Meditation And The Mind

The Mind
Many things affect us on a daily basis, weather, environment, stress, job, family, diet and the list goes on and on. The first thing you need to do is to make a list of things you have control of and things that are out of your control. Keeping things in perspective.

The Body
You only have one body and what you do today is what determines how one will feel tomorrow. Diet and exercise are very important decisions we make on a daily basis. One thing that I noticed on a daily basis with the work I do is that we do not even come close to drinking the amount of water our body requires and with the understanding that our body is made up of mostly water we would know this is almost the single most important thing we put in to our body. Not only does water flush the body but it helps all our organs function better.

The Soul
One questions this, many times in a life time. What is the soul, and do we really have what is called a soul? In my opinion, yes the soul is part of the body. The soul needs to continue growth, this growth comes in many ways to us during our life time. By people we meet, jobs we do and our spiritual belief and the beliefs of others around us. Some think that the soul is what makes us determine what is right or wrong or allows our conscious mind to make decisions, while others believe that soul does not exist and the brain makes all of these decisions for us. I my self believe one compliments the other and that when we make wrong decisions in our life the soul of the person allows them to get back on track. I separate these two by looking at one as being the ego self and the other one being the higher self. This argument has been around a long time. One looks at religion as the same as being spiritual, where as I see these things different . I feel religious is knowing the bible where as I feel spiritually is knowing and praying to a higher source.

What is meditation?
Meditation is slowing the body thought down to total relaxation to where nothing is happening to do this you first need to understand how the mind works.
Example:
Your mind processes a lot of information on a daily basis and is always thinking about several things at a time. This is why some day’s we jump around and do many different tasks. Sometimes we may be cooking and talking on the phone and setting the table or multi tasking, we do these things without a lot of thought.
Another Example:
When you are driving you might be looking at stop lights talking with your children, have the radio on and hearing the news, using your arms, legs, mind, your ears, again we have the ability to do many things.
But how does one just stop everything to clear ones mind? Breathing is the most effective thing you can learn to do for clearing your mind and relaxing your body and soul. I hope to teach you some of these exercises in the next several months. The article on mediation and relaxing the mind body and soul will be a continual column.
I also have a cd available for sale from a friend of mine that will help you to do this, you may contact me at 513-943-1638 or email me at thomaswindlow@lycos.com. I recommend this cd because her voice is so relaxing and the music is beautiful.

Breathing Techniques

While sitting in a chair do the following:
Look at a wall, or focuses on something in the room. Allow your eyes to only see this one item. Next inhale to the count of four hold for two and exhale for four.
When doing this it is important to allow the air to fill the lungs. Allow this to happen in a natural way, please do not count to fast or slow, you have to know what is comfortable for your own body. In time you will increase these numbers to six breaths inhale hold for two and exhale for six your body will allow you to do this in time. It’s always nice when doing this to listen to some type of new age music for this allows your mind to clear. As soon as you have your breathing technique under control, we will move to the next step and this is closing your eyes and doing this same technique allowing your body to fully become limp and relaxed.
Some will have to work on this for this is not something you can accomplish in one day or one week. You will know when you reach the point of total relaxation. Your body will feel totally different.

To be continued: May / June

Thomas Windlow