We include products we think are useful for our readers. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. Heres our process.

The Headspace app features a wide variety of guided meditations and exercises. Here are the apps pros and cons.

Whether youre new to meditation, returning after a bit of a break, or wanting some variety in your practice, a meditation app may be an option to consider.

The app may help you remain consistent with your meditation practice. Meditation has been shown to provide many benefits for your mental and physical health.

For example, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), some research shows that meditation can reduce:

Headspace is a commonly recommended app for meditators of all levels. But does it live up to the hype?

Headspace began in 2010 as an events company in London that educated people about mindfulness. It eventually became an app as attendees wanted more help with practicing at home.

Former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe cofounded Headspace with Rich Pierson, a then burned-out ad executive who needed help de-stressing from his demanding job.

With its colorful design, Headspace aims to improve the health and happiness of users worldwide.

The app features guided meditations, courses, animations, and videos for a wide range of needs and concerns, including:

Studies by Headspace and independent researchers have found various benefits.

For example, using Headspace for 10 sessions:

Whats more, a 2018 study with workers found improvements in well-being, distress, and job strain. A 2017 study with pediatric nurses found improvements in self-compassion.

According to Headspaces website, 27 published and 51 in-progress studies have tested or are currently testing its effectiveness. You can find more research on Headspace here.

While the Headspace app may offer many benefits, there are some downsides to consider as well.

Headspace with limited access to features is free to download. For instance, you have access to:

Headspace offers several subscription options. The monthly membership costs $12.99 a month and offers a 7-day free trial. Annual membership is $69.99 with a 14-day free trial.

Special pricing is also available for eligible college students and families. Students pay $9.99 for an annual membership, while families can get six accounts for $99.99 a year.

Educators and healthcare professionals may be eligible for free subscriptions.

Until recently, Puddicombe was both the creator and voice behind all Headspace meditations. Today, most of the apps content also features a female voice. In addition, Headspace offers meditations in:

Overall, Headspace comes with a wide array of offerings, including:

Headspace also offers meditations and activities for kids, from toddlers to teens. These practices are divided into three age groups:

Exercises in the kids section revolve around five themes:

While the Headspace app started out as just a meditation app, it has increased its offerings and now offers different types of meditation and mindful activities. Its main content areas include:

Headspace uses a variety of meditation techniques inspired by Burmese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. All these techniques feature animations to add greater clarity to the process.

These include the following meditation approaches:

If youre having trouble falling asleep, Headspaces sleep content may be worth a try. It includes:

Headspaces Move section consists of 10- to 30-minute low or medium impact workouts. These sessions are coached by athletes like Kim Glass or Leon Taylor and focus on:

As the name suggests, Headspaces Focus section is designed to help you focus on work, chores, or anything else you need to focus on.

The playlists include:

Another way in which Headspace encourages users to make meditation a habit is by connecting with family members, friends, or co-workers who are also using the app.

You can share your progress with your friends, receive encouragement from them to do a meditation practice, or send encouragement their way.

Because of the guided meditations, basic courses, user-friendly design, and accessible content, Headspace could be an excellent option for beginners. It effectively answers the questions How do I meditate? and Where do I start?

Meditation can be intimidating, so the app provides specific, easy-to-digest instructions and clear-cut starting points.

Headspace offers short meditations if youre busy, easily overwhelmed, or want a genuinely restorative break (versus scrolling doom-and-gloom news headlines).

At the same time, Headspace may be helpful for meditation pros, too. Headspace can help longtime meditators shake up a practice that starts to feel stale with new content regularly added.

Plus, youll find meditations and courses for concerns that regularly arise because, well, youre a human. From stress and anxiety to trouble sleeping, Headspace can serve as a positive, supportive tool.

Still, as with any app, it requires commitment, which may naturally wax and wane, depending on whats going on in your life.

How does Headspace compare to Calm, another popular meditation app?

Both Headspace and Calm are popular, positively rated meditation apps. And both apps offer the following features:

However, they each have a unique presentation and differ slightly in their approach.

Headspace may be best if youre new to meditation, as its clearly guided and breaks down the process into easy steps.

Calm is a bit less structured and revolves around a nature theme with relaxing soundscapes.

Users of both apps criticize that:

If youd like to learn more, you can check out our in-depth comparison of Calm and Headspace here.

Headspace seems to have something for (almost) everyone. Beginning meditators may appreciate the cheerful aesthetic, concrete practices, and approachable language. Headspace aims to demystify meditation and make it easily accessible.

Veteran meditators may appreciate sampling new meditations that come in guided, semi-guided, and unguided varieties, and taking courses on common concerns that touch all of us (hello, stress).

But Headspace isnt without drawbacks. Some users dont like the apps not-so-responsive customer service and that it can auto-renew subscriptions without warning. Plus, some people may prefer a different design and aesthetic.

See the original post here:

2022 Headspace Review: App Pros and Cons - PsychCentral.com

Country

United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People's Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People's Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S)Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth ofAustria, Republic ofAzerbaijan, Republic ofBahrain, Kingdom ofBangladesh, People's Republic ofBarbadosBelarusBelgium, Kingdom ofBelizeBenin, People's Republic ofBermudaBhutan, Kingdom ofBolivia, Republic ofBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswana, Republic ofBouvet Island (Bouvetoya)Brazil, Federative Republic ofBritish Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago)British Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgaria, People's Republic ofBurkina FasoBurundi, Republic ofCambodia, Kingdom ofCameroon, United Republic ofCape Verde, Republic ofCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChad, Republic ofChile, Republic ofChina, People's Republic ofChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombia, Republic ofComoros, Union of theCongo, Democratic Republic ofCongo, People's Republic ofCook IslandsCosta Rica, Republic ofCote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of theCyprus, Republic ofCzech RepublicDenmark, Kingdom ofDjibouti, Republic ofDominica, Commonwealth ofEcuador, Republic ofEgypt, Arab Republic ofEl Salvador, Republic ofEquatorial Guinea, Republic ofEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFaeroe IslandsFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Fiji, Republic of the Fiji IslandsFinland, Republic ofFrance, French RepublicFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabon, Gabonese RepublicGambia, Republic of theGeorgiaGermanyGhana, Republic ofGibraltarGreece, Hellenic RepublicGreenlandGrenadaGuadaloupeGuamGuatemala, Republic ofGuinea, RevolutionaryPeople's Rep'c ofGuinea-Bissau, Republic ofGuyana, Republic ofHeard and McDonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)Honduras, Republic ofHong Kong, Special Administrative Region of ChinaHrvatska (Croatia)Hungary, Hungarian People's RepublicIceland, Republic ofIndia, Republic ofIndonesia, Republic ofIran, Islamic Republic ofIraq, Republic ofIrelandIsrael, State ofItaly, Italian RepublicJapanJordan, Hashemite Kingdom ofKazakhstan, Republic ofKenya, Republic ofKiribati, Republic ofKorea, Democratic People's Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwait, State ofKyrgyz RepublicLao People's Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanon, Lebanese RepublicLesotho, Kingdom ofLiberia, Republic ofLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtenstein, Principality ofLithuaniaLuxembourg, Grand Duchy ofMacao, Special Administrative Region of ChinaMacedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascar, Republic ofMalawi, Republic ofMalaysiaMaldives, Republic ofMali, Republic ofMalta, Republic ofMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritania, Islamic Republic ofMauritiusMayotteMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldova, Republic ofMonaco, Principality ofMongolia, Mongolian People's RepublicMontserratMorocco, Kingdom ofMozambique, People's Republic ofMyanmarNamibiaNauru, Republic ofNepal, Kingdom ofNetherlands AntillesNetherlands, Kingdom of theNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaragua, Republic ofNiger, Republic of theNigeria, Federal Republic ofNiue, Republic ofNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorway, Kingdom ofOman, Sultanate ofPakistan, Islamic Republic ofPalauPalestinian Territory, OccupiedPanama, Republic ofPapua New GuineaParaguay, Republic ofPeru, Republic ofPhilippines, Republic of thePitcairn IslandPoland, Polish People's RepublicPortugal, Portuguese RepublicPuerto RicoQatar, State ofReunionRomania, Socialist Republic ofRussian FederationRwanda, Rwandese RepublicSamoa, Independent State ofSan Marino, Republic ofSao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic ofSaudi Arabia, Kingdom ofSenegal, Republic ofSerbia and MontenegroSeychelles, Republic ofSierra Leone, Republic ofSingapore, Republic ofSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaSolomon IslandsSomalia, Somali RepublicSouth Africa, Republic ofSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSpain, Spanish StateSri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic ofSt. HelenaSt. Kitts and NevisSt. LuciaSt. Pierre and MiquelonSt. Vincent and the GrenadinesSudan, Democratic Republic of theSuriname, Republic ofSvalbard & Jan Mayen IslandsSwaziland, Kingdom ofSweden, Kingdom ofSwitzerland, Swiss ConfederationSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwan, Province of ChinaTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailand, Kingdom ofTimor-Leste, Democratic Republic ofTogo, Togolese RepublicTokelau (Tokelau Islands)Tonga, Kingdom ofTrinidad and Tobago, Republic ofTunisia, Republic ofTurkey, Republic ofTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUganda, Republic ofUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain & N. IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic ofZimbabwe

Link:

MEDITATION: Part of me | Lifestyle | djournal.com - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Many adages and pithy sayings warn people of the evils of money and power. Everyone knows of these and is wary of the pitfalls of greed. But many people live a hand-to-mouth existence in todays economy. Everyone agrees that money and success are not all bad. But gaining enough money and material success is not a walk in the park. After all, if it were easy, so many people would not be fighting to make ends meet every day of their lives.

Click Here to Get Wesley Virgin Genie Script From Its Official website

The struggle of poverty is not just about not having enough money in the bank. It is a fact that poorer people tend to lead more stressful lives. It is harder for poorer people to afford a decent education and a good place to live. Poorer people have a harder time leading healthy and relaxed lives. Poverty affects people in many ways.

Wesley Virgin is a life coach who may have a mental technique that can help. He claims to have discovered a mental technique that can help get the mindset to achieve success.

Overview

Most people struggle to make ends meet in todays economy. Every news outlet publishes articles about how the richest 10% own as much wealth as the poorest 90% in the world. Such an enormous wealth gap has never existed before modern times. Many people struggle to work one or more jobs every day. They still are not sure if they can earn enough to meet their basic needs.

Such stress eventually takes its toll. Mental breakdowns and nervous episodes have become all too common these days. Everyone takes pills and medicines for their mental and physical health. But that adds to the cost of living. And the side effects of these medicines require more treatment. For lower-income people, this existence is just an endless loop of misery.

Wesley Virgin once faced just such a dreary life. He was an ex-military white-collar worker in Houston, TX. He found himself jobless with two kids to feed and no way out in sight. But on a previous trip to India, he met an Indian guru who shared a secret with him. Wesley applied this self-actualization technique and saw results pretty soon. Today, Wesley Virgin is a millionaire, and he wants to share the secret with everyone.

Wesley calls his meditation and manifestation program Genie Script. Wesley thought this mental trick gifted him success like a genie in a bottle. Hence, the name Genie Script.

Exclusive Details: *Genie Script* Read More Details on Official Website!

What Does Genie Script Do?

