Herbert Rector of Beaverton in Oregon, USA, once wrote, "By all means take some time to be alone. Salute thyself, see what thy soul doth wear." Experts say this is good advice to heed, and that the condition of safe solitude to connect with your soul exists for good reason.

These days many people are well-acquainted with the wealth of research supporting meditation practice. We know it's a great way to relax our bodies, balance our emotions, clear our minds, focus our intentions, and handle the stresses of life. It reduces mental chatter, stops you getting restless, and trains you to remain calm.

To learn how to calm yourself click here.

With science proving that sometimes it's best to be lazy, or at least inactive (you need exercise to be healthy but it can be overdone), you could say that meditation is the ultimate form of laziness. Don't think this is a form of procrastination, or time wasting, however. Even though sitting on a cushion and clearing your mind of all thoughts and distractions is as near to doing absolutely nothing as conscious humans ever get, repeated studies show it is very good for you.

Why laziness can be good/MSN UK

Recent studies have shown that meditation can lead to better cognitive performance, a lower risk of sudden death and reduced symptoms of ADHD and Alzheimer's disease. It's also been reported to lower blood pressure, aid sleep and reduce pain.

In addition to its physical benefits, one of the most important reasons for attaining stillness of mind is to tap into your higher self to help make those difficult, life-altering decisions. It can anchor you to differentiate between feeling and fact and get you though your difficulties. We have to be clear-headed for making decisions when we have challenges to face in life.

The higher power of meditation makes your connection with your soul simple. Your higher self is your connection to the source from where every living being came. By connecting to this higher power or higher self, answers will flow easily, helping you to overcome any obstacles placed on your path, and also help you to live in a state of bliss.

Thus to use an analogy, when the calm river of your life approaches the rocky chute of the rapids, meditation helps you to flow on through. Imagine you are the same water, and the rocks cannot hurt you. With meditation you are like the water and not the boat, so you flow on through rather than smash on any rocks that might lie ahead.

Tips for getting started

“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
— William Ernest Henley (from his poem "Invictus")

Spiritual contemplation can help you determine just who you are and exactly where you're going. Even if you've never meditated successfully in your life, just sitting calmly for a minute a day will bring about noticeable changes in demeanour.

However, although many of us have come to enjoy and rely upon the deep peace and inner connection that regular meditation practice brings, it's a common challenge to bring that peaceful positive consciousness into the rest of your life.

Developing your meditation routine

You don't have to be a Buddhist monk to get the benefits of regular meditation. However you have to get started meditating so that you can personally experience greater peace of mind and other health benefits. Here are some easy steps to develop your meditation routine:

1. Get started: Getting started with meditation is a bit like learning to swim. You can read books about swimming from cover to cover, but nothing beats getting in the water for yourself.

   Find or create a peaceful environment where you can sit quietly without being interrupted. Make sure that you dress in comfortable clothing and take off all electronic devices that can beep, vibrate or can otherwise interrupt the quiet surroundings. Then be still and observe your thoughts as you begin to meditate.

2. Manage your expectations: Nirvana is unlikely to be achieved upon your first attempts at meditation. In fact you may be disappointed by how much your mind is filled with a thousand random thoughts and how much your squirm around in your seat.

   In the fast pace of modern life, sitting still and being quiet most likely will not come naturally to you. Instead of struggling to "quiet" your mind become an observer of your own thoughts. In order to prevent becoming bored keep your early meditation sessions under ten minutes. As your patience grows you can lengthen your meditation sessions.

3. Get natural: Find a spot where you can be in contact with nature- even if it is near to the only window in your apartment or house. If you are fortunate enough to easily get access to the ocean or chirping birds in the morning, that is a wonderful environment to regularly practice your meditation routine.

   Remember that there are many ambience sound machines that can soothingly mimic the sound of nature - so that you experience the peaceful calm of natural sounds on demand. Audio recordings of the ocean waves, rain, birds or dolphin songs are quite popular choices.

4. Let the music soothe your senses: Play soothing or rhythmic music as a calming background to your meditation session. Your choice of music should be geared towards slowly releasing your feelings of tension, fatigue or negativity.
5. Stay in the moment: Meditation is more about being rather than doing. The real power of meditation lies in the opportunity to slow down and deliberately observe your breathe, your thoughts and your emotions in a non-judgemental, loving manner.

