Brenda Skidmore asked:

If you are suffering from, or have had in the past, some rather unpleasant experiences of not being able to sleep, take heart. You are not alone, and you definitely have lots of wide-eyed company sharing this dilemma with you.

Roughly, about 35 million Americans, currently, have some precarious night owl tendencies. They find themselves up all hours of the night reading, watching late night movies, or listening to soothing music or sounds, in an attempt to go to sleep.

Many of you who have, or have had, sleep problems can attest to the fact, that the repercussions of losing a good night's sleep, or more, has far more serious consequences than just extreme tiredness, sluggish thinking, or impaired memory functioning the next day.

Frequent bouts with insomnia can lead to an increased sensitivity to aches and pains, bad moods, and an eventual over all feeling of negative mental and physical health.

Many of the symptoms of chronic insomnia can mimic the symptoms of other health conditions such as pain disorders like fibromyalgia, and mood disorders like depression, anxiety, and dementia. Unless your insomnia is not caused by an underlying medical condition, like sleep apnea, there is definitely more than one good road leading back to a better night's sleep.

Most, who have had repeated rounds of unproductive attempts to reduce sleepless nights, on their own, end up visiting their physicians hoping for a quick-fix pill solution. Antidepressants, tranquilizers, or other special sleep medications, oftentimes, offers no real long-term relief you can reliably trust.

Inherent drug side effects comes with the territory, here, as well as drug tolerance to the initial effective dose that may bring about a remission of your symptoms. Eventually, if one decides to remain on chemical substances, a raising of the dose, or a substitution of a different drug often becomes necessary. Frustration begins to set in as you discover that, without the medications, your sleep problems are, predominately, still with you.

According to 'The National Institute of Health', primary insomnia is a common condition, on its own, and is not caused by an underlying medical problem. To be considered true insomnia, though, the difficulty in getting to sleep or staying asleep must be present for at least one month.

And, according to the ASDA (American Sleep Disorders Association) insomnia is considered 'chronic' when you have experienced the inability to go to sleep or stay asleep three nights a week for at least 3 months.

Primary insomnia, the type more commonly experienced by most, is often triggered by specific circumstances, like a traumatic event or situation in one's life. The main theme that is most likely to cause insomnia is some type of precipitating event-like a divorce or other personal relationship problems, job or career changes, or a death of a friend or loved one. When the initial trauma of the precipitating event, eventually, goes away, sometimes the insomnia part does not.

Sometimes, too, the insomnia continues on because bad sleeping habits were adopted to cope with a stress-filled inability to go to sleep during the course of the triggering event. Over indulging in alcohol, chemical pills, over eating, and lack of regular physical exercise are considered to be bad sleep hygiene habits. It is a good idea to try to break these habits and avoid stimulants, both chemical and technological-like coffee, tea, television, and computers.

We can all become susceptible, to developing certain conditioned pattern responses, in trying to cope with long-term sleep deprivation problems. Certain individuals even develop what is known as 'sleep dread', in developing a persistent anxiety about not being able to fall asleep, or stay asleep, before bedtime.

As you already know, worrying about anything before you go to bed at night, or while you are trying to go to sleep, is not a great time to try and resolve problems with bills, jobs, or personal relationship issues. Try really hard not to worry about things you have no control over, even if you think you do have some control over some of these things, take a break for the night, for the sake of getting a better night's sleep.

If you have faith in a higher power, pass most of your worries on to God or another source of spiritual comfort. Never underestimate the power of developing a spiritual practice to help you sleep better, and to help you in many other areas of your life.

At one time, I considered myself to be a chronic insomniac. Sleep would evade me several nights a week, and this amounted to many nights over the course of a month. I had developed a distinct pattern that would wax and wane, due to a troubled personal relationship, over a 15 year season of my life.

By and large, in all those years I tried just about everything, from prescription drugs to over the counter sleep aides, that I could find to help ease me into a restful night's sleep. Out of desperation, I read about and tried quite a few natural herbal remedies as well. For a while, most of these substances would actually work for me.

