A Tour of the Chakras

A Tour of the Chakras


Anodea Judith takes you on a guided tour of the energy centers in your body known as the chakras.

On this guided practice, master teacher and bestselling author Anodea Judith takes you on a guided tour of your chakras, the energy centers within your own body. Through this meditation, you will make initial contact with these centers and explore their contents. You will start to sense the characteristics of each of the chakras and begin to explore how to work with these energies to bring about transformation in your physical health, psychological and emotional wellness, and spiritual evolution.

The chakra system is a map for the journey through life. Its seven rainbow colors represent the full spectrum of human possibility that stretches from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from Earth to heaven, forming a bridge and describing the steps between them. This map is an archetypal formula for wholeness that addresses the full spectrum of human possibility. To navigate its territory is to take an exciting journey of awakening—in body, mind, and spirit.

Yoga Relaxation

Yoga Relaxation


Within yoga, our body is a microcosm of the universe, a reflection of nature.

The yogic arts of relaxation are associated with the moon—our receptive, rhythmic, cooling, and rejuvenative capacity. Under the night moon, we restore through sleep, turning our senses deeply inward, awakening refreshed and renewed.

For many of us, the stresses of the twenty-first century have slowly depleted our lunar nature. Stress causes more than a hundred physiological shifts in the body, from a shortening of breath to the release of cortisol in the bloodstream. With our nervous system charged and over stimulated, an ongoing connection to a relaxed and open state is disturbed. Symbolically, most of us have no idea what phase the moon is in on a daily basis. We are losing touch with the ebb and flow of the moon.

Meditation for Busy People

Meditation for Busy People


Meditation is not just for those who can set aside hours a day or weeks each year for retreat. Mark Thornton, the world’s first executive meditation coach, introduces you to a powerful meditation that you can incorporate into your busy life—to find relaxation, calm, and greater productivity.

Our lives are lived at warp speed.

Our hectic schedules are crammed with crises, to-do lists, issues marked urgent and overflowing in trays, unpaid bills, a sea of unread email, and deadlines with due dates close to last Christmas. Our agendas have everything in them but “relax.” Whether an executive, single mother, or factory worker, we have all been affected by the increased pace and complexity of life. More than ever, we need to create calm quickly and profoundly. We need to feel connected to life, in the middle of our frantic days. What’s the solution?

The Relaxing Breath

The Relaxing Breath


The health that you enjoy today, and for the rest of your life, begins with your next breath. In fact, breathing is so crucial to your body’s ability to heal and sustain itself that Dr. Andrew Weil says: “If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly.”

Here, we will learn a breathing technique that Dr. Weil uses in his own life: “the most powerful relaxation technique” that he has come across and one that he teaches to almost all of his patients. Dr. Weil reports that breathing exercises get more favorable response from patients than anything else he teaches.

Morning Meditation

Morning Meditation


THE DISCIPLINE OF DAILY PRACTICE

Most people want the rewards of consciousness without the hard work of consciousness. The hard work of consciousness requires that we develop a daily spiritual practice that allows us to review where we are investing our energy each day. Each morning and each evening we have a choice: do we invest our energy into fears and anxieties, or do we invest our energy into aligning with spiritual truth?

I believe that one of the most effective ways to monitor how we invest our energy is through the daily practice of energetic self-evaluation. Think of your “energy body” as a vast interconnected database of stored experience. Every thought, every feeling, and every memory is encoded and stored in one of your seven chakras, the energy centers of the body. Each of your chakras records and manages a specific category of information. The work of daily practice is to take a personal inventory of the health of your chakras in order to determine how you are using the energy associated with each energy center.

Mini Meditations

Leap Before You Look: Mini Meditations


Meditation, according to bestselling author Arjuna Ardagh, is not only a technique, but a way of being with yourself and with life—and can happen at anytime. All it takes is a small shift in perspective. Here you will learn four simple, yet effective meditations for getting out of your mind and into the magic of the present moment.

