The Imperial Orchestra and the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority sponsor the weekly event from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each Monday from October through March.

LAKELAND Today is the last opportunity this season to start out the work week with Music Munndays, a lunchtime concert in downtown Lakelands Munn Park.

The Imperial Orchestra and the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority sponsor the weekly event from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each Monday from October through March.

Todays concert will be by Motett with Lemay Olano-James. Motett is a jazz trio featuring Davis Collister on bass, Jody Marsh on keys and Jean Bolduc on drums.Olano-James is a violinist.

Expect to hear some swing, foxtrot, rhumba and mambo.

The original ideain October 2015 was to provide a break for downtown office workers, said Julie Townsend, executive director of the Downtown Lakeland Development Authority.

Mondays kind of bum people out," she said. "This way they can start their work week out with a relaxing time in the park.

And it has been a way to promote the park, she said.

Instead of rushing by on their way to and from lunch, people can stop at the park with a blanket or sit on one of the benches and relax, listen to music and play board games or fill out one of the adult coloring pages available at a tent on the Kentucky Avenue side of the park, she said.

Over timethe office crowd morphed into more of a community crowd, Townsend said. Retirees and young parents with toddlers come from home for the free concert, bringing lawn chairs or blankets and lunch, Townsend said.

And sometimes school groups or community groups make a field trip out of it, she said.

The Imperial Orchestra arranges the musical entertainment, Townsend said.

As examples of the type of entertainment the Monday crowds hear, Imperial Orchestras Facebook page lists the entertainment for the month of March as an ISO Brass Quintet, Acoustic Dose (acoustic guitar and vocals), Jazzanovoa (Latin-influenced instrumentals) and todays entertainment by Motett with Lemay Olano-James (jazz with electric violin).

We try to mix it up, to expose people to different types of music, Townsend said. It is just a good time -- just a couple of hours over lunch to hang out, have a good time playing board games and relaxing with coloring while getting exposed to something you may not normally listen to.

Marilyn Meyer can be reached at marilyn.meyer@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Follow her on Twitter @marilyn_ledger.

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Music Munndays is wrapping up the season with 1 last concert ... - News Chief

In humanity's never-ending quest to destress, we turn to the Scandinavians for answers.

First they brought us hygge, and now they bring us Sway.

Sway is a new meditation app from the Nordic branch of Ustwo, the studio that made Monument Valley, and Danish wellness company PauseAble. It melds physical movements with the technology we carry in our pockets to help us learn mindfulness techniques.

It's not the first of its kind. Apps like Headspace, Buddhify and Pulse, which is also from Ustwo, are already helping people find peaceful moments while also being citizens of a busy world. Sway's difference is that rather than providing guided meditations, it teaches techniques designed to help you guide your own meditation and apply mindfulness to movements and moments that you'll experience in daily life.

Society today is stressing us out, and meditation is one way of dealing with this, said Ustwo Nordics' founder Marcus Woxneryd in an interview. "The problem is it needs a lot of practice and dedicated time -- it is a craft you need to become good at to get the effects of, so we wanted to enable that practice to anyone anywhere."

As with previous Ustwo apps, Sway is mesmerizing to look at. This is purposeful -- it uses gently pulsing purple graphics designed to have a calming effect -- but Ustwo is actually hoping you'll look away from your phone while you're using Sway.

The app uses audio and an ambient soundtrack to provide direction and feedback and takes its readings from your phone's gyroscope, meaning you don't need to interact with your screen. As you progress through the levels, which range in duration from three to 20 minutes, you'll learn a whole range of techniques that rely on you moving different parts of your body.

The first level, for example, encourages you to use slow flowing motions to gently move your phone around, which the app tracks with the device's gyroscopes. There are six levels on the app. Every day you move up a level, but every day you miss a meditation you move back a level.

There are six levels in total, each of which teaches a different movement-based meditation technique, many of which have been inspired by the ancient Chinese martial art tai chi. "We discovered a simple way for technology to determine voluntary attention through slow continuous bodily movements," said Peng Cheng, founder of PauseAble. "This movement itself actually anchors attention in the present moment."

Sway is about learning to meditate without the help of a guide.

The idea is that by relaxing, you can sharpen your focus and boost your concentration. The team conducted research with the Center for Human Engaged Computing at Kochi University of Technology in Japan to find out how this form of "interactive meditation" works in comparison with more established guided meditation techniques. They discovered that not only does it work as well, but in noisy environments it works better, making it ideal for your daily commute.

Consider the irony of using your phones to destress, when you've been told so often that tech is the culprit.

