Brain Plasticity - Tibetan Monks in the Lab

We know that meditation is beneficial. See the video of Tibetan Buddhist Monks - Meditation and Science
We are responsible for our happiness. We are as happy as we make up our mind to be. We know that the brain is capable of building new neuron-connections. Making music is one of the best way of building connections and change the structure of our brain and to find happiness. Train your mind, change your brain.
How meditation can change the brain is now scientifically examined.

A series of video recordings are available about this examination with Tibetan Monks and the Dalai Lama.
Tibetan Monks in the Lab 1/3
Tibetan Monks in the Lab 2/3
Tibetan Monks in the Lab 3/3

MUSIC STUDIO SCHEDULE 2010

Piano, Singing, 
Musicianship & Theory 

Music lessons will commence on 

Monday, 11 January 2010.

30/45/60 min classes are available. 

Brighton Up! Choir 
Our adult choir will commence on Thursday, 21 January 2010
Rehearsals: Thursdays, 7.30pm-9.00pm
Rehearsal fee: $5
Venue: St Leonard's Uniting Church, Meeting Room, 
2 Wolseley Grove, Brighton
For enquiries please email: lifestyleimprovementcoach@gmail.com

END OF YEAR CONCERT 2009

You are invited to our End of Year Student and Choral Concert!
The concert is at 4.15pm on Sunday, 13th December 2009
St Leonard's Uniting Church, Meeting Room at 2 Wolseley Grove, Brighton, Melbourne
Hope to see you there!
Piroska

Twelve Benefits of Music Education

1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.

5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a "me first" attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.

6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student's own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.

7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.

8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.

9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.

12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable.

Source: http://childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/12benefits.html

Umeboshi - Japanese Salt Plum

Besides their dramatic flavour, Japanese plums have remarkable medicinal qualities. Their  powerful acidity has a paradoxical alkalizing effect on the body, neutralizing fatigue, stimulating the digestion, and promoting the elimination of toxins. This is the Far Eastern equivalent to both aspirin and apple: not only is it a potent hangover remedy for mornings after; more than that, an Umeboshi a day is regarded as one of the best preventative medicines available. The plums are pickled, left outside to be exposed to the elements of the sun and evening dew, packed in barrels, with crude salt and shiso leaves, and then pressed by a weight. The combination of these elements, pressed over a period of at least six months, creates the natural bacteria, enzymes, organic acids and powerful alkaline qualities of the Umeboshi Plum. In fact, Umeboshi Plum has been called "The King of Alkaline Foods". 
Alkalinity is an important factor for health. We want our blood to be just to be slightly alkaline (about 7.35). If the blood is too acidic, then harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, fats and mucous thrive and grow, contributing to degenerative blood and disease. Our blood can become too acidic from consuming an excessive amount of sugar, refined flour products, alcohol, toxins and animal foods. This condition worsens with an inadequate intake of oxygen, often caused by sedentary lifestyles. 
You will find them in Organic Health Food Stores or in Japanese Food stores!
An Umeboshi Plum a day keeps the doctor away!

JOIN OUR NEW CHOIR - BRIGHTON UP!

BRIGHTON UP! CHOIR

Join our new CHOIR commencing on 
Thursday, 5 November 2009!

Come and sing Christmas Carols with us! 
Bring friends!

Rehearsals on Thursdays 7.15-8.15pm

St Leonard’s Uniting Church, Meeting Room

2 Wolseley Grove, Brighton (off New St)

Mini Concert 4pm Sunday, 13 December 2009

Rehearsal fee: $5   
You can find the Choir on Facebook!

Giza the ancient's prime meridian

Mind blowing to think of how previous civilizations drew a map where the line of zero longitude, instead of running through the Greenwich Observatory in London, ran through the desert, just adjacent Cairo. 

The Great Pyramid (the Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops in Greek) at Gizeh, Egypt,

demonstrates the remarkable character of its placement on the face of the Earth.

The Pyramid lies in the center of gravity of the continents. It also lies in the exact center

of all the land area of the world, dividing the earth's land mass into approximately equal quarters.

The north-south axis (31 degrees east of Greenwich) is the longest land meridian, and the east-west axis (30 degrees north) is the longest land parallel on the globe. There is obviously only one place that these longest land-lines of the terrestrial earth can cross, and it is at the Great Pyramid! It means that Egypt, the Great Pyramid at Giza to be precise, lay at the centre of the last world. Incredible.