During a long and drawn out process of 15 years I , eventually, discovered that all of these substances were just merely short-term band aides fixes. They were fine for the occasional relief of a rare sleepless night. If there is a precipitating event or situation in your life that is contributing to a lack of sleep, however, the issue will have to be uncovered and resolved. Whether it is a conscious issue or a subconscious one, meditating can help spot some light on the issue and bring it to your visual awareness.

Luckily, after approaching my sleep problems in only one way for many years, I happened to find a meditation audio created by the 'Immrama Institute', that used harmonically layered binaural beats gently interwoven inside the sounds of soft rainfall very sensitive, soothing, and relaxing.

Meditation can take years of dedicated practice, and can be quite difficult to learn and master in the traditional way. A well crafted sound audio, however, can make it almost effortless to achieve deep relaxation. I began using it regularly. It helped me to get completely quiet for about 20 minutes, or longer, a day. I managed, in a rather short amount of time, of about a month, to improve my over all sleep quality dramatically.

Regular meditation has, also, helped me gain more control over several other troubling issues in my life such as:

1.reduced overall daily anxiety levels

2.achieved prolonged states of deep relaxation

3. improved outlook on life, in general

4.found the motivation to pursue personal life goals

5.heightened sense of self-awareness, and intuition

6.increased creativity

I have been using this relaxation audio for two years, and simply love it!

The long term benefits of regularly using a sound based relaxation technique in combination with a basic rudimentary understanding of biology, physics, and in faithfully applying ancient, spiritual wisdom teachings to improve one's life are not to be underestimated, either, in their over all effectiveness. Becoming a more spiritually centered individual has its perks and long-term advantages in overcoming any physical health issue. I recently found a wealth of written information and a creative sound treatment program called, "Sound Health Sound Wealth" I found it not only to be truly helpful, but very effective too in calming and soothing any psychological fears one may have.

Strategies such as those mentioned above, can help you to want to embrace improvement. Desire can bring about some much needed, wanted, and longed for self-loving, changes within yourself. Consciously choosing to get more consistent nutritional elements in your daily diet, engaging in more physical exertion, and, yes, even improving one's spiritual awareness of sounds, colors, and light can take you as far as your intuition and intelligence will not be an inhibiting factor.

Upon embarking in such an incredible journey, I'll make a wish for all of you, who have trouble sleeping. I hope you are, soon, sleeping better, more soundly, and challenging your thinking mind, more often. Open yourself up to more exciting possibilities in the near future.

MP3 Meditation

anne weinstein asked:

How do we deal with everything life throws at us in this day and age?

If you are living in the world today, you are facing serious issues that may cause depression. With stress over the economy, finances, and other professional and personal problems, more people today face mental health issues than ever before.

So, how do we start to deal with depression? How do we find some solid ground on which to stand in these uncertain times?

One economical and efficient way to deal with depression is through meditation. Most people know what meditation is but fail to understand the true benefits that come from taking time to meditate. By setting aside time each day to spend a few quiet moments in self-reflection or by engaging in what Dr. Rebbie Straubing calls "affirmative contemplation" techniques each day, we can relieve stress and increase self esteem.

How do we know meditation is worthwhile? Meditation is recommended today by most mental health care professionals as a positive way to deal with stress and depression. Meditation has the power to replace negative thoughts and energy with positive thoughts and energy. Meditation will also serve to clear your head and eliminate stress over everyday problems that can weigh you down.

How does meditation work? Dr. Rebbie Straubing offers an unusual model of how the power of law of attraction is what makes meditation so effective. Law of attraction dictates that by having positive thoughts, we can bring about positive results. Simply put - think positive and good things will happen to you. Positive thoughts attract positive results. And by using the meditation process that Dr. Rebbie Straubing calls "affirmative contemplation," you can begin to feel the positive effects almost immediately.

So, how do we take time to meditate each day? And how do we keep our thoughts positive to attract positive results?

Here's how:

· You have taken the first step by reading this article.

· Find a thought that feels comforting to you.

· Spend some time each day relaxing into that thought.

