Image of the day

How do cats always look so comfortable when they are sleeping? This picture is from the Crafts and Stuff blog.

Ah, to sleep like a cat, for just one hour a night,
Would erase more stress than any amount of pills!
MM

Thanks for being here and now.
KT

My daily favorite blog image

Have you seen the "Blogger Play" gadget that you can add to your blog? My blog has one in the lower right-hand corner - scroll down to see it.

It's a little box that flashes recently uploaded images from other Blogger blogs ... kind of a like a window on the world! I'm fascinated by it, and decided that if I see an image I particularly love while I'm watching my own Blogger Play screen, I'll share it with you here.

Todays' photo appears on the Blog "Snap Opportunities" for Friday, January 23, 2009

Nature's beauty will always calm the soul, the restless mind...

MM

Thanks for being here and now.
MM

Quieting the Chatter

The exercise this week will again be done in conjunction with your changes from the past two weeks, and so will require no additional time commitment on your part. You are now spending 15 minutes a day in silence, during which time you are taking 10 deep cleansing breaths, and then continuing to watch your breath for the rest of the time.

This week, you are going to make another change to this routine that will deepen the experience. As you sit in silence and take deep breaths, you are going to listen for the chatter – those thoughts in our minds that we all have and few of us can control – and you are going to find a way to stop those thoughts. You see, you have not really been sitting in silence for the last two weeks. Most likely, the space around you may have been silent, but the space within you has been filled with chatter – what am I going to make for dinner tonight, I’m hungry, why did I say that to my mother, when am I ever going to lose this weight … on and on incessantly.

This was fine while you were learning the new habit of silence, but now it is time to remove those thoughts and try to find true silence. If you have done any reading on meditation, you may have heard these thoughts referred to as the “monkey brain”. These thoughts are usually nothing important – just constant chatter like that of a monkey.

There are many ways you can handle these random thoughts as they appear, depending upon how your mind works. For some people, a visual picture of removing the thoughts may be required. Placing the thought in a bubble and blowing it away. Wiping it away with an eraser. For others, it may require a mental word – as simple as “Stop!” or “Thinking”, or whatever works for you. Whenever you realize that you are thinking a thought, you will say the word and go back to silence until you realize the next thought has arisen.

Eventually, you will find that you are able to sit silently for 15 minutes, watching your breathing and taking deep cleansing breaths, and having no “monkey brain” thoughts. If you haven’t read about this concept in the past, you may wonder about its significance or usefulness. But this ability to be able to truly quiet your mind is essential for the changes to come.

At the end of this week, once again take a few minutes to make a few notes in your journal abut how these changes have affected your life so far.

Thanks for being here and now.
KT

How's that breathing coming along??

Isn't it amazing how we are so busy that we can't find time to take 10 deep breaths twice a day??? Hope you've at least found time to try it out once or twice. It really is amazing how much it relaxes you!

Thanks for being here and now.
KT

Finding your breath

Your change this week will be done in conjunction with your 15 minutes of silence from Week 1, which you are going to continue this week (and hopefully every week!), so there will be no additional time involved. While you are sitting in silence for 15 minutes this week, you are also going to learn to breathe and to "watch" your breathing. Ok, you already know how to breathe, but few of us breathe correctly. Do you know how to take deep cleansing breaths? Do you know the physical and mental benefits of taking 10 deep breaths once or twice a day? And when you are sitting in silence, do you know how to watch your breath? If not, you are soon going to learn.

Your routine from last week may have to change a little this week if you have been doing anything like petting the cat or lathering your skin with a perfumed lotion during your 15 minutes of sitting in silence.

At least for this first week, you should try to do this exercise in a comfortable seated position, or even lay down if you can do so without going to sleep. Place your hands across our abdomen. Inhale through your nose and feel your abdomen rise and your belly fill with air until you don’t think you can take in another molecule of air. Then hold that breath for a count of 7. Exhale by blowing your breath slowly and steadily out of your mouth, while at the same time pushing the air out of your stomach until your belly button feels like it will touch your backbone.

At the end of your exhale, you will notice that there is a natural pause of breath before the next inhale begins. This is a quiet space that some religions consider almost holy. Focus on this quiet space for the split second or two that it lasts. Then begin your next inhale.

After you have completed the 10 deep breaths, continue your 15 minutes of sitting in silence by just watching your breath. There's nothing mystical about this. It just means to be aware of your breath as it goes into and out of your body. Focus your attention on your breath.

At the end of this week, again take some time to make a few notes in a journal about the changes you have noticed by adding this deep breathing exercise to your daily life.

Thanks for being here and now.
MM

1 minute meditation??

So, I thought I was making this meditation thing as simple as I possibly could by telling you to first just "sit in silence" ... no mantras, no following your breath ... just sit in silence! And then I see the Oprah show from last week with Elizabeth Lesser telling us to start 2009 by taking ONE MINUTE each day to sit quietly and breathe ... and add one minute each month ... so you'll have a 12 minute "meditation" practice by the end of 2009! ONE MINUTE?? Well, whatever ... if one minute is all you can manage ... then go for it!

