Meditation

When I was growing up and coming of age I started to embrace the hippie movement..except I was 20 years ahead of my time..On weekend trips to Sedona when I was about 15 years old I would spend them hanging out in bookstores and learning how to do things like cleanse my crystals and use healing stones..it was on one of those trips that I picked up a copy of a book called Creative Visualization and started practicing meditation. The focus of the book was to be able to almost transport yourself to another place..an alter arena if you will..a place to work out problems in the present and take a vacation from oneself...I used to picture that I was on a beach somewhere..it was one of those things that took a lot of practice...it was like a work out for your mind.. as I became more comfortable and skilled in escaping to my happy place I found I could also visualize actual conversations with people for whom I either sought forgiveness from or wanted to forgive..

Over the years the practice of meditation has remained one of those things I never give myself the time to do..like yoga and tennis they fall on the back burner sometimes. I have read many books about different techniques and worked with a healer for a number of years and even started to fine tune my own healing abilities but never found my happy place I did some 20 plus years ago. Maybe I needed a little push ..maybe it just had to come at the right time..one of the reasons I take a world religions class is to better understand Eastern religions as there can be no complete understanding..reading on Buddhism lately has rekindled my yearning to go back to that place where I can look inside myself and not only take stock but better be able to deal with the madness that is life sometimes... the reason why Buddhism has always and continues to appeal to me is it focuses on the internal self and teaches a respect for all living things. It also can shy one away from materialistic things as they do not last and aren't what true happiness is about and encourages one to quiet the chatter in their mind and not engage in complaining, talking bad about others or gossiping..nor to allow others to encourage you to do so.

I found a wonderful homeopathic doctor Nicole Sundene about 2 months ago and started a regimen of Vitamin B12 shots which I see her weekly for. After some odd years of drinking alcohol which I no longer do I thought it important to follow her advice and add some pretty powerful detoxification agents to the shots to cleanse my lymph nodes and remove these toxins from my body. In doing this I have also had to eat an almost completely Vegan diet, cut out the Gluten along with drinking mad amounts of water. Although I have had a few days where I rebelled and either ate cheese or sugar I have been fairly good overall and you know what the most amazing thing to have come out of this is? I feel better than ever..as a matter of fact I feel like a million bucks..my skin has a glow to it my hair is growing fast I have energy like I had never seen before and when everyone around me had gotten a horrible flu these past two weeks including everyone in my household guess who fought it off.Although it is pretty strict my body tells me when I am not adhering to it. My muscles ache when I don't drink enough water as they are trying to release the toxins and my metabolism is sped up considerably as well.. A blog I am so keen on reading Beauty That Moves is starting up a 30 day Vegan whole food cleansing that you can do from home.There are so many benefits to doing this whether it be just to achieve a general sense of well being , weight loss which inevitably happens or if you are looking to fight off or reverse the effects of cancer. Each day she will be posting tips, tricks and recipes and basically guiding you through it..if you haven't read her blog before it is a wonderful peek into a home that focuses on life food learning living creation and spirituality..her artwork is divine and her vintage store at Etsy always has some good finds..It is $45 dollars for 30 days and is a small price to pay for what may very well change your life for the better

Last time I was in to see my Dr. she asked me if I would be interested in doing an introductory 15 min guided meditation session with her assistant Hailey. I was a little apprehensive because I seem to be always on the go and sitting still for 15 minutes did not sound appealing to me, especially when my boss was calling work was waiting to be done and I was already late getting on with the day. I reluctantly decided I would give it a try and sat down with her in a back room of the office. At first I looked around at the metal bowls and drums and started cracking jokes in my head..as we began our session we started focusing on breathing..with every breath visualizing light an oxygen coming up through my feet and rising throughout my entire body until it reached my crown chakras at the top of my head. It is not easy to quiet the chatter in ones mind..i kept thinking thinks like Hailey has such long pretty hair why did I cut mine a week ago..my eyes are closed hers are open is she staring at me..and then the ever present music stuck in my head..I think it was Hey Baby by Pitbull..ya I know.. as she slowing talked me through the first five minutes of breathing and silence I finally began to get it...the silly bowls and drums when tapped had a strange relaxing affect that seemed to generate the calm within..after about ten minutes I began to reach that place once again and it has been too long. I think the benefit and point of me telling you about this is that whether you are ten years old or eighty, from whatever walk of life you happen to be in we can all love ourselves a little bit more and I think meditation does this along with so many other amazing things and most importantly you find that most of the things in your life that you may worry about or waste your time on aren't a matter of  life or death, in fact they don't really matter at all. Taking care of yourself also means taking care of the inside and it has warmed my heart do be able to do so..