   Pay attention to every aspect of your quiet observations from the feel of your clothes, to the texture of the floor as you allow yourself to become fully alive and tuned into the present. The use of simple mantras can help you to let go of incoming thoughts that are distracting.

6. Be consistent: Make regular meditation sessions a part of your daily routine. The very act of committing to carve out this quiet time sends an inner message that the real you is being valued and appreciated. As you regularly meditate, you will become more skilful in bringing your mind gently back to focusing on the present.
7. Be aware of the benefits: Regular meditation can develop your powers of concentration and intuition. You may also experience a greater sense of inner peace and the ability to remain calm in the face of rising external confusion and turmoil.

   Pay attention when these benefits from your meditation start to appear in your life. As you start to personally enjoy the benefits of meditation, you will naturally feel more encouraged to stick with the daily practice and will also be willing to lengthen these sessions.

While there are countless styles of meditation practice, one of the most profound is the ancient Tibetan practice of Shamatha meditation. Shamatha is Sanskrit for "calm abiding". This form of meditation is intended to help people access a natural state of tranquillity and clarity. The technique involves focusing the breath on a specific object and letting go of all other thoughts, as attention is consistently trained on the process of breathing.

Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit, and pick a small object such as a rock to place on the ground in front of you. Focus your eyes and your breathing on the rock. As thoughts inevitably arise, simply acknowledge and then release them, letting them slip away with each out-breath. When your mind wanders off, gently bring your attention back to your breathing and the rock, visualising each inhalation and exhalation going to and from the rock.

The above illustration utilises mindfulness in meditation. Mindfulness is an ancient Buddhist practice which is very relevant for life today. It's a very simple concept and means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally. This increases awareness, clarity and acceptance of our present-moment reality.

Mindfulness does not conflict with any beliefs or tradition, religious, cultural or scientific. It's simply a practical way to notice thoughts, physical sensations, sights, sounds, smells - anything we might not normally notice. The actual skills might be simple, but because it is so different to how our minds normally behave, it takes a lot of practice.

See, touch, go

It's always been my intent on this blog to provide you with resources that are practical and can help you actually integrate this meaningfully into your life. The truth is, it's one thing to know about mindfulness, but it's a key step when we begin actually applying it in our daily lives. That's where real change happens.

Remember, the definition of mindfulness is awareness and integrating into our lives is the same as integrating brushing our teeth, it's good mental hygiene. Consider it a form of mental floss, we just bring into our lives for health.

In this regard, one of my favourite recommendations for the busiest of us is the "Email Meditation": When you're emailing, email for a certain period of time (e.g., 10, 20, or 30 minutes), and practice "see, touch, go" when your mind or behaviour wanders.

"See, touch, go" simply means when your mind wanders, "see" where it wandered to, "touch" or notice the thought, and "gently go" back to the task at hand. Practising "see, touch, go" when we're focused on email will strip away any of the wasted attention on self-judgement or any other distracting thoughts and get you back to the task with greater focus, making your more productive and less stressed.

Mindfulness can simply be noticing what we don't normally notice, because our heads are too busy in the future or in the past - thinking about what we need to do, or going over what we have done. It might simply be described as choosing and learning to control our focus of attention.

For example, rather than be on automatic pilot or "in our heads" when doing a routine activity, such as driving the car or washing the dishes, we can turn this into mindful activity. Instead of thinking about what you have to do, what you've done earlier in the day, worrying about future events, or regretful thoughts about the past, focus instead on the present activity. Focus on how you drive the car. Take note of the sensations, colours and movement. In particular, we can focus on our breathing and make it part of the activity.

Thoughts will continuously intrude, but we can just notice them, and then bring our attention back to our walking. The more we practice, perhaps the more, initially at least, we will notice those thoughts intruding, and that's only natural. The only aim of mindful activity is to continually bring our attention back to the activity, noticing those sensations, from outside and within us.

The primary focus in mindfulness meditation is the breathing. However, the primary goal is a calm, non-judging awareness, allowing thoughts and feelings to come and go without getting caught up in them. This creates calmness and acceptance. Mindful breathing techniques are also useful for anxiety sufferers to regulate their breathing and calm them during a panic attack.

