Eating and exercise: 5 tips to maximize your workouts

Knowing when and what to eat can make a difference in your workouts. Understand the connection between eating and exercise.

Eating and exercise go hand in hand. When and what you eat can be important to how you feel when you exercise, whether it's a casual workout or training for a competition. Consider these eating and exercise tips.

If you exercise in the morning, get up early enough to finish breakfast at least one hour before your workout. Be well-fueled going into a workout. Studies suggest eating or drinking carbohydrates before exercise can improve workout performance and may allow you to work out for a longer duration or higher intensity. If you don't eat, you might feel sluggish or lightheaded when you exercise.

If you plan to exercise within an hour after breakfast, eat a light breakfast or drink something such as a sports drink. Emphasize carbohydrates for maximum energy.

Good breakfast options include:

And remember, if you normally have coffee in the mornings, a cup before your workout is probably OK. Also know that anytime you try a food or drink for the first time before a workout, you risk an upset stomach.

Be careful not to overdo it when it comes to how much you eat before exercise. The general guidelines suggest:

Eating too much before you exercise can leave you feeling sluggish. Eating too little might not give you the energy to keep you feeling strong throughout your workout.

Most people can eat small snacks right before and during exercise. The key is how you feel. Do what works best for you. Snacks eaten soon before exercise probably won't give you added energy if your workout lasts less than 60 minutes, but may prevent distracting hunger pangs. If your workout is longer than 60 minutes, you may benefit by including a carbohydrate-rich food or beverage during the workout. Good snack options include:

A healthy snack is especially important if you plan a workout several hours after a meal.

To help your muscles recover and to replace their glycogen stores, eat a meal that contains both carbohydrates and protein within two hours of your exercise session if possible. Good post-workout food choices include:

Don't forget to drink fluids. You need adequate fluids before, during and after exercise to help prevent dehydration.

To stay well-hydrated for exercise, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you:

Water is generally the best way to replace lost fluids. But if you're exercising for more than 60 minutes, use a sports drink. Sports drinks can help maintain your body's electrolyte balance and give you a bit more energy because they contain carbohydrates.

Keep in mind that the duration and intensity of your activity will dictate how often and what you should eat and drink. For example, you'll need more energy from food to run a marathon than to walk a few miles. And try not to incorporate any new products before a long-duration sports event. It's best to have previous experience to see how your system handles the food.

When it comes to eating and exercise, everyone is different. So pay attention to how you feel during your workout and to your overall performance. Let your experience guide you on which pre- and post-exercise eating habits work best for you. Consider keeping a journal to monitor how your body reacts to meals and snacks so that you can tweak your diet for optimal performance.

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Eating and exercise: 5 tips to maximize ... - Mayo Clinic

Since my early childhood I have felt connected to my being which is the guiding light through challenging human experiences. Although sometimes in gloomy times, like severe illness, burnout, divorce, I had the impression of having lost the connection, I've learned to trust that the sun exists even when I'm walking through the night.

It was the powerful vision of my "future self" which motivated me to host this summit. I want to encourage you to leave the limitations of your conditioned self behind, to find your inherent source of wisdom and love and feel empowered to live a meaningful, authentic life.

There is this inner knowing, this certainty that not just myself but all of humanity is about to birth into something really, really new. A state of being and consciousness which wasnt possible for all of us before. To consciously invite our next step in the evolution of humanity, activate the NEW around the whole planet and to co-create a world we are dreaming of, is my vision for this summit.

I am so excited to take you with us to the leading edge of conscious evolution.

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CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION SUMMIT - transform-your-life.net

Editor's note: In a nearly unbelievable chapter of Oregon history, a guru from India gathered 2,000 followers to live on a remote eastern Oregon ranch. The dream collapsed 25 years ago amid attempted murders, criminal charges and deportations.

But the whole story was never made public. With first-ever access to government files, and some participants willing to talk for the first time, it's clear things were far worse than we realized.

What follows is an inside look -- based on witness statements, grand jury transcripts, police reports, court records and fresh interviews -- at how Rajneesh leaders tried to skirt land-use and immigration laws only to have their schemes collapse to the point they decided killing Oregonians was the only way to save their religious utopia.

Ma Anand Puja stepped into St. Vincent Hospital on a summer night in 1985, hunting for James Comini.

The Filipino nurse was there to kill the rural Oregon politician, who was recuperating from ear surgery at the Portland hospital. She carried a syringe to inject a mixture into Comini's intravenous tube that would stop his heart.

But once inside Comini's seventh-floor isolation room, Puja discovered her target wasn't on an IV. Flustered, she hurried from the hospital to a getaway car, and her assassination team started the long drive home.

Their destination: Rancho Rajneesh, a spiritual encampment 200 miles away in eastern Oregon. It was base for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a guru from India, and 2,000 of his worshippers.

The murder scheme was just one of many increasingly desperate attempts to save the guru's empire.

The Rajneeshees had been making headlines in Oregon for four years. Thousands dressed in red, worked without pay and idolized a wispy-haired man who sat silent before them. They had taken over a worn-out cattle ranch to build a religious utopia. They formed a city, and took over another. They bought one Rolls-Royce after another for the guru -- 93 in all.

Along the way, they made plenty of enemies, often deliberately. Rajneeshee leaders were less than gracious in demanding government and community favors. Usually tolerant Oregonians pushed back, sometimes in threatening ways. Both sides stewed, often publicly, before matters escalated far beyond verbal taunts and nasty press releases.

Three months after the aborted Comini plot, the commune collapsed and the Rajneeshees' darkest secrets tumbled out.

Hand-picked teams of Rajneeshees had executed the largest biological terrorism attack in U.S. history, poisoning at least 700 people. They ran the largest illegal wiretapping operation ever uncovered. And their immigration fraud to harbor foreigners remains unrivaled in scope. The revelations brought criminal charges, defections, global manhunts and prison time.

But there was much more.

Long-secret government files obtained by The Oregonian, and fresh interviews with ex-Rajneeshees and others now willing to talk, yield chilling insight into what went on inside Rancho Rajneesh a quarter-century ago.

It's long been known they had marked Oregon's chief federal prosecutor for murder, but now it's clear the Rajneeshees also stalked the state attorney general, lining him up for death.

They contaminated salad bars at numerous restaurants, but The Oregonian's examination reveals for the first time that they just as eagerly spread dangerous bacteria at a grocery store, a public building and a political rally.

To strike at government authority, Rajneeshee leaders considered flying a bomb-laden plane into the county courthouse in The Dalles -- 16 years before al-Qaida used planes as weapons.

And power struggles within Rajneeshee leadership spawned plans to murder even some of their own. The guru's caretaker was to be killed in her bed, spared only by a simple mistake.

Strangely, most of these stunning crimes were in rebellion against that most mundane of government regulations, land-use law. The Rajneeshees turned the yawner of comprehensive plans into a page-turning thriller of brazen crimes.

A new start

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh needed a new place to build his worldwide commune.

In India, he worked as a small-town philosophy professor until he found enlightenment paid better. He built a thriving enterprise attracting Westerners to his lectures and group therapies. They sought meaning in their lives, escaping the remains of the Vietnam War and a crashing world economy. And Rajneesh mixed in plenty of sexual freedom, ensuring publicity to build his brand.

Government authorities in India, weary of the Rajneesh's growing notoriety, cracked down on his group's unseemly and illegal behavior, including smuggling and tax fraud. The guru ran, ending up half a globe away at the Big Muddy Ranch, 100 square miles of rangeland an hour's drive north of Madras.