"We are looking at phones in a different way," said Cheng. "Many people look at it as a stressor, but we think it is more about how we design the interaction." The technology is ideal for implementing interactive meditation because it is capable of both detecting human attention and giving feedback, he added.

"Our contribution here is we discovered a simple way for technology to determine voluntary attention through slow continuous bodily movements." The hope is that users will gradually learn to sustain mindfulness for a longer period of time. It is only this way, said Cheng, that the full calming effect can be achieved.

Sway is available now on iPhone and costs 2.99 or $2.99 to download from the App Store.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.

Technically Literate: Original works of short fiction with unique perspectives on tech, exclusively on CNET.

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Ustwo's Sway app wants to put meditation in your motion - CNET - CNET

Im always searching for ways to counteract my type-A, future-focused tendencies that make me a tangled ball of stress. Try meditation, they say. Ive tried sitting still, focusing on nothing in particular and thinking about not thinking. Ive had some success with it, but the real breakthrough came when I started journaling.

Up until a couple months ago, Id always thought of journals as something my teenage self would scoff at. But actually writing with pen and paper has become a powerful therapeutic intervention for helping me stay sane, grateful, and grounded in my always-on life. The meditative effects have primarily been two-fold.

First, my journaling is an uninhibited form of creative expression where I can write whatever and however I want, and no one else can judge me. This has been especially liberating because 99% of what I write is seen by others and thus gets filtered. But when I journal, I can write about anything. I can be extremely selfish and unabashed, which leads me to essentially writing away my worries, stress, fears, and any other unpleasant thoughts I have in my head.

Laboriously laying out these thoughts on paper have led to many revelations I wouldnt have arrived at if Id just sat and ruminated on them. The second benefit sounds more meditative. With journaling, I feel utterly present in the moment, entranced by the repetitive motion of moving my pen and seeing my thoughts materialize onto paper. Its very different from when Im writing words on my laptop. Its just more relaxing.

If you decide to give journaling a shot, its important to ditch any ideas of being perfect about it. I know people whove spent way too much money on pens and notebooks, only to still have blank pages. If premium pen and paper are what youre into, then thats cool. Im okay with my notebook from the Japanese dollar store and a good enough pen. Just remember to actually, you know, write.

And dont get too hung up on what to write about. Plenty of random thoughts pop into my head throughout the day, but theres usually one that resonates more deeply than others. Before, Id used to let those thoughts languish and eventually fall into the ether, but now I spend 20-30 minutes teasing them out and just writingthere doesnt even have to be a conclusion or takeaway! Thats the great thing about this. In addition to the catharsis, you learn to be more generally aware of how certain things make you feel and why.

Its never too late to start a journal. And Im saying this after so many years of writing already.

Contributing writer. Nomad. Miscellaneous ramblings at http://thefyslife.com.

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When Meditation Doesn't Work, Try Journaling to Stay Sane - Lifehacker

During yoga pranayama exercises people practice controlling the breath, or prana, to induce a state of calm and focus. Paying attention to breathing and slowing down respiration is a core component of many mindfulness practices. Research suggests the practice has multiple benefitsit induces an overall sense of well-being while reducing anxiety and improved sleep.

But what exactly is going on in the brain during meditation? Imaging studies of humans have shown brain regions involved in mind-wandering, attention and emotion are involved in various stages of mindfulness practice. A new mouse study, published Thursday in Science, shows that neurons in the brain stem may also mediate the link between breathing and inducing a state of meditative calm.

The basis for the new study dates back to 1991, when a group of neuroscientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, (U.C.L.A.) discovered the pre-Btzinger complex, an area containing neurons that fired rhythmically in time with each breath. Quite different from the cardiac pacemaker, the breathing pacemaker has a whole variety of different rhythmsfor example, a yawn or a sigh or a gasp, says study co-author Mark Krasnow, a biochemistry professor at Stanford University. Rather than simply providing air to your lungs, these types of breaths are also associated with social and emotional signals.

Recent evidence suggests the pre-Btzinger complex can control a variety of breathing behaviors. In a study published last year in Nature, Krasnow and his colleagues reported on a subset of neurons within this brain region that is solely responsible for generating sighs. When the researchers stimulated these neurons in mice, they sighed continuously. But when the team removed those nerve cells, the animals kept breathing, never sighing. Now, the team has uncovered a separate group of neurons in this area that appear to have another specific function: regulating states of calm and arousal.

Krasnows team genetically engineered mice to remove a specific subset of neurons that contains two genes: cadherin 9 (Cdh9), a gene that is expressed in the pre-Btzinger complex, and developing brain homeobox protein 1 (Dbx1), which prior studies had demonstrated are necessary for respirationwithout it, mice do not breathe.