Focus on breath to lessen anxiety.

Mindfulness techniques can also be used therapeutically with music, or directed at our emotions, which will helps us stand back from the emotion to understand it, and not struggle against or fear it.

When mindfulness is used to meditative effect, experts believe it keeps you in the present, allowing you to open a channel to your soul. Below are some exercises to help you focus on your breath if you want to use mindful breathing to help you meditate.

Mindful breathing exercises

• Mindful breathing: It's perfectly natural for thoughts to arise when doing thus exercise, and for your attention to follow them. No matter how many times this happens, just keep bringing your attention back to your breathing.
  1. Sit comfortably, with your eyes closed and your spine reasonably straight.
  2. Direct your attention to your breathing.
  3. When thoughts, emotions, physical feelings or external sounds occur, simply accept them, giving them the space to come and go without judging or getting involved with them.
  4. When you notice that your attention has drifted off and becoming caught up in thoughts or feelings, simply note that the attention has drifted, and then gently bring the attention back to your breathing.
• 7/11 Breathing: This is a simple technique you can use wherever and whenever you feel stressed, anxious, upset, angry or to get you into a state of calm. It is designed to regulate your breathing. It also helps you relax by stimulating your sympathetic nervous system so long as you ensure your "out" breaths are longer than your "in" breaths. Here's how the technique works:

  Breathe in to the count of 7 and then out to the count of 11. Repeat about 6 times. It's that simple.

  The outward count expels the majority of the air from your body, something that doesn't happen often as most of us breathe in a very shallow way. As you push more air than usual out of your body, you will find that your neck and shoulders automatically feel more relaxed and your mind feels more calm.

• Abdominal breathing: Abdominal breathing or belly breathing means breathing fully from your abdomen or from the bottom of your lungs. It is exactly the reverse of the way you breathe when you're anxious or tense, which is typically shallow and high in your chest. If you're breathing from your abdomen, you can place your hand on your abdomen and see it actually rise each time you inhale. You'll find that abdominal breathing will help you relax any time you are feeling anxious.

  To practice abdominal breathing, follow these steps:

  1. Sitting in a comfortable chair or lying somewhere comfortable, gently rest your hands on your abdomen, one hand over the other resting just over your tummy button.
  2. Relax your shoulders. Try to focus you mind on the area underneath your hands and try to relax the muscles of your abdomen right beneath your ribcage. Feel it warm with the warmth of your hands.
  3. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose into the bottom of your lungs. Your chest should move only slightly, while your stomach rises, pushing your hand up.
  4. When you've inhaled fully, pause for a moment and then exhale fully through your mouth. Purse your lips and imagine that you are blowing on a hot spoonful of soup. As you exhale, just let yourself go and imagine your entire body going loose and limp. It should take you twice as long to exhale as it did to inhale.
  5. In order to fully relax, take and release 10 abdominal breaths. Try to keep your breathing smooth and regular throughout, without gulping in a big breath or exhaling suddenly.
  6. Think about you breathing. Don't try to slow it down, just notice the air travelling in through your nose and out again.
  7. As you breathe in, notice the area under your hands rising a little and as you breathe out, notice it falling. Concentrate on doing this for a few minutes.
  8. If it helps to focus your mind, say the word "relax" or "calm" to yourself each time you breathe out. Alternatively you can count to 10 with each out breath.

More tips to being mindful and better breathing

When focusing on breath, we must also focus on breathing - and experts have shared numerous tips to how we can breathe better. Here I share six ways you can distribute oxygen efficiently throughout the body as found in Chinese medicine. Adherents say these tips are essential in maintaining your health, and avoiding what many people believe is the world's biggest cause of disease: oxygen deficiency.

In Chinese medicine, oxygen is known as "yang" and "Qi" because they believe there are parallels between these concepts and oxygen: they clear blockages, energise the body, and overcome any stagnant parts of the blood flow. Every cell needs oxygen, and the brain, heart, and liver wouldn't exist without it.

Here are six ideas to consider when boosting your body's natural distribution of oxygen.

