EXERCISE Archives - Mindful Happiness

April 23, 2016 By Admin

Improving Self-Esteem – An Action Contemplation

Improving Your Self-Esteem – An Action Contemplation

The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute’s surveys and V. Mamgain’s ideas about neoclassical economics of happiness help provide a means to deconstruct improved learning in higher education and also personal happiness in the process. According to the UCLA research surveys, higher education students want more spirituality and personal meaning from their educational experiences. They also desire employment after their education. Combining these experiential and concrete goals is no simple matter. Here I will focus on one major roadblock for many students: their dearth of positive self-esteem in learning and life.

Simply contemplate then answer the questions noted below. You may wish to use the ancient method of sequential, separate episodes of deep contemplation on each question before answering it.

Read the question then contemplate on it. Then contemplate on it again, and again, and again for a deeper understanding of meaning and a more useful answer.

After successive contemplations, answer each question.

What are the causes and conditions that lead to you feeling happier?
- List three

Take a deeper look at your happy experiences. What is your “felt” personal experience of being happy?
- List three.

Is your personal happiness simply pleasure, or is it more than pleasure?
- If it is more than pleasure, what is it.
  - List three insights about your happiness.

Some researchers believe that your perception and interception of personal happiness are simply explained as sensory-perceptual functions of your brain and mind.

If you think it is more, what is it?
- List three

Often humans require more mindful contemplation and insightful action to enjoy their lives. Since happiness that is a natural state is not dangerous, the brain’s self-protective areas (limbic system) tend to ignore it. So to become a happier person you do need to be more mindful and serious about practicing happiness.

So, what are the deeper and personal meanings that happiness satisfies in you as a person?
- List three

What are the personal and deeper values that happiness satisfies in you?
- List three

What are your emotional purposes in experiencing happiness?
- List three

Now that you probably have a better understanding of your personal happiness, what experiments and/or experiences will you engage in to expand your happiness in life?
- List three

When will you begin?

To help ensure that you practice mindful ways to become happier, write a brief summary of the main changes you intend to make in the near future.

For more information refer to Palmer, P. J. and Zajonc, A. (2010). The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Action. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, pp. 79-193.

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

Using Your Compassionate Mind in Psychotherapy For you to become a more compassionate therapist, follow the details noted below. These preconditions, skills, and practices are required as a baseline for compassionate practice. You need the ability to access calmness in an environment of emotional suffering, chaos, or conflict. Most people do this by breathing in […]

The Heart Sutra – Thich Nhat Hanh “Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.” This ultimate mantra is one of the most important in Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh’s new translation of The Heart Sutra offers a great deal of enlightened, sometimes more advanced, information and process. Avalokitesvara and other great Bodhisattvas present important views of this […]

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I Have Questions Our spiritual traditions have many sources of powerful spiritual origination: Shiva, Buddha, Jesus, Saint Francis to note just a few. The Roman thinker Seneca noted that our most feared day is our last on earth, but this is also the beginning of our eternity. As a practicing Buddhist, a secular meditation teacher, […]

Meditation for Managers and Helpers Let’s Talk – Contact Me – Click Here I am a Licensed Psychologist-Doctorate and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor with 35 years of clinical experience in community clinics, schools, professional organizations, and universities (OSU, UVM, etc.). I have been the past Clinical Director of Howard Center, and Past President […]

Concentration, Contentment, and Loving Kindness I have written various entries on concentration meditations in prior posts. Yes, concentration meditation is beyond pure mindfulness meditation. Here I will present briefly two other forms of meditation that are quite intentional and also beyond mindfulness: contentment and loving kindness meditations. Let’s begin with intentional meditation of contentment. Contentment […]

A Practice To Help Prevent Alzheimer Disease Kirtan Kriya meditation is part of the ancient Kundalini yoga tradition. Current clinical research dealing with prevention of Alzheimer disease supports its use in medical meditation. As G. Harrison (The Beatles fame) noted: As you move attention beyond yourself, you may find peace of mind is there. Sanskrit root […]

Enhancing Hope in Psychotherapy The enhancement of personal hope is a key part of successful psychotherapy practice. Some view this requirement as a foundational aspect of the therapeutic alliance; others do not hold the same view. In the case of serious co-occurring disorders, especially trauma and substance misuse, initiating, developing, and sustaining a hopeful future-view […]

Building Healthy Intimate Relationships: Intimate relationships are often the source of many years of happiness and satisfaction, and sometimes the cause of great pain and suffering. It depends! I will list various realities of initiating and maintaining a positive intimate relationship. After reading these, ask yourself: Where is my relationship? If you are unhappy, do […]

Happiness Characteristics – Post #2 Below I will note a few key characteristics of experiences and attitudes associated with happiness. Do your best to experience some of these each day – as much as is possible. Here is the first list. Being Fully Alive to Experiences – Do your best to be fully involved in […]

Intervention Skills to Calm Your Anxiety It is estimated that approximately 40,000,000 American suffer from an anxiety disorders, especially generalize anxiety and panic disorder. Sometimes general “talk therapy” fails to help improve your condition; you may need cognitive-behavioral therapy with research-based mindfulness skills or dialectical behavior therapy. CBT, MBSR, ACT and DBT are the evidence-based, […]

Mindful Walking Meditation: How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh – A Powerful Short Book of Wisdom In my opinion, Thich Nhat Hanh and The 14th Dalai Lama are the two most important and wise teachers of mindfulness, meditation, compassion, and Buddhism in the 21st century. Below I will offer my interpretation of Thich Nhat Hanh’s […]

Today’s Troubled World Needs More Self Compassion and Compassion This is an interactive activity on contemplation between your executive brain, your conscious mind, and your emotional brain areas. Looking at the world today any aware person must admit the human race is in serious trouble. This reality impacts the developing, industrial, and post-industrial cultures of […]

Advanced Buddhist Practices Abiding in Emptiness The various impediments (enemies) to abiding in emptiness are noted below. We have strong attachment to objects of mind and our sense door pleasures. We experience strong desire and cravings as our norms. We over-attach to forms of affection. We may become stuck in grief related to our experienced […]

Self-Care to Reduce Compassion Fatigue First let’s begin with what some people do to counteract the stressors of living in a hurried,“over-technologized” world. Technically, “technologize” is not a popularly accepted word, but it is a sad reality. We live in a time when texting while driving may become the new addiction-based cause for many, many […]

Meditation on Gratitude – Why it is so Important The daily rapid vibrations from our fast-paced and sometimes dangerous world may impact us in ways that make unhealthy norms of being. The struggle to feel good enough, to have enough, to be somebody, to keep up with the raging ads about what you need NOW and […]

More Characteristics of Happiness – Happiness #4 Here I will continue my posts about the common characteristics of happiness. Here is the list. Keep an Open Mind – Maintaining an open mind opens up doorways to interesting things in the world, some of which may help you to become happier. Also, open-mindedness reduces inner tension […]