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Effective Techniques For Meditation

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Exercise And Meditation: 5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Mood

Exercise And MeditationExercise and meditation are some of the most overlooked mood boosters today. Granted, we all have a busy schedule, and after a long day, you want to get in bed and sleep your cares away. However, it may not be easy to rest after a busy day. Stress, depression, anxiety, and other hindrances due to life’s challenges can dampen your mood.

28 Mindfulness Techniques And Ideas To Enhance Your Life

There’s where meditation and exercise come in. You can enhance your performance by taking steroids from Canadian Anabolics. If you’re wondering how they can elevate your mood or want a reason to include both in your daily routine, the article below gives you all the information you need.

How to Include Exercise and Meditation in Your Life

With all the responsibilities you have in your daily life, it may seem impossible to squeeze meditation and workouts into your daily routine, but it isn’t. Here are five simple ways to do it:

  • Change your mindset.
  • Start for a few minutes each day, then increase the time as your body adjusts.
  • Ask a friend to help you stay in check. You can as well meditate and exercise together.
  • Reward yourself every time you exercise and meditate.
  • Don’t give up when you forget on some days. With time, your body will get used to them, and you’ll feel you’re missing something if you don’t exercise and meditate.

The Basics of Meditation To Get You Started

Benefits of exercise and meditationThere’s more to meditation than sitting quietly in a corner and staring in space. It aims to help you relax and get in touch with your inner self. There are nine types of meditation. Each is unique and is suitable for a particular personality. They are:

  • Visualization meditation
  • Mantra meditation
  • Progressive relaxation
  • Mindfulness meditation
  • Focused meditation
  • Loving-kindness meditation
  • Spiritual meditation
  • Movement meditation or walking meditation
  • Transcendental meditation

Meditation Success: 10 Easy Guidelines You Can Use Today

To meditate successfully:

  • Sit or lie down comfortably in a quiet room. You could even invest in a meditation cushion or chair.
  • Simply relax and gently close your eyes.
  • Don’t try to control your breath. Just breathe naturally.
  • Pay attention to the breath and how your body moves with each inhalation and exhalation. Notice your frame’s movement as you breathe. Observe your shoulders, rib cage, stomach, and chest.
  • Continue for at least ten minutes or more if you can using a timer or a ten-minute piece of meditation music that you enjoy listening to.

Benefits Of Meditation

 

How Mixing Exercise and the Benefits Of Meditation Can Improve Your Mood

Meditation and exercise are so effective because each has a different but equally profound effect on the brain. Here’s how combining them when you meditate before or after a workout can lighten your mood:

1. They Help in Combating Depression

A Rutgers University survey printed in the journal Translational Psychology discovered that a combination of meditation and aerobic exercise lowered depression symptoms by 40%. The participants mixed 30 minutes of exercise with 30 minutes of meditation twice every week for two months. They found that while the practices of exercise and meditation can ease depression symptoms independently, they’re more potent when you do them together.

Should I meditate before or after workout

2. Faster Recovery

Exercise helps you stay in shape. Your body requires you to recover after every workout session. Meditation helps it get better quicker while lowering injury risks thanks to reducing cortisol in your body. Meditating after exercise can also lower body ache and discomfort that an intense workout can bring.

3. Stress Reduction

Stress may be less severe than a depression, but it has detrimental effects on your body too. Though a little of it is good as it’s motivational and beneficial, here are some exercise and meditation indicators that it’s too much:

  • When you can’t sleep at night
  • When you find it hard to concentrate
  • When you feel overwhelmed
  • If you get sick often
  • If your eating pattern changes

Whenever you’re stressed, the hormone cortisol spikes. Cortisol is good in small amounts as it can help in weight loss and enhancing your mood. By using exercise and meditation together, you help keep cortisol levels at their minimum. Hence you avoid stress.

4. More Muscle Mass

A good reason to mix exercise and meditation is to maximize the muscle-building procedure. If you work out frequently and you’re not focused on losing weight, you likely want to build some muscle mass through focused exercises. Meditation can assist you to be a more disciplined and focused person, leading to more intense and better weight-lifting sessions.