1. Breathe well: Get your lungs to the kind of air they love to breathe. In busy urban centres, the air quality is lower and the amount of oxygen in the air is around 10% (so most of what we breathe is not oxygen.) In rural settings, outside of the hubs, oxygen content is generally around 20%. If you don't live in a rural area, take frequent trips out there for a hike or a picnic and allow your body to soak up the oxygen.
2. Limit toxins: This comes in the form of limiting meat in your diet, and avoiding big meals. Try to spread out your meals throughout the day, and make them small. (This will also help with anyone looking to drop a few pounds.) The flow of Qi in your body, according to the Chinese, comes through breathing and eating. By eating less, more Qi and oxygen are available in the body.
3. Exercise: Get some physical activity every day to help circulate the flow of blood (and thus oxygen) everywhere in the body.
4. Moderate stress: Try participating in yoga breathing exercises or any relaxation therapy you want to cut down on stress and focus on the intake of oxygen.
5. Consider germanium: This is an element that increases the effect of oxygen in your body. Find it in foods and herbs such as shiitake and reishi mushrooms, garlic, ginseng, aloe vera juice, barley, beans, tomato juice, and chlorella. You can also find germanium supplements.
6. Try hyper-oxidization: These are techniques, such as ozone therapy and hydrogen peroxide therapy, which pump the body with high levels of oxygen. They boost your immunity, but should only be attempted with a doctor's supervision. They are considered effective for anyone who has a disease caused by severe oxygen deficiency.

Mindfulness helps with all of the tips above; experts emphasise that mindfulness isn't a luxury, but a practice that trains your brain to be more efficient and better integrated, with less distractibility and improved focus. It minimises stress and even helps you become your best self.

Experts cite Richard Davidson's research at the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, which shows that all of us have an emotional "set point". Some of us have more of a tendency toward withdrawal, avoidance, negative thinking and other depressive symptoms, whereas others have a greater tendency toward positive moods such as, being curious, tending to approach new things and positive thinking. Through mindfulness, it's believed we may be able to train our brains and shift our set points.

Scientific support is rising for mindfulness practice with an abundance of neuroscience research which suggests it helps our brains be more integrated, so your everyday activities, thoughts, attitudes and perceptions are more balanced or well-rounded.

As already mentioned, mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally, and there are many simple ways you can be more mindful. Here are seven tips to incorporate into your daily life.

1. Practice mindfulness during routine activities. Try bringing awareness to the daily activities you usually do on autopilot.

   For instance, pay more attention as you're brushing your teeth, taking a shower, eating breakfast or walking to work. Zero in on the sight, sound, smell, taste and feel of these activities. You might find the routine activity is more interesting than you thought.

2. Practice right when you wake up. According to the experts, mindfulness practice first thing in the morning helps set the tone of your nervous system for the rest of the day, increasing the likelihood of other mindful moments. If you find yourself dozing off, just practise after having your coffee or tea. But don't read the paper, turn on the TV, check your phone or email, etc., until after you've had your sit.
3. Let your mind wander. Your mind and brain are natural wanderers - much like a crawling toddler or a puppy. And that's a good thing. Having a busy brain is actually an asset. The beneficial brain changes seen in the neuroscience research on mindfulness are thought to be promoted in large part by the act of noticing that your mind has wandered, and then non-judgementally - lovingly and gently — bringing it back.
4. Keep it short. Our brains respond better to bursts of mindfulness. So being mindful several times a day is more helpful than a lengthy session or even a weekend retreat. While 20 minutes seems to be the gold standard, starting at a few minutes a day is OK, too.

   For instance, you can tune into your body, such as focusing on how your shoes feel on your feet in that moment, or giving attention to how your jaw is doing such as, is it tight, loose or hanging open at the audacity of the person in front of you in the coffee line?

5. Practice mindfulness while you wait. In our fast-paced lives, waiting is a big source of frustration - whether you're waiting in line or stuck in traffic. But while it might seem like a nuisance, waiting is actually an opportunity for mindfulness. When you're waiting, experts suggest bringing your attention to your breath. Focus on the flow of the breath in and out of your body, from moment to moment and allow everything else to just be, even if what's there is impatience or irritation.
6. Pick a prompt to remind you to be mindful. Choose a cue that you encounter on a regular basis to shift your brain into mindful mode. For instance, you might pick a certain doorway or mirror or use drinking coffee or tea as a reminder.
7. Learn to meditate. The best way to cultivate mindfulness in everyday life is to practise meditation. Some experts have compared practising mindfulness to learning a new language. You can't just decide to be fluent in Spanish - unless you already are - you have to learn the language first. Thus practising meditation is how to learn the language of mindfulness. Meditation helps us tap into mindfulness with little effort.

