Yogi Archives - Mindful Happiness

November 22, 2015 By Admin

Yoga Nidra and Your Inner Peace

Yoga Nidra will allow you to relax like you may never have relaxed before. Follow these modified instructions for your best relaxed state. If at any time during Yoga Nidra you feel uncomfortable, simply stop and breathe in a manner that restores equilibrium. Although this uncomfortable outcome is highly unlikely.

Before we begin, lay down on your back in a comfortable position. Place your hands in prayer pose. Say namaste (I bow to you) to yourself silently, then outlaid a few times.
Now move into corpse pose (on your back with your arms out to the sides), and notice your body-awareness. Say OM to yourself silently – say it several times. The say silently: “I am in a state of joy here.” Then say: “I feel healthy feelings in my body here.”
Beginning on your right side, place strong attention then concentration on the finger tips of your right hand. As you place concentration there, hold an intention to find inner peace.
Holding the same intention, focus concentration on your right hand. Then move to your right arm. Move up to your arm pit. Hold strong concentration and an intention to find inner peace.
Move your concentration to your right hip, and slowly move down the right leg all the way to your right foot and toes.
Talke a few slow, calm, deep breaths. Rest your inner peace into your heart chakra area.
Now repeat the same movement of concentration on your left side – finger tips, hand, arm, arm pit, hips, down the leg all the way to your toes.
Breathe and relax. Now build concentration on the back of your body. Concentrate on the back of your head, your shoulders, your back, and your buttox.
Take a few calm, slow, deep breaths. Go into your loving heart to find peace and equanimity.
Now move into concentration on the front of your body. Begin with the right leg, then the left leg. Go to the right arm, then the left arm. Focus on the whole back of the body, then focus on the whole front of the body.
Be one with your whole relaxed body. BE your relaxed body.
If you wish add a pleasant image; use your mind and imagination and begin to hold a half-smile.
Now slowly – very slowly – begin to stretch out your relaxed body.
Roll over onto your side, and move into a fetal position. REST!
Now end Yoga Nidra by slowly – very slowly – moving into a sitting position. Now slowly stand up and be still. Simply be aware of what you, your body, and your mind feel like at this moment in time and space.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE or any image below to Order

November 15, 2015 By Admin

Yogi Deep Meditation on Inner Listening

Practice: Yogi Deep Meditation on Inner Listening

Carl Jung noted: Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside, awakens.

The Katha Upanishads (800-400 BCE) noted: One path leads outward and the other inward. [The] way inward leads to grace.

The Mind Cave Focus instructs us to close our eyes and expand your third-eye space to the back of the skull, then with your eyes still closed focus on the space in front of you. Then go inside!

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (300-200 BCE India) tells us to transform the present moment with your breath (long and even). Being in this condition may bring you a better future.

Buddha noted – To find silence look within. Jesus noted – The kingdom of heaven is within you.

These preliminaries prepare us to do inner deep listening using our tongue. Mindful yogi ancients believed that the tongue was part of the emotional brain. We will use that principle here. Take a few relaxing breaths; close your eyes; relax your jaw; and, rest your tongue softly on the lower base of the mouth. If you become bothered by inner/outer noise or sensations, you may wish to say SOM (bija mantra – sohm) to yourself.
Now bring your gentle attention to your heart area. See if you can notice subtle vibrations there.
Use inner vision to experience who sees the self become the self. Who Am I?
Using the power of prana, breathe slowly, deeply, calmly. Notice the subtle feeling of unblocking your inner energy as you become your higher self.
Patanjali notes that you may wish to use a stone or bead in your hand to anchor you to the earth.
In Pratyahara lead your consciousness inward, and concentrate fully on inner experience. Let go!
Concentrate even more in your inner listening meditation. Experience oceanic awareness (samadhi).
Using Kumbhala yoga, breathe in deeply to the count of five. Hold for the count of five, and exhale to the count of six. Notice the subtle change into relaxation of mind, body and spirit. Experience the energy of your mind at peace. Experience the energy of your body at peace. Experience the energy of your spirit at peace. Find that space between the breaths where you know you are at total inner peace.
Look into your heart chakra, and if you know the symbol for the anahata chakra see it and say YAM to yourself. Be at perfect peace.
Follow Swami Sa’ Premananda notation: Practice love until you remember that you are love.
Now just rest in yourself, with yourself, in complete peace and safety.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE or any image below to Order

Healing Meditations for Destructive Emotions Based on the mountain of research supporting the use of regular meditation practices and yoga, it is safe to say that Buddhism and its practices have merged with modern scientific investigation. From the early days of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (the MBSR of Jon Kabat-Zinn) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (the DBT […]

The Reality of Experience What is deep mindfulness? Deep mindfulness is the concentrated awareness of all experiences, preferably without evaluating as pleasant or unpleasant. Deep mindfulness is pure awareness as it becomes part of personal consciousness. We humans, however, are always evaluating our experiences and phenomena as pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant – often getting hooked […]

