Meditation- Mindful Awareness, We All Should Practice

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In today’s fast-paced, instant-gratification world, people are juggling more, sleeping less and taking less time to just be. In fact, 42 percent of adults report that their stress level has increased over the past five years. More research is coming out tying our stress levels to physical ailments. Insufficient sleep has reached levels of a public-health epidemic. It’s no wonder that more and more people are trying to find ways to ease their daily stress.

Although mindfulness and meditation have been around for millennia, only recently has mindfulness entered the mainstream vernacular. Multiple studies have been published linking mindfulness practices to stress reduction, even decreasing our levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Meditation and mindfulness are now part of the toolkit of many licensed psychologists. It’s been linked to easing medical concerns from irritable bowl syndrome to heart disease.

So what exactly is mindfulness? What is meditation? What about it makes it seem like this magical panacea?

Depending on whom you ask and what type of meditation they practice, you’ll probably get a different answer to these questions. A common type of meditation called “mindfulness awareness” involves sitting comfortably in silence and bringing your attention to your breathing as a way to connect with the present moment. When the mind wanders, you practice gently bringing it back. I like to think of mindfulness as a combination of awareness and intention. So in this mindfulness-awareness practice, you are being mindful of your breath and of the present moment.

I’ve found that my meditation practice has affected my life in fundamental ways:

1. By creating a regular time and space to practice, I am giving myself a set time to sit down, slow down and do nothing. I am giving myself permission to be bored! During super-busy periods I even schedule it as an event in my calendar.

2. I practice not judging. All thoughts are treated equal in meditation. No matter what the content, when a thought arises during a meditation session, I just acknowledge it and gently come back to my breath. Even if the thought is about unicorns and rainbows, I come back.

3. I get to know my mind. I’ve been on longer retreats where after a while the same thoughts come up again and again. It’s like I have one playlist on repeat. And that’s when I start to realize that I’ve got some patterns that I tend to go back to.

4. I get to know my body. When you’re just sitting for a period of time with no distractions, you start to notice how you’re feeling in your body. After all, that’s another thing (along with our breath) that’s always with us, even if we try to ignore it!

5. My mind gets clearer. Often when I meditate, I start to feel more settled in my body and mind: It’s like when you’ve shaken up a jar of dirt and water and the dirt settles to the bottom and leaves the clear water at the top. I often also feel more clear after I’ve gotten up off the cushion. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche says, “The more we understand about ourselves and how our mind works, the more the mind can work.”

6. I’m on autopilot less. Or I catch myself when I’m on autopilot. Since I’m practicing being aware in the present moment with meditation, when I’m not meditating, it’s easier for me to realize when I’m not present. Like when I get to my front door and forgot if I locked my car or can’t remember what I had for breakfast.

7. I notice a space between emotions arising and my automatic reaction to them. In meditation, I practice noticing my thoughts and coming back to my breath without acting on them. So when emotions arise in my everyday life, I now have a greater ability to notice the emotion and what it’s doing to me before I launch into an automatic reaction. Like when someone cuts you off on the freeway — being aware of the urge to flip them off, then having the space to make a conscious decision about whether giving them the finger will actually help the situation.

8. I enjoy my food more. Seriously. I love food, but there are definitely times when my mind is on another planet while I’m eating, so much so that I’m barely tasting my food. Sound familiar? Now I know how to slow down, tune into my senses and enjoy what’s going on right here, right now.

All in all, meditating regularly has had a huge impact on my life. It’s helped me to relate to my stress and emotions with more awareness and compassion. Although stress reduction was a goal that I had when I started meditating, now when I sit down on the cushion, I have no agenda. I’m just there to be me and to feel more at home in my mind and my body.

This was written by Jennifer Wang. Her experience is very interesting to me as I’ve seen and have heard of many different results come from meditation. In the mindfulness book I read it says to come in contact with your feet. In other words, shut out all else going on around you and feel your feet. You are supposed to be barefoot and feel the ground under you, or grass, sand whatever it may be. Are your feet cold or hot, tight or lose. The idea behind this exercise is to draw your attention away from the one thing that is soooo difficult for us to get out of…. OUR HEADS!

As always I hope this helps and don’t hesitate to contact me on this or any other post.

Why a Personal Fitness Trainer Is Important

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Read this on Livestrong and I find it nicely put.

Investing in a personal fitness trainer is well worth the cost. Not only do you have someone right by your side acting as your own personal coach and motivator, your trainer can help limit the amount of injuries you experience and help you get the most out of your time at the gym or other exercise venue.