The benefits of guided meditation

Meditation is practised all over the world with amazing results, and while some people can reach this state of mind without the help of anything but themselves, it is common for practitioners to use candles, incense, music, or as in the case of guided meditation, music and a soft spoken voice that guides your mind to the depths of your consciousness.

Can meditation affect our genetic structure?

Meditation is essentially a practice where the practitioner trains his or her mind to enter a state of consciousness in order to realise some benefit (be it physical, mental or spiritual). Whether this be in conjunction with the law of attraction or an array of other self-improvement programmes, it will not only fast track you toward your visualisation goals, it will also have many other benefits. For instance, meditation helps to get our brain down to a suitable wave state (as it was when you were young) to then be able to reach the subconscious and reset it with our own positive affirmations and goals for the future.

Other benefits include:

• Less bothered by little things: Do you sometimes allow yourself to get upset by the little things? It is the nature of the mind to magnify small things into serious problems. Meditation helps you detach, you will learn how to live in the now, rather than worrying about the past or the future.
• Better health: There are studies pointing out the health benefits of meditation, including amongst other things, being free of stress, free of anxiety, better sleep, lower blood pressure, and having a better immune system.
• Knowledge of self: Meditation enables us to have a better understanding of inner selves and a better understanding of life in general.

Most experts have come to the conclusion that only a state of mind conducive to meditation will quickly and effortlessly help you attract and receive anything in life, no matter how difficult it might look.

Click here to rewire your mindset for success!

These experts maintain that the law of attraction feeds on your state of mind - if your consciousness and subconsciousness are in tune while your state of mind stays calm, at peace and stress free, then the law of attraction will turn up the heat and make serious things happen. Most adherents mention that the number one reason they have been able to attract the things they want in their life consistently, faster and without second guessing is because of guided (or mindful) meditation.

The best things in life may be free, so they say, but change comes with hard work. Naturally you need to back up positive thought with positive action, but guided meditation is believed to help you experience a new, strong and humble mind with no previous experience. Your new state of mind will come to you in a relatively short space of time, you will feel and notice the difference in you without it feeling as though you are putting in any significant time or hard work.

Just imagine waking up fresh minded and going through the day knowing that no matter what life throws at you, you are in complete control with absolute peace of mind. We call it mindful meditation, and we focus on the state of the mind, when the brain seems more like a conductor for the soul to connect up with your consciousness.

It's believed that this deep and profound new state of mind will bring new, bright and conscious sensations into your life. You will get ahead of the pack and start to attract everything you've ever dreamed of easier and faster. Having your state of mind reach levels you never thought possible will ultimately give you a taste of your true inner power and well being.

With the hectic pace and demands of everyday life, it is common for people to feel stressed, tired and overworked, It often feels there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. Our stress and tiredness makes us unhappy, impatient and frustrated and it will affect your health, your thoughts and your inner well being.

If you want a fresh approach, not only when using meditation in conjunction with the law of attraction, but also when approaching your health and peace of mind, then the guided meditation in my 90 day mind healing programme will be the quickest and easiest and cheapest (it's free) way to start changing your life today.

The results my readers have seen since they started using their own tailor made guided meditation/visualisation programme are so astonishing that some have begun to look at it as their hidden source of power. After starting my programme on a daily basis, with the help of positive thinking and positive action, their world has changed in a jaw dropping way.

Use my programme to access self healing at any time, day or night. You can start using it from the comfort of your own home. There is no need to find practitioners in your town, no need to pay big fees to a meditation centre, no need for previous experience.

Naturally, the first step on your part is to take action, because the truth of the matter is that none of the things you deeply desire will happen if you don't act. After all, experts say that the key to all this still involves you opening the door to connect with your own soul.

However, if you don't believe this form of life affirming, guided meditation is for you, you can still try the techniques in this article, because we all need to find tranquillity in our day to day frenzied life. Meditation calms us and allows us to refresh our minds, enabling us to cope with whatever life throws your way. It will bring you to a state of peaceful and mindful thought. It will help you re-connect with your inner voice, intuition, soul - call it what you like - and give you greater powers of self control against negative feelings caused by stress and anger.