Can a soprano's voice really shatter glass?

Theoretically, yes. Wine glasses each have a natural frequency - the ringing note you hear if you clink one gently. If a singer picks exactly the note that a glass resonates at, and sings with enough intensity, her voice will cause the air molecules around the glass to move causing it to vibrate in sympathy.

If the glass has a microscopic flaw or weak point, the vibration could cause it to shatter into pieces. The singer's voice would have to be extremely loud, and the glass very fine and delicate, however. Strangely enough, it's the same technique that dentists use when they scale and polish teeth using ultrasonic sound waves!

The secret to age-restoring, fat-fighting, cancer-preventing sleep is...routine

I am sure you noticed that there are millions of e-somniacs out there, because they are out there on Facebook, email, Twitter, Plaxo, RSVP, ect at the same godforsaken hours sending messages instead of sleeping sweetly in their beds.

Strangely, the moment we are out of the big cities camping, TV, DVD player and computer are taken away, we go back to a more natural body rhythm, going to rest as it gets dark and raising with the sun. We have a pre-historic body that still responds to prehistoric body-clock cues.

There is nothing worse than being constantly tired, grumpy and getting sick gradually because our body is lacking that repairing, healing sleep. There are some very simple rules you need to follow to get back on track. The secret to perfect, age-restoring, fat-fighting, cancer-preventing sleep is.....routine. It's really not a sexy revelation...

So here is how it works. Rise as early as you can. Slide straight into sneaker. Exercise straight from home- none of this driving to the gym business: it invites procrastination. A simple 30 min walk is perfect. Use your favourite music collection of energizing music or personal development on your Ipod if that is your preference instead of being with your ow thoughts and bird song. Then meditate. By exercising first your mind is settled and ready for meditation. It sets you up for a great day! Then shower, take a teaspoon of apple cedar vinegar (to wake up your digestion and for general well being) and have a Herbalife nutrition shake or eat porridge. According to Eastern traditions, a hot, dense breakfast is the best way to ground energy; cold foods, such as muesli, require heat to digest, which saps energy from your system at that hour.

At night, it's simple. Eat a light dinner by 7pm. Avoid foods like avocado, aged cheese and soy sauce at night. Turn computer off by 8pm. Be in bed by 10pm. If you don't, your body will ache because the body repair occurs between 10pm and 2am. Get 7 to 8 hours sleep in a well aired, cool room. Don't overheat your bedroom. Sleep debt causes cortisol to rise, which shuts down metabolism so you start putting on weight.

Repeat this routine for a week or two and watch your skin glow, your phone manner become more attentive and sleep strike you like a blow to the head with a fat doona. After the improvement shows, you won't want to go back to your old habits because you will feel and look so much better!

If you are an owl like me, adjustment can take much longer and can be a tough transition but it is worth the experiment.

I wish you a good night sleep, a healthier body, glowing, young looking skin and a big smile on your face!

Please let me know of your results!

(This writing is based on an article by Sarah Wilson in A better life section of the Sunday Age July 2009. Sarah attended a sleep retreat at Gwinganna in the Gold Coast hinterland.)

So you think you can hear?

Some musicians are blessed or many would say cursed by Perfect Pitch or Absolute Pitch. Perfect or Absolute Pitch is your ability to recognize EXACT tones and chords - BY EAR. More precisely, the ability to identify the pitch of a musical tone without an external reference pitch. To be considered an absolute pitch possessor, an individual must have the ability to identify pitches accurately and instantaneously.

Here's a quick lesson:

WITHOUT Perfect Pitch: You do not know what tones you hear -- it's like hearing in "black and white":

WITH Perfect Pitch: You know the EXACT TONES you hear -- it's like hearing in color:

This does not mean that you associate visual colors to tones to learn Perfect Pitch. Instead, you learn to hear the SOUND colors of the tones.

Think of it this way: Your eye sees VISUAL colors. Likewise, your ear can learn to hear PITCH colors.

Your eye sees colors of LIGHT. Likewise, your ear can learn to hear colors of SOUND.Once you tune in to these PITCH COLORS, you'll naturally name any tone or chord -- BY EAR -- just like you can name colors by eye.

