Sunday, December 11, 2011

Make Everyday a Holiday with this Spiritual Holiday Meditation

                             
               Christmas Tree Ornament Meditation

Christmas trees can be more than holiday decorations when used as tools for meditation and relaxation at home when you need a little break from holiday busyness. 
Here are some easy steps to reduce some  Holiday stress and anxiety.


  1. Settle comfortably for ten to twenty minutes within view of a Christmas tree.
  2. Select the first ornament that strikes you, anything from a trumpeting angel to a shimmering globe.
  3. Focus on your ornament and go anywhere the ornament takes you. Does the ornament have a special memory of a favorite loved one? Does the ornament represent a figure you would like to meet, such as an angel or Santa Claus? Does the ornament's color and texture please you with its sheer beauty? Let your imagination take you anywhere for as long as desired.
  4. When ready, turn your attention away from the chosen ornament and pick another, or simply bask in the entire Christmas tree's beauty.
  5. Close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a forest staring at the same Christmas tree in its natural state (it doesn't matter that your tree may be fake. Let imagination win here).
  6. Notice snow on the ground, ice on the branches, and other signs of winter in the forest. Take some time to bask in the winter scene.
  7. Now draw your attention to the evergreen tree itself. Notice how the branches are bright and vibrant despite the cold, harsh landscape.
  8. Bring to mind a situation in your life that appears cold and harsh, like the winter landscape.
  9. Envision yourself like the evergreen tree, full of life and vitality despite the conditions working against you.
  10. Lastly, focus on what needs to change within yourself to make you full of life and hope in the desired area of your life. Consider making the change or changes as your New Year's resolution.
The Clark's Christmas Tree

 For another way to relax during the holidays, make the most of a crackling fire with Meditations Using Fire.

                                         Meditation using Fire



Nothing is quite like the warmth and crackle of a fire. Whether a blazing autumn bonfire or tea lights around a bathtub, I also have a DVD that plays the crackling and photo of a  fire place with Christmas music playing.
(Click above to play) 
Fire has the power to draw the observer into it and out of ordinary space and time.
Sometimes, one may need a focal point in order to relax. Lighting a candle or staring into a fire offers just such a focus. Fire also has a mysterious and destructive property that is able to suck the mind into it, perfect for one seeking a break from the very mind that is too often a source of stress.


3 comments :

  1. Hoping my Christmas Tree gets put up real soon I need to practice this meditation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You might want to add meditation to your workout routine. A new study suggests that meditation can help people control their eating habits and lose weight.

    Forbes reports on the small-scale study out of UC San Francisco in which researches took a group of 47 overweight women and divided them into two groups. One of these groups received training in "mindful eating" and had 30-minute meditation sessions daily. In the mindful eating sessions women were 'trained to experience the moment-by-moment sensory experience of eating.'

    The results?

    Meditation worked. Women in the meditation group 'showed significant reductions in their cortisol levels (high cortisol levels are a side effect of stress).' And 'women in the study who experienced the greatest reduction in stress tended to have the most loss of deep belly fat..

    Dr. Catherine Kerr, a meditation researcher at Brown University, is excited about the study's results and says:

    “These findings are consistent with numerous brain studies showing that this practice of attending mindfully to present moment experience brings about changes in brain areas responsible for body sensations, especially body sensations related to hunger and craving (in the brain area called the ‘insula’), the idea here being that daily practice actually trains your brain to help you tune in to your body in a more healthy way.”

    Namaste to that!

    Published December 15, 2011 at 3:30 PM
    Tags: fitness, meditation, mind body connection, mindfulness meditation, study, weight loss success, wellness

    ReplyDelete
  3. We enjoyed watching the fire Christmas Morning

    ReplyDelete