Journey To A Stress Free Life

I’ve been thinking and working a lot lately. My mind is buzzing about work and an upcoming presentation deadline. As I was spending some quiet time with the cats looking out the window, it hit me that I’ve allowed life to hijack my brain. I have been missing the quiet moments like looking out the window and watching night fall. It’s such a simple pleasure yet it connects me with my core being and mother earth itself. Life changes are important but don’t let life zoom by without finding joy in the softer moments.

Reconnect with your humanness. Sitting quietly by the window at night allowed me to slow down and really connect with the world. Find your quiet time and learn to love it every day.

Remember to enjoy the journey. You are a human living in a world of many simple pleasures. I’ve been so focused on what this presentation might bring me in the future, I’ve forgotten to just enjoy the journey. It should be fun and creative not a worry for me.

Soft moments can bring a pure joy. When we slow down and breathe, when we just watch the world unfold, when we just BE , those can be the most precious moments in life. It isn’t always about others, it can be just about YOU. Discover your humanity, discover peace, and discover beauty. It’s all around you. We just bec0me too busy to notice.

5 Ways To Reduce Stress And Find Joy And Be More Optimistic.

Stop paying attention to bad news. Get off the Internet. Read a book. Find the simple joys in life. Take in the cool crisp air of the morning. Don’t let the media influence your morning. Tune out. Find the beauty in life. Chop all the bad news out and you’ll find slices of joy you never knew existed!

Meditate. Find peace in the present moment. Learn to still your chattering mind.  There are so many ways to meditate these days. There is the traditional method of sitting still and paying attention to your outer breath.  Or download an app for your smart phone. I recently downloaded “ Meditation 4 Inner Wisdom” and loved its relaxing flow.

Don’t worry about stuff you can’t change. Work is incredibly demanding these days. Greece is falling apart. Winter is coming. I can either let these stressors roll around in my head like a mouse on a flywheel or pay attention to what I CAN change. What can you change in your life? Write it down and start making those changes. Let the rest of it go. Are you worrying about stuff you cannot change?  Let it go today and change what you have control over.

Exercise. I’ve been trying to lose 20 pounds with no results. I eat well but haven’t been eating fewer calories. Simple math. If I wish to continue to eat the same amount of calories I HAVE to exercise more. Today I got back on the elliptical running machine and did some weights. AND!!  And what? And exercise is one of the very best ways to reduce stress. It’s a double win! Let’s start an exercise routine today! One of the very best decisions you will have made, at any stage in your life.

Write your goals down. We constantly dream and plan in our heads. We stand around the water cooler and talk about living in a warmer climate, having more money or working in a dream career. Get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper! Make them concrete. Take the next step towards making them into reality. What is your biggest dream? What is the very next action you need to take to make your dream a reality? What is stopping you? Write it down today and write down the next step you need to take. Now you are on your way!!

How I Started A New Life With One Hour

There are 24 hours in a day. Once those 24 hours are up, that day will be gone forever. Then a new one starts all over. Then it is gone forever too. How are you spending each day?

The burning question is how do you spend your 24 hours? During the week, we may have 7 hours to sleep,8 hours for work, 1 -2  hours for various and traffic, 2 hours for meals. This leaves us with about 6 hours. Let’s say we exercise for 1 hour and if we have a family, 3 hours with them.

We still have about 2 hours left over.

1-2 hours to start your dream.

1-2 hours to begin your blog.

1-2 hours to meditate and relieve your stress.

1-2 hours to read self development and expand your mind.

I spend 1 hour a day on this website, writing, editing, modifying, creating and finding incredible meaning and purpose.

What is stopping you from planting the seeds of the dream life you always imagined? Why aren’t you spending an hour a day on what YOU love? Why are you giving 8 hours to a corporation and leave nothing for yourself?

It’s time to stop screwing around, wasting your time and make the life changes you want right now.

There is absolutely no excuse.