Ernst Terhard on Absolute Pitch: Although Absolute Pitch in humans ordinarily is dependent on labeling of tones according to musical-notation conventions, it is not merely the "pitch class" (i.e. the musical note name) that can be identified. Rather it is pitch itself. A tone's pitch is identified with significantly better accuracy than the plus/minus 3 percent frequency tolerance preset by the semitone interval that forms the smallest unit in the Western music notation. An AP possessor can tell if an acoustically played tone is sharp or flat relative to a standard intonation internally available to the AP possessor. It appears that the standard intonations of different AP possessors may be different, dependent on the level of intonation which they have been exposed to in early childhood. This becomes evident when AP possessors report to feel uneasy or even confused when they have to listen to, or to play, music on a level of tuning that differs from their internal standard.

Even in "genuine" AP possessors the skill appears to be somewhat fragile - which fits into the above view. Gerald Moore, the famous English piano accompanist, described in his book "Am I too Loud?" that as a young man he had Absolute Pitch and gradually lost it later. This is most remarkable, as the loss happend in a period of Moore's life in which he still was fully engaged as an accompanist. He pointed out that he regarded the loss of Absolute Pitch as a relief, i.e., with regard to a problem that he frequently had to solve, namely, transposition of pieces on the piano. In view of the above findings one may be inclined to suspect that Moore may unconsciously have himself "trained off" his Absolute Pitch faculty, as it had made transposition harder to him.

So it appears that, in a sense, the ability of Absolute Pitch in principle is implanted in every human, but is easily lost in infancy and/or childhood when it is not maintained and developed by training in naming musical tones. It may be not too far-fetched to speculate that, without such active maintenance, the natural Absolute Pitch faculty is inadvertently "trained off" in infancy, i.e., in the course of the vast acoustic/auditory learning challenges that an infant must accomplish, in particular in acquisition of its mother tongue.

Whatever, the faculty of AP cannot be regarded as an outstanding, sophisticated auditory achievement, because it was found in a number of non-human animals. For instance, the ability to recognize absolute pitch was found in a number of birds, and in a frog (Elepfandt, A. [1986]. Wave frequency recognition and absolute pitch for water waves in the clawed frog Xenopus laevis. The ability of adult Xenopus laevis to identify water wave frequencies was demonstrated by go/no-go conditioning. The acuity of frequency recognition is of absolute-pitch quality.). This indicates that AP is an elementary, rather than sophisticated, feature of the auditory system of vertebrates.

Another type of evidence in favour of the above view was provided by our own experiments on recognition of musical key with students of music as subjects. The advantage of experiments on musical key recognition - as opposed to recognition of single tones - is that they can be carried out both with AP possessors and with non-AP possessors. Roughly speaking, the result was that only a small percentage of musically trained non-AP possessors are totally unable to recognize musical key. About 30% of the non-AP possessors were able to tell whether or not musical samples were played plus/minus 1 semitone "off key".

The general view is this: To become a "genuine" AP possessor you must early in life become aware that you already are an AP possessor, and this kind of awareness, of course, may emerge from the experience that pitches can be identified, though at first imperfectly, to a certain higher-than-chance extent. When that level of performance and awareness is more or less spontaneously attained in early childhood, the ability may become "genuine" by practice.

Read more on the website of The University of California Genetics of Absolute Pitch Study and fill in the survey and take the test if you are interested!

A bibliography of absolute pitch that contains more than 350 papers http://www.absolutepitchstudy.com/

EAT THAT FROG

The greatest reason for not becoming successful and not achieving our goals is procrastination.

This video will remind you of getting on with the tasks that are important to do first because while they are not the most pleasant things, they bring the result we need to get ahead and achieve our goals. So let's eat that frog!

Watch this video EAT THAT FROG!

Playing a musical instrument makes you smarter!

Learning to play a musical instrument offers a lot of benefits. I personally believe that if there's one thing you should learn in your lifetime, it is how to play an instrument. Here are 5 reasons why:

1. Playing A Musical Instrument Makes You Smarter
Many studies have been conducted on the effects of music to the brain. Scientists say that children who are exposed to music, or those who play an instrument, do better in school than those who don't. Recent research suggests exposure to music may benefit a child's reading age, IQ and the development of certain parts of the brain. Adults can benefit from learning to play an instrument too because it helps the mind to be alert and active eventually helping to sharpen the memory.

2. It Teaches Discipline

Learning to play an instrument is like learning to speak another language and it can be challenging at times. One of the qualities musicians possess is discipline. You have to be disciplined in order to master playing your instrument. You have to set time each day to practice, practice and practice some more.