The first contingent of Rajneeshees quietly moved to Oregon in summer 1981, but they couldn't escape notice for long. Part of the guru's brand was clothing in reddish hues. Such dress was out of place in the blue denim reaches of Oregon. Followers, known as sannyasins, also displayed their devotion to the guru by wearing malas, wood bead necklaces holding a photo of Rajneesh.

Resettling in Oregon was the work of his chief of staff, Ma Anand Sheela, then 31 years old. She was a native of India, born to a privileged family as Sheela Patel. She wasn't after enlightenment. She was quick-witted and hungry for power, the perfect instrument for the guru's ambition.

Initially soft-spoken and engaging, Sheela charmed Oregon ranchers and politicians. Early on, she hosted a dance in Madras where cowboys partied until dawn. She curried favor, buying 50 head of cattle from a Wasco County commissioner, even though the commune was vegetarian.

She assured the guru that the commune of his dreams would soon rise on the Big Muddy. She expected to put up housing compounds, warehouses and support buildings. Business enterprises, once based in India, would move to the ranch.

In short, Sheela intended to do as she wished on their remote 64,000 acres.

Anxious to move ahead, she closed the property deal without understanding Oregon law -- a pivotal mistake. She didn't know the state severely limited how many people and buildings could be jammed onto ranch land.

Already it was too late. The money was paid, the guru packed and hundreds of sannyasins were expecting to be housed and fed. Sheela and the guru were undeterred. In India, trickery and bribery got results. Why would Oregon be any different?

The Rajneeshees found that the law did allow some new homes, but only for farmworkers and their families. Sheela homed in on that exemption when she met with Wasco County planners in summer 1981.

She was joined by her husband, a former New York banker named John Shelfer who was known on the ranch as Swami Jay, and David Knapp, a California therapist known as Swami Krishna Deva. For the meeting, they shed any sign of affiliation with the sect. They wore plain clothes, stowed their malas and introduced themselves by their given, not sannyasin, names.

They told the assembled officials they planned to operate a farm commune. Workers would be brought in to restore abused rangeland. They needed dwellings to house the workers.

Attending the meeting was Dan Durow, a young planner who had been with Wasco County less than a month. He had a trusting nature from his Midwestern upbringing and was intrigued by the idea of a farm commune. They discussed how the ranch could legally house perhaps 150 workers.

But the three visitors were vague about whom they represented.

"Are you a religious organization?" Durow finally asked.

"No," came Sheela's quick answer. "We celebrate life and laughter. We are simple farmers."

In the ensuing months, Durow repeatedly traveled to the ranch to monitor developments. He discovered that four-bedroom modular houses were in fact dorms with no kitchen, no living room. The Rajneeshees, on alert for his visits, routinely hid extra mattresses to disguise the true population at the ranch.

Making enemies

To legally stretch the limits, the Rajneeshees moved to form their own city.

Their private Portland lawyers advised they needed to befriend 1000 Friends of Oregon. The environmental group was a watchdog over land use, especially guarding farmland from development.

In late 1981, Sheela, Krishna Deva -- better known as KD -- and others from the commune met with two lawyers from 1000 Friends. They explained they needed to erect a city to tend to the thousands who would be moving there. They explained that remaking the ranch into a working farm was a bigger task than expected.

The environmental lawyers applauded the desire to restore the land, but they saw no need for a city. Plopping an urban area into the middle of an agricultural operation didn't make sense. As their resistance became apparent, Sheela asked whether their opposition would dissolve if the Rajneeshees joined 1000 Friends with a substantial contribution.

The bribe was brushed off. Sheela turned snide. Observing the modest furnishings in the Portland office, Sheela said she wasn't surprised by "shabby" work being done by people working in "shabby" surroundings. The crack was needless, but it was trademark Sheela.

From then on, 1000 Friends and the Rajneeshees battled. The organization launched an aggressive, but not always successful, legal campaign to blunt creation of the city. Its fundraising literature soon bore the picture of Sheela, and donations and membership soared.

In turn, the Rajneeshees portrayed 1000 Friends as a pawn of powerful political interests. They considered the environmental group an enemy, more interested in crushing a religion than protecting land. They named their sewage lagoon after the group's executive director.

Their fight would rage on for years.

Much of it played out in Oregon courtrooms and in the media. Coached by the Bhagwan, Sheela became adept at using the press to her advantage. She could be counted on for outrageous news conferences, where her sharp tongue cut into the enemy of the day. She seemed to spit insults with every breath.

But her conduct troubled other Rajneesh leaders.

KD complained in a letter to the guru that the insults were impairing efforts to build the commune. The guru's response was blunt: You're a coward. KD swallowed the insult and kept his place at the inner circle of the ranch. Later, he used his insider knowledge to get a lenient plea deal for himself -- and to help send Sheela to prison.

Another insider, Ma Yoga Vidya, a mathematician then also known as Ann McCarthy, tried her hand at reeling in Sheela. In a private meeting with the guru, she described Sheela's conduct as "outrageous" and harmful to the commune. The guru nodded as he listened, but otherwise made no reply.

Her end run enraged Sheela. The next day, Sheela dragged herself out of a sick bed and, with an intravenous drip line in tow, took Vidya back to see the guru. This time he had plenty to say. He unloaded on Vidya, who was the commune president. He said Sheela was his agent, and when she spoke, she was talking for him. He told Vidya to never challenge Sheela and to share that instruction with other commune members.

Most Rajneeshees would have been surprised to learn the guru provided such intimate oversight. They believed the guru was a spiritual master, a rare enlightened man untouched by daily events at the ranch. To this day, some former sannyasins hold the view that he knew next to nothing about what was happening at his commune.

Sannyasins well understood, though, that Sheela acted with the guru's authority. She wasn't to be questioned on any decision or directive. She wielded the authority without restraint, sharing it with an elite team of other women leaders, called "moms" by their underlings, who kept the Rajneeshees in line both with favors and punishment.

Cliques and cracks

Not everyone could be so readily controlled, such as the guru's personal doctor, dentist and caretaker.

They and a handful of other sannyasins served Rajneesh in his fenced compound called Lao Tzu. Their independence irritated commune leaders, but especially peeved Sheela.

A group of wealthy California donors also proved challenging to control once they moved to the Oregon ranch in 1984. The most notable were Francoise Ruddy, whose former husband produced "The Godfather," and John Wally, a physician who made a fortune in emergency room medicine. She became Ma Prem Hasya; he was Swami Dhyan John.

They had no zeal for the lifestyle of seven-day workweeks, shared meals or rudimentary sleeping quarters. Instead, the Californians set up a home for themselves apart from the usual housing. They brought in expensive furnishings, artwork and even their own car, a Jaguar. Almost daily, they drove to Madras for groceries to avoid the ranch's staid meals.

That was bad enough, but they also attracted the guru's attention. They obliged him with diamond-studded watches and Rolls-Royces. Before long, Hasya married the guru's doctor.

The Hollywood group and the guru's personal staff soon made Sheela's list of people on and off the ranch considered a threat to the commune and the guru. She split up the Hollywood group, scattering them to separate homes around the ranch. She tried to replace the guru's doctor.

To keep tabs on what was going on inside the guru's compound, she had the place laced with hidden microphones and recording equipment. One bug was placed on a table leg next to the guru's favorite chair. He was told it was a panic button. Trusted sannyasins monitored the eavesdropping equipment, reporting information to the commune's top four leaders.

Eventually the chasm between the commune's leaders and the guru's chosen insiders became too much even for him. On a spring evening in 1984, he summoned both sides to his house and, in front of them all, lectured Sheela. He told her his house, not hers, was the center of the commune.

"Anyone who is close to me inevitably becomes a target of Sheela," the guru said.

