Yes, we like to be heard, but deep down, we all know we could be better listeners. And when we think of self-improvement and healing, whether in modern science or traditional teachings, we think first about how to adjust the body, what to eat, or what medicines to take.

But what if simply listening more closely could unblock the essential areas of life in which we struggle?

In fact, we are all born with unique sound vibrations that can be powerful sources of strength, says Sanjeev Verma, Sonima’s meditation adviser.

“What I have discovered, through my meditative awakenings, is that every single human being is born with 108 sound vibrations,” Verma says. “These vibrations are embedded in you at the time of birth. As soon as you entered the whole world, the whole universe imprints on you not only the light of the planets, not only its electromagnetic fields and its energy, but also its sounds.”

But identifying and reconnecting with these individualized seed sounds can be difficult, especially in a multimedia world full of distractions. “Normally, these sound vibrations are not being recognized by us, because they are deep inside us,” Verma says. “We must try a meditative state to hear these inner sounds.”

The innovative new Ananta mobile application, which launched to the public this week, is specifically designed to help people find their inner sounds and incorporate them into meditations that can help them across all areas of life. The Ananta app is now available on both the Apple and Android platforms.

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Ananta is a Sanskrit word that means infinite and limitless, and this new meditation app focuses on using your sounds to more easily enhance your life, fulfill your desires, and become limitless with the practice of mantras that are unique to your goals.

While each of us is born with the 108 sound vibrations, Verma says, there are six to 10 that most influence all aspects of our lives. The unique feature of the Ananta app is that it guides users through an onboarding process that allows them to quickly identify their core six to 10 seed sounds, and then customize them around specific goals.

Once users have downloaded the app, they choose their birth details and then a specific purpose. Ananta then generates the appropriate seed sound and a related meditation mantra that Verma recommends people listen to for 10 to 20 minutes every day over a 28-day cycle for maximum results.

“The human cycle is 28 days, and so as you listen, it raises your vibrational field and then you start to have a higher experience,” Verma says.

Ananta is designed to support beginner, intermediate, and advanced mediation experiences, and it focuses on six overall areas, with more specific purposes within each:

• Relaxation and stress relief
• Reducing anxiety
• Focus and productivity
• Being more mindful
• Healthy lifestyle
• Manifesting effects in your life

Users can try one customized mantra for free ongoing, and two more for 30 days. A full subscription unlocks many more unique meditations and ways to customize your goals and is $3.99 a month or $37.99 annually.

Every experience is highly customized to the individual and their seed sound that will unblock their challenges. Take career, for example. “You’ll go on the purpose screen, click ‘career,’ and select from some options,” Verma says. “That then identifies and leads you to your sound, which is the vibrational feel of your career. And that will be fixed. That is for you, and it’s fixed. And if somebody else uses that sound for their career, it’s just not for them, because theirs would be different than yours.”

Ready to listen? Download the sound-breaking new Ananta mediation app from the Apple or Android platforms.

The post Tap into Your Seed Sounds to Unlock Your Full Potential appeared first on Sonima.

Anytime I need to make a decision, it seems that I ask every single person close to me what they think I should do. I tell myself that I want to be fully informed and not miss any “blind spots” before I make a move. But even after I make my decision, I sometimes end up wondering if I did the right thing. Is this normal? And how do I stop all of this overthinking and think for myself?

With gratitude,

Crowd-sourcer

Dear Crowd-sourcer,

I think most of us can relate to your question in that we’ve likely felt challenged by a daunting decision at some point. What comes to me when I reflect on your words is the journey that every person must make toward trusting yourself and overcoming the fear of failing.

Self-trust is developed incrementally across time through practice and experience. My chosen route toward developing self-trust is mindfulness. In this context, mindfulness involves growing familiar with yourself and clarifying your values, wants, and desires. These critical dimensions of self-awareness are necessary to live a values-based and purpose-driven life. These elements are always alive within, and they are there to be discovered or remembered—we simply need to be awakened (or reawakened) to our inner guide.

The meditation practice is a process of lifting away barriers that we’ve built between our inner guide and our conscious awareness. It involves a quieting down in order to allow your inner guide to be heard. Here is a short and simple mindfulness practice, inspired by the work of American philosopher Eugene Gendlin to help move you toward discovering your authentic self and learning to trust yourself.

