Stop Claim Luck! Page 4

  Increased Speed of Learning

  By constantly learning new things, you will begin to learn things a lot quicker. When you stimulate the brain’s neurons, more pathways are formed, and the electrical impulses move quicker down them while you are processing the new information. The more pathways you form, the faster the impulse will be travel.

  Here are some key points to remember:

  Learning something new will change the way you do daily things. You will begin to do things easier and faster thus saving you stress, energy, and time.

  You might earn more money by learning a new skill or developing what you already know. You will revive your job and get a lot more out of it.

  You will gain access to different, new opportunities and will be able to try new things that may just be the best things you’ve ever done.

  You will grow personally as you develop your brain and turn yourself into a better person.

  Meditate

  M editation is an extreme way of concentrating. It lets the mind focus on just one thing. It will detach you from everything else in the world. People who meditate regularly believe all the divine powers live in our hearts and meditation is the only way to go deeper into the heart. Meditation might not be the answer to your problems, but it can create harmony with your soul and body. To get the most out of meditation, you have to practice it regularly.

  Importance

  If you can learn to meditate every day, you will soon be a calmer person. You will find serenity in each task you do. Every day will bring you new experiences. Don’t think about what transpired throughout the day. Concentrate on the present.

  We are living in stressful times, and this can influence our daily activities. Meditating can help reduce stress. It affects our nervous system. Meditating can reduce the production of cortisol which is the stress hormone. It can increase the production of serotonin which is a good chemical in our brain.

  Sleeping regularly is extremely important for our bodies to function properly. If your mind works overtime, you won’t be getting the right amount of sleep. Meditating regularly can help relieve stress and improve your quality of sleep.

  Having less stress in our lives will bring us more happiness. We will live healthier and happier lives when we meditate.

  People who suffer from depression and anxiety should meditate for 15 to 20 minutes each day. Meditating can also help control anger.

  Meditation can help you get more energy from your inner sources.

  We will learn better habits and live a more disciplined life.

  Meditation can help improve your concentration.

  Meditation can help improve our immune systems and helps lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

  Meditation can slow down the aging process.

  Meditating regularly can help us stabilize our emotions.

  By routinely meditating, you will develop better consciousness and will slowly reach the highest consciousness point.

  Meditation can help you learn the mysteries of life. It could also help you learn more about yourself and give more meaning to life.

  The Basics

  Meditation is rather simple, but many people will make it very complicated. Let’s look at just focusing on breathing. Each time your mind starts to wander from your breathing or your thoughts suck you in, just refocus your attention back to your breathing. Keep repeating this until the timer sounds. Each time you refocus your attention to your breathing, you are working on your “attention muscle.” With time, your attention span, concentration, and focus will improve along with all the things that were mentioned above.

  You will need a few things to help you get started. You probably have these on hand already.

  What You Need

  A Place to Relax

  You might have heard about walking or standing meditation. These are for people who have studied meditation for a long time. Sitting meditation is the best place to begin when you are just learning about meditation.

  You have three different options when figuring out what you want to sit on.

  A chair is a good choice when starting out of if you have problems with your back. Some might find a meditation cushion rather uncomfortable. If you are just beginning meditation, use a chair instead of purchasing an expensive cushion. Sitting in a chair helps you learn how to meditate better.

  A meditation cushion or zafu is very popular for some. The best thing about the cushion is it allows you to sit upright. This helps improve the quality of meditation and your alertness. You might find that you tend to slump when you sit in a chair, and this might make you lose your focus.

  A meditation bench is better if you are tall or a cushion is just not comfortable for you. It forces you to sit straight, and you won’t slump as much as with a chair. Benches help to absorb the weight you apply to your legs. This makes meditating more comfortable.

  It is best if you sit in a chair for the first few times while you are learning to meditate. After that, you can switch to a cushion.

  A cushion keeps you more alert while meditating. You might not have one on hand already, and that’s okay. It will take you time to get your body adapted to sitting on a cushion. You might be sore when you first begin sitting on one. If you are healthy and fit, you probably won’t have any soreness. Using a cushion is best for alertness.

  If you want something that is more comfortable than the cushion or you have leg problems, you need to use a bench.

  Use a chair if you have back problems. Be careful, it will be easier for you to lose focus on a chair because they are more comfortable.

  A Timer

  You can just use your phone. Just remember to turn off the radio before you start. Most phones have built-in timers, and if yours is a smartphone, you might just find a meditation app for it.

  Insight Timer is a good choice. It is free for Android and iPhones. It even allows you to see others all over the world who are meditating at the same time you are.

  Meditate for iPhone is available for $3.99. It is very simple and gives you stats when you are finished.

