Meditation as Medicine

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• Meditation as Medicine: Bring balance to your body...

• Our Gift To You: Nutrition Planner...

• Yogapedia: Marichyasana B...

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TODAY'S LEARNINGMeditation as Medicine

Meditation practice can assist us in addressing the different types of suffering we experience in life when it is used as a way to achieve balance both within ourselves and with our surroundings. Here are three methods for resolving typical imbalances:

The Joy of Complete Rest: Yoga Nidra (To treat insomnia, anxiety, and exhaustion from overwork, and to revive creativity)

Distraction is frequently mistaken for relaxation in our culture. While social media or television viewing can divert our attention from certain things, they don't provide any rest.

All forms of meditation require a relaxed state. The problem is that genuine relaxation requires skill and active effort on our part. It doesn't just occur after we put the kids to bed or when we get home from work.

Yoga nidra, fortunately, is the ideal method for teaching relaxation. Yoga nidra is practiced while curled up. In a comfortable, supported position, we allow the body to completely relax and learn how to focus our attention.

Much of our suffering, both during our waking hours and those we’re trying to sleep, comes from our awareness rampaging around, completely outside of our control. Yoga nidra gives us tools like sensations, concentration, and visualization to tame our awareness and turn it into an ally.

Beyond what most of us get from sleep, yoga nidra practice offers deep rest, restoration, and revitalization.

Mantra Meditation for Developing a Mind Like a Laser (For Anxiety, Stupor, Depression, and Breaking Bad Habits)

It's challenging to have a fulfilling experience of meditation or anything else when our minds are engaged in mindless hopscotch. Mantra meditation activates the senses to develop concentration, which is a prerequisite for successful meditation. Mantra meditation is a strong form of meditation in and of itself.

Mantra meditation can uplift and calm anxiousness. In mantra meditation, we produce sound vibrations that disturb unfavorable mental patterns as well as more deeply ingrained ones in the causal body. It gives us the opportunity to restart and start over as often as necessary, bringing our ingrained state closer to the clear, fresh awareness we encounter both during and after the practice.

We take a deep breath in and then create the same sound or series of sounds repeatedly with a long, sustained exhale to practice mantra meditation. Long exhales are known to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which aids in digestion, relieves stress, and eases discomfort.

Different mantras' sound waves have different effects on us, and not all of them are suitable for everyone. It's best to use one of the potent, globally healing mantras unless your teacher gives you one.

The powerful prayer Om Mani Padme Hum, which asks that "all beings be relieved of suffering," and the great sacred syllable Om are two of the holiest mantras that are safe for everyone to recite. The Meaning of Om Mani Padme Hum has more information. Give the mantra your undivided attention as you sit in your most relaxed position. Spend at least five minutes trying. then take a seat quietly and pay attention to your feelings.

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TODAY'S POSITIVE NEWS

Meaghan Martin has trained horses for many years, and it was her experience that enabled her to turn a potentially depressing tale into a happy one.

When she first encountered the young mare Saxy, a horse that would be trained for racing, she was just a teenager. Saxy was sold off as a workhorse despite never having achieved fame and winning only a few thousand dollars.

In America, retired equine athletes are frequently sold to Amish communities, who use them to pull plows and buggies. Saxy was involved in a collision while pulling a plow during this activity, which left her marked for slaughter.

This is a story of how Meaghan saved her life (Watch)

ZEN STORYThe Door To Happiness Was Never Locked...

If you go to a Zen teacher and you approach him in the traditional way, the first thing he will do is to say: “I haven’t anything to teach. Go away!”

“Well,” you say, “what are these people doing around here? Aren’t they your students?”

“They’re working with me, but unfortunately, we are very poor these days, we don’t have enough rice to go around to make ends meet.”

So you have to insist to be taken in. Every postulant for Zen training assumes immediately that the teacher has given him the brush off in order to test his sincerity. In other words: “If you really want this thing, you gotta work for it.”

That isn’t the real point. The point is that you got to make such a fuss to get in that you cannot withdraw gracefully after having made such a fuss to get in. Because you put yourself on the spot. And you define yourself as somebody needing help or as somebody with a problem who needs a master in order to be helped out of the problem.

-Alan Watts

OUR GIFT TO YOU

Every now and then we will be giving away free digital goods to our community. In order for you to see our digital gifts, make sure that you place our emails into your primary folder. Our goal is to give away something awesome at least once a week!

Today you get our Nutrition Planner. This nutrition planner has helped us and others to get organized and stay accountable for their health goals. To download please click on the button below called “Download”.

CRYSTAL OF THE DAY

YOGAPEDIAMarichyasana B

Marichi's pose B, or marichyasana B in Sanskrit, is one of several variations of the advanced marichyasana series. In this seated forward bend, one leg is locked in lotus while the other is bent, foot flat on the floor. The practitioner binds their hands behind their back and folds forward, which stimulates the abdominal organs and improves digestion.

Instructions

• Sit with the legs outstretched.

• Exhale and place the left leg in lotus. Bend the right leg so that the shin is vertical and the foot rests on the floor.

• Exhale and lean forward slightly. Wrap the right arm around and behind the right leg. Reach the left arm back and grab hold of the wrist.

• Inhale, then exhale and fold all the way forward.

• Breathe while holding the pose.

• Inhale and release. Change sides.

Benefits of Marichi's Pose B

Stretches the spine and shoulders, increases flexibility in the hips and knees, massages the abdominal organs and increases circulation to the abdomen, and improves digestion.

BOOK OF THE DAY

Through extraordinary meditations, affirmations, holistic healing plant-based medicine, KMT temple teachings, and The Rites of Passage guidance, Queen Afua teaches us how to love and rejoice in our bodies by spiritualizing the words we speak, the foods we eat, the relationships we attract, the spaces we live and work in, and the transcendent woman spirit we manifest. With love, wisdom, and passion, Queen Afua guides us to accept our mission and our mantle as Sacred Women—to heal ourselves, the generations of women in our families, our communities, and our world.

DAILY MEME