· Meditation recordings can be a great help - relax as you listen.

· Start enjoying a more positive and productive life.

No one can escape the reality of stress in this day and age. However, with help we can learn to keep stress manageable and create our own positive results.

Since most of us do not have someone in our life that will tell us each day how to deal with problems. And since no one will tell us how worthy and valuable we truly are - it is up to us to remind ourselves. We must take the responsibility of reinforcing our self-worth. Most of us would forget or neglect this important duty, but we owe it to ourselves to meditate on, contemplate, and affirm our own joy. There are tools that are specifically designed to remind us each day to keep depression at bay. With this help, we can turn positive thoughts into positive reality and beat depression.

How to Meditation

Ashish Jain asked:

Stress management can be spiritual or secular. The combination of spiritual and secular activities can be a perfect tool for stress management activities.

As far as spiritual activities are concerned, take to the universally accepted technique- meditation! A better tool has yet to be found for stress management. It not only eliminates your present stress, it takes the stress out of your life for all times to come.

Do you think that an individual is a self-contained personality? It is proved beyond doubt that you use less than 5% of the actual powerhouse that you are! The rest of the energy is not utilized by a human being! You can activate through meditation, as you reach the higher levels, brain chemicals that slow your aging process and dramatically increase your functional life. Through medication you can have the inner vision and mind-blowing experiences.

You may wonder, how meditation could be one of the stress management activities! In fact, it is not just one of the stress management activities. It is the only one! Other techniques are kindergarten stuff before this ultimate tool of stress management. Meditation kindles the light within.

Take this example, and try to understand the benefits of meditation as a tool that controls the stress. Suppose you enter a dark room and switch on the tube light. Then, it is not necessary for you to inform or urge the darkness to go away. The moment light arrives, darkness goes automatically.

Similarly, the moment the light experience takes hold on you, the negative tendencies will fall apart, automatically. They move out, without being told. Light and darkness can not stay at the same place. Similarly, stress and peace of mind cannot walk together. Can two persons walk together, except they be agreed?

What are the universally accepted negative tendencies of an individual? Prominent among the galaxy of negative traits are, anger, fear, anxiety, sadness and greed. These simple looking negativities, are deeply entrenched within you, and you have to go their roots to remove them. The positive qualities like creativity, improved focus and concentration can meet the challenge of stress effectively.

Listening to soothing music, and inspiring talks through video/audio cassettes, has found a prominent place among the stress management activities.

In the final analysis, stress management is all about understanding your mind. Engage it in a frank silent talk. It has the habit of not listening to you and running its own way. You can check it through meditation and begin to control it. In the end, I will assure you, that it has no other option but to surrender at your feet!

I will also caution you that it will do so, after lots of struggle and by offering you stiff resistance, at every stage!

audio meditation

Steve Young asked:

I know that many of you will be thinking what will meditation do for me, why is it so important and of course 'I don't have time to sit around trying to clear my head, I'm busy'. Well let's be honest here, do you suffer from stress, now think about this a little more, because the answer is yes and if you're not sure about that read on and think a little more...and don't forget to check out my recommendation for easy stress relief.

Why Are We All Stressed?

With modern day living comes the hectic and ever demanding pace of live, it's no wonder that many of us feel stressed and overworked and how many of us take this home with us, how many others feel the impact of the stress we feel?

Our stress and tiredness of everyday life lead us to the feelings of unhappiness, frustration and a lack of patience when it comes to dealing with even the most simple every day routines. Not to mention the impact that all this has on our health, the tiredness that we feel, the ever nagging inner voice reminding us that we need to do this and that and the other. Or the demands of our boss, our clients, our family and friends all add up to making life one big stress ball.

'I'm stressed out', 'work is one big stress', 'I'm under too much stress', 'the kids are stressing me out', these are all phrases that we are all too familiar with and it is also an acceptable part of every day life.

How Do I Define My Stress?

Stress is hard to define as it means different things to different people; however, one thing that is perfectly clear to all of us is that stress is a negative emotion, negative energy as opposed to positive.