Wesley Virgin is the son of a Christian priest in the southern United States. Although his family was close-knit, Wesley says he was never affluent. Wesley did not grow up to become a rich man overnight, either. He enlisted in the military to try and break out of his hard life. But he soon realized that he had little money and two children to raise.

He remembered the meditation technique that the Indian guru taught him. He applied it diligently for some time. Pretty soon, he could see himself leading a successful life. He kept using the technique, and it earned him his first million. Upon realizing his success with meditation, he thought he should share it with others.

This is how Genie Script was created. It is a structured program that Wesley has built to help his students. If the lessons are applied correctly, they can help manifest students deepest desires. Here is a summary of how Genie Script does it:

Meditation Training

Genie Script starts by training students in the art of meditation. Wesley has created an organized program to do this. The course offers four meditation sessions every week. Each session lasts for ten minutes. This introduces students to the tips behind doing it right.

Video Training

Wesley offers his expert insights into how people can unlock their full potential. Through these video sessions, he guides people into understanding their brains and minds. Understanding how the mind works is essential to manifesting thoughts into existence.

Interactive Community

Wesley has fostered a community of like-minded people on social media. This course offers students a chance to engage with similar people. This helps students visualize their path to success. Students who have found what they need in life can help others gain success.

E-Books

Reading as an activity can be quite meditative. Wesleys e-books offer knowledge on achieving the most success out of the program. The books provide insights into unlocking the potential needed to visualize dreams. Without imagining them, dreams cannot be achieved.

Why Choose Wesley Virgin Genie Script? Consumer Report Released Here

How Does It Work?

Meditation is believed to help people access their best potential. Meditation can help achieve a sense of inner peace and calm. This peaceful state is necessary to gain useful energy and momentum in life. Meditation can help channel the innermost thoughts and bring them to life.

These desires need not be about material wealth. Meditation can bring peace and happiness to people. The Genie Script program is designed to help people achieve success through meditation.

How To Use Genie Script?

The Genie Script program has weekly training sessions on meditation. These sessions take students through various meditative states and techniques. Genie Script offers four 10-minute sessions every week. Students should practice meditation beyond these sessions as well.

Meditation helps maintain a balance within the mind. A balanced mind can focus all its energies on achieving its goals. This is the key to manifesting the deepest desires of the heart. People skilled at meditation can achieve a zen state even when doing other things.

Why Use Genie Script?

When people dream big, the biggest obstacle in their way is their own mind. Some of the most famous people in history achieved their successes by battling the odds. Most people do not dream of being multi-billionaires. They mostly wish to lead a happy and peaceful life. But their circumstances may be against them. Their hard situation in life may cause mental blocks.

Meditation helps people unlock their greatest potential to perform. Meditation can help people find the focus and willpower to handle most challenges. Wesleys meditative techniques in Genie Script are basic yet powerful. The program offers a structured way of mastering the skills. This helps students train their minds and visualize their dreams.

Increased Sense Of Self

The special meditation techniques taught in Genie Script help people raise their self-worth. People who believe in their abilities have the strength to achieve their dreams. Meditation offers people a powerful tool to understand themselves better. This helps in building a better sense of self-worth. People with high self-esteem can influence others positively too.

Sharpened Focus

People often struggle with short attention spans nowadays. Modern technology bombards people with a deluge of information. This has led to a significant reduction in peoples ability to focus on important matters. Meditation offers people a chance to center themselves and be calm. This can lead to a better focus on their goals and how to get there. Focused people achieve their dreams.

More Creative Talent

An important stumbling block in achieving dreams is a lack of creative thinking. Life often throws problems in peoples way. People who creatively handle their problems can go on to achieve great success. Wesleys systematic form of meditation is very useful here. Meditation can unlock the fullest potential of peoples minds. Meditation can help channel creative energies and achieve dreams.

MUST SEE: Shocking New Genie Script Report This May Change Your Mind

Are There Any Downsides?

No matter how big or small, achieving dreams and goals is a challenge. The choices people make, and the options they have are important factors. Meditation offers a useful tool to focus the minds ability to the fullest. But not even a systematic tool like Genie Script promises instant results. Students should apply themselves regularly to the method to expect results.

Students should also beware of con men pretending to offer the same course as Genie Script. Wesley claims that his success has attracted many duplicates who offer similar courses. People should note that Wesley Virgin does not endorse any course other than his own.

Where To Buy

Wesley offers his Genie Script program only on his official website. It is not available anywhere else online. There is an offer on the website currently. People can purchase the entire Genie Script course for USD 37. People doing so can get various other courses from Wesley for free.

Refund Scheme

Wesley has helped many people with his courses over the years. His confidence in this method stems from the many positive reviews on the course website. However, dissatisfied customers can write to him within a year of purchase. He offers a 100% refund.

Conclusion: Genie Script

Most people struggle to achieve their highest ambitions. Life often deals hard hands leaving people frustrated. Wesley Virgin has designed a special course to help people maximize their potential. People using this course can gain the secrets of meditation. The powerful techniques Wesley shares can help achieve tremendous levels of focus.

The Genie Script course is designed for almost everyone. It can help even novices unlock their full potential. It offers a simple guide on how to get the most out of meditation. It comes with a money-back refund guarantee.

See the rest here:

Genie Script Reviews: Secret Facts Behind Wesley Virgin Motivation Program Revealed! - KHTS Radio

The states swamplands have long provided food, protection, and cultural grounding for the surrounding communitiesbut they are at risk of disappearing.

Theres a special sort of calm that emerges from the swamplands of Louisiana. Alligators, birds, turtles, and water tupelos are tucked away, shielded by tall cypress trees and low lush banks. Glistening waters painted with the glow of the sun emit a soft sound; almost all is quiet. Go beyond the initial enchantment of the water, though, and a world of wonderand challengesawaits.