By using meditation you can remain calm and in control. With a little practice you can have the ability to meditate anywhere at any time of the day, bringing soothing relief to everyday worries and concerns. It will assist you in overcoming fears you hold deep down about success happiness and health. It's a tool to achieve your highest potential in this lifetime.

Use meditation for natural pain relief.

It's wonderful to enjoy your meditation time, but the real power of meditation is how it can affect the way you live. Spiritual practice has two dimensions - the movement inside and the outward expression of your inner realization. Below we explore three ways that you can build bridges from your meditation experiences to the rest of your life.

Bringing peace to life: 3 easy ways to transform your world

1. First, you can bring the positive effects of meditation into your life within your meditation period itself. No matter which meditation technique you practice, once you have learned to do it well, you will find that your technique puts you into a heightened state of inner awareness and relaxed presence. When you are firmly established in that state, this is an ideal time to practice sending that positive energy outward.

   Here are some ways to do that:

   Near the end of your meditation time, when you've let go of the random thoughts, feelings, and distractions that bubble up during the initial stages of meditation, spend some time sending the positive energy you are feeling to the people, places, events, and projects in your life. For example, when you are centred in relaxed inner presence, focus on a person to whom you would like to send that energy. Imagine that person receiving positive feelings and smiling. Imagine them feeling relaxed, centred, healthy, and joyful.

   If you know something that your recipient is going through, you can imagine and feel positive energy going to that situation or event and bringing the best possible result for all concerned. Likewise, you can send peaceful positive energy to any event you are involved in, or to any place in the world, or to the planet as a whole. You may begin with those close to you and then expand to other people, events, and places.

   You can also imagine and feel positive outcomes for upcoming interactions and events in your schedule. When you are arrive in those relationships or events, you'll find that you have set the stage for positive results. You have prepared yourself for how you want to relate in those situations and you will have primed yourself to realize those experiences. You may also find that those to whom you've sent positive energy have a greater openness as well.

2. A second way to bring peace into your life is to take brief time-outs during your day to recall your meditative experience. You can do this on a set schedule, such as during mid-morning, lunch, or mid-afternoon breaks, or you can do it as the need arises. Take a minute or two, close your eyes, breathe deeply, recall the feeling that you had during your meditation time, and bring that experience back into your body.

   This technique underscores the importance of having a daily morning meditation practice to give you a good reference point for starting your day. Having meditated in the morning, it is much easier to recall that state later in the day when you need it.

3. A third way that you can bring your meditation experience into your life is to apply your meditative skills to moments of tension, agitation, or stress. In meditation you learn to calmly observe your thoughts, feelings, and reactions without identifying with them. You see them, feel them, accept them, and release them. You practice allowing experiences to come and go.

   This is a great skill to use when you feel anxiety or conflict. Meditation gives you relaxed awareness as a baseline experience against which you can readily notice when you are moving into stress mode. You will feel inner discomfort arising and have the skills to relate to it in a way that enables you to move through it effectively.

To use your meditation skills in this way, practice keeping an inner meditative presence throughout your day. Feel your "inner body" even as you are involved in outer activities. In this way your whole life becomes a meditation.

To practice consistent inner presence, whenever you remember to do it, check in with your inner body. Feel your body as a whole from the inside. Notice what is going on. Notice any subtle sensations or tensions as well as what you are thinking, feeling, and believing at that moment.

When inner tensions are present, accept them and observe them. See if you can relate them to how you are looking at what is going on around you. How are you interpreting the present situation? What are you doing internally that is giving you the experience you are having? How are you contributing to what is going on?

When you calmly observe and feel your inner state without reacting to it, you allow tensions to resolve, you connect with deeper intuitive wisdom about what is going on, and you may discover inspiration for how to deal with a present situation most effectively.

The bottom line is to use your meditative skills of inner awareness, presence, letting go, and discernment to help you effectively navigate every moment of your life, so that you're merging your mind, body and soul into one harmonious whole.