He proved prophetic.

Two of those sitting at the guru's feet that day were later marked for death.

-- Les Zaitz: email him at specialreport@oregonian.com; visit the Rajneesh Report page on Facebook

Continued here:
25 years after Rajneeshee commune collapsed, truth spills ...

Want to boost your score? Heres how

Here are some ways to boost your retirement readiness whether youre behind on your goals or are on track but maybe want to retire a little earlier.

My score needs attention.

An individual retirement account is one of the most popular ways to save for retirement given its large tax advantages. You can put in up to $6,000 a year. Learn more about opening an IRA

On my way, but I could close the gap.

The annual limit here is $19,000, but at least contribute to the point where youre getting all matching dollars your employer offers. See about increasing your 401(k) contributions

Im on track, but I want to do more.

A good advisor can help you understand complex issues, diagnose potential problems and take steps to plan for the future. And theyre not as expensive as you might think. Learn how to choose a financial advisor

A common guideline is that you should aim to replace 70% of your annual pre-retirement income. You can replace it using a combination of savings, investments, Social Security and any other income sources (part-time work, a pension, rental income, etc.). The Social Security Administration website has a number of calculators to help you estimate your benefits.

Its important to consider how your expenses will change in retirement. Some, like health care and travel, are likely to increase. But many recurring expenditures will go down: You no longer need to dedicate a portion of your income to saving for retirement. You may have paid off your mortgage and other loans. And your taxes are likely to be lower payroll taxes, which are taken out of each paycheck, will be eliminated completely.

Be sure to adjust based on your retirement plans. If you know you wont have a mortgage, for instance, maybe you plan to replace only 60%. If you want to travel every year, you might aim to replace 100% or even 110% of pre-retirement income.

First, enter your current age, income, savings balance and how much you save toward retirement each month. Thats enough to get a snapshot of where you stand.

Want to customize your results? Expanding the Optional settings lets you add what you expect to receive from Social Security, adjust your spending level in retirement, change expected retirement age and more.

Hover over or tap on the color bars in your results panel to get further insight into where you stand.

You can adjust your inputs to see how various actions, like saving more or planning to retire later, might affect your retirement goals.

Read more here:
Retirement Calculator | How much do you need to retire ...

Its a shame more people are not aware of the wide array of free online libraries. Databases, books, videos, audio recordings and e-books are available, just waiting to be viewed and used. This guide will help avid readers, serious researchers and casual surfers alike get the most out of free web libraries.

Best Online Libraries

The most extensive free online library is the Internet Archive. Boasting over three million texts and over a million (each) of video and audio recordings, the Internet Archive offers a wealth of free information, including the largest repository of archived web pages, going back to 1996, through its Way Back Machine.

When it comes to digital archives, the U.S. Library of Congress is no slouch, with thousands of articles, photographs, prints, newspapers recordings, collections and exhibits focusing on the history and culture of the United States. The Library even offers a digital reference service where anyone can Ask a Librarian, either by providing an email for reply or using an online chat service.

The United States most precious documents are housed at the National Archives. Using its Archival Research Catalog (ARC), web researchers can view ARC galleries about American history and science, and they can obtain copies of The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

One of the webs best kept secrets is the Smithsonians Digital Library. Serious researchers and curious students alike can browse digital editions, fact sheets, artist files, webcasts, bibliographies and online exhibitions gleaned from the Smithsonian Institutions vast collections.

Researchers and casual surfers enjoy exploring European culture with europeana. With a focus on fine arts and history, europeana boasts books, objects, records and recordings from across the European Union.

Many states provide a wealth of resources to their residents through the state libraries. Michigans eLibrary offers full text articles from newspapers and magazines, digital collections, images, digital archives and over 20,000 full text eBooks for free to its residents.

Local public libraries are increasingly putting parts of their collections online. Members of the New York Public Library can find over 700,000 digitized images, online exhibitions and digital projects. The Chicago Public Library offers its subscribers full text copies of newspapers and magazines, as well as articles from encyclopedias and reference books. Most public libraries will also provide their members with current eBooks in all genres and formats.

Serious researchers need online access to academic articles. At Stanford Universitys High Wire, they will find over two million free, full text articles from top journals.

Most people have little to no access to presidential libraries, but wouldnt you know it the vast majority are moving their resources onto the web. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum offers interactive exhibits on topics like the Cuban missile crisis, and the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum provides a comprehensive 911 Resource Guide.

Professionals have unique research requirements. Lawyers and paralegals will find Cornell Universitys Legal Information Institutes free online law library helpful, and medical professionals and patients alike can find useful information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Best Free Digital Books

Childrens

Traditional stories like The Three Little Pigs and modern classics like The Call of the Wild are available for kids to read for free at byGosh. Appearing in HTML on any web browser, this is an easy site to access, and requires no subscription.

Children enjoy reading stories from around the world with the International Childrens Digital Library. Books are available in dozens of languages and children can search by age or interest. With optional registration, children can access more of the librarys services, such as maintaining their own digital bookshelf.

Crime

At The Book Depository, lovers of crime writing will find hundreds of novels available to download, for free, in PDF. Notable titles include G.K. Chestertons The Man Who Knew Too Much and Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Uncle Bernac.

The collection of books on crime at Project Gutenberg includes dozens of novels and other stories such as A Study in Scarlet from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe. Supported formats include HTML, EPUB, Kindle and plain text, and some are even available in MP3 (audio) format.

Academic

Great reference works, as well as historical and scientific texts are available for free online from Bartleby. Peruse Sigmund Freuds The Interpretation of Dreams, Martin Luthers The Ninety-Five Theses and Henry Grays Anatomy of the Human Body.

The University of Pennsylvania offers over one million books online, for free in topics ranging from history and law to medicine, military and naval science. Ebooks can be downloaded in zip or text format and many are even available in HTML.

Classics

At kobo, lovers of the classics can find and download some of the greatest books in the English language including Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

A number of classics are available for free from the Electronic Literature Foundation (ELF). Literature lovers can read such great works as Paradise Lost by John Milton and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.

Science Fiction and Horror

At Many Books, sci-fi fans choose from dozens of free, downloadable titles, including Murray Leinsters The Aliens and Edgar Rice Burroughs The Chessman of Mars.

Regional library consortiums offer a wide range of Sci-Fi books, from classics to recent bestsellers. The Oregon Digital Library Consortium offers hundreds of titles through the cooperative effort of its 30 plus member libraries. Science fiction titles are available for Kindle, iPad, Android and iPhone in epub and PDF formats and include top sellers like George R. R. Martins A Dance with Dragons.

This is a cross-post from onlinecollegecourses.com

More here:
A Guide To Finding Digital Books: 20+ Free Online Libraries

13

You have somewhere around 45,000 negative thoughts a day.

Not just you everyone does.

That's about 80% of all of your thoughts. The vast majority of our thoughts are unpleasant, stressful, or self-sabotaging. Our brains are like a network news channel, only reporting the bad stuff with a sprinkling of good news to keep us from throwing ourselves off a cliff.

I'm sorry if this information just added to your negative thoughts, but hopefully the awareness of how steeped we are in negative thinking will give you pause.

Negative thinking is almost always focused on two areas the past and the future. You ruminate and relive painful, frustrating, or shameful past events, or you fret about some anticipated event or encounter that hasn't happened.

Either way, you're tethered to an illusion. The past is gone. The future doesn't exist. But somehow you're able to create a tremendous amount of discomfort over these non-existent scenarios. Your thoughts run rampant in your brain, creating all sorts of havoc without anyone stopping them. It's like having a toddler in the house whose parents implement no rules or restrictions.