Mindfulness in the NFL Yes, mindfulness as part of sports psychology programming is being used in the NFL. Yes, big and physically tough football players are being helped via a mindfulness component of sports psychology. There are some important roots here. Dogen, the famous ancient Japanese Buddhist meditation master, brought Chan Buddhism from China to […]

Mindful Happiness Explores – The Miracle of Mirror Neurons Between 1996 and 2000 researchers (Gallese and Rizzolatti) at the University of Parme in Italy discovered what are now called mirror neurons. Neuroscientists speculate that mirror neurons (reportedly in the Broca’s area of the prefrontal cortex) activate perceptual responses for internal motor-emotional responses. Thus mirror neurons […]

Anahata – Heart Chakra Meditation Practice Rumi noted that to reach the sky we must use our hearts. The Heart Chakra is a very popular focus of meditation practice. Here we will simply review some characteristics and then move on to a meditation practice. Specific characteristics: Green color, YAM sound (say at least three times […]

Mindful Movement as Part of Practice Mindful movement is an accepted part of regular practice. Such practices as walking meditation, more vigorous yoga asanas, qi gong, and tail chi are all part of this respected mindfulness tradition. Here I will introduce you to a very simple pre-meditation movement sequence. Hope you practice it very soon. […]

Meditation for Health Improvement It is estimated that between 10 and 15 million Americans participate in some form of regular mindfulness or contemplative practices; secular-based meditation and yoga may be the most common of these practices. Many others practice tai chi, qi gong, forest-based contemplation, Taoism, etc. The US National Institute of Health has been […]

Meditations and Mantra: Try Them Out in Your Practice There are many forms of meditation. In most cases, the common meditation forms fall into one of two categories: Mindfulness and Insight. There are also demanding concentration meditations, chakra meditations, and mantra meditations. Here we’ll deal only with the two forms noted above and the use […]

How to be Happier in a Relatively Unhappy World In today’s fast-paced, digitized, unstable world – with it uncertainty, childish tweets from on-high, and general dissatisfaction with things as they are – how may one become a happier person. It is clear that isolation will not work; it is clear that aggressive actions in opposition […]

Forms of Happiness from Buddhist Psychology Given the season “to be jolly” I plan to write several posts on the topic of happiness. The following information notes five stages or levels of happiness. Read them over and see what stage/level may be appropriate for you at this time in your practice. Note that some meditation […]

Psychodynamics of Alliance – Therapeutic Relationship Enhancement This post includes basic considerations, processes, and clinical skills necessary for developing a strongly positive clinical alliance and therapeutic relationship in therapy. Here the alliance is required for any substantial change in psychotherapy, and the therapeutic relationship rides the quality of the initial alliance to expand and inter-penetrate […]

Happiness Path – The 14th Dalai Lama His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama has suggested, among many other important things, that humans may experience true inner happiness by regular practice on the path to enlightenment. In his 2012 book, From Here to Enlightenment, he noted that personal happiness may be attained via specific behaviors and ways of […]

Making Boundless Space for Your Emotional Dragons In the past I have offered posts about radical acceptance and ways of dealing with your personal dragons or demons. Here I will offer a more advanced perspective on how directly engaging your emotional dragons is a very important part of your spiritual path – your spiritual journey […]

Behaviors People Display When in Groups After more than 35 years of facilitating hundreds of classes, workshops, family therapy sessions, group therapy sessions, and work project groups it has become clear that we do some strange things when we participate in groups. It appears to me that many of these in-group functions serve both ego […]

Mindfulness Defined… There are many definitions of mindfulness. Here I have combined several popular views into one. This definition and process may be helpful to readers who cannot quite grasp what it is, what it feels like, and what steps can make it happen. Good luck in your regular practices! Mindfulness is: Paying […]

Spirit Wars and “Spiritual Warfare” This post will discuss the topic and personal strategies. Most content will relate to both physical realities and metaphorical meanings and categories. Since a person viewing their self as fighting a spiritual war most likely holds onto certain parts of self in this endeavor, it is highly unlikely that the […]

What The Buddha Taught About Metta In the Metta Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya, 11:16) The Buddha said that we should seek the following characteristics in how we live our lives: Wholesome goodness; Gentle speech; Human Humility; Personal contentment; Personal calmness; and, Pure-heartedness in all we think, say, and do. By living this way we would be […]

Poem on Nature – Haiku-Like As I sat peacefully by the westward window of my sunroom at my retreat center, I noticed! I noticed the restless, natural movement of a tormented sky trying to calm itself. Here is my poem. “The Sky, the Lake and the Mountains” Sitting at our home, alone – […]

Mindful Happiness – Brain on Meditation Reports from various MRI and self-report measure studies support the proposition that your brain changes (neuronal plasticity) when you practice meditation on a regular (daily) basis. The same is likely true when you practice yoga on a regular basis. Here are some noted changes in brain functioning that […]

Mindfulness – Self-Kindness Practice Befriending the self is one of the most difficult things for Americans to do. It is probably true that self-kindness is difficult for most people; however, the current rampant criticism (I am right! You are wrong!) and extreme greed manifesting in the United States tends to produce two opposite extremes: […]