When the team removed these Cdh9/Dbx1 neurons from mice, the animals still breathed normally with one slight difference: breaths came more slowly than in normal mice. The rodents were also unusually calmthey spent less time exploring their surroundings and more time sitting still. We were totally surprised, says study co-author Kevin Yackle, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who conducted the study while he was a postdoc at Stanford. It certainly wasnt something we expected to find.

The researchers also discovered these neurons form connections with the locus coeruleus, another area in the brain stem involved in modulating arousal and emotion. [One] thing thats interesting about this, and surprising, is that this small group of neurons is not involved in producing the inspiratory rhythm per se, says Jeffrey Smith, a neuroscientist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who was not involved in the study. Smith, along with one of the current studys co-authors, neurobiologist Jack Feldman at U.C.L.A., discovered the pre-Btzinger complex. Its now becoming apparent that theres a lot of structural and functional complexity to the pre-Btzinger complex itself that we hadnt really anticipated.

Evidence from human research also suggests meditation and respiration are closely connected. In a recent study, for example, Antoine Lutz, a scientist who studies the neurobiology of meditation at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, and his colleagues at the University of WisconsinMadison discovered long-term meditators develop slower breathing patterns than those who did not practice on a regular basis. The slower breathing in long-term practitioners may activate this ascending pathway less, says Lutz, who was not involved in the current study. Maybe its a signature of a different level of stress.

According to Lutz, the findings from latest Science paper raise the possibility that any form of practicefrom yoga, pranayama to meditationthat is actively manipulating respiration might be using this pathway to regulate some aspects of arousal. He points out, however, this pathway may not be as relevant for forms of meditation that do not involve directly controlling respiration. For example, in some types of mindfulness training, individuals simply observe their breath rather than control it.

Breathing is about staying alive on one level, but its also connected to emotional life, says Christopher Del Negro, a neurophysiologist at the College of William & Mary who was not involved in the work. The studies showing that different neural populations in the pre-Btzinger complex can also control sighing and regulate arousal, begin to break that next level of not just talking about breathing for physiology, but breathing for emotional well-being, he adds.

Understanding how the brain controls breathing could also help develop new therapeutic targets to treat conditions such as anxiety, panic disorders and arousal-related sleep disorders. [Cardiologists] have ways of pharmacologically controlling the heart rhythm, Yackle says. But a similar type of pharmacological approach for breathing doesnt exist, and I think it could be important in multiple fields of medicine.

Before that happens, however, neuroscientists will first need to uncover how this brain region works in people. Researchers have found a pre-Btzinger complex in humans, but its anatomy and physiology are much less understood. For now Krasnow, Yackle and their colleagues plan to investigate the other populations of neurons in the breathing pacemaker of rodents to see what other functions they might find. The present study, though, holds promise of eventually furnishing at least a partial window on the physical underpinnings of an ancient practice.

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Meditation's Calming Effects Pinpointed in Brain - Scientific American

Ensemble XXI, directed by Jeffrey H. Rickard, will present a choral meditation for the season of Lent at 3 p.m. Sunday at Calvary Presbyterian Church, 4495 Magnolia Ave., Riverside.

Music will include Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd, A Thanksgiving by Bob Chilcott, Prayer to Jesus by George Oldroyd, Round Me Falls the Night by Vincent Persichetti, Renew Me This Night by Jeffrey H. Rickard, Jesu, Lover of My Soul by Philip W.J. Stopford and Jesu, Grant Me This, I Pray by Percy Whitlock.

Instrumental music will be provided by Margaret Winter, flute, and Jeffrey H. Rickard, organ, and the service includes the congregational hymn What Wondrous Love is This? set to the American hymn tune Wondrous Love.

Ensemble XXI is a Redlands-based choral ensemble of more than 20 voices specializing in the presentation of choral evensong in the Anglican choral tradition.

A freewill offering will be received in support of Ensemble XXI.

Source: Ensemble XXI

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Ensemble XXI will present choral meditation for Lent April 2 at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Riverside - Redlands Daily Facts

Mar 30, 2017

Meditation is a big word thats getting lots of attention these days! So many people are talking about it but can anyone actually tell you what it is?!?

Maybe it would be easier to start with what it is not.

Meditation is not a religion; it is not a cult, its not scary or dangerous.

Meditation is a way to gain a better understanding of what is going on inside your head and your body, and it can help you have a better life.

There are almost endless different kinds of meditation but they all have one thing in common, the seated posture. Sitting with your back straight and your legs crossed allows the body to become motionless for long enough to get in touch with the feelings you are having inside, and the effect those feelings are having on your state of mind.