Meditation may seem like something you learn, or an activity to do on a regular basis. There are many styles of meditation available today that you can learn from a teacher, on a retreat, or even from a book or a CD. Practicing one style of meditation on a daily basis is without doubt a good idea: it will cultivate presence, watching, inner calm, and peace in the midst of chaos.

Eating and drinking Meditation

Eating and drinking Meditation



We all spend several hours each day eating and drinking. By learning how to eat and drink with awareness, we can use this time to experience the fullness of the present moment. Join Kim Eng as she leads you through a guided meditation on eating and drinking that you can do many times throughout your day.


You can bring awareness into any everyday activity; that is to say you can meditate on anything. But for this meditation, we will do a drinking and eating meditation.


So prepare yourself a drink; preferably non-alcoholic, and prepare yourself something to eat—whether it’s a piece of fruit, a vegetable, or maybe even a whole meal. We’ll start with the drinking meditation first.

Life Purpose

Money, Abundance, and Manifestation

The topics of money, abundance, and manifestation are intimately tied to our ideas about who we are and our perception of reality, and are intertwined at the deepest levels with the work that we do. Many of us are convinced that having more money (or more things) will bring an infusion of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment into our lives. Others feel just the opposite: that money is a distraction from a committed spiritual life, and you'd do best to place your energy elsewhere. By bringing deeper levels of consciousness and awareness into these areas, we are given the opportunity to use every facet of our lives to grow, transform, and to serve others.

Consciousness at Work

Most of us spend a great amount of time and precious life-energy working--whether we are self-employed, work at the local grocery store, or work as an executive at a Fortune 500 company. For those interested in personal growth and transformation, it is a very reasonable question, therefore, to ask: How is my work in the world related to my inner journey, if at all? Is my work an integral aspect of my spiritual development? Or do I feel a deep sense of separation between my work life and my spiritual life? Can work actually serve as a conduit for my own inner evolution? How can I bring conscious awareness into my work life so that my work becomes another vehicle--as prayer, meditation, therapy, or healing--for the awakening process?

How to Help a Loved One With Depression

Caring for a loved one who is suffering from depression can be challenging, if not downright scary, at times. Helping someone who is clinically depressed or even suicidal may seem like an overwhelming task at times, but with perseverance, understanding and patience, you can help a loved one who suffers from depression.

How to Make Homemade Wine from Grapes

This article will teach you how to make homemade wine.

Things You'll Need

• bottles
• grapes
• yeast
• sugar
• fermentation barrel
• corks
• corking gun

How to Make Quick Homemade Wine

Fine wines are made with freshly-picked grapes that are pressed by hand and aged in massive old oak casks. Some wines age for years before they are considered mature enough to drink. Making a quick wine at home may not yield the same delicate beverage as a $25 bottle of wine, but with a few common household ingredients you should be able to make a perfectly drinkable simple fruit wine in just over a month.

How to Taste Red Wine

Learning to appreciate wine is like everything else - the more you practice, the better you get. If you're considering taking a formal wine appreciation course, why not get started on a little tasting program of your own? It's easy, economical and enlightening. Discover and create your own tastes - simply by focusing on a few key red wines.

How to Pick The Perfect Wine

Whether it is red wine or  white wine. Wine is a beverage that taste great by itself or with a meal. Alot of times there are confusions as to what wine goes good with certain types of food.

How to Make Sparkling Alcohol-Free Cocktails

Things You'll Need:

• Champagne glasses
• Blender
• Stainer
• Strawberries
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Sparkling apple cider
• Sparkling white grape juice

Sleep and Memory Are Related

Sleep and Memory Are Related


You have probably heard that sleep and memory are interconnected. It's true. Many studies have shown that not getting enough quality rest can directly hurt your memory.

I have certainly noticed this in my own life. Whenever I have a poor night due to stress, allergies, back pain, or other reasons, my mind almost always feels foggier the next day.

Vitamins for Memory

Vitamins for Memory


What are the best vitamins for memory? Everyone has heard that certain vitamins and supplements can improve memory and should be taken regularly. There is so much info out there, though, it can be confusing.

