Hobbies

Are you stuck eating lunch at your desk again?

Lucky you.

You see, staying put can be surprisingly soothing compared to making a mad dash to the cafe for a sandwich and running back to your office, all the while worried that you’ll miss an important call.

If you feel chained to your desk, try viewing it instead as a powerful anchor that keeps you from drifting mindlessly.

Desk dining can be the epitome of mindlessness-or a remarkable opportunity to slow down, reconnect, and enjoy a delicious moment or two. You can choose a chug-and-chew cubicle lunch or settle in for a session of mindful mastication.

Mom always told us to slow down and chew our food properly. She was more worried about choking, indigestion and bad manners than she was about the possibility that we would grow up to be disconnected from our experience of dining.

As usual, Mom made good sense. New research indicates that becoming more mindful of every mouthful is a powerful way to reduce our food intake, increase our meal satisfaction, and savor more than just the taste of our veggie on rye.

The Brain Scrub is designed to help you overcome the "monkey mind" which leaps and bounces around from subject to subject in an uncontrolled manner. After mastering this exercise you’ll be able to instantly clear and calm your mind in any situation, allowing you to focus completely on any subject.

Sit on the floor “Indian style”. Don’t worry about trying to sit in any particular position. If you wish you can sit upright in a chair, just sit towards the front and let your feet rest flat on the floor. Keep your spine straight, shoulders back and just let your hands rest in your lap. Take a moment to relax and let your breathing soften.

Now, as you inhale focus on the number 1. Hold your focus and exhale. On the next inhale focus on the number 2 and so on until you get to 10. The purpose here is to focus entirely on the numbers and not allow any other thoughts to intrude. Remember to breathe as I outlined in the article on Breathing.

DO NOT beat yourself up with this exercise! Our minds are constantly at work and the untrained mind will bounce from thought to thought continually (monkey mind) and even during this exercise you’ll have other thoughts arise.

It’s pretty obvious that the ancient Druids used several forms of meditation. That the Druids were able to still and control their minds is unquestioned, but the techniques they used have apparently been lost to the ravages of time and the lack of written records.

As with much of the re-creation of the Druid paths, we find ourselves turning to other cultures and methodologies to fill in the gaps. Before the cries of "Untraditional" become too loud I think I should point out that meditation and mind control/self awareness are universal to the human being. Everyone who’s ever lived on this planet has had the ability to access their inner energies and power to varying degrees. Today we find ourselves without the social framework of the ancient Druids. Rather than a single unified entity we find that our Tribe is scattered to the winds without a common language or concept of what it means to be a Druid. It’s a period of creation and re-creation and thanks to the easy availability of printed sources and the internet we find that once again we can begin to study and put together systems for training Druids.

There are many methods of meditation that can lead to channeling, mediumship, or simply a greater spiritual awareness. Here is the method I use:

I often meet people who say things like, “I’ve been working on mindfulness for over twenty years.”

My response is always this: “Oh, you poor thing! Have you tried *playing* with mindfulness? It’s very effective, and much more fun!”

They tend to look at me like I’m some kind of kook, and then ask the million-dollar question: “How can you play with mindfulness?” Glad you asked….

We tend to think of mindfulness as something that develops only after years of dedicated meditation. We must sit for hours, contemplate in silence for days, go on retreats for weeks, practice daily for years. Okay, that can work.

The unfortunate thing is that it IS work, and consequently, it’s about as appealing to most folks as lying on a bed of nails. Sure, they want to develop a clearer perspective on life. Yes, they want to become calm and contemplative. Of course they want to live more meaningfully and with greater joy. But does it have to be so hard?

Scientific research has shown that the most beneficial meditation technique is Transcendental Meditation ™. The striking reduction of stress and anxiety caused by TM are 3 times greater than the effect caused by most meditation and relaxation techniques.

Transcendental Meditation has been taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi since 1958. The first articles about the beneficial effects of TM were published around 1970 on important magazines and scientific journals such as

- Science (167, 1970),

- American Journal of Physiology (221, 1971) and

- Scientific American (226, 1972).

