Audio Meditation

Being Kinder to Ourselves

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:11:47 +0000

Hello and welcome to our latest blog which looks at why we need to develop a kinder, more appreciative attitude towards ourselves, and suggests some ways to do this.

“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer… It makes no difference how deep set the trouble: how hopeless the outlook: how muddled the tangle: how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.” Emmet Fox

In meditation, the tradition of ‘loving kindness’ is a way of cultivating positive emotional states such as acceptance, patience, kindness and compassion towards ourselves and others. And, like most things that have worth, this practise needs to be applied to ourselves first. A good place to start is to learn how to acknowledge and respect our own needs. This enables us to look after our health and wellbeing better and achieve our full potential in life. It also makes it easier to acknowledge and value the needs of others without self-sacrifice or personal agendas getting in the way.

It makes good sense to develop a kinder, respectful and more accepting relationship with ourselves. We live in an age where it’s considered the norm to constantly self-criticise. Generally speaking this creates stress, causes unhappiness and shuts doors rather than opens them. We behave this way because we’ve been taught to and our peers probably do it too so that somehow makes it alright! Yet the fact is, it’s just a habit that we can and should replace with something more useful and life enhancing.

Self-kindness and compassion has to be something we actively engage with at a felt level if it is to have real meaning and positive effect in our lives. We need to give ourselves regular experiences of it rather than just thinking about it. Here are some short exercises to help you develop a kinder and more compassionate relationship with yourself that only require a few minutes of your day but have the power to change your life around.

Pause every now and then, come into the present moment and notice how you are feeling. Try not to rush this, allow yourself a few moments to become aware of what’s under the surface.

If your body tells you it’s feeling hungry, tired, or in pain allow yourself to really listen to this information with respect and compassion, (let go of any negative thoughts or judgements). Notice what happens when you do this. Then take appropriate action such as having a rest, eating some food or addressing the pain.
If your mind feels like it’s overworked or stressed, allow yourself to really listen to this information with respect and compassion, (let go of any negative thoughts or judgements). Notice what happens when you do this. Then take appropriate action such as stopping for a while, focusing on one thing at a time or stepping back to get the bigger picture.
If any emotions or uncomfortable sensations are there, allow yourself to really listen to them with respect and compassion, let them know they’ve been heard, (let go of any negative thoughts or judgements). Breathe into the feelings and sensations with kindness (imagine putting a kindly arm around them). Notice what happens when you do this.
Notice unhelpful thought patterns and negative self-talk, and replace them with something constructive, encouraging and re-assuring instead.

Practising self-kindness and compassion is a way to re-parent yourself. Remember, the best parent you can have is the one you develop within you for you. The best friend you can have is the one you develop within you for you. The best person who can hold your hand when something rocks the boat is you.

Linda Hall March 2012

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Loving Kindness – Video 8

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:20:58 +0000

This guided meditation focuses on giving yourself kindness and compassion

Calming Down – Harnessing the Power of Calm

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:15:49 +0000

Hello and welcome to our latest blog post which looks at why we all need calm in our lives in order to maintain balance in health and well-being.

Calm is the tangible quality at the core of someone or something that goes beyond relaxation. In these unsettled times we need to resource the power of calm more than ever.

So how can we become calm? A good start is to look at how we organise ourselves in our daily lives and whether our environment and our habitual patterns support us to be in a state of calm or a state of stress.

Just as it’s been said ‘you are what you eat’, to a large extent you are what you ‘think’, or rather how you think. Your thoughts play a significant role in creating your present, future and past and in moulding your physical and mental health. Your environment and the company you keep also shape you. Be it home or work, your environment is the daily structure you live within that either supports you to be calm or doesn’t. Your familial and social culture affects your stress levels through its influence on your belief patterns and behaviour. The simple fact is that the day-to-day choices you make play a significant role in your relative levels of calm.