Since meditation plays a part in lowering cortisol levels, it’s helpful because cortisol can sometimes break down muscle tissue, which is a significant cause of concern.

5. Increased Self-esteem

Inspiring Self-Acceptance And Self-Love Guided Meditation

Whenever you feel good about yourself, you’re automatically in a better mood. Combining exercise and meditation heightens your self-worth. Exercise can help you get the body you’ve always wanted. Meditation, specifically mindfulness meditation, motivates you to slow down, allows for more self-reflection, and can assist you in finding out positive qualities about yourself.

Investigators at Stanford University discovered that mindfulness meditation could help those with social anxiety. In a 2009 survey printed in the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 14 participants with social anxiety disorder took part in several months of meditation training. They reported higher self-esteem and lower anxiety after finishing the program.

Meditate before or after workout

Exercise and Meditation Benefits Conclusion

Combining exercise and meditation is the best way to go. Together, the practices can work more wonders for your mood than you can ever imagine. The key is to do them correctly and to be consistent. If ever you feel like giving up, think of the reward that awaits you at the end of the finish line.

If you’re not combining exercise and meditation yet, please don’t wait any longer. A natural and simple solution to a better mood is an effort away.

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6 Easy Steps For Practicing Mindfulness To Change Your Life

Practicing MindfulnessPracticing mindfulness is maintaining an awareness of our thoughts, ideas, feelings, bodily sensations, and external environment, moment by moment. It is like gazing through life with a soft lens without any judgments.

5-Minute Mindfulness Body Relaxation Scan Meditation

Mindfulness often means acceptance and close attention to your thought patterns without attaching any preconceived notion to them— it means without categorizing them under “right” or “wrong” headings and letting them be in a given moment. When you practice mindfulness, you automatically tune into the present moment. It allows you to detach from the memory or to plan the future.

Practicing Mindfulness – How It Helps?

Although the concept originated from Buddhist meditation, it is mainly considered a secular practice that became mainstream in America recently. Pioneers such as Jon Kabat-Zinn were its early advocates whose Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) technique became a highlighted program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the late 70s.

Ever since thousands of research works have documented the mental and physical health benefits of mindfulness. The mindfulness program inspires countless methods to adapt to the model in various institutions, schools, hospitals, prisons, and training centers.

28 Mindfulness Techniques And Ideas To Enhance Your Life

A simple way to practice mindfulness is sitting upright with eyes closed and palms resting on the laps. Keep your feet flat on the floor and focus on the movement of your breath. You can also listen to a guided meditation to divert attention inwards. Focus on the moment by paying attention to your bodily sensations. Let the thoughts and emotions emerge and slide. Your mind may wander by either reminiscing about the past or planning for the future.

Mindfulness techniquesSource: unsplash.com/

It Can Teach You The Skill To Master Focus

Practicing mindfulness can teach you the art of paying attention to the present by noticing your mind’s activities. It lets you see when your mind wanders off and how to bring it back to your breath swiftly. It can help you rest and settle your mind. Some users use natural aids like CBD and cannabis to restore balance and peace while meditating. The anxiolytic effects in them can help sustain better focus. Thus, one must rely on trusted brands such as Sunday Scaries to draw maximum benefits.

Mindfulness Prepares You Better To Deal with Life Stresses

Statistics reveal that eight out of ten Americans experience stress in their everyday life. Many people find it tough to calm their minds and bodies. Constant restlessness can put you at a high risk of heart disease, blood pressure, and other conditions. While there can be myriad practices to fight anxiety, mindfulness meditation is probably one of the most straightforward techniques to manage overall wellness, from exercise to yoga.

Users often find opportunities for self-reflection and get to learn about unique ways to self-manage stress. In many cases, it promotes self-regulation and empathy. Part of practicing mindfulness that appeals to the masses is that people find a new way to discover one’s hidden emotions.

Inspiring Self-Acceptance And Self-Love Guided Meditation

A growing body of research indicates its usefulness in reducing stress and anxiety. Some studies also suggest that mindfulness also helps improve memory and brain functions. Years ago, a study by neuroscientist Sara Lazar documented that mindfulness meditation can help change the brain’s gray matter, the regions linked with memory, regulation of emotions, and the sense of self. Another piece of research by Benjamin Shapero indicated that mindfulness could help with episodes of depression.