So which vitamins and supplements work best?

I've researched this for you already. Here's a quick summary of what you should know about vitamins, supplements, and memory improvement:

Dementia, a Leading Cause of Memory Loss

Dementia, a Leading Cause of Memory Loss

The term "dementia" refers to loss of brain function due to age or disease. One of the most noticeable symptoms of dementia is memory loss.


In the past, there wasn't much hope for someone who was "going senile". However, research now suggests there are things the affected person can do to fight back. Most of these methods involve diet, exercise, and keeping the brain active.

Tips for Banishing Forgetfulness

Tips for Banishing Forgetfulness

Many people have problems with forgetfulness, even if they otherwise have a good memory. You know you're forgetful: when people ask whether you've found the answer they wanted yet (but you don't recall them asking the question); if you often have trouble remembering where your car keys are, or where you parked your car in the parking lot; if you miss appointments; and if you can never remember a person's name even a few seconds after being introduced.


Below are some of my personal tips for combatting forgetfulness, plus some other great ideas from others. Note that most of these tips are very easy to use, and they are also common sense!

The Best Study Skills - Five Strategies You Need to Know and Use

The Best Study Skills - Five Strategies You Need to Know and Use



Advice on the best study skills can be found in many books and across the web. However, these sources often gloss over certain memory-related habits that can really help you remember the material much better.

On this page I describe five proven study strategies that every student should know and use to maximize their retention of the material.


Much of my understanding of the best study skills comes from the book Your Memory: How It Works & How to Improve It by Dr. Kenneth Higbee.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics



Mnemonics are quick gimmicks that make some information more memorable. (These are not the same thing as the memory systems, though, which are more complicated but also more effective.) You have probably already learned a few of these tricks, even if you didn't know that's what they were called.

Memory Systems: A Miraculous Way to Memorize Almost Anything

Memory Systems: A Miraculous Way to Memorize Almost Anything


With memory systems, you can build a filing cabinet in your mind. In the same way you easily find documents in a filing cabinet by looking in labeled drawers and folders, these systems can be used to create "cues" (labels) in your memory for remembering the information you've studied.


Often the problem with remembering isn't that the information is not in your brain, especially if you've studied it. Instead, problems with memory usually involve finding (retrieving) the information.

Quick Memory Tips

Quick Memory Tips



Here are some solutions you can use to improve your memory right now. There are lots of other steps you can take to improve your memory even more. These are discussed in detail on the rest of this site. But for now, here are steps you can take immediately.


To remember things better: 
1) Pay close attention; 
2) Use all of your senses; 
3) Recite the material; and 
4) Have confidence in your memory.

Improve Your Concentration

Improve Your Concentration


It's an obvious step - improve your concentration to improve your memory. To concentrate simply means to focusing intensely. If you aren't focused, you won't be able to memorize new facts or recall information you memorized previously.

Here's some great news: Concentration is a mental skill you can develop.


There are two ways to improve your concentration:


First, increase your brain's natural ability to concentrate regardless of the environment - in other words, increasing your attention.


Second, adjust your environment to make concentrating easier. This approach is especially important when you are actively studying something new for school, work, or leisure.

The Best Memory Trick

The Best Memory Trick

If you have memory problems, you might not be using your brain in the right way. The solution? Learn the best memory trick used by professional memory performers.


These performers amaze us with all sorts of memory feats, such as magically remembering the exact order of the 52 cards in a deck (or even several decks!). You might assume these people have photographic memories, but you would be wrong. Most of them only have average memories.

Instead, memory performers use a technique that I will call “Visualization and Association” (V&A). This is a fun memory trick that anyone who wants to have a great memory can learn. If you have trouble remembering your school work, or facts related to your job, or current events, or people’s names, or any other type of information, the solution is to learn V&A and make it a personal habit you use every day.


Even if you only have an average memory – or even a bad memory – you can still use V&A to memorize things easily and well. Small children have been taught this technique, so anyone can learn it.