Preventing Injury

Even though just about every piece of equipment at the gym has step-by-step guidelines for usage posted right on them, that doesn’t make them foolproof. Some types of gear, like bands, weights and balls, don’t even come with any sort of instructions. If your grip is off, your hips are tilted slightly to the side or if your feet are too close together, you could be using the machine — or piece of equipment — incorrectly, leaving yourself open to injury. But when you have your personal fitness trainer right there, he’ll stand nearby and watch you do your reps, ensuring that you are in proper form from start to finish. This way you’ll be less likely to experience pulled muscles, rolled ankles and other workout injuries.

Maximizing Results

You surely work out because you want to stay fit and keep yourself toned. If you’re putting together your own exercise regimen though, you might not be working out to your full potential. Your personal fitness trainer will analyze your body size, assess any longstanding injuries that you need to work around, help you set goals and develop a workout routine that is specific to you. He (or she) willl get you on your feet, back, rear end, stomach, and hands and knees, so you’re working to your full potential while you’re at the gym or other training venue. You’ll be maximizing the results you’ll see and feel, while your personal trainer is there to give you that extra push that you wouldn’t experience if you were working out on your own.

Being Held Accountable

When you join a gym and you decide to snooze through your morning alarm, no one notices that you weren’t there to pump through that cardio class. But when you miss your scheduled appointment with your personal trainer, you’ll surely get a phone call wondering where you are. You might even have already paid for the session. When you have a set schedule with a single person who expects you to be on time to work out, you’ll be more likely to show up. You’ll surely hold yourself accountable — not wanting to let yourself or your trainer down — and be there for your designated exercise time slot.

Staying in the Know

Personal fitness trainers must stay up-to-date on their certifications, meaning that they’re required to be continuously learning. Your trainer is surely “in the know” of all the latest fitness trends, new workout routines and nutrition tips. So if you’re working out on your own and just not seeing the results, book yourself an appointment with a trainer. He can give you personalized exercise guidelines, as well as a few nutritional tips to help you achieve those maximum results.

Great Turmeric Smoothie

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How would you like to start your day with an awesome antioxidant packed smoothie that has a ton of medicinal properties as well? This turmeric smoothie recipe is perfect for that.

The Benefits of Turmeric

Turmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family. The average person may best recognize turmeric as a spice commonly used in Indian cuisine. The active compound curcumin is known to have a wide range of medicinal benefits including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumour, antibacterial, and antiviral activities. In India, turmeric has been used for thousands of years as a remedy for stomach and liver ailments. Turmeric can also be used topically to heal sores due to its antimicrobial properties.

Turmeric is also the liver’s favorite spice and helps boost liver detox. It does this by assisting enzymes that actively flush out dietary carcinogens.[1] Be sure to check how powerful turmeric can be in treating depression as well.

Turmeric Smoothie Recipe Ingredients:

For these ingredients, try and use organic as much as possible. Also try not to substitute actual milk for hemp or coconut milk. If you need, you can try almond milk as well.

  • 1 cup hemp or coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup frozen pineapple or mango chunks
  • 1 fresh banana
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (can be increased to 1 tsp)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon chia seeds
  • 1 teaspoon maca (optional)

Add all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. Try to drink this smoothie in the morning before you have anything to eat. It’s a solid way to start your day and pack your body full of antioxidants.

Thanks to PreventDisease.com as we grabbed the recipe from them.

Working Out When You Have Kids

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Many people come to me about having things that get in the way of getting their training sessions in.
One of the main reasons is our kids. Our kids is one of those that we just can’t and won’t work around as they’re our lives and responsibility. They spend way too much time away from us as is, be it school or child care.
To those I say, let’s involve our kids. Here you see one of OEG family lovely moms not allowing our babies to stop us, but the contrary. She’s involving her 17mo baby girl, not an easy age (great job mom, you two look super). This is great bonding time and most importantly creates active lifestyle ideals and memories for our children that live in an increasingly tech world with video games and social media.
I had a running stroller and would proudly go for runs with my son. I would time it so by the time we got back from a few miles it would be nap time and I would do my resistance workout then. You can involve your little ones by doing push ups with them on your back or squatting while hugging them. There are limitless possibilities to play, bond, educate our kids to a healthy (play time). As they grow, you can see in the pics, you can play paddle games (hand eye) or do circuit training at a park. This challenges them while still getting your workout in.

I have people that wait til the whole family is asleep then they go get their resistance training. Some do it before the home wakes up.

Get your workout in!

Soon I will comment on how you can stretch together. A little more difficult as it is less fun to them but I have a way that they enjoy because they are involved. Ultimately that’s all every kid wants, to be part of all we do.