Benefits of practicing mindfulnessPhoto by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

Physical Benefits Of Practicing Mindfulness

A highly competitive environment demands mental agility. Whether you are struggling with a familiar environment or up to handle critical tasks, the usual work environment requires a greater sense of focus. Better decision-making usually comes when you maintain better control and keep awareness of your thoughts and emotions. Practicing mindfulness can help you nurture such habits. It can help manage burnout from work.

Meditation Success: 10 Easy Guidelines You Can Use Today

The deep breathing techniques often help with better relaxation, while the self-compassion tools are like a fitness routine for your brain. Mindfulness challenges can help practice brainpower. It adds consistency to train and discipline the wandering mind, often directing attention to the present moment.

Balancing Lifestyle Through Practicing Mindfulness

It also relaxes you to reach deep within your psyche. Although there may not be a ritualistic approach to mindfulness, the constant awareness will let you witness and enjoy even the small moments in life. You can also easily withdraw your attention and experience better sleep patterns and calmness.

The results of practicing mindfulness are profound on your lifestyle. It gradually inculcates good eating habits. With mindful eating, you gather awareness to eat only as much as your body needs and hence nip eating disorders right at their roots.

6 Steps To Get Started Practicing Mindfulness Meditation

1. Either sit in the traditional lotus position or simply relax in a comfortable chair, with your feet resting on the floor. Keep your spine straight but not stiff. Let your head hang naturally with a downward gaze.

2. Your hands should be resting comfortably on your thighs. You can keep your eyes open, but most people seem to prefer closing them. Do whatever works best for you. The goal is to get completely comfortable and not to worry about whether you are doing it right or wrong.

3. Just begin practicing mindfulness, and you will enjoy the results. Start focusing on your breathing. All your attention should be on how the air feels as you inhale deeply through your nose down to your stomach, then exhale. Notice the physical sensations of the air moving down your body, then being expelled through the nose. Become aware of the rise and fall in your chest as you inhale and exhale.

4. Don’t worry if your attention wanders. This is perfectly normal. What is important is that you don’t try to stop those intruding thoughts. Just let them flow through your mind non-judgmentally and return your focus to your breathing. If you find your thoughts wandering too often, don’t worry. Simply observe whatever is happening. Don’t judge or blame yourself. Just observe what your mind is doing.

5. When you’re done meditating, sit quietly for a moment before opening your eyes. Take a minute and observe what you are feeling. Again, it’s important not to judge yourself. When you are ready, go about your day.

6. The act of focusing on your breath helps you become aware of your thoughts and emotions. The more you meditate, the more aware you become. And as we’ll discuss in the next chapter, meditation is all about increasing your awareness

The Final Notes On Practicing Mindfulness

Despite the rising popularity of practicing mindfulness, the masses are still unaware of its benefits and techniques. Many still believe that it requires some fancy routines or going into deep trances. While beginners may often fall asleep or even feel uncomfortable in comprehending thoughts feeling bored or distracted, it does require elementary awareness. A daily practice of mindfulness can upturn your life.

All you need is regular devotion to practicing mindfulness for a couple each day. Gradually, the process will grow on you. After all the tremendous health benefits it has to offer, it is worth the efforts.

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Sacred 432Hz Healing Frequency Music Crystal Soundscape

 

Healing Frequency MusicHealing frequency music along with research in quantum physics only now beginning to realize what the ancient wise men and mystics have told us for thousands of years; that everything in our Universe, including you, is in a constant state of vibration. Everything has a peak range of optimum vibration, and that range is known as resonance. Personal balance equals resonance.

What is the significance of the 432 Hz healing frequency music?

432Hz healing frequency music is the sacred frequency that unites the body and consciousness with nature. According to Richard Huisken, music tuned to 432 Hz is much softer and calmer, giving greater clarity to the mind and is more pleasant to listen to music with. Healing frequency music used for meditation tuned to 432 Hz is very relaxing for the body and mind and can bring your whole being into balance.