  There isn’t any reason to go out and buy an actual meditation timer. A free app will work exactly the same way. No use in spending money when you don’t need to.

  What to Do

  When you first begin to meditate, it is a bit confusing as to what you should do after you sit down. Two of the most confusing things are: how to sit and what to think about. This is all you need to worry about when meditating.

  Sitting

  The main thing to remember is keeping your back straight. If you are sitting in a chair, don’t rest against the back of the chair. This might cause you to slump. Keep your posture upright. This will keep you alert and lets you concentrate on breathing.

  You can choose to either open or close your eyes. The main goal of meditation is to work on your attention muscle. If you can concentrate more on your breathing with your eyes closed, then close them. If you find that you doze off when closing your eyes, open them just a bit and focus them on the floor just in front of you.

  Forget about your hands. Some form circles with their thumb and forefinger, but it really doesn’t matter. You can just place your hands, palms down, on your legs or wherever it feels most comfortable to you.

  Crossing your legs. You can cross them any way you would want. You can sit criss-cross applesauce if that is best for you. The main point is to be comfortable.

  Look down even when closing your eyes. This will open up your chest. Find a place that is comfortable. It needs to make you sit up straight and open your chest too.

  The main thing to worry about is finding the posture and pose that will make you sit up straight and is comfortable. The above guidelines should work for almost anyone. If you are too comfortable, you might go to sleep. If you are too uncomfortable, you will be too alert. It is best to find a compromise between the two.

  How to Meditate

  When you pay attention to all the things around them, you are putt
ing them in a mental spotlight. You point at all sorts of things as you move around all day. You do this without thinking about doing it. As you move, you are giving your attention to things like the report you are doing for work, the conversation you are having, and your smartphone. You are sometimes pointing it at more than one thing at any given moment.

  When meditating, you are moving that spotlight and pointing it right at your breath.

  So, with all that said and done, here are six things you need to do when meditating:

  Be comfortable. Open the timer app on your phone, and sit up straight. Remember to be comfortable. Turn the lights down some, or turn them off completely. Whatever it takes to help you focus.

  Begin the timer.

  Focus on breathing. This is what it’s all about. This is why meditation can be both worthwhile and difficult. Close your mouth. Focus completely on your breathing as it comes into your nose and again as it exits your nose. Focus on whatever element you want. It might be how it feels when the air enters or exits the nose. It might be how it feels when the air inflates or deflates the lungs. It might be the sensation you feel under the nose as you are breathing. It could be the sound your nose makes when you breathe. Don’t force breathing, just breathe normally and focus on your breath without thinking about it.

  Try not to think. Never analyze your breathing. This will be the hardest part. Bring your focus and attention to your breath. Don’t think or analyze it.

  If your mind begins to wander, bring your attention back. Your mind will wander. It doesn’t matter how long you have been meditating, your mind will escape you from time to time. Just gently bring your attention back to your breathing when you notice your mind has escaped your focus. Don’t beat yourself up at this point. Just refocus and go on.

  Once again, bring your focus back when it escapes you. If you start thinking about how boring meditation is, just bring your attention back gently to your breathing. If your mind gets restless, bring your focus back to your breathing. Continue to do this until your timer goes off.

  Be Grateful

  T o quote Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

  It is easy to get swept up in the fast lane. We forget to slow down and appreciate what is around us. We don’t appreciate what we have. A life that is lived in thankfulness and gratitude is a life well lived. To help you learn to be more grateful, here are eight ways to include more gratitude in your life:

  Never Get Picky: Appreciate All Things

  You don’t have to save gratitude for big things that happen in our lives. Being grateful begins with being appreciative of all things in your life. You should realize that there isn’t anything that is too small for you to appreciate.

  It might be as simple as being grateful for the rain we received. It might be that the mailman delivered the mail on time yesterday. Never leave out the little things when being grateful.

  Be Grateful for Challenges

  We can’t just be grateful for positive experiences. Thinking about bad or negative situations could help you find everything you need to be thankful for.

  You might be faced with a situation where you have to put your child into rehab for a drug addiction. They have a small child, and you bring that child into your home instead of putting them into foster care. Yes, this totally disrupts your normal everyday living. Instead of getting upset, find the gratitude for how much compassion you have received from others while taking care of your grandchild.

  Dig deep into your past experiences. Find how they might have helped to shape you into who you are today.

  Be Mindful

  Take the time to think about ten things you can be grateful for each day. Once you have thought of something, you need to get a picture of it and then sit and feel the gratitude throughout your entire body. If you can learn to do this each day, it will eventually rewire your brain. You will eventually be more grateful, and you will begin to feel better after each session.

