Friday, April 29, 2016

Meditation & Eclectic Spirituality, Volume 10

I wrote Sunburned: A Blog Series About Spirituality while doing research for War & Grace, the final installment in my epic fantasy trilogy Daughter of Light. Neither the book nor the series is about meditation, they're about consciousness ... and I suppose, a spirituality/worldview beyond the religions that are commonly practiced today. Anyway, because meditation is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective ways to transform your consciousness, I enjoy sharing interesting links from around the web on the subject every Friday

Enjoy!

How Meditation Increases Happiness: By elevating your baseline happiness level. Continue to page 2 for the animated video: Mindfulness is a Super Power.

Salesforce put a meditation room on every floor of its new tower: Because it's just a great idea.

5 Things You Need to Know About Ditching Perfection During Meditation: Because 'Meditation is about touching your authentic truth and learning to be ok with whatever arises and that is going to look different for each person.'

How Meditation Went Mainstream: A time capsule of meditation's rise in the West.

Meditation and Ballet Tied to Wisdom: Perhaps a mind-body connection is an intrinsic and necessary ballerina skill that lends itself to mindfulness?

How Life Changes After a Year of Meditation: Another meditation transformation ...

How Meditation Transformed This Entrepreneur's Approach to Work and Life: And another one ...

A Blog Series About Spirituality

If you'd like to submit a link for a Friday post, please email me at Heidi _ g @ comcast . net, thanks!



Friday, April 22, 2016

Meditation & Eclectic Spirituality, Volume 9

I wrote Sunburned: A Blog Series About Spirituality while doing research for War & Grace, the final installment in my epic fantasy trilogy Daughter of Light. Neither the book nor the series is about meditation, they're about consciousness ... and I suppose, a spirituality/worldview beyond the religions that are commonly practiced today. Anyway, because meditation is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective ways to transform your consciousness, I enjoy sharing interesting links from around the web on the subject every Friday

Enjoy!

Use Mindfulness to Create Better Habits: By turning of autopilot.

Natural Living: The healing power of meditation: Keeping things simple.

Meditation for Kids: Which might better for those (ADD) kids in the long run? Medication ... or meditation?

Don't Just Lift, Get Lifted at SF's Newest Strength + Meditation Workout: What a great mix!

It's Brain Science: University Fights Binge Drinking With Meditation: Each year 1,825 college students die from alcohol-related injuries ... Really?!?!? That is mind-boggling (no pun intended)! Are you in college? Would you take the challenge to live in a substance-free dorm?

How mindfulness meditation teaches children to manage their emotions: Again, the benefits of a few minutes a day isn't just for adults.

The images of chimps thrilled me: do they show evidence of spirituality in the wild?: Here is something to ponder ...

Goodall witnessed chimps performing a specific kind of swaying dance around large waterfalls, in thunderstorms, and during heavy rains. This dance suggests a sense of ceremony and appreciation of the natural world, which as Goodall speculates, might be “related to awe and wonder, that could lead to one of those early animistic religions where people worship water and sun and elements they can’t understand”.
A Blog Series About Spirituality

If you'd like to submit a link for a Friday post, please email me at Heidi _ g @ comcast . net, thanks!

Friday, April 15, 2016

Meditation & Eclectic Spirituality, Volume 8

I wrote Sunburned: A Blog Series About Spirituality while doing research for War & Grace, the final installment in my epic fantasy trilogy Daughter of Light. Neither the book nor the series is about meditation, they are about consciousness ... and I suppose, a spirituality/worldview beyond the commonly accepted religions that claim our present world ... ummm ... attention and devotions. But ... so ... anyway, meditation IS a great way of experiencing, exploring, and evolving your own personal consciousness ... thus, I've been posting links to articles about meditation (and spirituality) from around the web every Friday.

Enjoy!

Meditation not limited to Buddhist spirituality: I am not sure who Michelle Conover is (sorry!) but the salient point is: Many people of all faiths throughout the world meditate — even atheists.

Spiritual but not religious?: The highlight of this piece? I had no idea that "spiritual but not religious" had become an acronym: SBNR

Science finally proves that meditation helps make your body markedly less stressed: It's all about changes in the neural networks: Scans from the group that meditated showed greater measures of connectivity through parts of the brain associated with calmness and stress.

5 Ideal Yoga Destinations in India: Some of these were just added to my: To Visit Someday list!

Why Science is Ultimately Spiritual, and Vice Versa: This is the future. Period.

No matter where science and spirituality go, their ultimate unity is inescapable. That realization is likely to grow more powerful in the coming years, as physics and cosmology are taken to the very horizon of dimensionless being.