Your thoughts produce powerful emotions, and it's these emotions that can make your life miserable and difficult. But I'm here to be your mental Super Nanny and tell you it's time to get control of your toddler thoughts and become the boss of your brain. Once you learn to control your thoughts, you can build a positive attitude that fosters peace of mind, confidence, happiness, and self-awareness.

1. Create awareness.

Put a rubber band on your wrist as a reminder to notice your thoughts. When you look at the rubber band, take note of your thoughts and feelings. Sometimes you can catch yourself in the middle of a rumination or worry.

Other times you might notice you feel anxious, irritated, or sad, but you aren't immediately sure why. When this happens, ask yourself what the thoughts are that have produced these feelings. By paying attention this way, you'll see how often you get caught up in negative thinking.

2. Break the spell.

After you've spent two or three days noticing your thoughts and feelings, it's time to do something about them. Keep the rubber band on your wrist, and every time you notice negative thinking, gently pop the rubber band or move it to the other wrist. You want a physical pattern interrupt to break up the mental looping of negative thoughts.

Then mentally identify and label what you were doing. Oh, there's that negative thinking again. There are those thoughts and feelings popping up again. You want to dis-identify with the thoughts they are separate from YOU as a person. It's important to recognize your thoughts as random products of consciousness instead of seeing them as reality.

3. Fill in the blank.

Once you interrupt the negative thought and identify it, you need to switch gears entirely. You can't leave a mental void, or you'll go directly back to negative thinking, which is an entrenched habit that's become natural for your brain. You must retrain your brain to think differently. So after you pop the rubber band, redirect your thoughts or actions.

One way to do this is by reframing your thought to disprove it or make it positive. For example, if you're thinking, I'll never get this project finished on time, then say to yourself, No, that's not true. I can and will get it done on time. I always have in the past, and I will again. Even if you don't believe this totally, say it out loud or to yourself. Acknowledge any solid evidence you have that counters your negative thought.

Be rigorous in your efforts at redirecting your thoughts, just as you'd continue to put a toddler back in a time-out chair when they keep getting up. Eventually, your mind will know you mean business. You can also use positive action to replace negative thinking. If you find yourself ruminating over something unpleasant, get up and do something that will occupy your mind and distract you from your thoughts.

4. Practice daily gratitude.

With all of our negative thinking, sometimes it's hard to see how much is truly wonderful about our lives. To appreciate how great life really is, you must be intentional about it. I'd suggest keeping a gratitude journal, as writing tends to reinforce thinking. It's good to write in this journal at night before you go to bed, as you will fill your mind with positivity before you drift into sleep.

You may be in the midst of a crisis or worry, but that doesn't negate all of your many, many blessings. Write down each one in your journal, and as you write, really focus on the gratitude item and flood your mind with feelings of gratefulness.

Do this every day, even if you're repeating the same items over and over. This will help you keep gratitude at the forefront of your mind rather than in the dark recesses.

5. Stop reacting.

Small negative events during your day can trigger a cascade of pessimistic or angry thoughts and feelings. Someone says something rude to you. You comment back to them. They say something else. You go brood about it for hours. Traffic is bumper to bumper, and you're in a hurry. You honk your horn and feel your blood pressure rising. It takes you hours to calm down.

Every day life presents us with a multitude of dirty little tricks to goad us into negativity. But as the CEO of your mind, you can chose how you want to react. Sure, you can get pissed off, hurt, or frustrated but you'll losehours of your day that could be joyful. Instead, mindfully choose how you want to react. You know difficult things will happen on occasion, so mentally prepare. Teach yourself to take some deep, calming breaths.

Decide on a better way to respond that minimizes negativity. Acknowledge your knee-jerk reactions, but consciously decide not to follow them. If possible, try to find humor in the inanities and frustrations of life, as they are part of the human condition.

6. Find positive people.

We tend to absorb and reflect the emotions and attitudes of those we spend time with. If you're hanging around negative people who complain and worry much of the time, then you are bound to catch their ailment.

You may need to make some hard decisions about who you spend time with, but if someone had a contagious disease, you'd have no trouble creating a boundary between you and them. Negativity is a contagious disease. Find people who uplift you and who are positive, happy, and confident. Do your best to spend less time with people who pull you down.

7. Have more fun.

We get so caught up in the serious business of life that we forget to simply have fun. When was the last time you played a game, rode a bike, flew a kite, or did anything carefree and non-competitive? We need daily fun to balance the stresses and demands of our complicated lives.

If you can't remember what feels fun to you, go back to your childhood and think about fun activities. I have a friend who swings on her children's swing set for relaxation and pleasure. Be vigilant in making fun part of your life.

8. Turn off the news.

Every time I watch the news, I feel worried and sad. A reporter might cover a story on a new health scare, and of course, I worry about that for myself. The never-ending coverage on terrorism, shootings, politics, and natural disasters makes us feel anxious and threatened.

Yes, there is plenty of bad news, and we need to stay informed. But there's plenty of good news as well. There are plenty of positive, happy, uplifting things going on in the world. So make a choice to limit the amount of news you watch, and instead find programs, podcasts, blogs, books, and articles that inspire and motivate you. Seek out positive information to fill your mind.

9. Simplify your life.

The busier and more complicated your life is, the more difficult it will be to remain positive. When you have too many demands and obligations, with little time for fun, reflection, relationships, or exercise, the more stressed and unhappy you are bound to feel.

We often resort to buying things to soothe our feelings, but all of these material things create stress as well, as you must store them, take care of them, and pay for them. Too much stuff drains your psychic energy. Simply the act of simplifying dropping things from your to-do list and getting rid of stuff will make you feel lighter and more positive.

Schedule a few days to streamline your life, giving yourself plenty of time and space for your most important life values and activities.

10. Spend time with friends and family.

Quality time spent with the people we love and cherish most is the best way to develop a positive attitude. People on their deathbeds report their biggest regret is not spending more time with friends and family.

Be proactive in making time for those you love. Initiate more family events, as well as one-on-one time with your spouse or partner, your children, and your friends. Create rituals and traditions that are meaningful and happy.

Mindfully choose to avoid family drama or conflict and speak words of love, affirmation, and healing to serve as an example and inspiration to others in your sphere.

Having a positive mental attitude involves making mind shifts and recognizing how much control you have over your thoughts. As you work toward managing and changing your thoughts, and choose positive behaviors and actions that are healthy and uplifting, over time you'll see that positivity is your fallback position. Even during difficult times, you'll have the inner resources to turn yourself around and regain your happy state of mind.

photo credit: Hadock

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Positive Mental Attitude: 10 Mindsets For Happiness

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George Bernard Shaw, (born July 26, 1856, Dublin, Irelanddied November 2, 1950, Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England), Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, and socialist propagandist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

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George Bernard Shaw is famous for his role in revolutionizing comedic drama. He was also a literary critic and a prominent British socialist. Shaws most financially successful work, Pygmalion, was adapted into the popular Broadway musical My Fair Lady. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, as the youngest of three children. He was raised in genteel poverty, and his mothers career as a professional singer influenced his interest in music, art, and literature. He remained relatively impoverished throughout his 20s, trying his hand at novel-writing several times to no avail.

George Bernard Shaw wrote rather unmemorable fiction throughout his 20s and early 30s. In 1885 the drama critic William Archer recruited Shaw to write book, art, and musical reviews in various publications. In 1895 Shaw began writing for the Saturday Review as a theatre critic, and from there he began to write his first plays.

George Bernard Shaws plays are thematically diverse. He wove threads of humour and romance between analyses of contemporary hypocrisies and social tensions. About the beginning of the 20th century, Shaw began affixing lengthy prefaces to his plays that engaged more deeply with their philosophical foundations.