The basic research was conducted by two medical doctors from Harvard University, Herbert Benson and Robert Wallace. This research was made on dozens of American people who used to practice this technique regularly. These people were of any race, sex, age, job, and with different personal political or religious belief.

Later, a lot of research was made about this technique by several doctors and scientists, who wrote several articles on important scientific journals such as

- International Journal of Neuroscience,

- Psychosomatic Medicine,

- Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology,

- Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,

- Journal of Clinical Psychology,

and many more.

What are you likely to gain from meditating?

Simple:

? It improves the power of your concentration.

? Calms you down.

? And enables you to know what you want out of life and how to achieve it.

In our experience, we each have two sides of us, two YOUS if you prefer.

ONE YOU: wants to be successful and has the ability of giving you all the help and encouragement you need.

THE OTHER YOU: wants you to be an all so ran. Mediocre and that one will also give you all the help and encouragement you need to be mediocre.

The question is: Which of these have you chosen to work with? Which of these have you activated. Which of these have you given credence and credibility to.

Ask yourself:

When did you last say you would do something but never did?

When did you say that you volunteer for a task only to find that whilst you were procrastinating another person took the opportunity and made it?

When was the last time you broke a promise to your colleague, your partner or your children?

It is an unfortunate reality that society has inadvertently categorized the natural abilities associated with bio-etheric energy as a form of entertainment.

Classifying skills such as precognitive event recognition alongside amusement attractions such as stage illusion have undermined the acknowledgement of etheric energy itself, impeding the acceptance of a wide spectrum of very natural, very real capabilities.

Why, then, are etheric-related abilities seemingly so rare? The answer is multidimensional.

Identifying Your Etheric Energy

All human beings have the ability to recognize, embrace, and utilize their bio-etheric energy, or the energy produced and emitted by all living organisms. Once harnessed, bio-etheric energy can allow a being to:

* Gain a broader, deeper perception of physical and/or emotional surroundings

* Achieve greater use of the brain’s traditional and extra-sensory functions

* Increase knowledge absorption by participating in conscious bio-etheric energy exchange

* Attain a working knowledge of etheric-related capabilities such as precognitive event recognition

The easiest analogy to recognizing etheric energy is that of electricity. Had mankind never harnessed the natural phenomena of electrical current, entire civilizations would have evolved in the absence of telephones, computers, televisions, and an array of other technologies that now seem second nature in our daily lives.

Maybe learning to meditate intimidates you, and in any case it’s tough to find the time for daily meditation. The solution to both problems is an easy meditation you can learn right now, that will only take a minute to do each day.

An Easy Meditation Technique

Breathing through your mouth expands your chest, but if you breath through your nose you’ll notice how your abdomen extends. You see, nose-breathing causes the diaphram to pull air to the bottom of your lungs. This delivers a good dose of oxygen into your bloodstream and brain. It also tends to relax you.

Breathing through your nose is healthier, and it’s the basis of this one-minute meditation. You simply close your eyes, let the tension go out of your muscles, let go of your thoughts (to the extent possible), and take four slow, deep breaths through your nose, paying attention to your breathing.

Is Meditation This Easy?

You’re not likey to get you into a deep meditative state with this simple exercise. You will get benefits, though. These will almost certainly include a clearer mind and a reduction in stress.

(Authors Note: Before reading this you should see my other articles on Breathing and Full Body Awareness)

Now that you’ve begun to develop the ability to move energy around in your body there are some things that you can do with it. The following exercises range from pretty simple to pretty complicated, but as you develop your abilities you’ll eventually find that you can do them all at once and effortlessly. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to develop this ability, so remember what I said about expectations.

You’ll eventually be able to remember how to do these exercises by memory, and then after that you’ll get to the point where you just do them without having to think about them. In the beginning it may be helpful to have a partner read the exercises to you or you can order the CD Set that goes with this book at www.windhavenco.org.

Grounding

Grounding will always be an important skill, no matter how advanced you become, so take the time to learn this now and to be able to do it effortlessly.