432Hz Healing Frequency Music Solfeggio Crystal Soundscape

A sound is a fundamental form of vibration, and in order to use sound to heal, you must realize that every cell and organ in your body absorbs and emits sound, and has a particular resonance. A very direct and profound way to influence the resonance within the cells of the body with sound is by using a solfeggio healing frequency.

Music has the power to literally transform the human mind, body, and soul. In fact, referring to it as “food for the soul” would not be highly out of place. Recently, however, new evidence has been unearthed which reveals that once upon a time there was a tonal scale that was even more powerful than modern-day music to heal and transform the soul. This tonal scale was referred to as the “original Solfeggio frequencies.”

Based on this evidence it can be said without hesitation that modern music has been “robbed” of its true power.

These Solfeggio frequencies can still transform your life in ways you never thought were possible. Their origins go back to ancient times when they were chanted during church ceremonies at the time. But around 1050 AD, they disappeared mysteriously and were presumed to be gone for good.

It was believed these chants based on these solfeggio healing frequency music ceremonies would impart blessings during masses, provided they were sung in the original Latin language and in harmony. It was widely believed that combining these sacred incantations along with the Latin intonation, allowed the music to probe deeply into the darkest and deepest corners of the mind in order to bring about transformation and healing.

Emotions and mental states also have particular resonance frequencies; this is the transformational power behind spiritual music, prayer, and mantras. Emotions and mental states are also connected to the specific chakra healing frequency music properties. When we expose a Chakra to its particular sound frequency long enough, the Chakra will balance; and when your Chakras are in balance, so is the rest of you, body-mind, and soul.

Healing Solfeggio 432hz Music For Profound Meditation

Solfeggio frequencies are based on six notes that once comprised the ancient scales. It is not known where and how this tonal scale changed, but it is believed that the Catholic Church took an active part in modifying them with the help of Pope Gregory I (590 to 604 AD).

The Church, to date, maintains that these ancient chants have been locked, but historians are adamant that they have been locked away deep inside the archives of the Vatican to keep them from being found. The reason modern music, regardless of genre, seems so discordant and dissonant can be attributed to its deviance from the core of the Solfeggio frequencies, due to which it creates conflicts and discord within our minds and hearts.

The Solfeggio frequencies aren’t just correlated with a note on the musical scale, but can also be assigned a frequency, as well as a color, and can be lined with a specific chakra in the human body. It is this association that gives these ancient chants their amazing transformation power.

The Solfeggio healing frequency music is believed to have many psycho-spiritual and physical healing properties. As an example, 528Hz correlates to the note “MI” on the modern Western musical scale, and is from the Latin phrase MI-ra gestorum, which means “miracle”.

Ultimate 528Hz Solfeggio Frequency Music For Transformation

It is not a coincidence, this same frequency is used by genetic scientists to repair broken DNA. For example, the note middle C may be associated with a frequency of 528 HZ, which in turn can be linked to the color green, the color that is in turn associated with the chakra of the heart.

This ultimately boils down to the fact that the healing frequency music of 528 HZ will possess the capacity to perform miracles within the human body, including, for example, healing damaged tissues and repair damaged DNA. This can further be corroborated by the fact this frequency is also the one that is utilized by genetic biochemists.

Deep Meditation Music For Sleep: Theta + 432 Hz Solfeggio

Tibetan singing bowls are useful for healing frequency music meditation and to evoke trance states. Tibetan singing bowls are the subject of many legends and speculation. Some believe they were used solely for meditation, while others believe they were tools for the magical transformation of self, and of matter.

I believe both theories, and that is why I use Chakra balanced Tibetan singing bowls, blended with the primal sound of ocean waves, to produce the magical and transforming binaural beat Chakra healing sound MP3s. The organic sound is unrivaled for evoking a trance state, and by using Tibetan singing bowls attuned to the Chakras, we can evoke a deep transformation of the body, mind, and soul.

A recent double-blind study from Italy showed that healing frequency music tuned to 432 Hz slows down the heart rate when compared to 440 Hz. This frequency fills the mind with feelings of peace and well-being, making it the perfect accompaniment for yoga, gentle exercise, meditation, or sleep.

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6 Tips To Meditate For Success: Climb The Corporate Ladder Faster

Meditate For Success Meditate for success and find the road to the top of the corporate ladder easier, faster, and with much less stress and anxiety about your future in the boardroom and in your personal life.