In the mid-1880s George Bernard Shaw joined the Fabian Society, a newly formed socialist club for middle-class intellectuals hoping to transform English society through culture. He remained a socialist for the rest of his life. He also became a pacifist and an antiwar activist, attracting much criticism during World War I.

George Bernard Shaw was the third and youngest child (and only son) of George Carr Shaw and Lucinda Elizabeth Gurly Shaw. Technically, he belonged to the Protestant ascendancythe landed Irish gentrybut his impractical father was first a sinecured civil servant and then an unsuccessful grain merchant, and George Bernard grew up in an atmosphere of genteel poverty, which to him was more humiliating than being merely poor. At first Shaw was tutored by a clerical uncle, and he basically rejected the schools he then attended; by age 16 he was working in a land agents office.

Shaw developed a wide knowledge of music, art, and literature as a result of his mothers influence and his visits to the National Gallery of Ireland. In 1872 his mother left her husband and took her two daughters to London, following her music teacher, George John Vandeleur Lee, who from 1866 had shared households in Dublin with the Shaws. In 1876 Shaw resolved to become a writer, and he joined his mother and elder sister (the younger one having died) in London. Shaw in his 20s suffered continuous frustration and poverty. He depended upon his mothers pound a week from her husband and her earnings as a music teacher. He spent his afternoons in the British Museum reading room, writing novels and reading what he had missed at school, and his evenings in search of additional self-education in the lectures and debates that characterized contemporary middle-class London intellectual activities.

His fiction failed utterly. The semiautobiographical and aptly titled Immaturity (1879; published 1930) repelled every publisher in London. His next four novels were similarly refused, as were most of the articles he submitted to the press for a decade. Shaws initial literary work earned him less than 10 shillings a year. A fragment posthumously published as An Unfinished Novel in 1958 (but written 188788) was his final false start in fiction.

Despite his failure as a novelist in the 1880s, Shaw found himself during this decade. He became a vegetarian, a socialist, a spellbinding orator, a polemicist, and tentatively a playwright. He became the force behind the newly founded (1884) Fabian Society, a middle-class socialist group that aimed at the transformation of English society not through revolution but through permeation (in Sidney Webbs term) of the countrys intellectual and political life. Shaw involved himself in every aspect of its activities, most visibly as editor of one of the classics of British socialism, Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889), to which he also contributed two sections.

Eventually, in 1885, the drama critic William Archer found Shaw steady journalistic work. His early journalism ranged from book reviews in the Pall Mall Gazette (188588) and art criticism in the World (188689) to brilliant musical columns in the Star (as Corno di Bassettobasset horn) from 1888 to 1890 and in the World (as G.B.S.) from 1890 to 1894. Shaw had a good understanding of music, particularly opera, and he supplemented his knowledge with a brilliance of digression that gives many of his notices a permanent appeal. But Shaw truly began to make his mark when he was recruited by Frank Harris to the Saturday Review as theatre critic (189598); in that position he used all his wit and polemical powers in a campaign to displace the artificialities and hypocrisies of the Victorian stage with a theatre of vital ideas. He also began writing his own plays.

When Shaw began writing for the English stage, its most prominent dramatists were Sir A.W. Pinero and H.A. Jones. Both men were trying to develop a modern realistic drama, but neither had the power to break away from the type of artificial plots and conventional character types expected by theatregoers. The poverty of this sort of drama had become apparent with the introduction of several of Henrik Ibsens plays onto the London stage around 1890, when A Dolls House was played in London; his Ghosts followed in 1891, and the possibility of a new freedom and seriousness on the English stage was introduced. Shaw, who was about to publish The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891), rapidly refurbished an abortive comedy, Widowers Houses, as a play recognizably Ibsenite in tone, making it turn on the notorious scandal of slum landlordism in London. The result (performed 1892) flouted the threadbare romantic conventions that were still being exploited even by the most daring new playwrights. In the play a well-intentioned young Englishman falls in love and then discovers that both his prospective father-in-laws fortune and his own private income derive from exploitation of the poor. Potentially this is a tragic situation, but Shaw seems to have been always determined to avoid tragedy. The unamiable lovers do not attract sympathy; it is the social evil and not the romantic predicament on which attention is concentrated, and the action is kept well within the key of ironic comedy.

The same dramatic predispositions control Mrs. Warrens Profession, written in 1893 but not performed until 1902 because the lord chamberlain, the censor of plays, refused it a license. Its subject is organized prostitution, and its action turns on the discovery by a well-educated young woman that her mother has graduated through the profession to become a part proprietor of brothels throughout Europe. Again, the economic determinants of the situation are emphasized, and the subject is treated remorselessly and without the titillation of fashionable comedies about fallen women. As with many of Shaws works, the play is, within limits, a drama of ideas, but the vehicle by which these are presented is essentially one of high comedy.

Shaw called these first plays unpleasant, because their dramatic power is used to force the spectator to face unpleasant facts. He followed them with four pleasant plays in an effort to find the producers and audiences that his mordant comedies had offended. Both groups of plays were revised and published in Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898). The first of the second group, Arms and the Man (performed 1894), has a Balkan setting and makes lighthearted, though sometimes mordant, fun of romantic falsifications of both love and warfare. The second, Candida (performed 1897), was important for English theatrical history, for its successful production at the Royal Court Theatre in 1904 encouraged Harley Granville-Barker and J.E. Vedrenne to form a partnership that resulted in a series of brilliant productions there. The play represents its heroine as forced to choose between her clerical husbanda worthy but obtuse Christian socialistand a young poet who has fallen wildly in love with her. She chooses her seemingly confident husband because she discerns that he is actually the weaker man. The poet is immature and hysterical but, as an artist, has a capacity to renounce personal happiness in the interest of some large creative purpose. This is a significant theme for Shaw; it leads on to that of the conflict between man as spiritual creator and woman as guardian of the biological continuity of the human race that is basic to a later play, Man and Superman. In Candida such speculative issues are only lightly touched on, and this is true also of You Never Can Tell (performed 1899), in which the hero and heroine, who believe themselves to be respectively an accomplished amorist and an utterly rational and emancipated woman, find themselves in the grip of a vital force that takes little account of these notions.

The strain of writing these plays, while his critical and political work went on unabated, so sapped Shaws strength that a minor illness became a major one. In 1898, during the process of recuperation, he married his unofficial nurse, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish heiress and friend of Beatrice and Sidney Webb. The apparently celibate marriage lasted all their lives, Shaw satisfying his emotional needs in paper-passion correspondences with Ellen Terry, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and others.

Shaws next collection of plays, Three Plays for Puritans (1901), continued what became the traditional Shavian prefacean introductory essay in an electric prose style dealing as much with the themes suggested by the plays as the plays themselves. The Devils Disciple (performed 1897) is a play set in New Hampshire during the American Revolution and is an inversion of traditional melodrama. Caesar and Cleopatra (performed 1901) is Shaws first great play. In the play Cleopatra is a spoiled and vicious 16-year-old child rather than the 38-year-old temptress of Shakespeares Antony and Cleopatra. The play depicts Caesar as a lonely and austere man who is as much a philosopher as he is a soldier. The plays outstanding success rests upon its treatment of Caesar as a credible study in magnanimity and original morality rather than as a superhuman hero on a stage pedestal. The third play, Captain Brassbounds Conversion (performed 1900), is a sermon against various kinds of folly masquerading as duty and justice.

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George Bernard Shaw | Biography, Plays, & Facts ...