Why insurance should cover meditation: Yep. Uh-huh. Not just cost-effective, also life-effective.

Meditating on life: Getting down to the basics.

A Blog Series About Spirituality

If you'd like to submit a link for a Friday post, please email me at Heidi _ g @ comcast . net, thanks!

Friday, April 8, 2016

Meditation & Eclectic Spirituality, Volume 7

I wrote Sunburned: A Blog Series About Spirituality while doing research for War & Grace, the final installment in my epic fantasy trilogy Daughter of Light. Neither the book nor the series is about meditation, they are about consciousness ... and I suppose, a spirituality/worldview beyond the commonly accepted religions that claim our present world ... ummm ... attention and devotions. But ... so ... anyway, meditation IS a great way of experiencing, exploring, and evolving your own personal consciousness ... thus, I've been posting links to articles about meditation (and spirituality) from around the web every Friday.

Enjoy!

What Can & Can't Be Taught: I totally agree: Meditation is deeply personal.

Neurobiological changes explain how mindfulness meditation improves health: Yet another study proves meditation actually ch-ch-changes your brain.

Mrs. Madhavi and the art of Meditation: If Mrs. Madhavi had been my geometry teacher, she would probably have been my favorite, too.

Calming the teenage mind in the classroom: Meditation is a life skill. Haven't we all, a decade or so out of school, moaned and groaned about how so many of the really important things just weren't taught in school? Teaching meditation to teenagers is great because it gives them a free, easily accessible approach to increasing their quality of life. Plus, most, all? religions have contemplative practices ... so ... why not?

Prison Yoga: Is Meditation the Cure for Recidivism: "Apparently there is a high demand for a higher consciousness. There is a one-year wait list for yoga classes at San Quentin, one of the largest prisons in the nation."

The Top 10 Cities for Meditation in The U.S.: Yes, I really have lived in two of them: Austin, TX & San Diego, CA. Yes, I began meditating when I lived in Austin ... all those years ago ... Coincidence?

mindfulness, meditation, yoga and the united states constitution: Just in case you were wondering ...

The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether moments of silence are constitutional, although they did strike down an Alabama law that required a mandatory moment of silence for meditation or voluntary prayer. After looking at the law's legistaltive history, and how it was implemented, the court decided that the Alabama statute didn't have a secular purpose.

Many States have enacted moment of silence laws, and some of them make moments of silence mandatory. Lower courts have held that neutrally crafted moments of silence statutes are constitutional and a number of constitiuonal scholars believe that the Supreme Court will agree.

Okey, dokey.
A Blog Series About Spirituality

If you'd like to submit a link for a Friday post, please email me at Heidi _ g @ comcast . net, thanks!

Friday, April 1, 2016

Meditation & Eclectic Spirituality, Volume 6

As a follow-up to Sunburned: A Blog Series About Spirituality that I wrote while doing some research for War & Grace, the final installment in my epic fantasy trilogy Daughter of Light, I've been posting links to articles about meditation (and spirituality) from around the web every Friday.

Enjoy!

Put Your Money Where Your Mind is: A For Profit Meditation Studio Opens Up in New York: I really believe this is where the future lies. In developing the ability, capacity, skill to connect inwardly and bring that out into the world. Not read some book, memorize quotes, and repeat them, argue about what they do or do not mean. I have no problem with people creating meditation spaces and charging some kind of fee for their services. Every church, sangha, temple, etc. passes the equivalent of a collection plate.

ASU student organization fights for on-campus interfaith prayer and mediation center: I would have loved to see a space where students were welcome to meditate and/or pray according to their religious and/or non-religious beliefs on my college campus, back in the day!

Carolyn Murphy on her pre-sleep routine, meditation and no technology after 8 pm: I might try this, I don't usually meditate right before I go to bed! But the no technology after 8pm? You couldn't pry my Kindle from my hands;)

If You Can't Get into Yoga or Mediation? Try Knitting Instead: I've always imagined myself learning how to knit ... someday:)

These women meditate: Honestly, I was surprised how many of them say they use Transcendental Meditation, specifically, But hey, whatever works for you!

Meditation, mindfulness may affect way your genes behave: Ah, epigenetics! What is that, you ask? Altering the expression of your genes through things as simple as diet, exercise, and, well ... meditation!

Meditation helped young woman with troubled life blighted by drugs turn her life around: A remarkable meditation transformation.

A Blog Series About Spirituality

If you'd like to submit a link for a Friday post, please email me at Heidi _ g @ comcast . net, thanks!