Swamps have always been a place of enduring mystery for me. During childhood trips between my hometown of Houston and my parents childhood home of Baton Rouge, swamps were part of some of my earliest travel experiences. Seeing them from the highway meant wed finally crossed the Texas-Louisiana border, and that exceptional Creole and Cajun food was just a few more miles away. The emergence of swamps indicated a cultural change, too. Zydeco music would replace country, Cajun words and phrases like lagniappe, gris gris, and laissez les bons temps rouler, became integrated into my own vocabulary and the accent graced my ears over the next few days. And waterwhich covers nearly 20 percent of Louisianawould be a main character of the trip, ever present in the swamp I would tour, the food I would eat, and the backbone of a culture that welcomed me. Swamps are a mainstay of Louisiana culture, but until adulthood, Id yet to fully understand the magnitude of the swamplands, which provide food, protection, and cultural grounding for the surrounding communities.

The Manchac Swamp, about 30 to 40 minutes northwest of New Orleans, is one of nearly 300 swamps in Louisiana. Snuggled under the Manchac Swamp Bridge (one of the worlds longest bridges over water), the swamp is one of many types of wetlands that cover about 2.5 million acresthroughout Louisiana. Like many things in and around New Orleans, rumors of a lurking Voodoo Priestess who haunts the swamps continue to draw many travelers, but the true gems of this swamp lie far beyond folklore.

Earlier this spring, after meeting up with other travelers in the French Quarter, I ventured out with Wild Louisiana Kayak Swamp Tours.It promotes ecofriendly tours that use kayaks, as opposed to mechanized boats, which can damage the marsh through pollution. Our tour guide, Smitty, drove us out to the Manchac Swamp Bridge. Armed with a two-pronged paddle each, my friend and I entered the water under the bridge and journeyed into the swamp alongside 14 others. Our surroundings became almost silent, and we were welcomed to the calming atmosphere inherent in the swamplands.

Getting out and using good old elbow grease to power your way through the swamp is probably the most nonintrusive method that you could use, says Corey Miller, director of Community Resilience of Greater New Orleans Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to support the various needs of New Orleans residents. A native of the Greater New Orleans area, Miller is deeply moved by the beauty and significance of the swamplands in Louisiana's culture.

I findwhether you want to call it religion, or spirituality, or what have youin nature, he says. Its amazing to sit there and listen to the sounds; to reflect and to look at the simple beauty of an iris or some weird little beetle that has vibrant colors.

Miller, who speaks regularly about the importance of Louisianas coastal ecosystems, says spending time within Louisianas wetlands helps travelers and locals establish a real connection with a state treasure: In addition to the ecosystems they provide, swamps and other wetlands provide protection for urban and city centers during storms and hurricanes that regularly hit the coast. Yet increasing temperatures and rising sea levels are devastating the wetlands. Researchers believe that the loss of these wetlands is likely inevitable, a damning prediction for an invaluable natural resource that provides protection, food, and cultural memory to local communities.

When you lose the habitat, you lose that productivity, and you lose the bounty of our coast, says Miller. The severity of recent storms also worries Miller. If you cant safely live inside those swamps and closer to the city centers, and if you can't harvest the seafood, then you lose your culture.

As I kayaked across the water, I was welcomed by the anhinga, red-winged blackbird, barred owls, and cypress kneesthe name for the roots of the trees. As my muscles tightened from paddling, I was greeted by the sneaky eyes of at least six small alligators, all of which were less concerned with me and more concerned with the food beneath the waters. And as I listened to Smitty share information about the animals and their habits, I was reminded that the swamps, currently under major threat, once sustained generations, dating back to the Indigenous communities that first used them.

Respecting the swamps past and embracing tour companies that do the same can help preserve the wetlands. By researching tour companies and looking for tour groups that use ecofriendly practices, its possible to help curb pollution in the area. Being a good visitor matters, too; avoid littering during swamp tours, and use low voices while in a kayak or boat to avoid scaring or harming wildlife. Visitors can also look toward individuals trying to craft a better future as one way to impede the loss of swamps and other wetlands. Pointing to restaurants as the likely next stop for most tourists taking a swamp tour, Miller mentioned several chefs, including Melissa Martin of Mosquito Supper Club, Dana Honn of Carmo, and Ryan Prewitt of Pche as a few local individuals working to use local seafood and highlight the bounty of Louisianas water and the culture it provides in their restaurants.

Finding that appreciation of the beauty of nature, and then reinforcing it by spending your money in a responsible fashion at a restaurant thats taking all those things into consideration is really the full package for somebody whos traveling here, he says.

Our tour ended at the beginning; we returned to the bridges entrance and rode back to New Orleans in the tour bus. As I looked out against the night sky, I realized the enduring truth of the incredible state. For much of Louisiana, one part touches another. Food is never just food; its part of a cultural history. Buildings are never just buildings; theyre home to a seemingly endless number of stories and tales that define the region. And water isnt just water. Its the lifeblood of Louisiana.

>> Next:Finding Soul and Spirit in Austins Barton Springs Pool

Read the original:

In Louisiana, Celebrating the Beauty of the Swamps - AFAR Media

"It's like we have to charge up our phones, coming to yoga is charging up our brains and our bodies, said Olivia Rokotnitz, Co-Owner of Delta Groove Yoga Studio.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. We all need a break at some point, and how we choose to take that break is up to us.

Many Memphians have taken to yoga and meditation as a way to get away from the stress of the world around them, if only for a moment.

"It's like we have to charge up our phones, coming to yoga is charging up our brains and our bodies. Coming to the present moment, practicing meditation, mindfulness, said Olivia Rokotnitz, Co-Owner of Delta Groove Yoga Studio. "It's a total recharge, recalibration for these beautiful brains of ours."

The folks at Delta Groove Yoga Studio said not only can it help your mind it can help your body in many ways.