Here’s Is A Quick And Easy Way To Meditate

My favorite way to meditate is using Gail Chiarella’s CD’s AM and PM Yoga Meditations.

http://www.amazon.com/AM-Yoga-Meditations-Gael-Chiarella/dp/1559617527

I’ve tried dozens of methods but hers is the best. If my mind is too active at bedtime or upon waking I love to listen to her soothing voice on my iPhone.

It is the most positive and relaxing meditation to begin or end a day.

Bring conscious choice to the ways you envision your day.  Everything you say think and say to yourself today will have an impact on your tomorrow.

“I am the master of my life”

“I am courage in action”

“I love and appreciate myself exactly the way I am”

“I am confident and effective in all that I do”

Namaste

Meditation And Why It Reduces Only Some Stress

The best meditation techniques I’ve learnt about is from Pema Chodron.  Meditation is the foundation to living in the present moment and reducing stress. I’ve written about the meditation technique I use here. I believe it is the simplest and clearest explanation I can give you.

However, it’s all fine and dandy to believe meditation will erase life’s problems and bring you into an enlightened state requiring no further action. Wrong.

Meditation is wonderful to reduce the useless chatter in your life. Meditation trains your mind to come back to the present moment and immerse yourself in the beauty of the world around you. The more you practise meditation the more you get better at reducing anxiety, silly worries and most stress.

The key here though is MOST stress. Meditation will not make you lose weight. Mediation will not get you out of debt. Meditation will not help your dreams come true. What WILL help all these things is to take action. To make a major life change you have to take action. There is no simple way of getting around it.

So here is the deal. Decide right here and now on what aspect of your life you need to take action on. Write out what the problem is and write out the solution. There. Now you have an action plan to change a key aspect of your life. You have made a decision, drawn a line in the sand and chosen to act.

Now you can meditate. Let go of all those silly worries and chatter in your head. You have a plan, you will take action , the rest is of no importance. Learn to be at peace. However, when it comes time to take action, TAKE ACTION! If you don’t, your life will never change. No matter how hard you meditate.

Are you ready to live a life of Zen and make a significant life change?

Top 3 Meditation Techniques

Meditation dates back several hundreds of years. When someone mentions meditation, an image of monks in dark robes sitting for hours in silence may come to mind, but this is not the case.

Benefits of Meditation

Meditation can benefit your body, mind, and spirit. Tests and studies that monitor brain waves of people during meditation have shown that you achieve deep relaxation and increased oxygen intake during meditation. It even raises your pain tolerance!

In addition, meditation can lower your blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol. Studies have also shown that when you practice meditation, you may have lower levels of cortisol and free radicals, which reduces stress and slows the aging process.

Meditation Styles, Types, and Methods

There are a number of different ways you can meditate, and meditation is different for each person. Meditation is a truly personal experience. Finding the right type of meditation for you may take a bit of time and practice, but the benefits are certainly worth the effort.

While there are various types, don’t let that overwhelm you. Start with something simple. Dedicate yourself to learning the technique, and see the benefits in your life. If one type of meditation isn’t right for you, try another one.

Three of the most common meditation types are Yoga, Mantra, and Mindfulness Meditation. Although each of these types are unique, there are also similarities.

Yoga Meditation

• Yoga is wildly popular because it relaxes both the body and mind. It’s a form of exercise that incorporates meditation. Meditation is one of the five principles of yoga, with the other four being diet, exercise, relaxation and breathing.
• The goal in yoga meditation is to promote control of both the body and mind.

Mantra Meditation

• Mantras are phrases or words that you repeat. When you think of those monks meditating, you might imagine them saying, “Ommmm.” This is their mantra. Yours can be that simple or more complex. You may use the word “calm“. You can say it out loud or silently while you meditate.
• Sound vibrations from the mantra invoke spiritual forces and strengthen areas of a person’s chakra. (Chakras are focal points for the reception and transmission of energies in the body. Remember when that girl who broke up with you called you back? That was your chakra becoming energized again.)

