Choose the Music That Speaks To You
Leah Benson shares how to select the right music and sounds to facilitate your psychedelic experiences.
When You Breathe, More You Feel More
Deep breathing connects you to the “now” and helps you feel. Join us in a 5-minute exercise to help you gain a better understanding of yourself.
Mindful Meditation
Pause and take a couple of minutes for yourself today. Allow yourself to be present in the moment while Kate Yeadaker leads you on a calming meditation session.
What is Meditation?
What is Meditation?
Meditation can be defined as a set of techniques intended to encourage a heightened state of awareness and focused attention. It may also be defined as a conscious-changing technique that has been shown to have a wide number of benefits on psychological well-being. There are many different types of meditation; mindfulness, focused, mantra and transcendental.
The Science Behind Meditation
Meditation stimulates activation in brain areas involved in processing self-relevant information, self-regulation, focused problem solving, adaptive behavior and interoception (an internal sense of balance in the body).
Research using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), which studies activity in the brain, have shown increased activity during meditation in areas associated with attention, mind wandering, episodic memories and emotional processing. These areas of activity are specific to the following areas of the brain:
- Prefrontal cortex (attention and focus)
- Parietal areas (sensations & movement of the body)
- Middle cingulate cortex (cognitive control & decision making)
- Hippocampal (emotional memory recall & regulation) & Parahippocampal formations (high level visual processing)
Studies using FMRI post-meditation “sheds more light” on the possible connection between the neurofunctional changes and positive effects of meditation pertaining to different aspects of cognitive and emotional processes, social behavior and emotional regulation.
In short, studies surrounding various meditation techniques have shown consistent results in creating positive effects on the brain. Meditation is one of many popular mind and body practices amongst others like yoga, guided imagery and breathwork to improve health and well-being.
If you would like to know more about how to exercise different kinds of meditation, watch some of our videos. These practices will benefit you on your wellness journey.
Enjoy Life More with this 5-Minute Exercise
You’re Here in Body, but Your Mind is Somewhere Else
How often have you been in a beautiful place and been unable to enjoy it?
This feeling happens when you’re somewhere else inside your mind, whether it’s work or being wrapped up in negative thoughts. Let’s say you have a habit of being unable to enjoy beautiful places and good company. Mindfulness can help you enjoy them through the simple practice of paying attention to your five senses.
The Practice of Paying Attention to Your 5 Senses
The best way to start is to set a timer for one minute. Notice one of your senses for one minute and then move to the next sense. As you notice each of your senses, take in what it’s like to experience the things you see, hear, feel, smell or taste.
- What do you see? An example could be birds flying in the sky, children playing in a park.
- What do you hear? The sound of the wind through the trees or waves splashing.
- What do you feel? The wind against your skin, the sun warming your face, the grass between your toes
- What do you smell? Flowers in your backyard, the aromas of a candle.
- What do you taste? Your beverage or your meal. Take a moment to notice and taste.
If You Want to Enjoy What You’re Doing, Be Fully Immersed in It
When you intentionally focus on something as simple as your five senses, your brain gets better at being where you are and being able to take in what’s going on around you. Doing this simple 5-minute mindfulness practice will help you be more in the here-and-now, and less in the past or future. Being more present allows you the opportunity to enjoy life more.
Embodiment: The Body as a Vessel
What is Embodiment?
Embodiment can vary in definition depending on the circumstances but to simplify, embodiment is the awareness of how our body reacts to our thoughts and emotions. This awareness provides us insight into how we respond with our body in relation to our thoughts and how those thoughts trigger certain emotions. Embodiment can be seen as the why and how we are, and is the connection between our physical, emotional, and mental states.
Embodiment is a great tool to notice how you react to certain situations and possibly, learn why you are the way that you are. Embodiment has many layers and varies through different areas of our life.
For meditation, embodiment can be an extremely powerful tool of awareness. The body is the container of what we are and what we experience with both ourselves and with others. Therefore, it's beneficial to learn embodiment practices that can help identify reactions in the body which are caused or triggered by certain emotions.