A Meditation for Learning to Trust Yourself

1. Find a comfortable, safe, quiet, private place where you will not be disturbed. Choose a relaxing position, whether that is sitting, standing, or lying down. Breathe and, if it feels OK for you, close your eyes. If not, practice with a soft gaze.

2. As you breathe, feel the breath as a doorway to presence. Take a few moments to gather your awareness through these natural breaths. Let the breath be exactly as it is. Feel that there is nothing to do in this moment other than settle in and breathe.

3. When you feel that you have reached a centered place, relax a hand or both hands onto your heart. As you do so, notice what you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally. This is your baseline state.

4. Now bring a situation to mind on which you need guidance. I recommend starting with an easier decision rather than a big one.

5. Visualize this situation and, slowly, one by one, imagine the different actions you could take.

6. As you bring these different possibilities and their related actions to mind, notice what feedback you get. Take mind of the thoughts, images, emotions, and sensations in your body.

7. If you explore a particular possibility and feel nothing, that is an indicator to let that option go.

8. Your body will give you a resounding “yes” when you have hit upon what may be a good decision. Spend a few moments sitting with that decision and confirming that it feels right.

When you feel complete with this practice, intentionally come back to your breathing. Close out the practice with a feeling of gratitude for yourself for taking this time to practice. Intentionally release the meditation with an exhale, and return back to your day.

Related: Find the Confidence to Celebrate Your Successes

The Next Step: Take Action

Now it’s time to put your insight from the meditation into practice. Given your question, I want to share a few reflections on how you can frame this stage of the practice.

As human beings, we must accept that we cannot take in an unlimited amount of data about a given situation. We do not have infinite computing capacities, and in most circumstances we are also bound by time. Overthinking a situation can lead to inaction, as we may become frozen.

But life constantly invites us to act. In that action, we must do our best to hold healthy and ethical intentions, consider the available data we have from all sources, decide, act, and ultimately trust that we can be with whatever the outcome is, no matter how difficult. We must also acknowledge and release what is forsaken in our choices. It is our duty to accept that we may miss the mark and to take responsibility when we do, recognizing mistakes as learning opportunities.

Stepping into responsibility like this can absolutely be scary and overwhelming. However, choice and responsibility are what makes our freedom possible.

Warmly,

John

The post Do You Really Trust Yourself? appeared first on Sonima.

If you find it challenging to focus this time of year, it’s not your fault. Combine the enticements of summertime fun, the tendency to get overheated and dehydrated, and our natural penchant for doing many things at once, and you have a recipe for concentration deficit. This lack of focus makes us less productive and is also a leading source of anxiety.

One primary way to minimize the effects of all our multi-tasking is to set aside some time during the day to unplug from social media and outside inputs altogether. But I want to give you an additional strategy to subvert the effects of all of that multitasking. I want to give you a tool to train your mind to focus better, attend, and be present in an easy and meaningful way.

If you think you are exempt, try this test: The next time you sit down to eat, challenge yourself to be mindful of each and every bite. You will soon discover that even when you think you are doing only one thing—in this instance, eating—you may also be listening to music, chatting, reading, or checking email. So strategy number one is to practice mindful eating once in a while, if not once a day. Even just for a few bites, concentrate only on eating!

Truly training the mind may require a more targeted practice, so I want to offer you two techniques. Think of these together as a reframe, a chance to retrain yourself and increase your ability to concentrate, focus in the moment, and, ultimately, remain focused effortlessly. Scientific studies show that meditative practices like these actually develop parts of the brain used in concentration and focus. It’s like a fitness regimen for the mind: You are building the ability to get present and stay present, training yourself to let go of thoughts as they pop up (and they will always pop up!) and become more immune to distractions overall.

This first technique is simple and requires just minutes a day: Count breathing cycles. Inhale, exhale, one. Inhale, exhale, two. Inhale, exhale, three. And so on. You may be able to get only as far as two or three at first. But with practice, you will improve, and so will your ability to concentrate. Do what you can, and when a thought interrupts, go back to one.

The second technique is this guided meditation. Together we work up to 10 breathing cycles.

What a relief it is to learn that you can control your mind. You don’t have to pay attention to every little idea that pops up or detail of the world around you. For a few delicious moments, you can sit quietly and just notice. When you can be mindful in the present moment at will, your ability to concentrate naturally increases.

Do one or both of these practices daily as a gift of mind-training to yourself. Then get out there and take advantage of all the season has to offer!