3. Playing A Musical Instrument Relieves Stress

We all have days when we are so stressed out and we just want to take a break from it all. Have you ever noticed that when you hear soft, soothing music you feel more relaxed? Playing an instrument can do that and more, especially if you're the one playing. Music is one of life's simple joys; it helps calm the mind.

4. Sense of Achievement

If you're a beginner learning to play your first piece, it can be frustrating. But once you've mastered it, the satisfaction you'll feel is priceless. Never mind if it's just a simple piece, believe me you'll never forget the first piece you've mastered. You are one more step closer to achieving your goal and that is certainly something to be proud of.

5. Playing A Musical Instrument is Fun

Sure it can be a lot of hard work but there is no denying playing an instrument is fun. Once you get better at it, opportunities will arise for you to share your newly learned skill with your family and friends. Who knows, you may also consider playing professionally in the future. Playing a musical instrument opens up a lot of good possibilities that will surely enrich your life.

http://musiced.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/pinst.htm

Georg Friedrich Handel, composer

"Milord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wished to make them better."

Georg Friedrich Handel, composer

Lord Yehudi Menuhin world famous violinist and yoga

Lord Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) was an extremely influential figure in British society. He made this island his home for a significant portion of his life, partially due to the influence of his British-born wife, the ballerina Diane Gould (1912-2003). Menuhin was given an honorary knighthood in 1965; citizenship in 1985, and a Lordship in 1993. These honours were not only for his outstanding musical ability, but also for his philanthropic and humanitarian interests.

Menuhin's Stradivarius

A child protégée, the New York-born violinist had an intuitive genius in expression on his instrument. But in middle age, strains and tensions in his body began to interrupt the consistency of his playing and he struggled to bring his intuitive understanding into consciousness. Menuhin searched to discover how to bring release to his bodily tension.

In 1951, as Menuhin describes it, a “life changing encounter” took place in the waiting room of an osteopath during a concert tour in New Zealand. Trying to fill the time while his sister Hephzibah had a treatment, Menuhin found a small book on Hatha Yoga. He writes:

I had stumbled across a key to unlock old enigmas, to make me aware of my capacity, encourage the physical ease missing from my upbringing, point the way to further comprehension of violin playing, and perhaps – if I persevered – stand me on my head in long-delayed fulfilment of childhood ambition.

Although he had never heard of yoga before this book, he gleaned enough from borrowing the book for the duration of his week-long tour of New Zealand to develop the rudiments of a regular asana practice.

Shortly after independence, Indian Prime Minister Jaraharlal Nehru gave an open invitation to world's best musicians to tour the newly independent country. In response, Yehudi Menuhin arranged tour India for two months, turning any profit from his concerts over to the Famine Fund for Madras. In 1952, the Menuhins stayed as personal guests of Prime Minster Nehru who shared Yehudi Menuhin’s interest in yoga. Famously, Nehru made a friendly challenge to Menuhin about his practice and the two were found in headstand as the butler came in to announce dinner. When this story reached the press, “gurus began to queue up wherever [Menuhin] went, each recommended by some prominent patron.” One of these prominent patrons fetched Iyengar from his home in Poona to visit Menuhin in Bombay.

After warning Iyengar that he only had five minutes in his busy schedule, Iyengar guided Menuhin into a deep relaxation and awoke not five minutes, but an hour later. At the time Menuhin was suffering from insomnia and this was perhaps the best gift possible. Upon awaking, Menuhin asked Iyengar to demonstrate his art and then enthusiastically requested Iyengar to teach him. During that tour of India he met Ravi Shankar, sitar virtuoso, and eventually persuaded him to perform in the west. Ravi's popularity had significant consequences for both music and vegetarianism in the following decades.

In 1954, Iyengar spent more than six weeks in Gstaad, Switzerland where Menuhin was performing as Menuhin's personal yoga instructor; this year also included a brief visit to London. This began fifteen years of regular interaction between Iyengar and Menuhin (see photo on the right), Iyengar travelling to Europe to teach Menuhin most summers between 1961-1984 as well as teaching Menuhin whenever he toured India. During the 1980s Menuhin made jazz recordings with Stephane Grappelli and of Eastern music with the great sitarist Ravi Shankar (see picture of Shankar).

Menuhin's interests outside music were broad. He was known as an environmentalist and practitioner of yoga. He was introduced to yoga in the 1950s and studied with B.K.S. Iyengar, a noted guru. Menuhin's daily regimen included 15 to 20 minutes of standing on his head. He also used yoga to relax before concerts. Menuhin advocated a vegetarian diet and warned of the dangers of eating white rice, white bread, and refined sugar.