"I have more strength. I have more flexibility. I have more just general joy and vitality, said Valentine Leonard, Co-Owner of Delta Groove Yoga Studio. "The ways that yoga affects mental health is that it helps you calm down and focus."

"There is a way to start focusing more on the positive and find more joy in life. But we have to work at it, said Rokotnitz.

"You start to be able to focus from within, added Leonard. "And when you're able to start to look from within because it feels safer to be within, then you can really become yourself, fully."

"It feels good in my body and it feels good in my mind, said Jennifer Jones-Boyd.

So what got Jones-Boyd interested in yoga?

"I was walking by the studio because I live in the neighborhood and decided to pop in and picked up some information and thought give it a try. That's all it took."

"Doing the postures on the mat correlates to me to being sometimes uncomfortable in our every day. You learn to breathe through it. You breathe through it. So mentally it helps me to quiet my mind and get out of my own way, she said.

"So you want to start with gentle practice that is mindfulness-based, focused on what your body is doing. How it feels to be doing those things. And that is always grounding. It's always helping to just calm and focus on being in the present rather than your mind just going in every which way, said Leonard.

"The physical body is the beginning, said Rokotnitz. "Then the breath and then this learning to go inwards to really sense inwardly rather than to rely on the external. And that takes you into meditation, mindfulness and awareness of your own mental health. "

She added, "People are realizing that yoga is essentially about balance And it's not just balance of the physical body. It's balance of the mental and also just energy. "

"Give it a try, said Jones-Boyd. "There's no wrong."

This Saturday!So much of our modern life is spent in a forward bending motion. From looking down at...

Read this article:

How some Memphians are focusing on the positive through yoga - WATN - Local 24

A taste of Thailand returns to Warren with the outdoor market at the Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center, back for a new season.

Offered just twice a month for a few hours on a Sunday, this family-friendly gathering is becoming a popularbut still relatively low-key destination for fans of Asian cuisine. It's a chance to sample a variety of Thai and Laotian street food made fresh by members of the community.

"Our main thing is food," said the center's vice president Lawan Chandruang. She said the vendors have Bangkok street food,cuisine from Laos and this year they have vendors serving food from northern Thailand (think pork cracklings, sticky rice, sausage). "In July we will have more vendors selling a lot of varieties of vegetables, all organic."

When asked what is the one thing someone should try, Chandruang managed to narrow it down two three items: the curry rice (which has many varieties), noodles and desserts.

Some of my favorites were the pork and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, the steamed buns with choice of pork or sweet, yellow custard filling and the flaky puffs stuffed with chicken curry, which traveled well and were still crispy the next day.

The Thai market has a lot of sweet treats, too, for kids and adults. Flavored juice, coconut gummy candy, crispy rice cakes with sweet syrup, fried bananas and more.

"Every vendor here, they all have a family recipe ... it's all so good," said one of the MBMC's staff members, Saeng Rhodes.She said the cuisine at the market isn't just a carbon copy of what you'd find at a Thai or Laotian restaurant around town.

In addition to ready-to-eat snacks and meals, there are also vendors selling their own sauces and spices, which you can use to cook at home. Rhodes says they can even customize them on site, if you want more or less heat.

When you arrive, I recommend doing a lap around to see what's cooking and what looks the best. It's tempting to get one of everything, which is affordable, but maybe more than you need for the week. Grab a sweet Thai iced coffee or tea (what a perfect Sunday morning drink, especially when it gets hot outside) for $3 and then decide what your next move is.

Here's what else you need to know about a visit to the Thai Market.

Bring cash. Most of the vendors are only charging a few dollars for their items and cash is easiest and fastest.

Go early, the good stuff will sell out quickly.If one of the stalls has a line, go there first, because whatever they're dishing out is likely a favorite and will sell out. Last Sunday there weren't many lines and there was plentiful parking at an adjacent lot.

Go often, the market will change slightly as the season goes on. Fresh, organic produce becomes more available in the summerand throughout the harvest months. Additional vendors are expected to join the fray as the months go on, too.

Bring the family. There's room to sit and enjoy the pad Thai, papaya salad, noodle soup, steamed banana cake, strawberry milk, steamed buns and meat skewers. The center has a small playground for kids, and the inside is open if you need to use the restroom (you have to remove your shoes, though).

The Sunday markets start at 10 a.m. and run until 1 or 2 p.m., but food may sell out before then. The next one is May 22, followed by June 12 and 26, July 17 and 31, Aug. 14 and 28, Sept. 11 and 25, Oct. 9 and 23 and Nov. 6.

The Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center is at29750 Ryan, in Warren. Call(586) 573-2666 or visitMBMCmichigan.org. Updates about the market can be found on the center's Facebook page.

Restaurant Review: Oakland Tea House in Auburn Hills serves Taiwanese street food

More: Mother's Day dining ideas: brunches, buffets, wine events and more

mbaetens@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @melodybaetens

Read more:

Everything we saw and tasted at Midwest Buddhist Mediation Center's Thai Market - Detroit News

When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values.

It is a common misconception that to be a Stoic is to be in possession of a stiff upper lip, to be free from the tumultuous waves of ones emotions. But what this interpretation of Stoicism gets wrong is that our emotions, even the most painful ones, need not be our enemies if we can learn to think of them as our guides.

This might seem obviously false, or like the words of a person who has never encountered real suffering. But it was during one of the worst crises of my life that I found my way to Stoicism and, through Stoicism, to something that is as close to acceptance as I think it is possible to find on this plane of existence.

In September of 2013, my husband suddenly developed the strangest of illnesses. Describing him as sick seems almost farcical as there were not fevers or tumours or anything really that we could point to and say: This this is what is wrong. But there was weakness and fatigue. And above all, there was confusion.

