The Daily Mind

Daily Steps To Mindful Living

Meditation

Quotes to Keep Away the Negative Vibes

Meditating on your life and learning to empty your thoughts is a good thing, sometimes it’s good to be meditate on wise sayings. Quotes and wise sayings are like ammunition and picking a few of your favorites to repeat to yourself everyday or during specially difficult times can help you battle negativity and ensure that you keep a positive frame of mind.

For example when René Descartes said, “Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)” most often think that the quote is just about existentialism, but recently I’ve been using it to remind me that what I think shapes who I am. Twisted words? It doesn’t matter, as long as it helps me be better.

i think there i am

Photo Credit: Wonderlane

So choose a couple of your favorite quotes from below and make them part of your daily mantra. Hopefully it’ll help you keep on smiling, even if through gritted teeth, because the quotes below will remind you to focus on the good and will give you that extra push back to positivity whenever you’re sliding into negativity and need a mindset reset.

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Boost your mind, body and spirit

Sometimes the pressures of life can take their toll on our minds and bodies, leaving us exhausted, depressed and lacking in energy. Here’s how to give your mind, body and spirit a lift.

Mind
Make sure you start every day on a positive note. Instead of reading the papers or watching the news which, let’s face it, generally leaves you feeling pretty miserable, read a book that inspires you instead. You can catch up on the news later in the day, but make sure the first thing you read leaves you feeling uplifted.

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5 self-help tips to beat anxiety

If there’s one thing in life that I’m really good at, it’s worrying. I’d get a gold star for it. Anxiety runs in my family and I often wonder whether it’s in my genes or whether it’s learned behaviour. Whichever way you look at it though, I spend a lot of my time fretting about things. This is one of the reasons why I’m so interested in Eastern philosophy, holistic health and personal development.

Most people experience anxiety in some form or other, and in these uncertain times stress and worry are very much on the increase. But according to statistics, around one in 20 people are now thought to suffer from Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), where negative and anxious thoughts dominate daily life. Doctors dish out anti-depressants as a quick-fix for these problems but this doesn’t provide a long-term solution. Here are some techniques for tackling anxiety that I’ve found to be helpful, and I hope you find them helpful too.

Worried bride
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Meditation for Pain: How Meditating Can Reduce Pain More Than Drugs


Creative Commons License photo credit: Ingrid Sørensen

Have you ever had a chronic injury or illness that caused you a lot of pain no matter what you tried? It can be quite horrible. But did you know that science is now finding that meditation can help reduce pain just as much as pain killers? Fascinating isn’t it?

In this article we’ll take a look at some of the things science is discovering about meditation and pain and then look at some different resources you can tap in to if you want to give it a shot for yourself.

My background with pain and meditation

Although I have been lucky enough to meet quite a few meditation teachers, I have never really capitalized on my fortune. I am not someone who can speak about meditation from experience because I simply don’t do it enough.

But last year I got quite sick with a strange problem; a giant stone was stuck in my saliva gland and causing me more pain than I had ever experienced. And in my agony and despair I tried to do a bit of meditation and mind training in order to find some relief as well as to make the experience perhaps a little bit more meaningful.

And it worked. The most stress and pain free moments of that month were when I managed to calm down and focus on my breath for a little while. At that time I realized how much better off I might have been if I had trained in mediation prior to getting sick. It is no wonder Tibetan Buddhist Lamas are able to endure great hardships and illness without showing any pain at all. They have done years and years of isolated meditation.

Science and meditation for pain relief

So what exactly has science been finding out about meditation and pain relief? Actually, quite a lot. Since the early 1970’s American researchers and scientists have been working with Buddhist meditation experts because they discovered that meditation actually changes the way the brain works.

Realizing that they understood very little about all this, the scientists began taking MRIs and CAT scans whilst the yogis or lamas were meditating. The results were very interesting. Here is an excerpt from a recent article in the Sacremento Bee:

Researchers have found that people who meditate on a regular basis actually develop thicker brains – they increase the connections between their brain cells, and they also increase the network of blood vessels in the brain, especially in those areas that help us to focus and pay attention, as well as areas of the brain involved with self-awareness and empathy.

Meditation can also lead to a reduction in the area of the brain that is associated with pain and stress. In other words, we can literally change our brain by what we focus on. And you don’t have to be an expert at this in order to benefit.

This falls in to a new area of neuroscience called Neuro Plasticity. Basically, what this means is that the brain is constantly changing and can be changed by what we think and do. A decade ago scientists didn’t think this was possible but are now discovering that we can literally change the shape and function of our brain by our thoughts.

But it gets better. The study also showed:

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