Renowned, American born violinist and conductor, Yehudi Menuhin was a vegetarian and committed supporter of many social and environmental causes, with a great interest in Yoga and eastern religion. He was an anti-pollution activist and vegetarian advocate.

The following extract is by James Henry Cook, quoted by his daughter Kathleen Keleny in her book: The First Century of Health Foods

"Kathleen had music lessons from the age of 8 to 15 and then from 18 (when she typed for a composer in exchange for piano and singing lessons). As we lived near Birmingham she was able to attend most of the big Symphony concerts conducted by Adrian Boult in Birmingham Town Hall. She had free entrance because she was a programme seller. She heard Paderewski, Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin, a Vegetarian who said that his violin teacher was his Yoga teacher because he taught him how to relax. Much later when Kathleen was President of the Bath Vegetarian Society in her fifties, Yehudi Menuhin played at one of the Bath Festival events. He agreed to meet three Committee members after the concert and told Kathleen how very important his Vegetarian diet was to him and the work he did."

Yehudi Menuhin's BBC documentary (55mins)

From an article in the New York Times, 1982:

"When the violinist Yehudi Menuhin comes to New York the first thing he does is call his favorite natural-food store and place an order: porridge, yogurt, goat's milk, sprouted wheat bread, ice cream, butter, fruits, vegetables, tofu sandwiches and kefir. In each American city where he performs, Mr. Menuhin has a favourite place to shop, making his life as a traveling vegetarian more comfortable.
. . . Mr. Menuhin describes himself as ''self-indulgent'' about certain foods. He can eat an entire honeycomb at four breakfasts. ''I collect honey the way some people collect stamps,'' Mr. Menuhin said. He said he is particularly fond of Indian food because it is ''so stimulating and so delicious, the vegetables with all the spices and the dairy products, the flat bread, rice and the masses of fruit.'' He loves pasta, especially with pesto and white truffles. Mr. Menuhin also enjoys fine wine."

Meditating Just 15 Minutes a Day Could Change Your Life

One of the stories I like best of all tells how the novice monk asks a revered and ancient lama: 'What's it like to be an enlightened being?' To which the lama replied after a moment, 'I walk and eat and I sleep.'The young novice was startled by the simplicity of his answer. 'But I also walk and eat and sleep,' he said. 'Yes,' smiled the lama, 'When I walk I walk. When I eat, I eat. And when I sleep, I sleep.'

Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the conditioned, "thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness. Quality of life is significantly improved by two or three sessions each lasting twenty minutes, while to make an impact on quantity of life requires three daily hour-long sessions.

There are many different meditation methods.

At the core of meditation is the goal to focus and eventually quiet your mind. As you progress, you will find that you can meditate anywhere and at any time, accessing an inner calm no matter what's going on around you. But first, you have to learn to tame your mind.

Any position in which you're relaxed but your back is straight is permissible, even lying down - but be careful that you're not so relaxed that you fall asleep. In warm weather, consider watching the clouds.

Breath counting – easiest for beginners

Lye down on the floor, palm up position of hands.

Focus on your breathing. Establish a thought why you meditate – I am getting healthier every day/ I am getting closer to becoming President’s Team every day - whatever you want to achieve. If you can visualize yourself in that position – what you want to look like, feel when you are healthy and happy, see yourself being pinned on stage as Pres Team etc, it is even more powerful. Visualization is big part of advanced meditation.

Once you are settled, count each breath you take. Inhale is one, exhale is 2, next inhale is 3, next exhale is 4, etc. Observe your thoughts because they will wonder. They will get away from counting and you may even loose count and start thinking about your problems or your day. If this happens and you become aware of it, no problem, just get back to 1 and start counting again.

Try to get up to 100 if you can. Many people can’t get over 10 or 20 for quite awhile because their thoughts take over. The goal of meditation is to clear the mind and not allow your thoughts wonder and take over your mind.

There will be good days and bad days. Sometime you can meditate for 20 min and stay focused, other days you hardly can count to 20. No problem, keep doing it. The more you do the better it gets and more focused you become. The benefits in every way will be your great reward. It is worth the time and effort.

