Heart Mind

Heart Mind - Being in the Moment.

I have always loved The Pattern On The Trestle Board (B.O.T.A.), especially the first two
lines: “This is the truth about the Self. All the power that ever was or will be is here now.”
I think it really helps one to grasp the notion of the Heart Mind.

What is the Heart Mind? It is the mind that flows from our heart - full of compassion and
wisdom. We all have an efficient and effective mind living in our brain which rules the majority
of our life. Even while meditating our mind may enter the scene taking us away from the beauty
of the moment. We do need our mind to function and interpret any revelations we might receive
during meditation. The trick is to learn and spend time cultivating our connection with our
Heart Mind - aka - spiritual mind.

Exercise: Sit in a relaxed, comfortable position. Bow with your hands at your heart. Take
a couple of deep breaths at your tan tien (just below your navel). Close your eyes and allow your mind to relax. The goal is to think of absolutely nothing.
Let go of the need for things to be any particular way right now.  Let your experience in this
moment be whatever it is. Perhaps you're feeling some tension and you have a belief that
tension should not be present in your meditation. Allow this to be as it is. Simply breathe into
your tension and allow yourself to be here in this moment.

Let go of the past. Let go of the future. Just be here now. Allow everything in your
environment to be as it is without needing to control it. Let yourself be enough. The you
who you are right now, not the one you think you need to be. You are perfect just the
way you are. There is only one of you. You are unique and special.

The ego is hard-wired with the need to know. Thinking this is how we find our way through
life. It grasps onto certainty and onto knowledge like prize possessions. It is not unusual to
have fears like, without knowing, I’ll be lost. It doesn't realize that the very act of holding
onto knowing, obstructs your ongoing wisdom from rising anew in each moment.

When our attention is no longer distracted by everything we cling to, it becomes free to move
with what arises in each moment. Free to understand, know and see. Being available for
instantaneous wisdom.  Intuition is available to blend with your hard-earned knowledge.
Practice letting go of every idea your mind produces during meditation. Let go of each thought
as it comes to your mind, beliefs that you're holding onto. Greet them nicely, “Hello ideas,
hello thoughts, you can move along now. There is plenty of time for you later.

The fullness of you is beyond imagination, beyond concept, beyond any story you could
ever tell about yourself. Every image you could invent to represent yourself would be
just a snapshot, a minute fraction of a universe that cannot be contained within the mind.
It takes the depth of your Heart Mind to contain the vastness of you. In fact when we look
deeply into our beliefs about ourselves, we find that any idea we hold on to about limitations
are restricting the full experience and expression of who we actually are.

The ego thinks that we need to know who we are in order to know how to be. It seems
like without any self-image, self-concept or self-story, we wouldn't know who to show up as.
What we find is that if we let go of the need to know who we are, and no longer hold on to
any preconceived self-image or self-concept, everything we need to know about who to be,
reveals itself spontaneously in the moment. A way of being, unpremeditated, instantaneous
freedom of being reveals itself over and over again. There's no need for us to control it.
There's no need for us to bridle who we are, what we are. The fullness of being, of self,
shows up, free of any rigidity. Instantaneous and luminous, we dance with life, each moment
a new move.

Truly being in the present moment allows you to see what it means to let go of the future.

Often, the identification with the ego has us looking to the future as the place and the time
when everything is going to be just right, when things/circumstances will be different, or
feelings will be different. This future that lives in our mind has no basis in reality. The future
we imagine never comes and it never will. All there ever is, all there ever was is this moment
right now. Can you allow yourself the concept of living in this present moment and realize it
is the only moment you'll ever have? Cultivating, through meditation, being in the moment,
builds the perfect future for you. The perfection we long for will surprisingly appear.

Please join me Monday mornings and Wednesday nights. See calendar page for the dates. www.MeditationFromTheHeart.com

Detox and Meditation

DeTox and Meditation   

Blood Sugar Solution

On Monday the 4^th of August I started my 10 Day DeTox Diet from the Blood Sugar Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman.

I have reached my tenth day and I feel great! You might remember I was a little stumbly mouthed last Wednesday – beginning of day three.

You may ask, “What does detox have to do with meditation?”

Good question. Well part of my meditation practice leads to a heightened sense of awareness about self. I got the intuition hit that it was time to go seek out who will be my ‘regular’ MD and get my never-been-annual physical wellness check-up. (Rachel Abrhams).