Related: 7 Realistic Ways to Approach Mindful Eating

The post How to Focus Better: A Meditation appeared first on Sonima.

When I first discovered I was pregnant with my son, I went through the full gamut of emotions—excited, nervous, terrified, anxious, and elated. I prepared his nursery, bought a few onesies, pre-registered at the hospital, took a mildly helpful birth class, and considered myself ready.

I had 17 years of meditation practice under my belt going into motherhood. I figured, how different can motherhood be from the other upheavals of everyday life? How hard will it be to meet life with presence and awareness with babies, when I have been training at it for so long?

Turns out, extremely different, and extremely hard. In my experience of having two kids 15 months apart, I can say that motherhood hit like a semi-truck and dragged me down a road of complete confusion and disorientation (with a healthy wallop of sleep deprivation) for two years before I felt like I got some of my footing back.

Now that I am somewhat steadier, I want to share my top three pieces of advice, as well as accompanying meditations to help you on your parenting journey. My hope is to help prepare you for this transition or, at the least, assure you that you are not alone.

Parenthood Lesson #1: There Is More to Babies Than Meets the Eye

Mindfulness tip: Forgive yourself and ask for help

It was 2 a.m. My 15-month-old was waking up every three hours with a 103-degree fever. My 3-week-old was refusing to breastfeed, waking up every few hours and screaming inconsolably and almost perfectly coordinated to the moment that I finally got my other son to sleep. My husband screamed into his pillow. I thrust my screaming baby at him and went to sob on the dirty bathroom floor.

Those days, my husband and I battled daily about who was acting more like a baby. The truth was, we both were. We were pouring every ounce of parental energy and care into our children, leaving us feeling parched for care ourselves.

When I stopped thinking of my desire to be cared for as an embarrassing inconvenience and more like a necessity, two things changed. First, I started to be kinder and gentler to myself during the course of the day, forgiving my messy house, my pile of endless laundry, and the fact that I let my son repeatedly lick the side of the garbage pail because it kept him quiet.

I asked myself the question, “What can I do for you right now? How can I cushion this very hard time?” Sometimes that was just a deep breath. Sometimes it was a trip to the coffee shop. It didn’t matter what exactly it was. The self-kindness was all that mattered.

Second, I started asking for help like it was my job. I asked family, friends, local mothers groups, acquaintances, and even Facebook for babysitting, advice, food, and even comfort. I have never been much of a help-asker, but when I started considering the multiple babies in my house (especially my husband and me), and the sheer impossibility of surviving alone, I summoned up the strength to ask. A surprising number of times, people came through. And even when they couldn’t, it still felt good to ask without shame.

Parenthood Lesson #2: You Are Going Through a Massive Change

Mindfulness tip: Try to be patient

Pre-motherhood, I thought that having a baby would be kind of like buying a new couch for my home. It was a big investment. It would bring a lot of comfort to my life. It would require upkeep. But ultimately, I would still be me, and the couch would be the couch.

Instead, having a baby changed the molecular structure of who I am as a person. Being a mother was not just “Yael + baby”. The math of motherhood transformed the being that was “Yael” into someone that was almost unrecognizable. My body was completely different, with new folds and cushions that didn’t exist before. My mind was filled with thrashing to-do lists, new and urgent fears, and a disorienting sense of time passing both too slowly and too quickly.

In my old life, my daily meditation was the place where I centered myself. Now, in the rare moments I could take to formally meditate, I never made it very far out of mental grocery lists and diaper orders. I was reeling, inside and out.

It took a while to realize the colossal change that becoming a parent would bring. I clung to the baby-as-couch idea far after it became clear that motherhood was something much more radical and transformative than I imagined. Realizing this and accepting the grief that came with the death of the old life, I could slowly step into my life with more patience, curiosity, and even surprising joy.

Related: Think You Don’t Have Time to Meditate? Try This

You will not be the same post-babies. Even if you did not give birth to them, you will be transformed in ways you don’t yet see. Try and be patient as your life and your old sense of self dissolves and rearranges.

Parenthood Lesson #3: Your Spiritual Path and Your Life Are Not Separate

Mindfulness tip: Be present

Scrolling through Instagram on maternity leave, a newborn sleeping lightly on my lap, I was awash in jealousy for the gorgeous photos of people doing yoga on distant beaches, emerging bright and glowing from meditation retreats. I was aware of the irony of that jealousy, since for decades I had felt it while looking at photos of people in my exact situation with newborn babies, but there you go. Jealousy isn’t exactly obedient to logic.

