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

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Setting Emotional Boundaries from Work to Life Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC Sometimes setting emotional boundaries from the psychotherapy room to your life outside of work can be a difficult thing to do. Shifting from “experience near empathy” (Kohut), “unconditional positive regard” (Rogers), “hovering attention” (Freud), “the holding environment” in “intersubjective space” (Winnicott), and compassionate […]

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The “I AM THAT” Meditation Elena Brower’s new book, Practice You: A Journal (Sounds True, 2017) has many thoughtful suggestions on how to connect with the true inner self, and – more importantly – how to improve your self-views and the experience of your deep inner self. Below I have modified her presentation of the “I Am […]

Mindful Equanimity and Homeostasis Neuroscientist Antonio Demasio’s new book The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Culture. (2018) New York: Pantheon Books notes the very important role homeostasis plays in human life and well being. In some ways homeostasis is about the arising, falling, and balancing out of all things important to human […]

A Buddhist Sutta on Your Desires and Suffering This post is about the Buddhist Sutta called The Gilana Sutta (SN 35:74). It is a touching story about a young monk, who became very ill. Another monk informed The Buddha of the young monk’s health conditions. Buddha visited and hoped he had improved and held on to […]

Human Needs and Spiritual Experience and the Need for Supportive Rituals From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Recently the Human Givens Blog in the United Kingdom presented a post about human needs. I will paraphrase their information as well as information from other sources for Mindful Happiness. Having such […]

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Mindfulness-Based Emotion Regulation The following emotional regulation practices (also called emotional balance skills) have been supported by over 2500 years of mindfulness training and current psychological research on human emotions. These practices/skills are to be practiced before they are needed, and directly applied when they are needed. Here is the list. 1) Practice noticing and […]

The Holy Year of Mercy Like the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, Pope Francis in The Church of Rome, is sharing his opinion on compassion and mercy in life. Although Pope Francis distinguishes compassion (a human action) from mercy (a divine action), the two positive conditions are quite similar in values, attitudes, and behaviors. Pope […]

Consciousness, Emptiness, and Well Being This is an advanced post on the complex relationship among consciousness (awareness), emptiness, and well being. Readers with advanced understanding of Buddhist Psychology will recognize the inherent relationships among consciousness, emptiness, and well being and interactions with core Buddhist concepts and experiences such as happiness and suffering, impermanence, non-dual nature, […]

Stress In America – How to Deal with it Effectively The American Psychological Association just released the results of its annual stress survey for 2014. This comprehensive study of stress in America has some serious implications for our health and happiness. Although self-reported stress levels in many categories are lower than in 2013, the overall […]

Vipassana for Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, and Addictions The integration of Vipassana meditation with various forms of therapy has for many years been a standard of treatment worldwide and in Vermont, especially when impulse control and emotion regulations issues are included. Buddhist Psychology offers clear explanations why this intervention may be helpful for so many suffering […]

Our Brains React to Worry According to research by The American Psychological Association in 2015, some of the core sources of severe stress reaction for Americans are: financial problems, job-related problems, family problems, and health problems. Our lives are complete only with joy/happiness, suffering and boredom – sometimes referred to as pleasant, unpleasant and neutral […]

Mindfulness, Movement, and Meditation Practices Meditation Master Thich Nhat Hanh offers some of the most helpful mindfulness, movement, and meditation instructions available today. His themes here are about reducing your suffering, increasing your satisfactions, and expanding your happiness as a result. Please do not note that “I do not have time to do these things!” […]

Core Elements in Clinical Supervision In addition to what supervisors bring into group supervision and clinical training, the list below will be used for discussion about YOUR supervisory role. The order of content below is generally random. The content noted applies to clinical supervision; it could also apply to doing effective therapy. The skills and […]