Healing the balance of mind, body and spirit by healing yourself through meditation means you will experience an awareness of well being that is unmatched. You will feel revived, rejuvenated and revitalised. With that in mind, let's take a look at how daily meditation affects our brain and body, in addition to our soul.

Regular meditation: ancient practice, scientifically proven benefits

There are many benefits to be gained by meditating. People who meditate regularly report a lowering of their stress reaction, a feeling of serenity. They report it is a process where you feel healed mentally, while being rejuvenated. Just as a good night's sleep has restorative powers, many people say meditating leaves you feeling rested and refreshed.

Some experts describe meditation as a wonder drug without undesirable side effects. Research shows it can reverse DNA damage, improve brain structure, drop heart disease risk, boost immunity, increase energy and reduce inflammation. A meditative mind may instil immensely improved health.

Over the years, published research has demonstrated that the practice of regular meditation can increase brain density, boost connections between neurons, decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety, provide clarity of thought and increase positive mood endorphins.

Other published studies have shown meditation can improve physical functioning, decrease chronic disease risks and enhance overall quality of life. These studies demonstrate that regular meditation effectively supports mental, emotional and physical health in numerous tangible ways. In building upon this strong body of evidence, researchers are continuing to deepen our understanding of the profound and inspirational benefits offered by regular meditation practice in everyday life.

In addition to the spiritual aspects of meditation, researchers have uncovered the brain benefits of the practice. Neuroscientists have shown another fascinating neural effect of regular meditation: the ability to increase "cortical gyrification" of the brain.

Cortical gyrification refers to the folding of the cerebral cortex, a function that allows the brain to process information faster. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of neural tissue in the brain and serves an important role in controlling memory, consciousness, thought processing, decision making, attention and awareness. During cortical gyrification, the tissues of the cerebral cortex fold, creating indented fissures and creases called sulci and gyri, which increase neural processing and neurotransmitter communication.

Increased gyrification enhances the brain's capacity for computing information, maintaining focus and attention, creating and retrieving memory, processing logic, forming decisions, and performing other mental tasks.

Neuroscientists compared a meditative group who possessed various levels of experience and frequency of practice to people who never meditated. Among the meditative group, they found significant increases in cortical folding across a wide area of the brain responsible for numerous functions beyond rapid information processing and retrieval. Additional areas of the brain that are shown to be markedly affected by meditation involve emotional and mental health capacities, ability to control emotions, heightened awareness, introspection, and more.

This finding supports some of the more noticeable results of regular meditation: increased compassion for self and others, enhanced self-awareness and introspection, and greater emotional stability.

Researchers also found significant increases in cortical gyrification among more experienced practitioners. In other words, the longer a person had been practising regular meditation, the greater the beneficial changes in his brain.

Long-term health

The mental and emotional benefits of regular mindful meditation practice are touted by many experts. And the physical pay-offs are equally impressive. We all know that reducing stress can dramatically improve health on a number of levels. Regular mindful meditation has been shown to protect against and reverse DNA (telomere) damage, boost immune function, reduce cardiovascular disease risks, decrease inflammation, improve outcomes in cancer, reduce side effects of conventional treatment, increase vital energy and expand physical capacity.

Dealing with emotions helps our body because stress is a big killer - some experts say it is the number one killer in modern societies. Stress fills your body with a cocktail of hormones, and experts believe meditation can help to regulate your stress levels, so that you're not weakening your immune system and setting yourself up for chronic disease.

Click here to zap your stress levels.

In effect meditation can help tame the fear, inflammation, stress and anxiety suffered when we are ill, by helping us process the anger, sadness and betrayal we feel towards our bodies when they are broken, or our fears of dying and what to do with that information and how to metabolise it so that it doesn't suffocate or overwhelm us. In this sense, meditation can be a lifeline.

Meditation is a magnet for love and gratitude

Meditation is viewed by some people as unblocking your energy so you can unlock the flow of your life. If practised correctly, meditation not only clears and unblocks the mind, but gives us access to our higher levels of performance and presence, and peace and joy. Practising the craft for a while will get us used to getting into the flow of a state of harmony, but it can take time. We can often struggle with meditation at first because it turns up the volume of the mind.