I met with a spiritual director during this time. After listening to me whine about missing my practice and wishing I could go on a retreat, she looked me in the eyes and said, “Yael, your spiritual life is not different than your real life.” I felt the truth of it hit me like a lightning bolt. Of course! I was looking for wisdom and insights and freedom everywhere except right where it has always been—in the present moment. Life, as it is.

Re-adjusting my vision to see my life with the babies as my practice, I started noticing a lot. I saw the pain and the beauty of impermanence as my sons grew out of their clothes and learned new skills. I felt the vulnerability and the heart-expanding love beyond the borders of the self when staring in their eyes or holding their tiny warm bodies. I felt the suffering of resisting life when I clenched up against the unfolding of my life as a mother, and the release of that suffering when I softened into it and opened up to the flood of feelings underneath.

Related: The Healing Power of Self-Care Through Ayurveda

Your spiritual life is your everyday life. The two are not separate. If you notice you are fighting with life, pushing against the truth of how things are, escaping into your phone or running away in your mind, see if you can gently, courageously come back to the present moment. Even if it’s painful, you will suffer less and notice more. Life is right here, waiting for you.

The post 3 Meditations to Help Moms Embrace the Transition to Motherhood appeared first on Sonima.

“Don’t surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut more deep. Let it ferment and season you…” – Hafiz

What does it mean to not “surrender loneliness so quickly”? For most of my life, I would have preferred to surrender my loneliness yesterday. Loneliness felt like a painful, aching, hollow feeling at the core of my gut. It was my constant companion and I most certainly did not want it there. At some point in my twenties, I decided if I was going to spend so much of life being lonely, it was worth investigating what loneliness actually was. What I discovered didn’t stop me from ever getting lonely, but it helped transform my relationship to loneliness from something miserable to a powerful source of information.

Loneliness Hack #1: Make Friends with Desire

My first revelation was that at the center of loneliness was desire. It was a powerful longing for love. And yet, I had learned that that kind of longing was unattractive. I was told that I should stop looking for love, and that it would “happen when I least expected it”. I told myself that I better stop wanting things because not getting them made me feel desperate, pathetic, and disappointed. I told myself that I was too old, too ugly, and just too late for love, and then I told myself that love wasn’t real anyway (given the divorce rate). I tried anything and everything to get me to stop wanting love. Nothing worked. I continued to feel lonely.

One day, I was at the beach with my crush and my crush’s new girlfriend. As they snuggled together on the shore, I morosely wandered into the waves, feeling lost in a haze of loneliness and frustrated desire. Suddenly, I decided that instead of fighting off my yearning, I was going to try and open up to it. With each wave that crashed over my head I called out a new desire. “I want the dress I saw on 5th Avenue,” I started. Crash. “I want to be pretty.” Crash. “I want real love.” Crash. Instead of feeling depressed or lonely, opening up to each desire felt liberating. It felt strong and brave and exciting. Nothing guaranteed I would get these things, but just saying them felt almost as good. Within loneliness is a deep and powerful desire to connect. Trying to get rid of it won’t help. Opening up to the longing will.

Loneliness Hack #2: Learn the Difference Between Your Stories and the Truth

Everybody’s stories are different. Mine sounded like this: “I am so lonely. There must be something wrong with me. I’m too picky. I choose the wrong people. I must be immune to real love.” Sometimes another voice would swoop in: “You will find love! You just have to join a different dating app, cut your hair, and buy some new clothes. You can do this!” And on and on. These voices were part of the overall chorus of mental chatter that accompanied me throughout my day. Much of this “self-talk” was developed as a child to try and navigate my world, and much of it has stayed at the child level in terms of its maturity and problem-solving skills.

So what do we do when we realize we are lost in a maze of depressing self-chatter? First, congratulations! Noticing you are lost in thought (and not just living inside of it) is 80 percent of the battle. Next, notice if there is a feeling underneath the chatter that you don’t want to feel. Desire? Grief? Sadness? See if you can rest and breathe in the feeling itself, not in the mind’s attempt to cover it up. Finally, rather than fighting stories with other stories, try to just notice what is real. The chair underneath you. The wind on your face. Your body as it breathes. These things are real. Wake up out of your circular thoughts by sensitizing yourself to the here and now.