Stress can be both physical and mental. Physical stress could be the result of a lack of sleep, or a poor diet and even an effect of an illness. Mental stress can be worrying about money, or how you're going to survive retirement, or from experiencing a devastatingly emotional event such as the death of a family member, or being fired from work.

Our Natural Stress Response System

But did you know that much of our stress comes from less dramatic everyday routines. Obligations and pressures which are both physical and mental are not always that obvious to us and in response to these daily strains our body automatically invokes a stress response which floods your body with chemicals which increases your blood pressure, your heart rate, the blood flow to your muscles, your metabolism and your respiration. All of these responses are natural reactions so that our bodies are ready to react quickly and effectively under high pressure situations, termed fight or flight. Now whilst a stress response is useful in true emergency situations when you need to be on alert, it can considerably wear your body down when constantly active.

We are all continuously reacting to stressful situations, which is termed stress response, but without making adjustments in our lives to counter the effects. Stress can cause physical, emotional and behavioral disorders which affect our health, vitality and peace of mind; and of course it also affects our personal and professional relationships. Stress is also the key cause to many minor illnesses such as insomnia, headaches and backaches on top of the life threatening diseases such as high blood pressure and even heard disease.

It is also very true that every person handles stress differently, take for example a major life decision like changing careers, or moving house. I know some of you are cringing at the thought, but I also know that some of you would relish the thought. Whatever may be overwhelming to some people might actually be seen as a welcome change to others. An even simpler example is sitting in traffic, some people find this too much to tolerate tooting their horns and screaming out for more coffee, whilst others just take it in their stride maybe with the help of a little music, or a happy thought.

So what's the answer? Well, aside from the inexhaustible amount of drugs available to reduce stress, which include free side effects I may add, there's one very simple and natural way to reduce stress that takes 10 to 20 minutes of your day and has no side effects, meditation.

Our Natural Relaxation Response System

Earlier I mentioned that the secret to reducing your stress is by making adjustments in your life to counter the effects of stress, well this is done by evoking a relaxation response within you.

A relaxation response is a state of deep rest that is the opposite of the stress response. The relaxation response brings your body back into balance by deepening your breathing, reducing the stress chemicals in your body, slowing down your heart rate and relaxing your muscles. It also increases your energy, improves your focus, relieves headaches and other aches and pains, heightens your problem solving skills and boosts motivation and productivity and the best news is that with a little practice anyone can gain from these benefits.

Recommendations

As many of you out there are new to meditation and I am certain that there are also many of you who don't want to get into depth of how to meditate or what form of meditation to use and want a quick head start, I would recommend you begin with an affordable audio meditation. I use several and one that is particularly good for stress relief is Totally Tranquil by Holothink and you can pick up a free ten minute demonstration by clicking on, or copying and pasting this link into your browser: http://holothink.com/hg/?a=V1L0R1YlpM

also increases energy and focus, combats illness, relieves aches and pains, heightens problem-solving abilities, and boosts motivation and productivity. Best of all - with a little practice - anyone can reap these benefits.

deepening your breathing, reducing stress hormones, slowing down your heart rate and blood pressure, and relaxing your muscles.

a state of deep rest that is the polar opposite of the stress response.

this is known as Just ten or twenty minutes a day of meditation will bring relief from chronic stress and also increase your tolerance to it.

Remember, each person handles stress differently. Some people actually seek out situations which may appear stressful to others. A major life decision, such as changing careers or buying a house, might be overwhelming for some people, while others may welcome the change. Some find sitting in traffic too much to tolerate, while others take it in stride. The key is determining your personal tolerance levels for stressful situations.

Stress can cause physical, emotional and behavioral disorders which can affect your health, vitality, peace-of-mind, as well as personal and professional relationships. Too much stress can cause relatively minor illnesses like insomnia, backaches, or headaches, and can contribute to potentially life-threatening diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease.

Stress can also be mental: when you worry about money, a loved oneÕs illness, retirement, or experience an emotionally devastating event, such as the death of a spouse or being fired from work.