It took a couple of months, but eventually, he was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis: a rare autoimmune disease that we were told normally afflicts women under 40 and men over 60, neither of which he was, and that, all things considered, was relatively minor, and that we could likely expect to go spontaneously into remission over the next five to 10 years.

However, the prognosis turned out to be as off the mark as his chances of developing the disease in the first place. Two days before Thanksgiving, his body began to fail him. The man who had once carried me over a threshold no longer had the strength in his neck to lift his own head off a pillow. I called 911 over his objections and he was brought, protesting, to the hospital where he was ultimately admitted to the intensive-care unit. From there, he continued to decline.

I walked in on Thanksgiving morning as the nurses were moving him to change the sheets on his bed. What I witnessed will stay with me for the rest of my life: the man I love, the father of the one- and five-year-olds I had left at home, went into total respiratory failure. His entire body turned as purple as an eggplant, and I stood by while an emergency intubation was performed to save his life.

For just under a month, he persisted with tubes and machines performing all of his bodily functions. He had few moments of lucidity, most of them in fear, but none more fearful than when I signed the consent form over his objections to have a tracheotomy placed because, I was told, it had ceased to be safe for him to remain intubated the way he was.

That tracheotomy, however, would prove to be what killed him. I would be what proved to kill him. Because, after the crisis was over, after he started to walk again, and after he came home from rehab to have what would prove to be one last Christmas with his children, he asphyxiated in his sleep a mucus plug, caused by the damage done to his trachea killed him just as we had begun to plan for a second chance at life.

I got through the wake and the funeral on an unholy combination of Xanax, vodka and sheer force of will. The first free moment I had afterwards, though, I headed to what has long been my happy place: the Mabel Smith Douglass Library on the Rutgers New Brunswick campus.

I had gotten it into my head that I could find the comfort I desperately needed, if only I could read the Phaedo and convince myself of the immortality of the soul. I cannot say the attempt was successful. And I am still sorry for the poor librarian who had to make sense of my desperate tears at not finding Plato where he was supposed to be. But when she got me to where the books had been moved, it was Marcus Aurelius Meditations that I took off the shelf, and that has made all the difference since.

The books pages contain such simple wisdom that it can seem almost silly to say that I needed to see it written down, but Aurelius injunction to fight to be the person philosophy tried to make you was the battle cry I needed.

I do not think it is an overstatement to say that what I found within the pages of the Meditations rescued me from the despair that was threatening to devour me. Suddenly widowed, with two small children I felt utterly unequipped to vouchsafe through the journey toward adulthood, there was footing to be found in Aurelius instruction not to be overwhelmed by what you imagine, but just do what you can and should. I still had no idea how I would handle my childrens graduations, or puberty, or afford braces, let alone college, but it was a reminder that I did not need to solve those problems now.

Aurelius reminded me that where I was was not just where I was but when and that there was no advantage to be found in unsticking myself from time. I would be lying if I said I learned to stop panicking immediately or instantly. But I learned to repeat to myself the instruction to never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. And I learned to take stock of the tools I had and how they could be used to solve the problems of the present rather than catastrophising the unknowns of the future.

But the passage that made the biggest difference the passage I return to year after year, as deathiversaries or new milestones threaten to drown me in waves of grief is a reminder that the narrative we construct around what happens to us is, ultimately, up to us.

No matter how terrible what happened was, it is still our choice whether to understand our story as one of crippling defeat or a miraculous victory against the odds even if all we do is get back up and learn to stand again.

I will not and cannot say that the death of my husband at just 33 years old is not a misfortune. Nor would I or could I say that I do not think it is an injustice for my two children to live almost the entirety of their lives without their father. But we have endured and prevailed, and that, I have learned to see, is a great good fortune I can celebrate.

Losing a loved one is, as Aurelius said, something that could happen to anyone. But not everyone remains unharmed by it. We mourn, we are not unaware of what we have lost.

But what we have gained is the perspective that true good fortune is what you make for yourself. We hold tighter to each other, to the truth that life is fleeting, and that each moment of joy that finds its way to us is a gift to be treasured. And, perhaps most importantly, we learn that, while we do not get to decide when we get shipwrecked, we do get to decide what we rebuild out of the debris.

This article first appeared on Aeon.

More here:

How reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius helped me survive the grief of losing my husband - Scroll.in

NZMEs Great Minds project will examine the state of our nations mental health and explore the growing impact mental health and anxiety has on Kiwis while searching for ways to improve it. Video / NZ Herald

Working full time and having three children means family life is "pretty full on" for James Mooney.

The 42-year-old says one way he keeps his mental health in check is transcendental meditation - an effortless way of dealing with stress and fatigue.

A Rotorua yoga teacher says yoga helps to calm feelings of worry and anxiety, and a Tauranga clinical exercise physiologist says exercise helps people experiencing anxiety and depression feel more at ease.

It comes as NZME launched a major editorial project, Great Minds, which will explore the growing impact of mental health and anxiety on Kiwis and how we can improve our wellbeing.

As well as investigative reporting on the state of our mental health services and the effect of the pandemic on New Zealanders, we share personal stories, interactive features and wellbeing ideas to help our readers as we emerge from Covid.

Mooney said he and his wife have three children - two of whom were home-schooled and the other child has a disability.

He said Covid-19 brought uncertainty and difficulties, such as being in lockdown and being around his children 24 hours a day instead of going to work.

He regularly practises transcendental meditation and meditates for 20 minutes in the morning or evening.

"It decreases the fatigue - it gives your body that space to be able to relax and it takes you to a deeper relaxation than watching TV or going for a walk.

"Once you're able to relax, your brain is able to get the benefits of deep rest ... then it declutters your mind.