A great way to start is with the breath. The breath brings us to presence. Breathe and focus on the area of your body where you find the sensation. If you find that your mind is getting busy or starts questioning, continue to breathe deeply and focus on the inhale and exhale of your breath. Listen and feel for sensations in your body and notice.
Is there tightness? Is there a contraction? Is there a heaviness?
Without judgment, just notice. This is awareness, this is the first step to embodiment, the awareness of your body's reaction to the current state.
Embodiment can also be a way to connect to our environment and the outside world through the experiences we feel and interpret through our body. We can tie these two in with the breath and visualization - where both tools can be utilized: the breath to move the energy through the body and the visualization to focus the mind and stimulate presence.
How to practice embodiment
A great embodiment practice for grounding is to go outside and connect with nature. Allow nature to be the outside world where you can connect with mind and body. Below is a simple embodiment practice to get grounded with nature.
Find a space outside where you’re able to have direct contact with the ground. In a comfortable position, either cross-legged or lying down, close your eyes and begin to focus on your breathing.
Visualize your mind as the sky.
Any thoughts that pop up, think of them as clouds passing through the sky. Notice them and let them pass.
Connect with your intention and breathe into it.
As you breathe, allow your intention to expand in your chest and visualize your heart sending roots into the earth. In all the places where your body meets the earth, visualize roots going deep into the soil.
Begin to notice any thoughts or emotions that arise that do not support you in the present moment. Begin to visualize those thoughts and emotions running through the roots. Breathe in your intention and as you exhale, visualize the earth soaking up these emotions and thoughts from the roots of your body as you send them down, visualize the earth composting them.
Breathing into your body creates space for presence. As you inhale, visualize the nutrients of the earth infusing into the roots and into your body. Give the nutrients a color.
Is it light? Is it green? Think of a color that brings your joy. Continue to breathe through this visualization for a few more breaths.
Welcome to the present moment. You are grounded.
A Simple Practice to Build Clarity
It’s hard to have clarity about what you want from life when all the so-called answers are coming from the outside. Knowing your true path can only come from the inside. But if you don’t have a connection to your inner self, you are never going to get the clarity you want.
No one else can tell you what’s right for you. You can follow the prescribed paths of what is supposedly “right” but it doesn’t mean that it’s right for you. When you’ve followed prescribed paths for too long, you have severely limited your capacity to see what’s right for you, much less believe in your choices. It’s a natural outcome of suppressing your impulses in the service of achieving goals. Which is not a bad thing, unless that’s the only thing you can do.
Letting go of the “have to”
Being able to let go of your “have to” can be tough. Especially when your ability to achieve has built your confidence. But what happens when you’re not doing what you’re “supposed” to do? Does your confidence from seeking achievement transfer to your ability to choose for yourself? In other words, can you enjoy life without a task to complete?
Without following someone else’s prescribed path, you tend to lose interest. You’re looking for the next thing to achieve, but you’re not sure how that achievement will be useful in your life.
Be your own authority
The only way to get clarity and experience your achievements as meaningful is to be your own authority. To do that, you must tune into your impulses and act on them.
That’s not to say you should be irresponsible. It means that you start a practice that allows you to fully notice and act upon your impulses.
This practice can be as simple as paying attention to your feelings when you make a choice about what food you want, or what clothing you feel like wearing. When you practice in simple ways like this, you build your capacity to notice the sensations in your body that motivate your choices. It is this capacity to notice your sensations that is the foundation of being your own authority. It is also the trick to having clarity about the bigger things in your life.
What having clarity looks like
When you are authentically motivated by your own impulses, you will have the clarity you are looking for. You will be able to make choices about what’s right for you, and you will know why you make those choices. The things you do will not be a mystery anymore.
Any resistance you get from others to conform to their standards will be easy to stand up to because you are confident in your own choices. Ridicule or humiliation used to try and sway your decisions will be weak against your confidence.
Clarity looks like a life where you enjoy what you’re doing because you know why you’re doing it and it has meaning for you. Your choices are in line with the overall goals you have for your life.