One Pointed Concentration

However you learn to meditate you must learn to concentrate on one thing at a time. Usually, the mind tries to hold several different thoughts and ideas at once. When you sit down to meditate for the first time, you realize how cluttered the mind is. Mediation teachers have described the mind as a “mad monkey”. However, the mind can be tamed and forced to concentrate on a single thought.

One helpful technique is concentrating on a candle flame. Narrow your gaze to the small tip and block out all other thoughts. When you get distracted, go back to focusing on the candle flame. You can also use other objects like a small dot or flower. The important thing is that you concentrate only on one thing at a time.

Mantra

Another way to learn concentration is through the use of mantra. A mantra is the repetition of a sacred word of a significant thought/sentence. For example, you might repeat a mantra (e.g.: I am becoming healthier, wealthier and happier every day) a certain number of times. Repeating a mantra forces the mind to focus on a single thought. If you can connect with a visual picture of your mantra it is even more powerful.

Silent Mind – this is total bliss when you can achieve it!

After you’ve practiced concentration and learned to focus on one thing at a time, you can proceed to the next stage: no thought at all. Achieving a silent mind is difficult, but when to attain it the experience is powerful. A technique I advise is viewing your thoughts as separate from your self. When a thought appears, make a conscious decision to throw it out of your mind. Over time you realize that you are capable of allowing or rejecting thoughts. Your real “I” is not a collection of thoughts, but something far deeper. This is the most significant realization of meditation - that you do not have to be a slave to your thoughts.

Through meditation, you attain the power to control your thoughts, and on occasion stop them completely. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t attain a silent mind straightaway. It takes time and practice. There is nothing really else to it; meditation is a simple and spontaneous action. Unfortunately, our mind is used to complication and it takes time to unlearn bad habits.

However generally speaking a good meditation is about feeling better, raising your consciousness. We do not rely on others and outer things for happiness we get an inner joy that comes spontaneously. If you have a good meditation you will have a positive view of life. You will feel better about yourself and also others. Meditating well involves bypassing the critical mind, instead we try to bring the qualities of the heart to the fore. The heart by nature does not judge but identifies with others. We will have a feeling of sympathetic understanding with others. In our very highest meditation we get an unmistakable feeling that the heart of the world is good.

Meditation could appear to be a selfish activity because it is only we who benefit. However when we have a good meditation instinctively we feel it is an experience we share with others. Meditation connects us to the universal self we lose our limited ego perspective and a wider sense of identity. This oneness and wider sense of identity gives us a glimpse in to the nature of real divine love.

Meditation gives us a sense of peace. People sometimes associate peace with silence and a passive quality. Real inner peace certainly embodies silence, at least silence from the mind. But peace also embodies a dynamic quality; peace has its own energy. Again the peace we feel is something that we feel we need to share with others. Meditation gives us a sense of real gratitude. Gratitude helps you identify and feel your oneness with your own highest reality.

Even if we don’t experience anything particularly striking in meditation we should not be disillusioned. If we are drawn to meditation every day this shows that we are getting something valuable. Our soul is been drawn to meditate every day and this is like being fed inwardly. This is a good sign each day we are able to make progress even if the signs of progress may not be highly visible.

The benefits of meditation

Quality of life

Meditation helps manage pain, deal with unpleasant treatment side effects, reduce tension and blood pressure measurements, boost our immune function, and support the production of hormones such as endorphins and DHEA which has a vital role to play in helping us feel robust and live longer.

Quantity of life

Meditation extends our lifespan and improves our chances of full recovery. Ian Galwer, founder of Gawler Foundation in Melbourne, Australia on the work of his foundation among cancer patients: 'I have seen many people now recover from very difficult medical situations. It is possible to recover from cancer. It is possible.'

Emotional benefits

Meditation helps us lift the lid off the pressure cooker. The way others respond to us is a very strong reflection of the way we ourselves communicate. When we meditate, we become better at managing stress and living in the moment, making easier to express what we are going through, and be more open to the support and friendship of others.

The benefit of meaning

Victor Frankl, one of the most important psychiatrists of the 20th Century and an Auschwitz survivor, saw first-hand that even in the most painful and dehumanized situations people could discover meaning, and that those with the strongest sense of purpose and meaning were most likely to survive. Meditation is a holistic experience. We will enjoy extraordinary physical benefits that flow from enabling our body to heal itself. But we will also experience ourselves in a way that's extraordinary. We may uncover a sense of meaning in our lives which we didn't self-consciously set out to find.