  It will take about eight weeks of practice before your brain patterns change. This will eventually lead to you having more happiness and empathy.

  You have a powerful tool in your brain. Training the brain to be grateful is part of being sure that gratitude comes easy for you. The more you practice, the more grateful you will be.

  Start a Gratitude Journal

  Once you have had a mindfulness session, jot down all the positive thoughts that come into your head. Write all of the positive things in your life in a journal so you can look back and read about all the things you are thankful for.

  Writing down your thoughts will help you focus more on the subject. While you are writing, you don’t have a choice but to think about what you are writing. You won’t be bothered by ungrateful, distracting thoughts.

  You can write in a journal each day after you have done your gratitude practice. You could also choose to visit your journal once a week or once a month.

  If you need help starting a journal, please refer back to the previous chapter on journaling.

  Volunteer

  For some people, giving back to their community is their way of having gratitude. It might make you more grateful for what you take for granted. Studies show that volunteering and helping others will increase your well being and the ability to be more grateful.

  After one professor tested many different variables that could help our well being, he saw that volunteering was the most reliable way of increasing well being.

  To simplify: helping others will help you.

  Express Yourself

  It isn’t enough if you keep your gratitude to yourself. If you can learn to express your gratitude to others, you care for, this can increase your gratitude.

  A group that tries to discover the science behind happiness did an experiment. They had people write letters to someone they were grateful for. The exercise alone increased the happiness levels from two percent to four percent. When these same people called the person they were grateful for and expressed their gratitude to them directly, their levels of happiness rose from just four percent to 19 percent.

  Expressing gratitude to someone not only makes their day brighter but it can increase your happiness and gratitude levels as well.

  Spend Time with Those You Love

  If you are having a hard time feeling grateful, take some time and go see your favorite relative or friend. It is going to bring you closer to them and make your relationship stronger. It can help you practice gratitude on the ones you care about.

  Begin small if you are finding it hard to support a certain family member or friend. The next time somebody shares a story, make sure you are listening mindfully. Don’t interrupt. Make sure you wait until you have a chance to talk. Begin a conversation with someone difficult by giving them a compliment on their new hairstyle or clothing.

  Improve Happiness in All Areas

  You can be happy by being grateful. But just being happy will make you grateful, too. There are many ways to improve your moods like doing your favorite hobby or exercising.

  When you begin to feel those endorphins being released, being grateful will be easy. You will be able to create list after list of everything that you are thankful for.

  Have Some Fun

  W hen was the last time you had fun? When was the last time you felt completely free and happy? You might do a lot of things that you enjoy, but it just doesn’t make you feel happy. Is something missing? There was something missing, but actually, something was there all of the time.

  That something is a tiny voice inside your head. It might sound a little like this:

  “Did you pay the bills? You are too old to wear those clothes. You really should have some car insurance. What if something happened? What if you get into an accident? You need to sell the car. You don’t drive it.”

  That voice will drone on and on. With so much on our plates, that voice will continue to get louder and louder. You might even be persu
aded to give into it. This type of thinking takes more away from you than it will give.

  You can’t be completely present and have fun if you are lost inside a mental maze.

  When you do something that you enjoy, but you are constantly regretting, fearing, worrying, analyzing, and judging everything in your head. It’s like living in a plastic bubble. You will be able to hear and see it all, but it will be diluted.

  It isn’t possible to totally silence that inner voice that consistently judges and interrupts. That hamster wheel inside your head will spin out of control once in a while during our lifetime.

  It is possible to slow it down and possibly even stop it at times. It is very simple. You can silence that inner voice. You can experience more joy. You just have to do these three things:

  Practice Mental Quiet

  Our minds are like muscles. If you need it to work a specific way, it has to be trained.

  As stated in an earlier chapter, meditating two times every day will help you create a peaceful mind. Some people can’t learn to meditate, but they enjoy yoga. Yoga is a part of meditation. It can help you silence your mind.

  You can find a yoga class that will last between 60 and 90 minutes. This lets you have about an hour of meditation. It all depends on the type of yoga you do. There are even silent classes.

  If this doesn’t appeal to you, you might try some of these:

  Find a quiet space to do things you enjoy that doesn’t require you to think like building models, crocheting, knitting, cross stitching, etc. Only focus on what you are doing and what it feels like doing it. Remain silent and breathe deeply while doing whatever you are doing. Your brain will slow down. Do this once each day.

  Go outside and just sit. Don’t do anything, just observe. If your mind begins to think about other things, see where it is going and then bring it back into focus. Try not to get up or think about things. With patience and practice, this will fade away into silence. Try to do this once each day.