If we don't know where to focus, we are going to deluged by all the thoughts filling our mind. We will want to instinctively pull our attention outwards, but what we need to do is cut a path through all the mind chatter and look deeper inwards to find a core of silence. It's about being completely present in the moment, because at the moment of meditation you are in effect doing nothing, and that can help you find the inner silence necessary to focus.

When you allow the conscious you to guide your mind with meditation, you can to witness your thoughts, and decide whether or not these are thoughts worthy of you, which you wish to have in your mind. In this way, we do not react to the thoughts trying to take our attention away, we simply respond by allowing them to wash over us as we keep our focus on effectively doing nothing but simply being in the moment. This is what some call the "Now" or the flow, and meditation is a technique that actualises this by helping us to be still and tap into an awareness that is seeking centre.

It is an awareness that can simultaneously pull itself back as it goes deeper inward to see the bigger picture, and it has been described as an energy vortex that some call a "third eye". Because this is one of the things meditation does for us, it gives us more mindfulness, more witness to the moment, rather than being pulled off into a million directions by our mind chatter. It's an energy point that draws us in and gives the ability to sit very still and very present.

This type of present focus is what is thought to give you high levels of performance - like athletes totally "in the zone". As they go through their moves, nothing can distract them as their mind is completely focused, using the opportunity of the action to get in the zone. We can achieve this through the action of "doing nothing" in essence, through meditation to help us get into the zone and focus on the task at hand.

It also gives us more presence, which enables us to enjoy the quality of life. When your present to the moment, you get to actually live that moment, instead of being pulled in different directions by the chatter of your mind (usually rewired by unhelpful influences) taking our focus off on what really matters. When we succumb to losing our grip on the present moment, we in effect miss our life.

Meditation is also a technique that can lead you in to the core of your life, to connect your mind with your heart, and in effect rewire it to your desires. This not only brings a higher level of performance, and more presence, but also more peace. When you have a strong, clear and focused mind, you can afford react in a more peaceful way to the challenges that lie ahead. The strong can afford to be gentle, more peaceful and more loving.

This creates a greater state of gratitude, and meditation makes you a magnet for gratitude. It opens us up to be grateful. It also helps you clean up a lot of stress clogging up the body. In our life today we are often bombarded with information overload. When you shift your brain state to be so present, you balance your mind to make sense of all that noise that seems to be vying for our attention.

There are practical tools we can use to help with this. For instance, music laced with brain entrainment technology can help your mind wind down as you meditate. Such tools, helpful to relax the mind, differ from the practice of meditation however. Meditation requires engagement - from sitting posture to breathing techniques - that makes you physically feel the meditative state of flow or deep relaxation take over. This will become easier over time, but at the beginning the practice of meditation does require effort - it's not like putting on some headphones and listening to beautiful music.

Brain entrainment music gets your brainwaves to shift their state; it helps you in your meditation. However, with meditation you can train yourself to shift into the zone without need for music when you need deep peace and relaxation. But there are many approaches to meditation. You just have to find the one that is right for you, to help you perform and stay present in our daily lives, and stay in a sense of gratitude.

As regular meditation practice becomes better understood and more widely practised, more and more doctors and health practitioners are recommending these ancient disciplines to their patients. If you're a health provider, meditation can help you become a better healer and clinician, increasing your diagnostic and therapeutic skills significantly and allowing you to connect in more meaningful ways with your patients and community. And if you are looking for some extra healing energy to improve your own health, regular meditation can provide a powerful solution.

As evidenced by neuroscientists, meditation is most effective when practised regularly. Experts say that even short periods (of a minute up to 10 minutes) a day can offer significant and noticeable benefits over a short period of time.

Exponential benefits

As you become more practised at meditation, you will likely notice significant improvements in your energy, health and mental/emotional balance. You may find that as distractions and obscurities are peeled away during mindful meditation practice, the space between thoughts becomes greater and more profound.

As we slowly turn down the constant chatter of our minds, we can begin to access deeper aspects of consciousness for growth and healing. This peeling process can make room for your true inner nature of love, compassion, peace and tranquillity to arise and expand naturally, benefiting yourself and those around you exponentially.

Adherents of meditation believe that one of the most beautiful and profound aspects of meditation is that this process of growth and unfolding (as well as cortical folding) can continue throughout our lives. After all, we can never have too much love, compassion and clarity in a harmonious mind, body and soul.

Yours in love,