Climbing the corporate ladder in search of job security, better pay, more personal power?

Business leaders tell us that there are times in someone’s career where things like being creative, energized and engaged, are lacking. This can make career aspirations for reaching the highest pinnacle of success, very difficult.

Learning how to meditate for success can provide a medium for working out these job-related issues, leading to improved creativity, increased positive emotions, more focus, and reduced stress.

If you are running the corporate rat race and strive to advance as quickly as possible, meditation offers significant benefits. Aside from relieving stress, which as you know is constant in a competitive business environment.

Learning how to meditate for success, offers the following 6 benefits that help you climb the rungs of the corporate ladder faster and more effectively than your coworkers who do not meditate.

Learn The Art Of Meditation and Control Your Thoughts

1 – All meditation improves focus.

If you can’t FOCUS (Follow One Course Until Successful), you simply are not going to make it to the advanced levels of the corporate world. Meditation, especially focused attention meditation, can create a laser-targeted vision that allows you to cut through the constant clutter and distractions around you, finishing projects and assignments quickly and productively.

The Powerful Effects Of Meditation On The Brain

2 – Your ability to meditate for success encourages objectivity, composure, clarity, and concentration.

When you can objectively appraise any business situation, your value to your company increases dramatically. Meditation practice also improves concentration, helps you develop clarity of vision, and guarantees you practice composure when things get stressful, essential advancement and survival tools in the corporate world.

The Quiet Mind – Why Is Meditation Universally Appealing?

3 – Meditation increases productivity.

Whether you practice Kundalini or Vipassana meditation, or any of the other dozens of varieties, you will find yourself more productive. Incorporating meditation sessions throughout your workday will increase your productivity even greater still.

4 – Your problem-solving and decision-making abilities once you learn how to meditate for success become stronger.

Countless studies show meditation improves mental functioning and memory and dramatically decreases your chances of contracting mental health problems. This means your mental ability to attack problems, solve them, and make smart decisions is enhanced with meditation.

5 – Meditation improves your social and emotional intelligence levels.

Meditation trades your brain to react objectively and intelligently. This improves both your social and emotional IQs. Studies show that employees with high levels of social and emotional intelligence are more likely to be chosen for leadership positions.

6 – Meditation is a mental and physical stress-reliever.

This is probably the most well-known benefit of regular meditation practice. What is amazing is that of all the many kinds of meditation, they are all very effective for relieving stress and anxiety. No matter what form of meditation you decide to practice, you will experience less stress.

Meditation For Stress Management: A Step-By-Step Beginners Guide

This means fewer days off, not experiencing dread and anxiety on the way to work, and a better capability to compete in a stressful corporate environment than your coworkers.

Meditate For Success To Unlock Your Hidden Potential

You can be the creator of your own manifest destiny. Through daily meditation practice and focus on changing your life for the better. In fact, you have the ability to redefine yourself in any direction you desire. The power that you can cultivate when you learn how to meditate for success is limited only by your own imagination.

As I have mentioned earlier, this will change the lives of people with who you come into frequent contact. Therefore, you must always be kind, trustworthy, and considerate of others. You should make a change in that direction at this very moment.

Why the sudden need for character improvement? It goes hand-in-hand with using power and influence wisely. Remember Lord Acton’s saying: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The power of your mind has the ability to alter reality. Therefore, this is a power that must be controlled.

How is this possible? Here is an example: If you had two identical twin boys, who haven’t eaten for two days, and you put an apple in front of them; what would they do?

Most likely, they would fight over it, and the winner would eat, most or, all of it. You and I know they should divide it equally, but each of them has really felt starvation, and that is a reality you and I do not feel at the moment. So we are not talking about imagination, but three legitimate points of view, that each becomes our own reality.

Once you learn how to meditate for success, it will allow your mind to see multiple points of view, without judgment.

If you can see only one point of view, you haven’t meditated long enough. The best leaders, negotiators, and diplomats know that you have to understand the opposing viewpoint, to move forward, on any issue. There is always a justification, on both sides, in any conflict, but true compromise is meeting the opposition in a different reality than you both started from.