Thanks for being here and now!
KT

Where's the silence?

So, have you managed to carve out those 15 minutes of silence each day this week? Not as easy as it seemed, is it? I have to admit I've resorted to headphones and soft music this week, even though I specifically said that wasn't a good idea in Saturday's post. But sometimes, that's the only way to "get away"!!

I also found it very relaxing to sit in front of the fireplace and watch the flames - very relaxing.

If anyone has interesting stories about their attempts to find silence, feel free to add them to the comments!

Thanks for being here and now!
KT

Claim the Silence:

First of all, I want to apologize for not getting back here every day last week. That is my plan --- that darn plan again! --- but it just didn't happen this week. I'll try to do better next week. And now, the small change for Week 1:
===============================================

Your change this week is to find 15 minutes a day when you can sit in silence. Sounds simple enough? Think again! What if God were whispering in your left ear right now? Would you be able to hear him? Oh sure, just a minute, let me hit the Mute button on the TV, finish up this cell phone call and put the phone on vibrate, hit Pause on my MP3 player … NEVER MIND, TOO LATE!

You don’t have to believe in “Whispers from God”; in fact, you don’t even have to believe in God, to realize how much truth there is in this scenario. Our lives are bombarded by sound. We don’t even think about what we might be missing by having no silence in our lives. So this week, we are going to reclaim our silence and see if we can find out. For just 15 minutes a day – you pick the time – sit in silence. No music, not even soft relaxing music. No books or anything else to distract your eyes. In fact, closed eyes are best. No activities with your hands, unless it is something very rhythmic and mindless like petting a cat. Fifteen minutes a day for seven days of sitting quietly.

The first problem will be finding a time during the day when you can do this. You may have to get creative. Drive to a quiet park on your lunch hour. Take more baths. Wake up a little earlier each day or stay up a little later each evening. You have the time in your day to do this. The benefits far outweigh what may, at first, seem to be an inconvenience.

On the 7th day, at the end of your fifteen minutes, take a few minutes to write some notes in a journal about any changes you have noticed in your life as the result of this change. This does not have to be a fancy journal unless you want it to be. A three-ring binder, a note pad, or even a computer document – any of these will do just fine. The key here is to consistently write down your thoughts. If the going gets tough, or you don’t think you are making significant changes in your life, you can go back and read these notes to yourself.

Thanks for being here and now.
KT

Who are the "change makers" in your life?

I love Oprah! She is, of course, one of my favorite resources for BYBLBY ideas. I'm not sure that I love her enough to follow all of her advice for a whole year, as Robyn Okrant did for the entire year of 2008, documenting it in her blog at http://www.livingoprah.com/. But I do admit to being a loyal viewer of the 10-week online class she did with Eckhardt Tolle last year on his book, The New Earth. And I also admit that I LOVE DR. OZ!!!!!

So you will probably see some of Oprah's ideas here, along with those of many other people. I'm curious to know - who do you see as a change maker in your life? Whose advice do you follow religiously, or maybe even just sometimes? It might be a parent, or a sister, or a celebrity, or a co-worker. Tell me all about it, and give me an example of the advice you have followed from this person and where it led you.

Thanks for being here and now!

Better Year, Better Life, Better You – 52 Weeks of Small Important Changes

Hello, everyone - and welcome to my new blog! I hope I'll be able to provide you with posts each week that you find interesting enough that you will return for the next "installment". My plan (oh, dear ... a plan already???) ... is to post what I consider to be a small but important "change" each week-end that we can all make in our lives without a lot of effort , and then expand on my thoughts about this change during the following week.

Of course, not every change will be a change for you - if you're already doing it!! :)

Everyone knows that the New Year is the time for making changes in our lives. New Year’s Resolutions. Ah, yes, we all know how well THOSE turn out! So why do we continue to try something every year that so obviously … to the point that it has become a joke … does not work?

Let’s try something new this year. Let’s try making some very small changes in our lives each week of the year, instead of resolving to make big changes at the beginning of the year. These changes will be so small that they will not drastically affect your daily “routine” in any way. But by the end of the year, you will be able to look back and realize what huge changes they have made in your life!

These changes revolve around concepts such as the development of meditative practices, time management, simplifying your life, becoming more selfless, more aware, and more in tune with the world around you. These changes will make your life fuller and more complete. They will bring you closer to your family, your friends, yourself. They will bring you more in touch with your body, your mind, and your spirit. They will give you more time to do the things you want to do and help you rid yourself of bad habits. They will make your life simpler and more joyful, yet filled with a joy that will send your life in new directions.

Most of these changes are nothing new. You’ve read about them before in books, or seen them on television shows or self-help websites, CDs and DVDs. The difference here is that we are going to focus on one small change each week. We are going to build on that change the next week with another small change, and another small change the next week, and so on. These changes are going to build on each other like building blocks. These changes are designed to be permanent changes in your life.

Don’t even think about stopping any of these changes until you have done them for at least six months. If you can take any one of these changes and do it faithfully every day for six months, and then honestly say that the change has made no improvement in your life, then fine, stop doing it! But it is unlikely that you will find that to be the case.

Thanks for being here and now!