mindfulness meditation Archives

Let’s talk about our desire to be special

We hope that with this article we would be able to start a conversation with everyone of you about a modern goal that everyone is or needs to be special.

Do you really need it? Is it OK to be special at all? Is it healthy to strive to be special?

What is it ‘to feel special’?

It seems that this ‘specialness’ comes from our own natural selection. Our feelings of uniqueness and superiority lie in the heart of that value system of survival. Some animals do that too. Unfortunately for other species, killing is the way how the strong ones assert their ‘specialness’. This behaviour is what we can call a very pedestrian one, arrogant and mindless.

We have been talking about evolution and human progress also to showcase that we have all the means to move past this behaviour and live a life of moral meaning. We have learned how to grow enough food on the planet and cure many diseases. Our progress should ensure we live better. That also means we all live better, no matter of a social status and background. This is how we can inject moral meaning into all aspects of our life.

Violence to justify that we can feel special?

Killing others for food is simply not an option. We do not need to do that. It is unethical. We are not special compared to a goat or a pig, we do not have any right to kill them. Nowadays our survival does not depend on them.

Deeply embedded in Buddhist thought is the intrinsic moral value of sentient life. Not just the value of human beings but the value of all organisms that have subjective experience and so are capable of pain and pleasure, of suffering and not suffering. This value in turn imparts value to other things such as helping people, being kind to dogs etc.

How can we deal with this social notion of ‘specialness’?

Mindful mediation can help us to examine our stories carefully. We can listen to our inner voices from the ground up. This allows us, if we choose of course, to separate truth from fabrication. We can ditch the need to feeling special and instead live by your own intrinsic values, in synergy with others.

One of the suggestion from us at Ahimsa Meditation is to look at the concept of non-self, or letting go of your ego. It will help to get rid of the ‘specialness’ feeling.

Meditation offers us to see clearly that there is a way to live that is not going with the natural selection flow or completely against it. Robert Wright, in his book “Why Buddhism is True” said that there is a concept of Middle Way where you are attuned to the impermanence, non-self and unsatisfactoriness of living and it brings liberation and happiness”.

Clearly, we are so easily inclined to accept the aim of feeling special because we think our life would be better off like that. Yet what it does, is something very opposite – it enslaves us in this rat race of ‘more, more and yet some more’ (it could be money, fame, you name it). You have a moment of feeling ‘special;’ and then it vanes, you need to become even more special. This may never end. It means you are not living your own life, it’s almost like someone programmed it for you.

Letting go of your ’specialness’ and ego will mean you can listen to what you really need and want. You can start living your life by your own rules.

How is it to live with an aim of ‘specialness’ for you?

We’ve all been (or still are) there. Let’s help each other and share our stories of how the aim of being special is actually not helpful at all.

What are your thoughts, contemplation and advice for others? Please leave your comments below or send us a message through Contact form – let’t share. Thank you.

Can Mindfulness Meditation Help to Manage Your Weight? | Change Your Relationship with Food

Diets do not work

We have all been there – countless diets, strict regimen or simply a myriad of rules that are hard to follow. It’s not surprising we give up. A couple of weeks of struggle, maybe even a few months, but that’s it. It becomes tiresome. Diets are simply not sustainable as our relationship with food remains unchanged. And there are so many of them that we get simply lost which is which.

Let’s remember all those times we tried calorie counting, maybe even some apps to write down your food diary or maybe some more strenuous fasting or detox programs. It sounded like a good and logical idea at the start, but our crazy rhythm of life together with our doubts that it would work make it all very stressful.

Who needs even more stress? We get it a lot from work, why adding such extra pressure on ourselves? Especially we all know they don’t really work…

Right, this is beginning to look like a rant on our current predicament. Yet is there a solution to this? Can mindfulness meditation be that effective tool for weight loss we all want?

Sustainable change, food habits and relationship with food

Let’s look at people who have managed to quit smoking and did it with ease. Is there a thing that unites them all? Think about pregnant women. They quit not because they necessarily want that, but because they know it’s better for their kid. They are out of their own mind and they think about a bigger picture.

What lies behind our weight problems? For starters, it is our insatiability and a sheer abundance of junk foods – refined white flour goods, injected with sugar and sweeteners, processed foods that we either take away or buy as ready meals, the list goes on. We are subjected to so much stimulation and stress that we don’t really stop to enjoy simple foods anymore – we need big flavours and sensations. Big Food companies use that to their benefit of course. Majority of our current foods that are neatly placed on the supermarket shelves are processed – they are loaded with salt and sugar, artificial flavourings, preservatives and adjustments.

Functional food

Let’s go back to ancient times. We can hear Hippocrates saying ‘Let food be thy medicine’. It is that functional approach to food where we judge what to eat not by the colourful label or attractive smell, but by its nutritional content, by how many vitamin and minerals, it offers and also by fibre and other things we value in food. These are valuable because we live healthier and also happier when our bodies and minds get enough quality nutrients.

So the answer to the problem of dieting is that we should not just eat less of what we eat now, we should not simply list carbs or fats, we need to change our attitude to food in its entirety.

How do we talk to ourselves?