Five Steps to Becoming a Life Coach Step 1 Choose a niche

Coaching is a vast field, so professionals have a myriad of niches to choose from. This helps coaches market their services to a specific type of clientele and gives potential customers confidence that the coach has expertise helping people with their unique challenges. Some of the possible areas of specialization for life coaches include:

Helping people improve different areas of their life is a big responsibilityand requires specialized training to be effective. During training, prospective coaches learn the psychological principles of coaching, how to conduct a coaching assessment to determine clients needs, ethics in coaching, and communication skills. In order to get the best results from their training, students should find a program that has been accredited by industry associations like the International Coach Federation.

Earning a certification in addition to a degree can go a long way toward gaining the trust of potential clients. Credentials, which are provided by professional associations like the International Coach Federation and the International Association of Coaching, requires expertise and demonstration of high work standards.

For example, the International Coach Federation offers a Professional Certified Coach certification that requires professionals to have 500 hours of coaching experience450 of which must be paidas well as at least 25 clients. In addition, people who apply for this certification must successfully complete the Coach Knowledge Assessment, which tests on their understanding of coaching agreements, ethical guidelines, active listening skills, goal setting, and accountability.

Similarly, those who want to earn the Master Masteries Coach designation from the International Association of Coaching must complete a series of tests to demonstrate their knowledge of coaching principles. In addition, candidates for this certification must submit recordings of their coaching sessions with clients in order to be evaluated for the associations coaching masteriessuch as the ability to actively listen and help clients set clear intentionsinto their sessions.

In order to get certain legal protections as a business owner, life coaches can get a business classification, such as a Limited Liability Company or Corporation designation.

Although life coaches are not required to carry insurance, getting coverage can help protect their business and give clients peace of mind.

Yes. One way to attract customers is to take advantage of opportunities to connect with them. Attending networking events geared toward people in their niche allows life coaches to meet the kinds of clients they want to work with.

Getting the word out is important for any business, especially one that is in its early stages. Placing ads in targeted publications can help life coaches get the exposure they need to boost their business.

Websites, blogs, and social media pages can act as the online face of a life coachs business. Also, this can be an affordable alternative for those who cant pay for other forms of advertising.

Sharing positive feedback from clients can help life coaches gain the trust of prospective customers. Life coaches should ask their regular clients to write a testimonial they can use on their website and in promotional materials.

According to PayScale, the median salary for life coaches is $46,678. However, there is a wide range of what people can earn, with the lowest earners making about $28,000 and the highest earning $92,000. However, coaches are not necessarily locked into these salary figures: Since many coaches are self-employed, theyre able to determine their own hourly rates. As a result, life coaches may charge hourly fees of over $300, depending on their training and level of experience, according to a report by the International Coach Federation. Also, coaches who work with executives can make up to $500 per hour, according to Forbes.

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How to Become a Life Coach: Steps and Advice

Did you know that there are as many meditation techniques as there are sports? And the only way to find out the best types of meditation for you is to try them.

As you may know, meditation has dozens of benefits, and everybody is doing it. You look for information online or on a bookstore, and see that there are a LOT of different styles of meditation. You wonder which way is best for you.

This is a very important question. Different types of meditation have different benefits. Some of them will work better for you than othersjust like different sports or diets work better for some people than for others.

There are literally hundredsif not thousandsof types of meditation, so here I will explore only the most popular ones. The purpose of this article is to help you experiment different meditation techniques, and find the ones that works best for you.

Finding the right style for you, and practicing it with the right approach, is one of the three essential Pillars of Meditation.

There is no cookie-cutter approach to meditation. You need to experiment many, and find the one that works best for your unique needs and personality. The type of meditation that is most helpful against anxiety, for instance, is not necessarily the best one against depression or for spiritual awakening.

If you prefer more dynamic meditation techniques, have a look at my walking meditation guide. Or, if you already have some experience with meditation, you might enjoy reading about the meditation experiments I was doing while writing this post.

The advice regarding the posture of meditation is very similar among the different styles of seated practice, so I will go into more detail about it only once, when talking about the first technique (Zen meditation).

I have strived to include a Is it for me? section, with general observations about each practice. Keep in mind these are tentative; they are there to give some direction, and potentially any person could feel attracted to any of these modalities.

This article does NOT tell you which isthe best type of meditation because there is no such thing, and Im not here to create controversy. Also, I have here focused more on meditative practices; I may write another article on other similar practices, that are more about relaxation or contemplation.

If you are a beginner, you may also enjoy the post on meditation tipsand meditation for beginners how to build the habit.

On the other hand, if you are looking for the historical background of how meditation developed over the centuries, check out my history of meditation article.

By the way, do you want to have a PDF version of this article, for easy future reference?

Scientists usually classify meditation based on the way they focus attention, into two categories: Focused Attention and Open Monitoring. Id like to propose a third: Effortless Presence.

Focusing the attention on a single objectduring the whole meditation session. This object may be the breath, a mantra, visualization, part of the body, external object, etc. As the practitioner advances, his ability to keep the flow of attention in the chosen object gets stronger, and distractions become less common and short-lived. Both the depth and steadiness of his attention are developed.

Examples of these are:Samatha (Buddhist meditation), some forms of Zazen, Loving Kindness Meditation, Chakra Meditation, Kundalini Meditation, Sound Meditation, Mantra Meditation, Pranayama, some forms of Qigong, and many others.

Instead of focusing the attention on any one object, we keep it open, monitoring all aspects of our experience, without judgment or attachment. All perceptions, be them internal (thoughts, feelings, memory, etc.) or external (sound, smell, etc.), are recognized and seen for what they are. It is the process of non-reactive monitoring of the content of experience from moment to moment, without going into them. Examples are: Mindfulness meditation, Vipassana, as well as some types of Taoist Meditation.

Its the state where the attention is not focused on anything in particular, but reposes on itself quiet, empty, steady, and introverted. We can also call it Choiceless Awareness or Pure Being. Most of the meditation quotes you find speak of this state.

This is actually the true purpose behind all kinds of meditation, and not a meditation type in itself. All traditional techniques of meditationrecognize that the object of focus, and even the process of monitoring, is just a means to train the mind, so that effortless inner silence and deeper states of consciousness can be discovered. Eventually, both the object of focus and the process itself is left behind, and there is only left the true self of the practitioner, as pure presence.

In some techniques, this is the only focus, from the beginning. Examples are: the Self-Enquiry (I am meditation) of Ramana Maharishi; Dzogchen; Mahamudra; some forms of Taoist Meditation; and some advanced forms of Raja Yoga. In my point of view, this type of meditation always requires previous training to be effective, even though this is sometimes not expressly said (only implied).

Zazen ()means seated Zen, or seated meditation, in Japanese. It has its roots in the Chinese Zen Buddhism (Chan) tradition, tracing back to Indian monk Bodhidharma (6th century CE). In the West, its most popular forms comes from Dogen Zenji (1200~1253), the founder of Soto Zen movement in Japan. Similar modalities are practiced in the Rinzaischool of Zen, in Japan and Korea.

It is generally practiced seated on the floor over a mat and cushion, with crossed legs. Traditionally it was done in the so-called lotus or half-lotusposition, but this is hardly necessary. Nowadays most practitioners sitlike this:

Or on a chair:

Images courtesy of Zen Mountain Monastery

The most important aspect, as you see in the pictures, is keeping the back completely straight, from the pelvis to the neck. Mouth is kept close and eyes are kept lowered, with your gaze resting on the ground about two or three feet in front of you.

As to the mind aspect of it, its usually practiced in two ways:

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Zazen is a very sober meditation style, and you can easily find a lot of strong communities practicing it, as well as plenty of information on the internet. There is a lot of emphasis in keeping the right posture, as an aid for concentration. It is usually practiced in Zen Buddhist centers (Sangha), with strong community support.