Related: The Fascinating Science of Why You’re So Hard on Yourself

Loneliness Hack #3: Come Home to Yourself

Sometimes loneliness comes to visit us when we are surrounded by people, in a relationship, and/or scrolling through the social media posts of 1,000+ of our “friends”. In my experience, this type of loneliness is a result of being alienated from ourselves. We are not experiencing the richness of life. We have left the building.

There is a Zen quote that says, “A picture of a rice cake cannot satisfy hunger.” In other words, living life glued to our phones, saying things that others want to hear, or being lost in our thoughts leave us feeling hungry, empty, and alone. If you are experiencing this type of loneliness, stop whatever you are doing, and come back to yourself. Meditate with the practice below. Unplug. Exercise. Have an honest talk with a friend or a date with your journal. Your loneliness is a sign of your life calling out to you. Answer it. Come home.

We are deeply interconnected to one another. We breathe the same air, influence one another’s moods, and are made up of the same raw materials. Loneliness is a difficult mind state, but practicing these hacks whenever we feel lonely brings us back to ourselves, to our hearts, and to the interconnected present moment that holds it all. This is how we let loneliness “season” us, emerging more tender and open-hearted on the other side.

The post 3 Ways to Hack Loneliness appeared first on Sonima.

Cultivating feelings of love for yourself and love for others is a wonderful thing. We could all use a little more heart—or let’s call it empathy—not only for those around us but also, perhaps most importantly, for ourselves. By this I mean finding ways to accept what is, observe yourself, and make changes that you decide will serve you as you move through the world. It’s an easy equation: By focusing on yourself first, cultivating a mindfully open and empathic heart, you will find you have love to spare for those around you. As the writer Anne Lamott says, “If you want loving feelings, do loving things.”

Most traditions and cultures, whether ancient or modern, Eastern or Western, talk about the spiritual dimension of the heart and its role in experiencing the power of love, willpower, and inner wisdom. When we linger too long with fear, doubt, grief, and hopelessness in our heart, we undermine our capacity for love and we have officially entered a negative feedback loop.

In this guided meditation for love and kindness, I offer a way to access feelings of love and being loved, and a way to establish a positive loop over time. Don’t worry if it takes awhile to really develop these feelings. Just keep doing it, using your imagination. It involves accessing a memory of a time when you had the feeling of loving or being loved, being cared for or caring deeply for someone else. Just that. None of the backstory or after effects, just the simple feeling of love, however you can call it up in your memory.

Related: How Love and Meditation Are Intertwined

So practice this easy meditation regularly and shine a light around your whole body, especially the area of the physical heart. Open yourself up to a more positive loop. There is no way to be happy all the time or live in a permanent state of joy, nor should we try. We benefit from being open to observing the ways in which we have both negative and positive feelings. The next step is to understand that failures of empathy are human and necessary. The next yet is to reach for the light since as humans, this is a more satisfying way to live our lives. It certainly helps us bond, heal, let go, and be more in sync with those around us.

The post A Meditation for Love and Kindness appeared first on Sonima.

At the start of the year, many of us are looking for clear, irrefutable wisdom that we can call upon at any given moment and know it will make a difference to us. Hundreds of self-help books get published annually, providing us with exercises, techniques and insights to assist us as we set new goals and intentions for the upcoming year. We hope that by reading these books, we will be transformed into the beings that we have always longed to be, for example, more patient, more loving, a better listener, more productive, happier, more brave, more understanding, etc. Many of us are addicted to becoming better versions of ourselves.

Ultimately, what we are truly seeking is to experience greater peace. Deep within, we are hoping that the desire to change ourselves will eventually fall away. Imagine if we shared with someone on January 1, “My New Year’s resolution is to just be me and not focus on improving myself at all.” I believe some of us would be shocked and a bit judgmental. We might even accuse that person of being selfish or ignorant. Yet, the best wisdom and insight I’ve found to date (that actually works) is practicing just this: Accepting oneself.

Now, this task may seem lofty to some, and to those I say “give this a chance.” To others who might think this is too easy, I would share that the path of unconditional acceptance may not be a journey that you’ve taken all the way to the end.

I used to think that if I could just get some space from the people and situations around me that made me feel crazy, destabilized or unworthy, I would find peace. About 15 years ago, I tried to quiet my mind via yoga for several years. What I realized was that the other people in the room and their issues seemed to be affecting and disrupting my efforts to find peace. I didn’t realize at the time that what was actually getting stirred up was my own internal battle within myself and not from those around me.