We are all creatures of habit by nature and tend to normalise states we’ve become used to. If, for instance we have experienced a prolonged bout of stress, it’s likely we will see this as the norm and come to expect it. Recognising this can be the first step to breaking out of the stress cycle. Theory on its own is not enough though, and the necessary resources have to be put in place by us to make it possible. Here are some simple tips to help cultivate a calmer you:

Make changes to your daily environment

De-clutter your home and workplace (the more spacious your environment feels the more likely it is to calm you)
Re-organise your home so that it calms your senses ie: use
neutral colours, ambient lighting and relaxing scents
Limit noise pollution – turn down or off noisy ‘background’ sound such as TV or radio when you are not directly listening to them
Make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet to ensure a good night’s sleep – buy a sleep mask and some earplugs

Make changes in how you organise yourself

Focus on one thing at a time
Speak more slowly – it will calm you and the listener
Resist shouting – speaking in a quiet tone of voice will calm you
Slow your breath – it will slow the rest of you down
Walk and move more slowly – as above
Limit time on computers and technology before bedtime
Cut down on stimulants such as caffeine, tea and alcohol
Give yourself quality ‘down time’
Use your local green spaces – nature and open vistas calm the mind and the senses

Probably the most useful thing you can do is to notice what calms you and what doesn’t, then do more of the former and less of the latter. This month’s video meditation ‘All is Calm’ uses the breath and affirmations to induce inner states of calm.

Linda Hall

Click here to go back to Blog page and watch video

All Is Calm – Video Meditation 7

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:04:00 +0000

This simple meditation video uses affirmations and the rhythmic sounds of ocean waves to induce calm.

Getting In Touch With The Positives In Life

admin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:00:36 +0000

Hello and welcome to our latest blog which continues to look at ways to create states of wellbeing.

Focusing on the positives rather than the negatives in our lives makes a real difference to how we feel on a day-to-day basis. It motivates us, enables us to feel inspired, brings hope, nurtures healthy self-esteem, builds self-confidence and makes us happy. Its effects are far reaching: research in Psychoneuroimmunology shows that positive thinkers have a healthier immune response and are less likely to catch things like the common cold or die of heart disease.

Being thankful for the positives in our life may sound old fashioned, as we increasingly take rising standards in living, health and education for granted. Yet, practicing ‘thankfulness’ on a regular basis serves an important purpose as it keeps us in touch with what nourishes, fullfills and sustains us. And, each time we bring to mind these positives aspects of our lives we gain some of their benefits as feel- good hormones flood our systems in response to our thoughts.

Spending a few moments during meditation or times of reflection to put thanks ‘out there’ to the universe, God, nature, life, (whatever we feel most comfortable with) helps keep us on track with the fundamental things that really matter and reminds us of what we have rather than what we don’t have.

Linda Hall

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Getting In Touch With The Positives In Life – Video Meditation 6

admin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:00:14 +0000

This video meditation continues look at ways to create states of wellbeing.

The Present Moment

admin — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:44:48 +0000

Hello and welcome to our latest Audio Meditation Blog entry. Today we look at the benefits of using the present moment as a place ‘to be’, rather than ‘to do’.

The Present Moment – a place ‘just to be’

In this fast moving, multi-tasking world, we always seem to be rushing ahead of ourselves with “What’s happening next? ”at the forefront of our minds. Forever on the front foot, we organise ourselves around a constant readiness to ‘do’.

As well as using up a vast amount of energy, there’s something fundamentally unsettling about this state of constantly being ready to do the next thing. It doesn’t allow us to stay long enough in the present to fully engage with it and take in the benefits.

The truth is, we can plan for the future and reflect on the past, but life itself happens in the present. We’d do well to remember that the present is where both our past and our future come from!

Paying attention to the present draws us out of the trance states of the mind and away from the scary movies we create inside our heads. This enables us to experience ourselves in relationship to the simple ‘here and now’. Just being in the ‘here and now’ is likely to make us feel more grounded and balanced because it engages the whole of us. As our senses come into play we begin to notice the sounds, sights, tastes and feel of the space around us, which has the effect of anchoring us in the real world and gives us a welcome breathing space from the rabbit warrens of the mind.

Even more important, as well as integrating us, the present moment gives us choices: noticing the feel of the sun warming our face or the sound of nearby birdsong allows us to enjoy it; and noticing unhelpful thoughts as patterns enables us to choose to let them go rather than be ridden by them. Becoming aware of feelings of sadness, anger or happiness gives us an opportunity to engage with and honour our emotions. Noticing if we are tired, hungry, thirsty, or uncomfortable makes it possible for us to get our needs met appropriately.