If you had the ability to travel in the space shuttle, your view of earth, from within your space vehicle, would be much different from the person living in poverty, within a refugee camp. You could not see, or feel that person’s pain, and each of you would have a vivid picture of life on earth.

You can meditate on a mountaintop, but once you have seen the full picture, you have an obligation to help mankind, with acts of kindness. Once you have discovered how easy it is to help others, you are no longer struggling with; “who is right and who is wrong.”

Your new reality when you learn how to meditate for success becomes, “how can I help?”

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Loving Kindness Meditation: 6 Simple Ways To Love Yourself

Loving Kindness Meditation

Learn Loving Kindness Meditation

Dhammapada or Loving kindness meditation is one of the two simplest meditations in Buddhism. This type of meditation helps bring about positive changes in practitioners’ lives and helps them develop loving feelings toward all other living creatures.

The main purpose of Dhammapada is to cultivate love and despite the fact that it comes from Buddhist tradition it can be adopted and practiced by anyone regardless of religious beliefs or affiliations. This type of meditation must be practiced without any expectations.

10 Minute Loving Kindness Guided Meditation To Love Yourself & Others

This is a truly unselfish practice that results in ideal or pure love that each of us is capable of. We begin with loving ourselves and then extend this pure love to include others, starting with people special to us and eventually extending it to all living things.

Loving Kindness Meditation Script

To begin this mediation, find the position in which you will find yourself most comfortable. You can either kneel or sit cross-legged using a meditation pillow if you like. One of the goals that meditation tries to accomplish is to make the practitioner feel good, so being in a comfortable position is essential to any meditation practice.

Focus your mind on bringing your awareness into the present. For few minutes focus your gaze on something pleasant to look at. Things like plants, statues of Buddha, or candles will serve perfectly for this. Concentrate on breathing while you’re doing this.

Take a deep inner breath followed by a longer outer breath. Try to slow down your breathing, as well as your mental processes. Don’t let the mind wander and discard any thoughts that arise during this part of meditation.

Now close your eyes and scan your body to become fully aware of it. Begin with your toes and move slowly upward through the legs, torso, arms, shoulder, neck, and head. As you pass through each part of the body feel the tension disappear and you become even more relaxed as you move up.

Reflect on what you want to achieve during this meditation. With your eyes gently closed throughout the meditation begin to cultivate the feeling of loving kindness. There are many ways to achieve this. One way is to recall the times when you felt loving-kindness and try to recreate these types of feelings during the time of meditation.

Meditation Success: 10 Easy Guidelines You Can Use Today

You can also use language that represents the feeling of loving kindness. You can repeat phrases like “May I be free of pain and suffering”, “May I be happy, safe, and protected”. Continue breathing in and out as your state these phrases and think or repeat them several times to feel the full effect. Feel the meaning of these words spread through your whole body, mind, and heart.

During the first stage of meditation cultivate loving kindness towards yourself. It’s important to feel good about yourself. It’s important because the way we feel about ourselves is the way we treat others. For the second part of this meditation cultivate loving kindness toward someone you know and towards whom you have positive feelings.

Reflect on that person’s good qualities or visualize her or him radiating joy. At first, it might be best to focus on someone who is just a close acquaintance or a friend. For the second stage cultivate loving-kindness towards a neutral person who triggers neither positive nor negative emotions. It should be someone you know or see regularly, like a neighbor, a fellow student, or someone you run into on the regular basis.

Then use the same process towards someone with whom you have difficulties. Many people find that by practicing Dhammapada for a hostile person, their relationships with that person improve. Going further, cultivate loving-kindness towards yourself, your friend, and your enemy at the same time.

Feel how everything in this world is interconnected and by loving yourself you’re also loving every other living creature that you come into contact with during the span of your life.

Finally, extend your loving kindness outward until it reaches all living things. To do this think of different people in various locations across the globe going about their lives in various ways. In many ways, they do and act and care about the exact same things and this will realization should bring your closer to them and help you to achieve this feeling of love towards them.

After this final stage, sit quietly for few minutes and reflect on your experience you achieved during this meditation. Slowly become aware of your surroundings and gently return to your life of the outside world. Try to hold on to this feeling of love and wellbeing as you go about for the rest of the day.