Related: Can Others’ Bad Vibes Affect Your Practice?

So I decided to directly investigate the battle that my mind was waging against myself via Buddhist meditation. I figured I could be alone and read and practice these meditations and insights without anyone annoying me!

What I came to understand over the years was that I was the cause of my own turmoil and the route to peace was an inside job. I discovered that there are great insights and practices from the Buddhist tradition, but also from neuroscience, positive psychology, and yoga that could get one into what I call “peace shape.”

Peace shape is what I believe we all want to attain. I named it this because the task is similar to getting any other part of ourselves in shape. It requires consistent, diligent, sustained effort over a given period of time. Peace is available to each and everyone one of us. It is not exclusive to monks.

Peace shape can come in many different shapes and sizes and wear many different hats. Below, are key insights and techniques from 10 different book authors (in no particular order) who I believe have their finger on the pulse of peace, or at least a piece of it. For book six, I offer an adapted guided meditation that you can do with me right now (click the video above).

1. Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection by Barbara Fredrickson

Take-home message: Love is an inside job that can be shared at any given moment. I chose this book because it helped me not only redefine love, but also expand my definition of it. Scientific research shows that love is far more than a positive emotion one experiences with just those close to them. Instead, it is a group of emotions that we experience moment-to-moment when activated. It also draws us out of our cocoons of isolation to attune with others creating micro moments of love. These consistent doses can help us to grow, change, and become healthier and more resilient over time. The great news is that we can experience these “micro moments of love with other individuals, even strangers, as well as within ourselves if we pay attention and actively cultivate these feelings. Most importantly, we need to feel love within ourselves, so that we feel that emotion as we connect with others.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Every morning, before I get out of bed, and every evening before I go to sleep, I spend five to 10 minutes sending love, first to myself—loving the me that I am right now—then to my children, other family members, and people who I know are struggling at the moment. Over time, this ritual has healed many ruptured feelings that I had toward others as well as strengthened that embodied feeling of love that rests within me at all times, but sometimes can feel obscured. In the book, this exercise is called loving kindness meditation.

Related: 10-Minute Loving-Kindness Meditation

2. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg

Take-home message: We are never angry because of what people say or do. I realized, while reading this book, that a great deal of my unhappiness and stress arose from conflicts with others. I was often making unconscious demands of others in the guise of a request and others were doing the same to me. This common approach of communication can cause ruptures in relationships. Marshall Rosenberg not only explains that the underlying cause of all conflicts is that one of our basic human needs is not being met. He also teaches us how we can repair the ruptured moment using the NVC tools. First, observe rather than judge the chain of events that cause the unwelcome feelings. Next, name your feelings and share which of our basic needs is not being met. Finally, instead of demanding others meet our expectations, request their support. We no longer unconsciously expect others to make us happy. We can also recognize that others struggle with their needs not being met as well and see them more compassionately. This empathy enables us to have greater capacity to support others.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Reflect back on a recent conflict you had with another person and see what need(s) were not being met. Some examples of basic human needs that we all share: Autonomy, integrity, celebration, interdependence, play, spiritual communion, and physical nurturance. Now, can you think of a simple request of an another that would meet your need. Repeat this exercise with other incidents so that you get more practiced at identifying needs and finding solutions.

3. A Mind at Home with Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around by Byron Katie

Take-home message: What I believe to be true might not be. In fact, the opposite might be true. It is our rigid attachment to beliefs that causes us great stress, anxiety, and depression. I think that one of the greatest lessons that I have learned is to not believe my thoughts. This may sound radical and crazy to you, but one thing that I have become certain of is that my thoughts are just that—only thoughts. They cannot, and do not, live outside of my head. It is this unconscious attachment to every thought both “good’ and “bad” that has caused me much of my suffering. Byron Katie’s approach of questioning our thoughts and asking ourselves if they are true and could the opposite be true, too, awakens our awareness to our blind commitment to these beliefs. Simply by asking ourselves the question, Is it true?, we begin to free ourselves from unconscious negative beliefs about ourselves and others.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably and will not be disturbed. Consider a recent conflict with another person—partner, coworker, or friend—and identify what you believe they did that was wrong. Then ask yourself if it is true what you believe. Next, ask yourself if you are 100 percent certain that it is true? At this point, notice what your body feels like as you feel the attachment to this belief. Ask yourself if the opposite could be true as well. Again, notice what your body feels as you attempt to experience this other perspective. Finally, ask yourself what would it feel like if you didn’t have this thought. The mere questioning loosens the physical attachment to the belief.