Long story short, my labs came back with some high blood sugar results. Dr. Abrhams recommended I read the Blood Sugar Solution to understand more about it.

Well, being my over achiever self, I went ahead and ordered the Detox book as well. She was amazed that I took such pro-active action.

Over the past 9 days I have lost 6.5 pounds and 2 inches. As well as dropping my Body Mass Index (BMI) by 1 point. I was never hungry the entire time. I also walked 38 miles, drank 6 gallons of water and meditated for 12 hours.

I’d like to share some gems from my learning/doing journey:

Sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine. Our bodies are hardwired to seek pleasure and reward – it is a survival mechanism that saved us when we were hunter-gatherers. We have a built-in brake on hunger to tell the body when we have had enough food – it is called leptin – a hormone produced by fat cells. Modern society has tampered with that brake line for many of us.

Eat Organically

It is important to eat as much organic fruits, vegetables and meats. No big fish.

High Fructose corn syrup often contains an extra bonus of mercury as a by-product of processing.

Anything that causes inflammation will, in turn, cause insulin resistance, which helps to generate belly fat (the other brain).

Relaxation: How many of us have heard, "You need to relax." Agreed, and proceeded to nod while going about your crazy paced life and diet, swearing to get to it when you have time.

I've learned that stress increases your levels of insulin, cytokines (messenger molecules of the immune system that trigger inflammation) and cortisol (a trigger that helps create belly fat).

Stress also increases your appetite and your carb and sugar cravings, provoking the metabolic dysfunction that leads to weight gain. So if you want to lose weight, start by soothing your stressed out body and mind.

For many people the sympathetic nervous system - fight or flight - is stuck in the "on" position. If you want to heal your brain, metabolism, and chromosomes, you need to learn how to hit the pause button and activate the parasympathetic system which governs the rest and relax response. The sense of calm you feel when you can let down your guard, breathe calmly and just be.

Breathe Deeply

Deep breathing is wonderful for relaxation. When you take a deep breath you stimulate a vagus nerve which calms your mind. The vagus nerve runs from your brain through your chest cavity through all your organs, like an octopus stretching out its tentacles to every cell in the body.

Stimulating the vagus nerve signals the production of hormones that calm your nervous system, reduce cortisol, help metabolize your food, boost brain function, and naturally regulates your appetite and fat burning.

Meditation not only stimulates the vagus nerve and activates the relaxation response - it has been scientifically proven to make our brains bigger and better. Stress shortens our telomeres (the little caps at the ends of the chromosomes) and this directly impacts our longevity. Meditation reverses that. Please, I urge you, to cultivate at least a five minute a day meditation practice for yourself.

Get enough sleep! Good tips for better sleep: Go to bed and wake up at the same time to create a regular rhythm of sleep.

Use your bed for sleep and romance only. And make your bed every morning.

Have a clutter-free bedroom.

Get at least 20 minutes of sunlight a day, preferably in the morning. The sunlight enters your eyes and triggers your brain to release specific chemicals, such as melatonin that are vital to healthy sleep cycles and balanced moods, and help prevent premature aging.

Do not eat within three hours of bedtime.

Avoid bright stimulating screens before bed. They alter your brain's natural sleep chemicals. Best to sleep in a dark room.

Take an hour (minimum of 20 minutes) of lovely wind-down time.

Write down your worries or the next day’s to-do list. This frees your mind and helps you get into a deep state of relaxation.

Get a massage or stretch before bed to relax the body. Or learn a few yoga poses like lying on the floor and putting your legs up against the wall. This passive stretching can help calm your body, quiet your mind, and reset your nervous system.

Warm your middle.

Avoid medications that interfere with sleep. These include sedatives which disrupt sleep rhythms, antihistamines, stimulants, cold medications, steroids, and headache medications that contain caffeine.

Use herbal therapies such as 300 to 600 milligrams of passionflower or 320-480 milligrams of valerian root extract one hour before bed.

Meditate before bed.

I hope my insights/learning's during my detox have been helpful to you.

I have to say, I was a bit concerned that I had lost my “Wonder Woman Mojo” about day three. I don’t think it really came back until day eight or nine. I feel so good now that I will continue following some of the new strategies I acquired during my detox.

Bon Appetit!

  

Please join me Monday mornings and Wednesday nights. See calendar page for the dates. Meditation From The Heart