Mindfulness Meditation

• Buddhists call this type of meditation “insightful or vipassana meditation.” It is insightful because you become acutely aware yet learn to not react to both what is physically around you and inside your mind. You become aware of all these things without any type of judgment. You just let them be.
• You usually start by concentrating on your breathing, and then progress to the thoughts and ideas bouncing around in your mind. Eventually the ideas and thoughts drift by like slow moving clouds and you pay no heed to them. This is the type I use the most. I have now learnt to become calm and non-judgmental at any time in my life. This is closely related to psychological freedom, and this is the freedom to choose our own state of mind.

In order to receive the most benefits from your meditation, you should practice it on a daily basis. The amount of time you spend meditating will be a personal choice. Some people realize benefits in 10 minutes, while it takes others at least 30 minutes.

When learning the basics of the type you’ve chosen, be prepared to spend more time in meditation. It takes time to learn how to clear your mind and become totally relaxed.

If you’re unsure which type of meditation is right for you, seek the guidance of a qualified coach or instructor.

Once you practice meditation, you’ll develop preferences customized for your own mind and body. Find your balance and create your own meditation style if that’s what works best for you.

Once you make the conscious decision to meditate, you’ll find new peace, comfort, and better health in your life as a result. Get started today!

Now You Can Find Peace Of Mind And Meaning

There is my inside me and my outside me. Sometimes they seem to conflict horribly. It’s such a pain. My inside me is striving for a life of meaning and purpose, contentment and existential challenges. My outside me is paying bills, buying a new car and renovating the house. It seems lately that my outside me is controlling my inside me. I’m talking about being on a stress and consumer treadmill.

Sometimes I would love to give this all up and live simply in some country, pondering life, meditating, setting up a small foundation, walking the beach and discovering more wisdom and raison d’être.

What is stopping me? There will be no perfect time. I will just have to walk off the cliff one day and take a leap of faith.

An excellent start would be to start meditating again. Meditating helped me clear my mind, find my breath and increase a wonderful sense of inner peace. I was becoming good at living in the moment and appreciating the little things in life.

It’s a small step that has huge benefits. So the inside me is hopping off the stress and consumer treadmill I’ve found lately.

The other day I went for a mid afternoon stroll with one of the dogs in the small forest nearby. It was absolutely beautiful. The smell of earth and trees assailed my senses and it reminded me of those wonderful carefree summers as a kid. The sunlight splashed against vibrant and luminous green leaves. Small forest creatures darted amongst the plants and trees. I was perfectly in the moment throughout the entire walk. My inside me and outside me were in unspoiled harmony.

It’s too easy to fall out of good habits.

I want more of peace of mind and Mother Nature. Screw the treadmill.

Don’t you?

3 Reasons Why Some People Almost Always Go Insane But I Don’t

Traffic

There are some days when I feel like slapping people in traffic. They rudely cut me off and force me to jam on my brakes like a rookie F1 driver on a rainy day. I then fantasize about rolling down their window and smacking them silly. Or if the traffic is thick I would jump out, crouch and sneak up while springing up at their window shrieking BOO!! and waving pretend claws in the air. Of course the first would get me arrested and the second may cause a heart attack.

Traffic solution – Audio books

I listen to audio books in my car. Lately I’ve been loving “Living a Life of Inner Peace” by Eckhart Tolle. I take pleasure in some spirituality on occasion and this audio book is not only spiritual but hilarious. Eckhart gives an amusing, introspective and at times wistful talk to an audience and shows us a side that really makes him more human (less robot). Believe or not, probably my favourite Audio book for the car. Look at me calling him Eckhart, like I’m his beer drinking bud.That should be MR Eckhart.

Purchasing dress pants

I tried going to discount stores like TJ Maxx to buy cheap dress pants but discovered that I end up looking like MC hammer in his hilarious balloon pants after a while. Hard to find nice inexpensive dress pants. Shirts are much easier.I think so.

Dress pants solution – Find a store you like (and that has nice pants?)