Loving kindness meaning

The Secret to Loving Kindness For Yourself

You’re probably familiar with self-help books and talk show hosts who tell you to love yourself, but you may be wondering how to go about that. While your relationship with yourself is the most important connection in your life, it’s easy to forget about nurturing it.

However, loving kindness, self-love, and compassion are too important to neglect because they shape your experiences and relationships with others. Protect your health and wellbeing by making positive changes in the way you think about and treat yourself.

28 Mindfulness Techniques And Ideas To Enhance Your Life

Changing the Way You Think about Yourself

Maybe you’re hard on yourself or you’re so busy with external obligations that you rarely consider your personal priorities. Looking inward could help you to value yourself more.

These loving kindness strategies will help you to think more highly of yourself:

1. Accept yourself. Know that you are worthy of love and respect just the way you are at this moment. Embrace yourself with all your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Clarify your purpose. Invent your own definition of success. Ask yourself what a meaningful life means to you, even if that answer changes over time.

3. Talk yourself up. How do you speak to yourself? Choose words that are encouraging and uplifting. Use your internal dialogue with these loving kindness ideas to build your confidence and manage your emotions.

4. Offer forgiveness. Let go of the past so that you can move on. Take any decisions that you regret and turn them into opportunities to learn. Make amends where possible and resolve to handle things more constructively in the future.

5. Avoid comparisons. Facebook didn’t invent social comparisons, but social media has increased the potential for envy and inferiority complexes, a difficult road to loving kindness. Try competing with your last performance instead of living up to someone else’s standards. You’ll accomplish more if you dare to be yourself.

6. Think positive. Looking on the bright side and being able to laugh at yourself makes you even more loveable. It also helps you to manage stress and deal with difficult circumstances.

Changing the Way You Treat Yourself

Do your actions match your beliefs? You might say you love yourself, but your actions could be sending a different message.

Try these loving kindness techniques to treat yourself kindlier:

1. Practice self-care. Develop habits that keep your mind and body fit and strong. Go to bed early and exercise each day. Eat a balanced diet and watch your weight. Learn how to quiet your mind using simple meditation techniques and methods for self-love to empower your personal development.

Meditation For Beginners: 20 Practical Tips To Quiet the Mind

2. Pick friends wisely. Surround yourself with family and friends who encourage and support you. Cultivate close relationships with others who share your goals. Engage in deep conversations where you can share your feelings and receive validation.

3. Pursue your passions. Identify the activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. Block out time each day for something you love, whether it’s a task related to your job or something you do in your leisure time.

4. Set goals. Give yourself something to strive for. Working towards realistic and challenging goals builds your confidence as you add to your achievements.

About Meditation – 6 Steps To Easily Improve Your Life

5. Maintain boundaries. Know your limits so you can define what behavior you consider acceptable. That may include physical boundaries such as needing your own space and psychological boundaries such as being entitled to your own feelings and opinions.

6. Advocate for yourself. Once you understand your needs, you can communicate them to others. You’ll grow more skillful as you practice being direct and tactful in letting someone know if they cross your boundaries.

7. Seek support. Ask for what you need. Let others know specifically what they can do, whether you’re looking for practical assistance like pitching in with housework or just a friendly ear to listen while you sort out your feelings.

Loving kindness towards yourself can help you to enjoy more happiness, overcome challenges, and build healthier relationships with others. Make it a habit to treat yourself with kindness and respect.

Gene M. is a founder of the online wellness portal NY Yoga Spa Wellness Guide as well as Big Apple Media-New York SEO Marketing Company.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Gene_M/31740

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Understanding The Hormones And Anxiety Relationship To Finally Get Relief

Hormones and AnxietyDealing with hormones and anxiety is a common part of life, whether it’s about a job interview, seeing an ex-partner, or a conversation with your boss. While anxiety can be managed for many people, it can also get out of control and be debilitating for others.

Though anxiety disorders are often due to a chemical response in the brain, there may be another factor involved: your hormones.

