With time and repetitions, research will tell us whether it is possible to excise the spiritual components of meditation and still see the same benefits, but knee-jerk resistance to concepts that have guided meditation practices for millennia is unacceptable, especially when an effective process has already been established.
Your Nose: Your Ally in Managing Stress How many of you can say that a certain smell can trigger a thought or memory good or bad? My sister had great deal of difficulty with catholic school and the smell of chalk triggers anxiety for her. On the flip side, I remember my youngest commenting how much he loved coming home from college on his breaks because “it smelled like home.” Fragrances have a strong effect on our moods, emotions, and physiology and can leverage the intrinsic functioning of the limbic system to influence behaviors and moods. Science is recognizing the [...]
GUEST POST In this post, it's my pleasure to introduce a new contributor to this site's content. As a guest blogger, Holly Ashby brings to the community an important aspect of preventing burnout in nursing; how do we work with ourselves to positively affect our environment. We've covered this topic before in discussing how we can use mindfulness, awareness and compassion. Here are a few of Holly's ideas. Banishing Toxic Behaviours It’s very easy to develop certain behaviours and habits throughout your life without even realising it. Some of these can make a positive impact, like realising you’re actually a [...]
This week's post will be the first in a series of guest-posts, written by readers of this blog. Marcela De Vivo is a freelance health writer in Southern California. In this post, she shares an intimate view into how meditation has helped her to deal with her son's illness and with the depression that has arisen in her life around his care.
Seven Common Emotional Obstacles in Meditation and How to Melt Them Away When you set out to learn meditation, your emotional patterns will delightfully come along. In fact, they will probably be your first and fiercest obstacles to overcome. While you may consistently falter due to their incessant influence, you may not even notice given how unconscious and instantaneous these responses have become.
(Reprinted with the author's permission from: Psychology Today, Published on May 3, 2010 in Consciousness Matters) Mindful Motherhood Mindful Motherhood, simply put, is being present in your body, and connected with your baby even when the going gets rough. It's being aware of your experience from moment to moment, as it is happening, without pushing it away, trying to make it stay, or judging it as bad or good. It is meeting each situation as it is, and over time, more and more often, approaching whatever is happening with curiosity and compassion. Mindful Motherhood is a way of approaching all [...]