And there’s another almost magical thing about the present moment – it’s the one place we can pause and catch our breath from mind chatter and the constant readiness ‘to do’. Eastern philosophy has long known the value of a balance between doing and being. The spaces in-between ‘doing’ are every bit as important – we need these precious pockets of time to process, assimilate, grow and heal. And remember, this moment, right now, will never happen again in exactly the same way – it’s unique. So why not make the most of it?

Linda Hall

Click here to go back to Blog page and watch video

The Present Moment – Video Meditation 5

admin — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:44:32 +0000

Here is our fifth video which explores ‘just being’ in the Present Moment

Affirmations

admin — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:31:03 +0000

Hello and welcome to our latest Audio Meditation Blog entry. Today we look at how regular use of affirmations can bring about positive changes in the way we think, feel and behave.

Affirmations – the power of self-talk

Did you know that the things you tell yourself on a regular basis are likely to become your reality? It has been said all that we are is the result of what we have thought. For instance, if you’re in the habit of telling yourself you’re no good at something it’s very likely you won’t be, because you’ve trained yourself to be that way by repeatedly giving yourself that negative message. Our beliefs create the behaviour to create the reality in which these beliefs come true.

Imagine that you are a house, and written on the walls of your house are the ‘scripts’ of all your beliefs. These beliefs have been gathered over the years from your own experience or from other people, such as your family, peers and society. Every single moment of the day gets ‘filtered’ through these scripts which then shape your every experience.

Some of these inner scripts have outgrown their usefulness; others are downright unhelpful; some aren’t even yours! I suggest you give them all an airing and simply throw out what doesn’t work for you. Write down on a piece of paper all the negative things you say to yourself, and put next to them what beliefs they may stem from. Go through each one, and ask yourself is it appropriate to have this belief? Is it true? Is it helpful? Where did it come from? Is it time to let it go?

Affirmations are positive statements which are consciously chosen by you to replace these negative inner scripts with something more useful, creative and open.

Words drive how we feel and behave. We use words all the time, consciously and unconsciously, as a way to make sense of the world. Don’t underestimate their power to shape your present, future and past. By using affirmations, you are working with the power of association, which is the body’s own natural way of learning (via its neural pathways and cellular memory). The phrase “It’s just all too much” is likely to trigger associated feelings of anxiety, helplessness and anger, whereas the affirmation “I can take things one step at a time” may trigger calm and optimistic feelings and put you in touch with your inner resources, making the task ahead more do-able.

Fundamentally, negative ‘self-talk’ is a habit – a pattern of thinking we’ve established for ourselves over time. Using affirmations is a powerful way to help to break old, unhelpful thought and behaviour patterns and establish new, more desirable and positive ones. In a nutshell, the negative statements we use in self-talk narrow our options, close doors and somehow make us smaller, whereas, affirmations increase our options for positive outcome, open doors and allow us to expand to our optimum potential.

And remember, the more you use the affirmations, the more powerful their effect will be as you grow the neural pathways and collect the cellular memory to take you there again. Here are some tips to help you:

Using Affirmations

Say your affirmation in the present tense
Let go of your rational mind
Allow the whole of you to bathe in the words
If any resistances come in the form of unhelpful comments from your rational mind: notice them and let them go; breathe into any sensations or feelings with an attitude of kindness and respect

Here are a few affirmations for you to try out, then create some up of your own – it’s better to keep it simple and use words that fit for you

I am enough
I value and love myself
I can go at my own pace
Everything is unfolding as it should
I trust in the process
I go with the flow
I heal and grow every day
I am on my path
All will be well

Affirmations can be incorporated into your meditations or used on their own. First thing in the morning and last thing at night can be a simple but profound way of preparing for the day ahead or a sound night’s sleep.

The following video features an Affirmation meditation about the concept of Time. It comes from the album All The Time You Need and is available to buy.

Click here to go direct to the product page.

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Affirmations – Video Meditation 4

admin — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:30:41 +0000

Here is the fourth video of a series in which we look at ‘Affirmations’