All of the different forms of meditation have one purpose, to allow you to detach your self from whats going on in your head!

Why does this matter? Because most of what is going on in our heads isnt very nice!

You see our brains have evolved over millions of years, to help us survive. Back in the days of lions and tigers trying to eat us, we had to be VERY sensitive to dangers around us. Now, millions of years later, the biggest threat we face in life is someone dissing us on Twitter, yet our minds are still programmed to seek out danger, so we tend to look at everything from a negative slant.

Well, it doesnt need to be that way! It is only the primitive part of our brain that sees the world that way. We are not cave people anymore! The newest parts of our brain that have evolved are where our feelings of love and happiness and creativity function.

Meditation helps us cool down the fear response that comes naturally to us, and helps us access the higher function areas of our brain.

This allows us to live happier, healthier more productive lives. By having access to this new awesome area of the brain we can do better at school, perform better in sports, have better relationships with our parents and friends, AND spot dangerous thoughts feelings and behaviors before they lead us into trouble!

As I said, there are almost endless different types of meditation used for different things, but the one I find the most useful in our everyday life here on planet earth is called Mindfulness Meditation.

The technique of Mindfulness Meditation is super easy to learn, simple to use all throughout the day and is the foundation for a happy healthy life!

For a few minutes in the morning and in the evening we sit cross-legged with our back straight to practice meditation. Then we take the skill out into our daily lives and use it every moment we can to dramatically improve the quality of our reaction to the things going on around us.

To Learn More Check Out The Next Article Called What is Mindfullness?

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Thursday, March 30, 2017 - Updated: 1:39 PM Did we do everything perfectly during the Mayoral Forum held March 9 no. But for a first time attempt at hosting a forum such as this, we think the event was overall very successful. Prior to the night of the forum all four candidates received information about how the forum would be held as well as a list of 13 possible questions that could possibly be asked during the forum. Unfortunately those questions were not numbered. Prior to the forum, the questions we did number were cut into strips and put into a container and were drawn out randomly to determine the order the questions would be asked. The names of all four mayoral candidates were also cut out and folded and placed into a second container. After each question was drawn, the names of the candidates were also randomly drawn to determine the order of who would speak. At the forum, copies of the list of questions available as they were to be asked. Some candidates did seem to be thrown off by the different order of the questions. Our moderator that evening asked a couple of times if they wanted a copy of the list of questions. Following the forum, a post on social media by a journalist questioned the Planets intentions and accused us of trying to make Julian Butch Adams look bad. That is simply not true. The journalist should have asked us. We wanted to have a forum where the candidates could express their views, visions and opinions to the questions being asked. We wanted the candidates to answer questions and for the forum not to turn into a debate where candidates could have rebutted any of the answers being given. If anyone had questions about how the forum was handled or organized, they would have been more than welcome to call our office or drop by to talk to us about it, including the journalist, rather than blatantly accusing us of intentionally making someone look bad. Our intent was to better inform the voters in Metropolis about the candidates running for the office of mayor, and we think through the Facebook Live feed and from our You Tube channel, that was accomplished, despite what the naysayers say or think. In previous consolidated elections, the voter turnout in Massac County has been embarrassingly low. The county residents who only have to decide on school board members may think the election is no big deal, and might decide not to vote. Dont forget the lesson we all learned during last years November general election when votes were counted on Election night for the proposed 1 percent sales tax referendum the referendum failed by one vote. Of course two weeks later the absentee ballots that were opened sealed the fate of the sales tax. Anyone who thinks voting on school board members is not that big of a deal obviously has not been reading the Planet the past few weeks or been watching the Massac Unit One meetings on our You Tube channel. Unit One Board of Education is facing huge cuts for the next school year and will likely have to make more cuts after that. These people who are elected to sit on the board will be the ones making decisions when it comes to your tax dollars and the majority of the property taxes goes to the school districts. There are contested races for mayor in Metropolis and in Brookport and seven people running for four, four-year terms on the Massac Unit One School board. There are also candidates running for seats on the Metropolis and Brookport councils for aldermen and on Joppas village council and for the Joppa-Maple Grove school board. So the bottom line is, dont think your vote does not count because it does. Every election time, we will always encourage everyone who can vote to exercise your right to do so.