In many of them you will find it coupled withother elements of Buddhist practice: prostrations, a bit of ritualism,chanting, and group readings of the Buddha teachings. Some people will like this, others wont. Personally, I practiced zazen in a Buddhist group for 3 years, and I found that those elements and a bit of formality can also help create a structure for the practice, and in themselves they are also meditative.

Vipassana is a Pali word that means insight or clear seeing. It is a traditional Buddhist practice,dating back to 6th century BC.Vipassana-meditation, as taught in the last few decades, comes from the Theravada Buddhist tradition, and was popularizedby S. N. Goenka and the Vipassana movement.

Due to the popularity of Vipassan-meditation, the mindfulness of breathing has gained further popularity in the West as mindfulness.

Ideally, one is to siton a cushion on the floor, cross-legged, with your spine erect; alternatively, a chair may be used, but the back should not be supported.

The first aspect is to develop concentration, throughsamatha practice. This is typicallydone through breathing awareness.

Focus all your attention, from moment to moment, on the movement of your breath. Notice the subtle sensations of the movement of the abdomen rising and falling. Alternatively, one can focus on the sensation of the air passing through the nostrils and touching the upper lips skin thoughthis requires a bit more practice, and is more advanced.

As you focus on the breath, you will notice that other perceptions and sensations continue to appear: sounds, feelings in the body, emotions, etc. Simply notice these phenomena as they emerge in the field of awareness, and then return to the sensation of breathing. The attention is kept in the object of concentration (the breathing), while these other thoughts or sensations are there simply as background noise.

The object that is the focus of the practice (for instance, the movement of the abdomen) is called the primary object. And a secondary object is anything else that arises in your field of perception either through your five senses (sound, smell, itchiness in the body, etc.) or through the mind (thought, memory, feeling, etc.). If a secondary object hooks your attention and pulls it away, or if it causes desire or aversion to appear, you should focus on the secondary object for a moment or two, labeling it with a mental note, like thinking, memory, hearing, desiring. This practice is often called noting.

A mental note identifies an object in general but not in detail. When youre aware of a sound, for example, label it hearing instead of motorcycle, voices or barking dog. If an unpleasant sensation arises, note pain or feeling instead of knee pain or my back pain. Then return your attention to the primary meditation object. When aware of a fragrance, say the mental note smelling for a moment or two. You dont have to identify the scent.

When one has thus gained access concentration, the attention is then turned to the object of practice, which is normally thought or bodily sensations. One observes the objects of awareness without attachment, letting thoughts and sensations arise and pass away of their own accord. Mental labeling (explained above) is often use as a way to prevent you from being carried away by thoughts, and keep you in more objectively noticing them.

As a result one develops the clear seeing that the observed phenomena is pervaded by the three marks of existence: impermanence (annica), insatisfactoriness (dukkha) and emptiness of self (annata). As a result, equanimity, peace and inner freedom is developed in relation to these inputs.

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Vipassana is an excellent meditation to help you ground yourself in your body, and understand how the processes of your mind work. It is a very popular styleof meditation. You can find plenty of teachers, websites, and books about it, as well as 3~10 days retreats (donation based). The teaching of it is always free.There are no formalities or rituals attached to the practice.

If you are completely new to meditation, Vipassana or Mindfulness are probably good ways for you to start.

Mindfulness Meditation is an adaptation from traditionalBuddhist meditation practices, especially Vipassana, but also having strong influence from otherlineages (such as the VietnameseZen Buddhism from Thich Nhat Hanh).Mindfulness is the common western translation for the Buddhist term sati. Anapanasati, mindfulness of breathing, is part of the Buddhist practice of Vipassana or insight meditation, and other Buddhist meditational practices, such as zazen (source: Wikipedia).

One of the main influencers for Mindfulness in the West is John Kabat-Zinn. His Mindfulness-Based Stress Reductionprogram (MBSR) which he developed in 1979 at theUniversity of Massachusetts Medical School has been used in several hospitals and health clinic on the past decades.

Mindfulness meditation is the practice of intentionally focusing on the present moment,accepting and non-judgmentally paying attention to the sensations, thoughts, and emotions that arise.

For the formal practice time, sit on a cushion on the floor, or on a chair, with straight and unsupported back. Pay close attention to the movement of your breath. When you breath in, be aware that you are breathing in, and how it feels. When you breath out, be aware you are breathing out. Do like this for the length of your meditation practice, constantly redirecting the attention to the breath. Or you can move on to be paying attention to the sensations, thoughts and feelings that arise.

The effort is to not intentionally add anything to our present moment experience, but to be aware of what is going on, without losing ourselves in anything that arises.

Your mind will get distracted into going along with sounds, sensations, and thoughts. Whenever that happens, gently recognize that you have been distracted, and bring the attention back to the breathing, or to the objective noticing of that thought or sensation. There is a big different between beinginside the thought/sensation, and simplybeing aware of its presence.

Learn to enjoy your practice. Once you are done, appreciate how different the body and mind feel.

There is also the practice of mindfulness during our daily activities: while eating, walking, and talking. For daily life meditation, the practice is to pay attention to what is going on in the present moment, to be aware of what is happening and not living in automatic mode. If you are speaking, that means paying attention to the words you speak, how you speak them, and to listen with presence and attention. If you are walking, that means being more aware of your body movements, your feet touching the ground, the sounds you are hearing, etc.

Your effort in seated practice supports your daily life practice, and vice-versa. They are both equally important.Learn more:

For the general public, this is perhaps the most advisable way to get started with meditation. It is the type of meditation that is most taught at schools and hospitals, as far as I am aware.The mindfulness movement as practiced nowadays in society at large, is not Buddhism, but anadaptation of Buddhist practices due to their benefits ingood physical and mental health and general wellbeing.

For most people, Mindfulness Meditation may be theonly type of meditation they will like, especially if their focus is only the physical and mental benefits of meditation, as it is usuallytaught dissociated from several of the easternconcepts and philosophies that traditionally accompaniedthe practice. And for that it is great it willbring many good thingsto your life.

If your focus is a deeper transformation and spiritual development, however, then mindfulness meditation may be just an initial step for you. From here you can then move into Vipassana, Zazen, or other types of meditation.

Mettais a Pali word that means kindness, benevolence, and good will. This practice comes from the Buddhist traditions, especially theTheravada and Tibetan lineages.Compassion meditation is a contemporary scientific field that demonstrates the efficacy of metta and related meditative practices.

Demonstrated benefits include:boosting ones ability to empathize with others;development of positive emotions through compassion, including a more loving attitude towards oneself; increasedself-acceptance; greater feeling of competence about ones life; and increased feeling of purpose in life (read more in our other post).

One sits down in a meditation position,with closed eyes, and generates in his mind and heart feelings of kindness and benevolence.Start by developing loving-kindness towards yourself, then progressively towards others and all beings. Usually this progression is advised:

The feeling to be developed is that of wishing happiness and well-being for all. This practice may be aided byreciting specific words or sentences that evoke theboundless warm-hearted feeling, visualizing the suffering of others and sending love; or by imagining the state of another being, and wishing him happiness and peace.

The more you practice this meditation, the more joy you will experience. That is the secret of Mathieu Richards happiness.

For one who attends properly to the liberation of the heart by benevolence, unarisen ill will does not arise and arisen ill will is abandoned. The Buddha

In this article, Emma Seppl, Ph.D explores the 18 scientifically proven benefits of Loving-Kindness meditation.