It’s hard to say whether individuals with hormones and anxiety imbalances experience anxiety due to their hormones or if anxiety causes hormone imbalances — or if they contribute to one another in other ways. Hormone imbalances occur in both sexes, but far more women generally see hormone balances during parts of their life like puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause. This means that men can experience hormone-related anxiety, but on average, more women are put at risk for anxiety caused by hormone imbalances.

Types of Hormones That Impact Anxiety and Stress Response

There are a few different types of hormones that impact your anxiety, mood, and body’s natural stress response. These include stress hormones (or the body’s “fight or flight” response), sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone), and thyroid hormones. On the opposite end of the spectrum are hormones like oxytocin, or the “love hormone,” which could help to combat anxious thoughts and feelings.

Understanding how hormones and anxiety interact may help you understand why you experience higher levels of anxiety at certain times, and how to get a handle on those feelings to keep your anxiety from impacting your daily life.

1. Stress Hormones and Anxiety

Otherwise known as cortisol and adrenaline, stress hormones and anxiety are released in situations where your body senses you are in danger or otherwise threatened. These are part of the body’s natural “fight or flight” response that is used to prepare you for danger and cope with the sensed threat.

However, stress hormones can also be released in far more mundane situations — such as when you receive a stressful work email, are told by a partner you “need to talk,” or can’t find parking for a dinner date. Since you aren’t actually in danger in any of these scenarios, this leaves your body with excess cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn leaves you feeling anxious.

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Plus, an increase in stress hormones and anxiety can cause your body to release more cortisol and adrenaline in response, meaning you’re left stressed and anxious due to the leftover stress hormones in your system.

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2. Sex Hormones

Sex hormones, known as estrogen and testosterone, may impact how much anxiety you do (or don’t) experience. Times, when these hormones are changing levels, can impact your mood, explaining why teenagers experience anxiety while going through puberty and why expectant mothers have anxious periods while they’re pregnant or postpartum.

In general, women experience more anxiety than men. One explanation is the role estrogen plays in the menstrual cycle; where higher levels of serotonin (the happiness hormone) are released in the first two weeks of a menstrual cycle. However, estrogen levels drop dramatically in the last two weeks if an egg hasn’t been fertilized; explaining why many women feel anxious physically or mentally while on their period.

3. Oxytocin

To prove that not all hormones are bad, meet oxytocin, otherwise known as the love hormone. This hormone and others like it actually reduce anxiety and have a positive impact on stress levels, as the brain emits this hormone during high-pleasure times like during a hug while cuddling, or even when a mother breastfeeds her baby.

Oxytocin modulates anxiety, stress, fear, and aggression that people experience when introduced to different stimuli. High responses to stress may even be reduced while your brain is emitting high levels of oxytocin, like when you’re kissing a partner.

4. Thyroid Hormones

Though the thyroid is small, it has a big impact on your overall mood and mental state. Overactive thyroids cause restlessness, anxiety, and nervousness; while underactive thyroids have been linked to depression and fatigue.

The thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) may be to blame here, but it could have something to do with an autoimmune inflammation of the thyroid, Studies suggest that many patients with hormones and anxiety disorders also have an increased inflow to the thyroid gland, which could link anxiety with thyroid abnormalities.

Reducing Anxiety with Balanced Hormones

Hormones and anxiety don’t have to control your daily life. Besides medication, there are a number of ways you can care for your anxiety at home by supporting your hormones and keeping yourself from feeling like you’re riding a rollercoaster of hormones, emotions, and anxiety.

  • Exercise daily to lower cortisol and adrenaline levels, as well as release endorphins that make you feel satisfied and happy.
  • Get your sleep to keep your hormones balanced. If you suffer from sleep issues, take a look at your sleep habits and see if you can make an at-home change or see a professional.
  • Improve your diet by filling your fridge with fiber-rich, fermented, and omega-3 foods to reduce levels of stress (and keep you full).
  • Learn stress management techniques to keep yourself from spiraling when stress or anxiety strikes. Try mindfulness activities like yoga, journaling, or meditation.

Managing hormonally-induced anxiety can feel like a vicious cycle, but it doesn’t have to. Test your hormone levels and learn what stress and anxiety management techniques work for you, whether they’re at home or with a mental health professional; and learn more about hormones and anxiety with the below visual from Everlywell.
Hormones and Anxiety