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BHUBANESWAR: The enforcement directorate on Thursday attached properties to the tune of Rs 14.95 crore of astrologer Surendra Mishra, aka Sura Baba and his Trahi Achyuta Ashram on the city outskirts. Sura Baba and his two sons Trilochan and Biranchi were arrested by the commissionerate police on August 31, 2015 for allegedly assaulting a lower caste man and cheating people by claiming himself as a god-man. "We were probing the financial irregularity into the case. The attached assets included Rs 2.35 crore bank balance in names of Sura Baba and his two sons and the Ashram property worth nearly Rs 14.95 crore," said an ED officer. Trahi Achyuta Nagar, popularly known as Trahi Achyuta Ashram near Balianta once epitomized a classic beauty, standing unparalleled anywhere in the state. Set up in 1983 at Jhinti village, nearly 30 km from the state capital, the Ashram has a well planned residential colony, temples, sprawling water body, toy train, dispensary, nationalized bank, post office, clean and spacious roads and vast patches of green fields, spread over 20 acre. The tranquil and picturesque ambience stood shattered on August 30, 2015 when some local residents went on a rampage in the Ashram branding Sura Baba a fraud. The government recently pulled down portions of the Ashram saying the constructions came up illegally on government land.

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Trahi Achyuta Ashram: Enforcement Directorate attaches assets of ... - Times of India

Indore: A three-day art and craft exhibition, art by heart, and three live demos have been organised on the theme of women empowerment by Saket-based art and craft institute, Kala Ashram, from Friday at Pritamlal Dua auditorium.

Kala Ashram director Sapna Jain informed that 60 art and crafts done by 25 women would be put up in the exhibition. The highlight of the exhibition is the three live demos for students which are free of cost. State level award winner Santosh Prajapati would give pointers on a potters wheel, Naushad will teach nuances of block printing and sculptor Thakre would shed light on making of statues.

Notable artist Shobha Vaidya and social worker Jagdish Shah would inaugurate the exhibition at 11.30 am. The concluding function on April 2 would feature a musical performance by artist Anand Chandreshi from Bhopal and his R K Event Group.

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Indore: Kala Ashram's art & craft exhibition from today - Free Press Journal

A proposed federal bill could provide a financial incentive to get folks active even in the pool.

The Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act was reintroduced to Congress in March. If passed, it would allow people to use pre-tax dollars, such as those in a health savings account, to cover qualified fitness expenses.

Currently, money in health-care accounts can only be used for doctors visits, medical procedures and medication. House bill H.R. 1267 and Senate bill S. 482 would amend the Internal Revenue Code so that gym memberships, pool passes, sports league and parks-and-rec fees would be tax deductible up to $1,000, or $2,000 for families.

The PHIT Act reduces the financial burden that can be associated with certain fitness-related purchases, which would make it easier for Americans and their families to prioritize health and wellness and hopefully save money on future doctor visits, too, said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), one of four senators who reintroduced the bill, in a press statement.

Previous efforts to pass the legislation have gained widespread bipartisan support. In the last legislative session, it gained 90 cosponsors from the House and 13 from the Senate.

Health-and-wellness associations are championing the bill as a way to combat the nations couch-potato pandemic and sell more gym memberships. The International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) figured that if the number of Americans who exercise increased by just 1%, the health industry would gain 500,000 new members more than a few of which would be swimmers, presumably.

IHRSA also calculated that the tax break would save families an average of 20- to 30% on fitness costs each year. Its perhaps for that reason that 78% of families support it, according to a recent survey by the National Recreation and Park Association. The NRPA noted that only 10% of Americans oppose the idea.

Likewise, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which originally helped write PHIT several years ago, advocated for the bill on Capitol Hill as part of National Health Through Fitness Day on March 22.

The aquatics industry is backing PHIT, too.

Lauren Stack, mission development director for the National Swimming Pool Foundation, believes anything that could help get people moving again would only be a good thing for the industry.

This winter I have addressed several pool industry groups suggesting that our true competitor is the time and money people spend on things that make them inactive, such as TVs, cable, video games, Internet, computers and smart phones. We support PHIT wholeheartedly.

In addition to the tax break, an associated advocacy organization called PHIT America is helping to conserve current levels of federal funding for physical education classes in schools, which could help keep more school swimming pools open.

Thats a great opening for our industry, Stack said. If we work together to encourage swimming and promote the benefits of water, we will ensure that water sports top the list of activities of more and more children.

The Association of Aquatic Professionals also believes the bill could get more people involved in water aerobics. I would think that this would have a very positive impact on aquatics fitness classes and lap swimming, said Executive Director Juliene Hefter.

Not every physical activity qualifies for a tax break. For example, you would not be allowed to write off towel fees or swim lessons at exclusive clubs or resorts. Those facilities, and those that offer hunting, sailing and golf, would be exempt.

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PHIT Act Would Provide a Tax Break for Swimming, Water Aerobics - Aquatics International