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Are you sometimes too hard on yourself oronothers? Or feel like you need to improve your relationships? Loving-kindness meditation will help you. It is beneficial both for selfless and self-centered people, and it will help increase your general level of happiness. You cannot feel loving-kindness and depression (or any other negative feeling)at the same time.

It is also often recommended, by Buddhist teachers, as anantidoteto insomnia, nightmares, or anger issues.

A mantrais a syllable or word, usually without any particular meaning,that is repeated for the purpose of focusing your mind. It is not an affirmation used to convince yourself of something.

Some meditation teachers insist that both the choice of word, and its correct pronunciation, is very important, due to the vibration associated to the sound and meaning, and that for this reason an initiation into it is essential. Others say that the mantra itself is only a tool to focus the mind, and the chosen word is completely irrelevant.

Mantras are used in Hindu traditions, Buddhist traditions (especially Tibetan and Pure LandBuddhism), as wellas in Jainism, Sikhism and Daoism (Taoism). Somepeople call mantra meditation om meditation, but that is just one of the mantras that can be used.A more devotion oriented practice of mantras is calledjapa, and consists of repeating sacred sounds (name of God) with love.

As most type of meditations, it is usually practiced sitting with spine erect, and eyes closed. The practitioner then repeats the mantra in his mind, silently, over and over again during the whole session.

Sometimes this practice is coupled with being aware of the breathing or coordinating with it. In other exercises, the mantra is actually whispered very lightly and softly, as an aid to concentration.

As you repeat the mantra, it creates a mental vibration that allows the mind to experience deeper levels of awareness. As you meditate, the mantra becomes increasingly abstract and indistinct, until youre finally led into the field of pure consciousness from which the vibration arose.Repetition of the mantra helps you disconnect from the thoughts filling your mind so that perhaps you may slip into the gap between thoughts. The mantra is a tool to support your meditation practice. Mantras can be viewed as ancient power words with subtle intentions that help us connect to spirit, the source of everything in the universe. (Deepak Chopra)

Here are some of the most well-known mantras from the Hindu & Buddhist traditions:

You may practice for a certain period of time, or for a set number of repetitions traditionally 108 or 1008. In the latter case, beads are typically used for keeping count.

As the practice deepens, you may find that the mantra continues by itself like the humming of the mind. Or the mantra may even disappear, and you are left in a state of deep inner peace.

There are many methods of mantra meditation. I explain them in detail, together with why mantras are powerful, on my article on mantra meditation.Learn more:

People usually find that it is easier to focus with a mantra than with the breathing. Because a mantra is a word, and thoughts are usually perceived as words, it can be easier to keep the focus on a mantra rather than on the breathing. It is useful especially when the mind is racing with many thoughts, since it mantra meditation demands constant attention.

Meditating with a mantra can also make it simpler tointegrate your meditative state into your daily life. In whatever activity you find yourself into, it can be as simple as repeating the mantra in your mind.

Transcendental Meditation is a specific form of Mantra Meditation introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1955 in Indiaand the West.In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Maharishi achieved fame as the guru to the Beatles, The Beach Boys and other celebrities.

It is a widely practiced form of meditation, with over 5million practitioners worldwide, and there isa lot of scientific research, many sponsored by the organization, demonstrating the benefits of the practice. There are over 600 scientific papers, many of them peer-reviewed, and I have used part of their research when composing my benefits of meditation page. However, there are also critics of the Maharishi and his organization, and some accusation of cultish behavior and doubtful research practices.

[Image from NurseTalkSite.com]

Transcendental meditation is not taught freely. The only way of learning it is to pay to learn from one of their licensed instructors. The support given seems to be good, though.

In general, however, it is known that TM involves the use of a mantra and is practiced for 1520 minutes twice per day while sitting with ones eyes closed. The mantra is not unique, and is given to the practitioner based on his gender and age. They are also not meaningless sounds rather, they are Tantric names of Hindu deities. This probably is irrelevant for most people.

This is the official site of the movement:TM site.

There is another similar technique,calledNatural Stress Relief, which was created in 2003 by a former TM Teacher, and is much cheaper to learn (47 USD instead of 960 USD), and has stripped out some mystical elements of the practice of TM, such as the initiation (puja) and yogic flying (part of TM-Siddhi). You can learn more about NSR in comparison to TM here and here.

Personally I dont feel comfortable advising anyone to try Transcendental Meditation anymore, especially if you are looking to go deep into meditation. To know more, check out this answer I wrote in Quora.

If you wish to try something similar, for a fraction of the cost or for free, have a look at NSR (above), or Mantra Meditation.

There is not one type of meditation which is Yogic Meditation, so here it is meant the several meditation types taught in the yoga tradition. Yoga means union. Tradition goes as far as 1700 B.C, and has as its highest goal spiritual purification and Self-Knowledge. Classical Yoga divides the practice into rules of conduct (yamas and niyamas), physical postures (asanas), breathing exercises (pranayama), and contemplative practicesof meditation (pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi).

The Yoga tradition is the oldest meditation tradition on earth, and also the one with the widest variety of practices.

Here are some types of meditation practiced in Yoga. The most commonand universal Yoga meditation one is the third eyemeditation. Other popular ones involve concentrating on a chakra, repeating a mantra, visualization of light, or gazing meditations.

Yoga is a very rich tradition, with different lineages, so there are many other techniques. But the ones above are the most well-known; the others are more specific or complex.

For a start, this video is an excellent resource on how to do Yoga style meditation, and it combines breathing, body awareness, mantra, and chakra meditation.

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With all these types of meditation in Yoga, you are likely to find one that you like.If you are a musician, perhaps nada yogais something that will attract you. If you are a devotional person, kriya yogais a good option. Kundalini and Chakra meditation should only be attempted with a teacher.

Probably the simplest one to try is the third eye meditation, which is simple and yieldsresults fairly quickly. For the other types you would probably need more instruction, either of a teacher or a good book (see references above). Besides, Pranayamais definitely something anyone can benefit from.

Self-Enquiry is the English translation for the Sanskrit termatmavichara. It means to investigate our true nature, to find the answer to the Who am I? question, which culminates with the intimate knowledge of our true Self, our true being. We see references to this meditation in very old Indian texts; however, it was greatly popularized and expanded upon by the 20th-century Indian sage Ramana Maharshi (1879~1950).

The modern non-duality movement (or neo-advaita), which is greatly inspired in his teachings as well as those of Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897~1981) and Papaji strongly uses this technique and variations. Many contemporaryteachers to employ this technique, the most famous ones being Mooji (whom Ive personally been with and recommend), Adyashanti, and Eckhart Tolle.

This practice is very simple, but also very subtle. When explaining it, however, it may sound very abstract.

Your sense of I (or ego) is the center of your universe. It is there, in some form or another, behind all your thoughts, emotions, memories, and perceptions. Yet we are not clear about what this I is about who we truly are, in essence and confuse it with our body, our mind, our roles, our labels. Its the biggest mystery in our lives.

With Self-Enquiry, the question Who I am?is asked withinyourself. You must reject any verbal answers that may come, and use this question simply as a tool to fix your attention in the subjective feeling of Ior I am. Become one with it, go deep into it. This will then reveal your true I, your real self as pure consciousness, beyond all limitation. It is not an intellectual pursuit, but a question to bring the attention to the core element of your perception and experience: the I. This is not your personality, but a pure, subjective, feeling of existing without any images or concepts attached to it.Whenever thoughts/feelings arise, you ask yourself, To whom does this arise? or Who is aware of _____ (anger, fear, pain, or whatever)? The answer will be Its me!. From then you ask Who am I?, to bring the attention back to the subjective feeling ofself, of presence. It is pure existence, objectless and choice-less awareness.

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