However, much of our stress comes from less dramatic everyday responsibilities. Obligations and pressures which are both physical and mental are not always obvious to us. In response to these daily strains your body automatically increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood flow to you muscles. This response, is intended to help your body react quickly and effectively to a high-pressure situation.

With the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and over-worked. It often feels like there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. Our stress and tiredness make us unhappy, impatient and frustrated. It can even affect our health. We are often so busy we feel there is no time to stop and meditate! But meditation actually gives you more time by making your mind calmer and more focused. A simple ten or fifteen minute breathing meditation as explained below can help you to overcome your stress and find some inner peace and balance.

Meditation can also help us to understand our own mind. We can learn how to transform our mind from negative to positive, from disturbed to peaceful, from unhappy to happy. Overcoming negative minds and cultivating constructive thoughts is the purpose of the transforming meditations found in the Buddhist tradition. This is a profound spiritual practice you can enjoy throughout the day, not just while seated in meditation.

Hi there,

http://www.morphogeneticmeditation.com is a new social network site for meditation. It is based on morphogenetic field theory, which encompasses theory of a collective consciousness. The aim of my website is to bring people together whether you are new to meditation, or a meditation guru and arrange group meditation across the globe.

Yes, that's right, I want to have people collectively meditating on any chosen topic at the same time anywhere in the world and thus improving your success with meditation and also manifestation. I want to prove to the world through your success that the collective consciousness exists and so I want you to share your success with everyone.

We are also going to arrange times for everyone on the site to get together at a predetermined time and meditate on peace, love and happiness and raise awareness of the collective consciousness.

At http://www.morphogeneticmeditation.com you will be able to add a whole host of content including video, pictures, music, your own blog, submit articles, post classified advertisements, post upcoming events and of course make friends, chat, learn and meditate. MorphopgeneticMeditation.com is your very own meditation social network so come along and have some fun at http://www.morphogeneticmeditation.com

Come and join us in our quest to make this world and your world a better place to live in through collective meditation.

Meditation Books for Beginner

Alice asked:

okay, I am trying to connect more with the spiritual world and other things. Meditation is good for this as well as finding inner peace and things like that. Some things I have read told me to meditate for half an hour every day, but every time I try, I end up getting bored long before the half hour is up. I enjoy meditation as it calms me down, but I have a lot of trouble just concentrating on nothing or my breating. Does anyone have any advice for my meditation?

Also, does anyone have any tips on astral projection? I've tried but haven't gotten very far with it. Has anyone achieved it and if so, what did you do?

Veni, vidi, excessi!
Alice

Meditation Books for Beginner

Rhianna asked:

I know they are not the same but if one is meditating is it possible that they could astral project if they are deep enough in meditation? I guess it would take years or a lifetime to be able to get to that point. The reason why I'm asking is that I want to learn to meditate but do not wish to astral project.
I read the answers posted so far and that is what I thought. The reason why I don't want to astral project is because it is possible to open yourself up to evil presences. I would be interested to know how the experience feels however to those who have tried it. Also do you think it is possible to open yourself to an evil presence while mediatating? I have never heard such a thing and they always say that mediation is good for you. Is it possible to go so deep that you could actually lose yourself?

Brain Wave

jake asked:

I often get terrible physical stagefright when doing assignments infront of class in college. I realized that always right before I present I can tell my heartrate is going through the roof to where I can barely talk and my hands shake violently. I think most of my problem with this is physical so if I did a meditation technique before class or something just before my presentation it would help. Any ideas?

Meditation Books for Beginner

rock of ages or ages of rock asked:

By nature, I tend to be overly emotional and sensitive, this has caused me problems in the past. I was just wondering if anyone might have any knowledge on how to fix this problem, through meditation or any other method.

MP3 Meditation

gogo asked:

I have meditation checked in wikipedia, there are just too many branches, can somebody just give me simple advice? I'm stressing more on concentrate on breathing.

meditation

unknown1 u asked:

i know meditation is very good, but i want to know How much time is needed to achieve meditation?

Thanks.

Meditation Books for Beginner