22 Apr, 2022 05:00 PMQuick Read

27 Apr, 2022 07:00 PMQuick Read

23 Apr, 2022 01:00 AMQuick Read

5 Apr, 2022 10:00 PMQuick Read

"It has been a good tool in the moments where the pressure does feel like it comes on."

Mooney and his wife first started practising transcendental meditation 10 years ago when they were expecting their first child.

They were approaching a time of their lives where they knew they would need help with stress relief and coping with fatigue, he said.

"For me, mental health is exacerbated by physical things as well.

"If I'm stressed out with work and I'm not sleeping and not fuelling my body well ... that's where the benefits from meditation really step in."

Transcendental meditation teacher Michael Kennedy said it was "a simple technique" of meditation that people practised for about 20 minutes by sitting with their eyes closed.

"It's really practical in that you can do it anywhere ... It's just a technique for settling the mind to a quieter level," the Katikati-based teacher said.

"There's an awareness out there that we need something to help our mental health.

"Everybody's dealing with high levels of stress and that can be disturbing and so people need time to recover from that."

When done regularly, it helped neutralise stress and tension, Kennedy said. Starting the day with meditation could also help people focus better at work.

"The mind is thinking all the time ... people notice that their breathing during a meditation is softer, their muscle systems are relaxed and basically, their mind is more settled during the practice.

"After meditation, they just feel a bit calmer and they feel maybe a little more energy after it."

Rotorua yoga teacher Jenny Lux said yoga was a "holistic" practice that had physical, mental and emotional benefits. It helped support a healthy and "accepting" outlook on life, she said.

"We go through different phases and different struggles and yoga helps to take a step back and observe yourself."

The mental practices of yoga, such as meditation and breathwork, helped to slow the "monkey mind".

"If you are in a frantic, worried or anxious state, breathwork can help you to calm that.

"If you're in a lethargic, stuck or depressed state, it can help to also enliven you."

Lux said there had been a "big upsurge" in demand for online yoga during the pandemic.

Natalja Wiese, clinical exercise physiologist at The Centre for Health, said many people had been coming to the clinic with anxiety due to Covid.

She said people were sometimes in a flight-or-fight state. In the flight state, people felt stressed and could not relax.

But after exercising, their parasympathetic nervous system was more relaxed, she said.

"That way, things like anxiety [and] depression feel more at ease."

Exercise made the heart rate go up so there was more blood flow and more oxygen going through the body, she said.

She said cardiovascular activity helped to get the heart rate up, such as going on the treadmill or going for a walk outside. Activities such as yoga, meditation and breathwork also helped.

"Through this whole pandemic, a lot of people obviously tend to just sit on the couch a lot ... which doesn't help with mental health."

Wiese said it was important to find a balance between working, relaxing and exercising.

If it is an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

For counselling and supportLifeline: Call 0800 543 354 or text 4357 (HELP)Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)Need to talk? Call or text 1737Depression helpline: Call 0800 111 757 or text 4202

For children and young peopleYouthline: Call 0800 376 633 or text 234What's Up: Call 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm) or webchat (11am to 10.30pm)The Lowdown: Text 5626 or webchat

For help with specific issuesAlcohol and Drug Helpline: Call 0800 787 797Anxiety Helpline: Call 0800 269 4389 (0800 ANXIETY)OutLine: Call 0800 688 5463 (0800 OUTLINE) (6pm-9pm)Safe to talk (sexual harm): Call 0800 044 334 or text 4334All services are free and available 24/7 unless otherwise specified.

For more information and support, talk to your local doctor, hauora, community mental health team, or counselling service.

Follow this link:

Great Minds: How meditation and exercise help mental health - New Zealand Herald

Embracing Our Differences - Southeast Michigan, a nonprofit international art installation celebrating diversity, has selected 31 local adults' and students' artwork to display alongside nationally recognized artists at four Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti parks.

Beginning May 14, visitors at Gallup Park and Leslie Science and Nature Center in Ann Arbor, and Riverside Park and Parkridge Park in Ypsilanti, will be able to enjoy the pieces as billboard-sized banners. The installations are expected to stay up until September.

"All of the banners are meant to spark discussion about diversity. They talk about different kinds of diversity race, sex, LGBTQ, and physical and mental differences, as well," says Nancy Margolis, president of Embracing Our Differences - Southeast Michigan. "The whole idea is to get children and people to think about how there are differences in the world, and how much each of these differences can enrich our lives by understanding them."

Sixty banners will be spread out across the parks. Embracing Our Differences - Southeast Michigan received 40 entries, which were pared down by a panel of local judges, in response to a call for submissions from Washtenaw County residents last year. Some artwork from the original Embracing Our Differences nonprofit, based in Sarasota, Fla., has also been chosen to round out the displays.

"The submissions you'll see from Washtenaw County are just fabulous," Margolis says. "Some are done by children as young as fourth grade. One was done by a group of children who did it as a collaborative effort in Ypsilanti. All are wonderful."

Starting May 17, Embracing Our Differences - Southeast Michigan will offer no-cost field trips to the Gallup Park and Riverside Park installations for all Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti public schools. The docent-led trips are already being booked.

Buoyed by the interest and wide community support, Margolis also hopes to run field trips for children's camps. Like the school field trips, there will be no cost. And for camps that don't have buses, Embracing Our Differences - Southeast Michigan plans to arrange Ann Arbor public school buses as a transportation option to the sites.

"Teachers are being very creative in how they can use these banners to bring awareness to diversity. We've got some who are planning fun play or picnic lunches after we talk about the banners," Margolis says. "It's a wonderful way to get the message of diversity across in a way that gets kids talking about differences, belonging, and understanding."

Jaishree Drepaul is a freelance writer and editor currently based in Ann Arbor. She can be reached at jaishreeedit@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of Embracing Our Differences - Southeast Michigan.