A fabulous and easy reading on meditation is the book Hurry up and Meditate- Your starter kit for inner peace and better health by David Michie

Are you feeding your cells to degenerate or regenerate?

Cellular Nutrition www.herbabodyshop.com

We have no choice but to live in our present environment. Our bodies are affronted daily by excessive production of free radicals caused by our polluted environment, stressful lifestyles, and over-medicated society. Though we can certainly reduce the amount of free radicals our bodies produce by: not smoking, decreasing stress levels, and avoiding toxic chemicals, most of our bodies are still unable to fight the overwhelming daily attack on the natural defense system. Remember balance is the key--we need enough antioxidants available to neutralize the free radicals produced.

Over the past 50 years, nutritional medicine and supplementation has focused on replenishing a nutritional deficiency. Countless hours and dollars have been spent trying to determine exactly which nutrients our bodies are depleted of. Blood tests, urine tests, hair samples, muscle testing, and more have been conducted in an attempt to determine which nutrients we need to supplement. However, we have been aiming at the wrong target. The present problem is not a nutritional deficiency, but rather, underlying oxidative stress. Oxidative stress has now been shown beyond any shadow of doubt via medical research to be the root cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases. Diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s dementia, macular degeneration, lupus, MS, and the list goes on and on.

Because oxidative stress is our concern rather than specific nutritional deficiencies, we must determine what is the best approach to preventing or controlling oxidative stress. This is accomplished by bolstering one’s natural defenses through cellular nutrition.

Cellular nutrition is simply providing ALL nutrients to the cell at optimal levels. This allows the cell to determine what it actually does and does not need. I don’t have to worry about determining which nutrients the cell is deficient in. I simply provide all of the important nutrients at optimal levels—those levels shown to provide a health benefit in the medical literature. Any nutritional deficiencies will be automatically corrected over the next few months by this approach and all the other vital nutrients will be brought up to their optimal levels as well.

Cellular nutrition is providing the body with all the antioxidants along with the supporting B vitamins and antioxidant minerals at optimal levels. This is "preventive medicine" at its best because we can literally attack the disease process at its core by preventing oxidative stress from occurring.

You may be wondering if we can control oxidative stress by simply improving our diet and eating more fruits and vegetables. This is definitely a good start. By simply eating 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day you can decrease the risk of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s dementia, and cancer, two to three fold. We certainly want to supplement a good diet—not a bad diet. However, even if you eat a great diet you can barely obtain the RDA level of all essential nutrients. Medical studies have shown that less than 1% of the American population accomplishes this on a consistent basis.

Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA):

Research studies reveal standards of recommended daily allowance (RDA’s) have absolutely nothing to do with chronic degenerative diseases. RDA’s were developed to avoid what are known as acute deficiency diseases like scurvy (deficiency of vitamin C), rickets (deficiency of vitamin D), and pellagra (deficiency of niacin). In other words, if you consumed the RDAs for vitamin C, vitamin D, and niacin, you would not develop any of these illnesses.

Admittedly, the RDA’s have done their job—how many people do you know suffer from these diseases? RDA’s first developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The list of nutrients included in the RDAs grew over the next two decades and in the early 1950s, the definition of RDAs expanded to include the amounts of nutrients needed for normal growth and development. Despite the fact that RDAs have proved useful, most physicians and laypeople tend to assign more meaning to RDA standards than they should.

After researching medical literature on the topic of oxidative stress and the amount of nutrients needed to prevent it, I found the optimal levels of nutrients known to provide health benefits are significantly greater those suggested by RDA levels. For example, the optimal level of vitamin E is 400 IU. The RDA is only 30 IU. That being the case, you may consider eating 400 IU of vitamin E. You would only need to eat 33 heads of spinach, or 27 pounds of butter; 80 avocados will do, or an alternative 5 pounds of wheat germ each and every day to obtain that level of vitamin E.

Similarly, the optimal level of vitamin C is approximately 1200 to 2000 mg daily, while the RDA is only 60 mg. To eat the optimal levels of vitamin would need to consume 18 oranges, or 17 kiwifruit, or 160 apples. Put in this perspective, it becomes clear that the only way to obtain these levels of nutrients is to supplement our diet. And this requires more than a generic multiple vitamin. One-a-day multiple vitamins are primarily based on RDA levels, thus providing no measurable health benefits. Significantly more potent supplements are needed each day to provide the optimal levels to provide cellular nutrition.

By Ray D Strand M.D.