Now I buy all my dress pants from Tristan. They fit well, have a good selection and I try to purchase them on sale. After Christmas is a great time. The only down side is the buttons pop off because they are machined on (and made in Canada!). So I get this tiny Chinese woman to sew them back on. Out of the blue last week she accuses me of not paying 3 cents on the tax and I threatened her boss about taking my business elsewhere. WTF? Anyhoo, we straightened it out and almost had a three way group hug. Who knew buttons or 3 cents could cause WWlll! Find a store you like and stick with it.

Work stress

For many years I found myself in the morning gulping down breakfast, worrying about the latest work issues, hopping in the car and barreling down the highway to make it in on the hour. Yes, a very stressful way to begin the day.

Work stress solution – Have a great morning

Now I gulp down my breakfast and tweet! Ok, not the most relaxing method but one major difference is that before hopping in my piece of metal on rubber tires, I take a few moments to take in the beauty of the morning. This comes from years of meditation and practicing living in the now. The world can be a truly stunning place in the morning. The air is amazingly fresh and at times delightfully dewy. Clouds roll lazily by. Just looking up at the sky can be a Zen experience if you  take your sweet time to soak in the moment. Not hours now, we are talking a few minutes here. After my morning intermission I’m then prepared to barrel down the highway once more. Kidding! But that small break creates a much more relaxing start to the day.

Finding Peace And Harmony With Meditation

Plenty of people ask me how to meditate.

I think a better question would be why I meditate.

Meditation is about letting go of the normal world and associated thoughts that constantly invade the senses and mind. Meditation is about just being instead of doing. Meditation is about becoming friends with yourself and realizing that separation from the ego brings freedom and happiness.

We bombard ourselves with thoughts beginning with I. I need to pay the bills. I need to lose weight. I need to buy a new something. I should be eating better.  Probably 80% of these thoughts are constantly and annoyingly repeating themselves from one day to the next.  It seems to be a constant struggle. Meditation trains you to quiet the mind and look at life from new perspective. By calming the mind, you begin to distance yourself from all that mindless chatter and begin to think with more clarity. Meditation reduces snap decisions and trains you to look at yourself and your thoughts with a friendly curiosity. Instead of being overwhelmed with sudden angry thoughts, you become more inquisitive about your thoughts. Most importantly meditation slows down and relaxes the mind. Don’t we all want that? Don’t we want to exercise the body and the mind?

By practicing meditation, you will find that it affects your whole day. Decisions are made with more clarity. Peacefulness resides in the background of you at all times. You realize that struggling with thoughts all the time was a waste of time.  Life will throw you curve balls all the time. It isn’t easy sometimes. But the more you are able to quiet your thoughts and stop labeling and twisting them, the easier it becomes.

So step out of all those thoughts of desire, dislike, fear, and ego. Don’t let them control you. You can learn to control them.  Soon you will see yourself changing and become friends with yourself and your thoughts. You will chase your thought less often, become less judgmental and see the world with more clarity.

And finally, if you use the meditation technique of following your breath throughout the day, you will be living in the present moment more often. This is the ultimate goal of course, because the more you live in the moment, the more you give your life your fullest attention. Don’t you want to be aware of life and all it has to offer? I certainly hope so.

Back In The Saddle

Just got back from vacation in Ogunquit, Maine. Had a great time. Lots of beach time, wonderful meals and a couple bottles of wine.

I’ll be back writing some blog posts this week. All the posts here are written by me. I’m really into living in the present moment these days. I’ve focused on awareness of “now” and trying to let go of thinking about the past or present. I find living in the moment probably the best thing I’ve discovered in a long time. I find myself almost in a state of quiet meditation more often which is a much more accepting and peaceful way to live.

I also would like to touch on my own life changes, specifically around getting in shape and becoming financially independent. I might even let you see how I’m doing in my own life changes and post my tracker statistics for you to follow. That would be fun. I think.

I hope you subscribe to my RSS feed, and follow me. The more people I’m accountable to the better.

I think.