View original post here:

Outdoor installations in Ann Arbor and Ypsi to feature local artists' meditations on diversity - Second Wave Media

Poet Ocean Vuong is always grieving. As an artist, he sees language as an architecture to reckon with loss, both personal and communal, and his writing is informed by his decades-long practice of death meditation. The poem is a profound death meditation, he shared with Tricycle editor-in-chief James Shaheen and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg in a recent episode of Life As It Is. Its a place where death doesnt even have to be mentioned in order to be felt. Sometimes you can feel that death and dying haunt a work without it having to be named. His latest collection, Time Is a Mother, was written in the aftermath of his mothers death to cancer in late 2019 and offers an intimate portrait of grief, loss, and survival.

James and Sharon sat down with Vuong to discuss the immediacy of poetry, the cultural work of the refugee, and the relationship between his poetry and his Buddhist practice. Read an excerpt from their conversation below, and listen to the full episode here.

Sharon Salzberg: You grew up surrounded by storytellers, and youve spoken about how you see writing as a kind of communal exchange. Can you share more about how the styles of storytelling you encountered as a child influence your poetry?

Ocean Vuong: Absolutely. When we think of the refugee, we often think of a passive, needful, and pandering subject. Theres this perennial victimhood that is reductive to the identity of people who are very complex. For me, I like to reorient how we see refugees as people who are incredibly creative and innovative and have to make life-saving decisions not only for themselves but for the people they love. Nobody survives by accident. Survival is an innovative act. I saw that right away with the women in my family in the stories they decided to tell. They had to make decisions. The mind can only hold so much, so what do you remember? What do you leave behind? Theyre doing cultural work.

As a culture, were having discussions now of which works we should read and which works we should leave in the past. Who do we carry? Whos problematic? Which texts are harmful? Were doing this all the time as a culture, and often its in institutions and discussions and syllabuses. But I realized these women were already doing this on the boats. As they were fleeing, they were deciding: What do I give to my children, to my grandchildren? What stories do I pass on so that they can make use of? This is at the heart of civilization. We can go back to the epic poets of Gilgamesh or Homer and the Iliad. Those texts were so vital to the flourishing of our cultures because they were civic treaties about ones obligation to the community through reciprocal civic bonds. I felt the same thing happened with how the women in my family told stories. There was always a lesson. There was always a purpose. And they edited their stories down every time they told them. Looking back, I realize that I was at the heart of a master class: how my grandmother would pause over details, what details to leave in, what to gloss over, how she sped up time and slowed it down. I would learn much later in college how Faulkner and Whitman and Toni Morrison did this as well, and I realized my grandmother was doing this intuitively. And so when I look at my personal canon of creativity, the women who raised me are right up there with the Faulkners, the Joyces, the Virginia Woolfs and James Baldwins.

James Shaheen: Youve talked about the language lab and the linguistic innovation that takes place in queer communities of color. Im wondering if you can share about the role poetry plays in articulating different possible futures.

Ocean Vuong: This has always been poetrys role. Ive always felt that as long as there were soldiers, there were poets, and I think thats always true: the history of poetry is the history of displacement. Its the history of war. Its our species-wide condition. And thats why I think it can never die, regardless of how we read it. There have been conversations about the crisis of printing, but now theres Twitter poetry and Instagram poetry because its so portable. For any marginalized community, innovation often occurs through the most portable and malleable forms of art. This is true with hip-hop and how hip-hop blurs into poetry for communities of color in spoken-word traditions. Poetry can happen anywhere. It has the power to interrupt. You dont need a plot or context. You just need the self, the body. A poem can happen at any given moment. The power to be portable and interrupt is why poetry can cross so many borders and why it means so much to so many people. You can participate in it. I tell my students that to be a nurse or a doctor, you have to get a nursing degree or go to medical school for eight years, maybe a decade. But if you want to be a poet, you could do it tonight. You could do it right now. And theres an incredible exhilaration of power that the form really offers you.

People often feel frustrated with poetry because they feel like its beyond them. Were taught to plunder a text for a thesis. As soon as were in elementary school, were asked, whats the summary of this passage? Critical thinking tells us that we are outside of meaning and reading will help us enter, and then we become hunters in the text. But thats only one way of reading, and its a failure of our pedagogy because another way to read is to read a poem the way we experience weather. What is the meaning of rain? Rain doesnt have a secret. It just exists. Its the same with music. You experience music. Why do we cry listening to Bach? Theres no meaning inherent in the notes. This is also true with mantras. Theres no inherent meaning, but the intention creates a profound effect on the sonic wave and then the brain and then the emotions.

Part of my work as an educator is to undo a lot of these strict ways of reading that have been hammered into our students. When I encourage my students to read this way, they get really excited but also really nervous. Theyll say, Oh my God, what do you mean, it could be anything? And I say, Yeah, just like weather and music. Just experience it, and then you realize that theres so much pleasure. I often turn to Basho and Issa, the 17th- and 18th-century Japanese poets who were influenced by Buddhism. One of my favorite Issa poems is the haiku, Crickets on a log, floating downriver, still singing. You dont need to decode that. You can get a PhD on it if you like. Nobody will be upset. But you dont need to. Its there. To me, poetry is both rhetoric and the enactment of life as it is perceived. Its a phenomenological approach, and theres no right or wrong way to experience it.

Get Daily Dharma in your email

Start your day with a fresh perspective

Explore timeless teachings through modern methods.

With Stephen Batchelor, Sharon Salzberg, Andrew Olendzki, and more

Thank you for subscribing to Tricycle! As a nonprofit, we depend on readers like you to keep Buddhist teachings and practices widely available.

Read more from the original source:

Ocean Vuong on 'Time Is a Mother' and Poetry's Power - Tricycle - Tricycle