Let’s question our relationship to ourselves. Do we love ourselves? Do we think the way we talk to ourselves is coming from a view of kindness and compassion?

If we stop punish ourselves for whatever things we think we are lacking or failing, our relationship to ourselves becomes more harmonious. Yes, we do not hide behind the bush and we do not pretend we are perfect human beings. We are awake to our strengths and weaknesses too. We can be kind to ourselves when we recognize that we have done something wrong simply because that wasn’t our forte.

So coming back to our relationships, there is one that it’s in our head that dictates our food choices. If we change our relationship with food and start viewing it not from a hedonistic standpoint but from health and prevention of diseases, then it becomes very clear what to eat. It becomes easier to make choices, day by day, and without any guidance from this and that diet.

Ask yourself: is this food natural? Does it help me to be healthy? Will it have enough fibre to feed my gut bacteria. Will it keep me on the path to prevent possible illnesses rather than use drugs to reactively treat our diseases?

Preventive nutrition

You will agree that it is easier and also the most cost effective to think about preventive nutrition rather than eat crap but then spend on doctors and medicines.

We invite you to practice mindfulness meditation, incorporate loving-kindness into your daily routine and simply listen to yourself. Be kind to yourself.

The more you cultivate your mind in this way it becomes easier to understand what’s important to all of us. These are, amongst other things, physical and mental health, harmonious relationships and peaceful living and joy. This is all possible when you simply re-kindle the spark with your own values and outlook on life. It makes your food choices so clear an so easy, you won’t believe how much time and effort you’ve spent on countless diets that were alien to you.

This is how mindfulness meditation may for your weight-loss goals too. Yet it’s more accurate to think about meditation techniques that help weight management as we all have different goals, be it getting lean or building muscle.

Nutrition of Nonviolence helps to change your relationship with food

When you are ready to treat yourself better, we have prepared a special course and instructions. We’ve called it Nutrition of Nonviolence. You start being nonviolent to yourself, but then it spreads – you become healthier, happier and you stop killing innocent animals too. Everybody wins. Read our nutrition of nonviolence for recommendations or head to our Courses page to download a free guide in pdf format.

Get back to us with your stories, what works for you and what doesn’t. Did meditation help you to change your relationship with food and manage weight? Have you started being more at ease with food? Discuss this all with us. We are here to help.

Mindfulness Meditation to Help with PTSD

PTSD, Meditation, and Psychotechnology

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health issue that some people develop after they have been exposed to a shocking event in their life. It can be it life-threatening situation, combat, incarceration, natural disaster, sexual assault or similar.

The US. Department of Veteran Affairs stated that 8 out of 100 veterans clearly experience PTSD. They have stated that it is normal to have upsetting memories and feeling. However, if they last over a few months, it is time to get help. Majority of people diagnosed with PTSD are prescribed psychotherapy which is 53% effective and medication which is 46% effective on average. Meditation for PTSD is growing popularity too.

We at Ahimsa Meditation refer to mindfulness meditation as psycho-technology. It is a practice to help people suffering from the first symptoms of PTSD to cope with it and potentially fully recover before it goes any further. Though it is also very effective as a complementary practice to help sufferers who are taking medication or attending psychotherapy sessions.

Scientists agree that mindfulness meditation helps with PTSD

Meditation can help with common mental health issues like OCD, PTSD, panic attacks (from “The Effortless Mind” by Will Williams, founder of World Meditation Day).

Researchers from Maharishi International University taught meditation to prisoners with a standard prison program as a comparison. They found that 4 months later the prisoners doing meditation showed fewer symptoms of trauma, anxiety, depression; they also slept better and perceived their days as less stressful (from S. Nidich et al., “Reduced trauma symptoms and perceived stress in male prison inmates through Transcendental Meditation Program” in Permanente Journal 2016; doi.org/10.7812/TPP/116-007)

Prison Mindfulness Institute offers a 6 weeks mindfulness course dedicated to nurturing inner peace and more effective rehabilitation for prisoners and ex-convicts. Resettlement programs in the United Kingdom prisons also feature mindfulness as a pathway to effective rehabilitation after incarceration. Meditation for PTSD is a growing area of interest in the US, UK and worldwide.

It is not surprising that both ex-military, police force and prisoners are recipients of mindfulness meditation practice sessions specially designed to help or in some cases even prevent PTSD. See more information and scientific references on meditation practice benefits.

Mental health is important and mindfulness is an integral part of the treatment of various psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder and more (from “The rough guide to mindfulness” by Albert Tobler and Susann Herrmann).

Mental muscle training

Mindfulness training may indeed build up the “mental muscle” in these brain regions in people who are trying to change addictive behaviors. In this way, they are able to notice cravings and related self-referential thinking patterns, allowing them to ‘ride this wave’ of experience rather than being sucked into it.

Randomized control trials demonstrated improvement through mindfulness training for a long list of conditions: coping with diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, work stress, chronic fatigue syndrome, stress eating, HIV quality of life, smoking cessation, hot flashes, insomnia, substance use disorder. (From “Mindfulness and Psychotherapy” 2^nd Edition by C. Germer, R. Siegel, P. Fulton.)

