A FEW THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS

Do you meditate or take time each day to be more mindful and present in your life?

Do you feel sometimes that your mind is over-loaded, and you just can’t focus?

Do you feel anxious and stressed?

Then the practice of meditation and mindfulness each day might be just what you need! Even a few moments each day can have a positive effect on our life.

Turning 50 Was a Milestone. Now I’m 58!! However, life seemed to change when I turned 50. Suddenly, I was trying new things and experiences. For most of my life, I have lived on the conservative side. Participating and learning more about meditation has helped me be more open in my thoughts to new experiences.

Recently, completing the Yoga Certificate Course brought even more awareness to all the different aspects of mindfulness.

Learning mindfulness means living in the present, rather than living with regrets of the past or longing for the future. When we live in the present, we are more aware of new opportunities and experiences which can enrich our lives. 

Your Best Is Enough. 

“It Is All About the Breath”... how many times have I heard that? Well it’s so true!! I started 8 years ago with a 2 minute gratitude meditation. Lately I’ve been exploring many different guided meditations. 

I’ve learned that it is okay to welcome thoughts during meditation, but to use the tool of focusing on the breath does help clear my mind. When we feel anxious or stressed taking time to focus on our breathing, has a calming effect. Simply breathing in for 4 counts and out for 6 counts and concentrating on the number will clear your mind.

Many studies show that meditation does make you more resilient and able to cope with stress, while for ordinary depression, mindfulness can be just as effective as medication.

You can slow down the aging process of the brain. We all know that our brains and reaction time slows as we age. However, studies have shown that exercising your brain can help to slow down and, in some cases, reverse the aging process.

Daily mediation gives you a mental workout like a physical exercise. As little as 5 – 10 minutes of mindful meditation will not only change your brain but had short-term beneficial effects, especially with your ability to concentrate. 

Do you practice daily meditation and mindfulness?

What are some of the ways you use it to reduce stress and anxiety in your life?

These meditation tools will help you free your mind of distractions, keep you comfortable while you meditate and guide you through the entire experience.

The Best Diva Meditation Tools of 2020

The Diva collection: 

• Zafu & Zabuton meditation cushion 

• Muse headband

• Essential oil diffuser

• Present, Not Perfect: A Journal for Slowing Down, Letting Go, and Loving Who You Are 

We are living in the era of extremely smart, and economical, technology. App and web developers are continually coming out with meditation and mindfulness apps for the iPhone and Android handsets that can help in your training.

3 Apps That I Love

1) Headspace

Headspace uses tested and proven meditation techniques aimed at training you to be mindful of your surroundings. You will get a 10-day program, Take10, which is free. Headspace has received a fair number of favorable reviews from users and app critics.

After the expiry of the Take10 sessions, if you feel it’s right for you,  you can move on to the paid sessions which grant you unlimited access to the Headspace foundation courses, and ‘Meditations’ themed series. In my opinion, this is one of the most useful mindfulness apps if you’re just starting out, as it offers a very structured program that is easy to follow. It is available for download in the App Store as wells as Google Play.

2) Calm

This is a great mindfulness app for those in the heart of a big city working the 9 to 5, or anyone who undergoes a lot of daily stress but has a hard time getting away as much as they’d like. Basically, it is designed as a portal into calm, natural surroundings, with both the audio and visual aspects built to relax you. It has a breezy, beautiful interface, a narrator with a soothing voice and a variety of background sounds and visual settings to choose from. It doesn’t matter where you are — if you have access to your phone or laptop, you can escape.

Calm is available both as an app and a full-blown website. You initially get “7 Days of Calm” free, after which you can proceed to the advanced “21 Days of Calm”, a subscription service for $9.99 per month, or the more popular annual subscription which breaks down to $3.99 per month. 

3) Buddhify

In my opinion, Buddhify is one of the best paid meditation and mindfulness apps you can buy, available from the App Store or Google Play for $4.99. With it, you gain access to more than 11 sessions of meditation for the different periods of nearly any given day, which the designers break down in into 16 separate segments — traveling, eating, walking in the city, going to sleep, etc — causing you to tune in, relax, and get in touch with your body, thoughts and emotions as you partake. Users of this mindfulness app really support it, heaping praise onto the design team for its ease of use, functionality and the results they feel they’ve garnered. The sessions are available offline and boast over 80 tracks of high-quality mindfulness training.

Last year, I dived into a 4 week guided meditation by Dr. Joe Dispenza 

“Meditations for Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself”

Now, some of my favorites are guided meditations.  Mindfulness provides a way to take a gentle and friendly look at oneself and to stay connected. These days I really try and practice mindfulness, whether it’s actively walking from appointments or I’m training a client.

Daily Mindful Prompts…

How can I serve? Staying authentic, how can I add value?