For PTSD and everyone’s suffering from traumatic experiences in the past, we introduce an element of ‘clarification of values’ mediation to extend a participant’s circle of compassion and nonviolence. This is done by means of mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation invites your fear for tea

Trauma-related and PTSD themed mindfulness meditation simply wants to invite fear for tea. You just have a chat, look at it, observe and simply accept.

You can think about as ‘what we cannot hold, we cannot process, what we cannot process, we cannot transform. What we cannot transform, we cannot transform haunts us’.

With post-traumatic stress disorder, Ahimsa Meditation would like to focus on two characteristics that would be great to contemplate during your practice to help deal with your PTSD. These are:

impermanence, which allows anyone to stop being reluctant to accept that everything is changing all the time;
suffering or unsatisfaction that occurs as a result of clinging to our day-to-day desires.

How do you employ mindfulness meditation for PTSD?

Practising meditation for PTSD is really easy and you can try it right now with these simple instructions for a concentration meditation on breathing with elements of vipassana meditation directed at post-traumatic stress disorder:

Find a quiet place and set your alarm for an initial 10 minutes (more if you feel comfortable to start with a longer session).
Sit cross-legged on a floor (use a mat and a cushion to level your hips with your knees), place your arms on your lap. Only sit on a firm chair if the cross-legged position is very uncomfortable. In general, your posture should be fairly relaxed but not sluggish, so you won’t meditate yourself to sleep. Surely, the full lotus is the most stable and firm posture, yet you can adopt half-lotus or a simple cross-legged position too.
Take a few really deep breaths as so other people would be likely to hear you breathing. It should make you feel relaxed fairly quickly.
Close your eyes and start paying attention to sounds, smells, your posture, and breathing. Simply make a mental note on what you are observing. No need to judge it or dwell on it.
Pay attention to how your body feels. Start doing so by scanning your body from top to bottom and notice how even the smallest parts of your body feel. Don’t try to change anything or judge. It’s all good, you are being attentive, that’s it.
Move the focus of your attention to your breathing. Do not try to change it, just let it be. No judgment please, do not allow to be violent towards yourself. Notice where in your body your breathing starts, how it flows and how it ends. To help you settle with this pattern, you can start counting your breaths from 1 to 10 and then revert back to 1. If your attention shifts to something else, notice the very fact of this happening and then gently get your mind to count the breaths again and again. Yet these ‘jumps’ happen all the time, so be kind to yourself. The more skillful you become, the less monkey-like your mind learns to be. Every single time your mind gets back to counting breaths, it also gets stronger. This, in effect, gives your mind a proper training.
When you have established a good concentration on breathing, invite your mind to contemplate on the fact that all things change; it is just the way of life. Think about life and death, but also about these traumatic experiences that get you where you are now. These will change too. This is impermanence in your life. Accept it and relieve yourself from the pressure of stress factors. They will come and go too.
Obviously, these stress factors come with unsatisfaction and sometimes suffering. It happens because you cling to positive states, and quite naturally averse to things that cause you pain. You want to get rid of your traumatic experience and get back to happy memories. Yet the issue is that it doesn’t usually help. Yet it only creates more stress. If you look directly at your trauma and try and make friends with it, you can contemplate whether you can simply let go of your attachment to that trauma. This will definitely alleviate your stress. If you cannot just let go of it, simply say ‘yes I accept my [your own traumatic experience goes here], and that’s why I feel stressed’. You acknowledge your suffering and, paradoxically, it will subside. You will feel it less and with time it will disappear.
These two very specific but open contemplation themes are going to change on a daily basis. Things change, so is your meditation practice. Yet with time, you will become familiar with both of these characteristics and your level of stress will gradually lessen. You will accept these as the universal truth. Everyone experiences dissatisfaction and all things are impermanent. Your full acceptance and absence of clinging are key to lower your stress.
Your inner values can give you an emotional boost. Contemplate about what they are for you. Why do you wake up in the morning? Is it something that you do, how you serve others, how you connect with other people? How do you help your kids or maybe your customers? Re-connect with your inner values, feel the power of them. Contemplate them during your meditation.
Continue for your set amount of time. When finished, allow your mind to rest for 30 seconds with no focus on anything at all. Just observe and let it simply flow.
Finish by making a mental note how you feel now, what you are going to do next and open your eyes.

You have just completed a session of mind training or cultivation that specifically targeting PTSD.

If you allow awareness to embrace your doubt, your unhappiness, your confusion, your anxiety, your pain, these mental states cease to be ‘yours’. They revert to being recognized as merely ‘weather patterns’ in the mind and body (from “Falling Awake” by Kabat-Zinn).

Be aware of your trauma and your stress will lessen

Surely, this awareness or self-observation will help you to come to terms to whatever was giving you that much stress. It is a gradual process. It is a journey, but it is so much worth doing. Try it today or forward this guide to people who may need it.

We aim to engage with ex-military, police force, ex-prisoners and victims of violence or sexual abuse to help them overcome this enormous trauma. Mindfulness meditation for PTSD works well in conjunction with therapy and rehabilitation programs. Connect with us, support us and let’s cultivate inner peace together.

Tag: mindfulness meditation