4. The Freedom of Being: At Ease with What Is by Jan Frazier

Take-home message: What is happening on the inside of our system is not the same as what is happening on the outside. Jan Frazier is a gifted writer enabling the reader to directly experience the way in which the mind personalizes or conceptualizes what is happening moment-to-moment and distracts us from directly experiencing the present. What is happening simultaneously is that while we are living our lives, our mind is narrating the events and qualifying them as pleasurable or not. In return, our body receives messages communicating the mind’s perception of the situation. Our reaction to the situation is based on these messages. However, the event that is taking place at any given moment is free from these beliefs. They are just events with no quality to them. We assign them quality and when we do this, we suffer. We are resisting the unpleasant sensations being activated in our system. What would happen if we got in touch with these bodily feelings and allowed them their due course? The felt sensations would arise, be experienced, and then dissolved in a matter of minutes. It is our resistance to these feelings that is most painful.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Find a quiet space where you can observe nature. Take 15 minutes and simply watch the natural landscape in front of you. Try to observe all the details of your surroundings without naming them or qualifying them, i.e., old, bare, green, trees, etc. Let your eyes wander as they observe. Notice if your mind wants to analyze or judge the scene and, instead, come back to observing it. When we allow ourselves this gift of simply witnessing, we create a sense of spaciousness within our mind and a loosening of the gripping thoughts.

5. In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself by John Prendergast

Take-home message: The heart holds our deepest knowing. Uncovering and living by this truth allows our unique journey to unfold beautifully. John Prendergast is a magnificent teacher and guide of directing one to their own deep knowing of what is most valuable to each of us in any given moment. We discover that when we shift our primary attention from the mind to the heart, we begin to experience what feels right to us as well as what doesn’t. The ability to listen to the body as it guides us toward our deepest sense of happiness and contentment is like following an inner compass that knows which direction we must follow.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Close your eyes and take a few, deep, slow breaths. Feel your feet on the ground and the weight of your body in the chair letting yourself be held by the chair, and gravity and the earth. Be aware of the sensations of your body. Notice the sounds around you (try to listen without labeling them). Then notice the sensations of touch within your hands, feet, back bottom, and legs. Feel the space inside your body and then around your body. Notice your emotions, whatever they are—joyful, peaceful, anxiety, sadness, etc. Let them be as they are. Next, notice your thoughts as you would observe clouds passing in the sky. Notice if they are in the form of words, images or memories, and if they are from the past or future. Let each sensation be as it is. Finally, notice the one thing that has been consistent throughout the exercise: It is the noticing itself. Rest as this silent awareness for as long as you’d like.

6. The Way of Liberation: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Adyashanti

Take-home message: Adyashanti is one of the clearest, most direct teachers for knowing truth and experiencing peace. The journey to freedom from our suffering is all about letting go, not adding on. We must let go of our expectations, judgements, beliefs, and identities that we are blindly attached to if we truly want to experience consistent peace, especially during difficult times. Most of us don’t even know that we are holding onto these things. We just think that is who we are. Consider this: In reality, we are directly experiencing each moment. Any belief that we place on it is like a subtitle added on to a silent movie. What we directly experience in a given moment (without our stories of what should or shouldn’t be happening) is reality. It is our ego’s need to qualify and analyze what is reality that causes suffering. Believing a single thought that opposes the way things are, or have been, is the true cause of emotional pain.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Try this guided meditation, inspired by Adyashanti, to help you practice becoming conscious of awareness. This foundational meditation is a practice of observing and accepting everything that arises within our mind and body without resistance. Scroll up to the top and click on the main image to begin this 15-minute meditation.

7. The Blind Spot Effect: How to Stop Missing What’s Right in Front of You by Kelly Boys

Take-home message: Discovering where we are blind helps us to see. Blindspots manifest when we are unable to see truth because of past conditioning. Stored within our subconscious are hidden beliefs about ourselves ,like being unloveable or unworthy. They cause us to operate on automatic pilot, acting in ways to avoid these feelings. Unfortunately, the outcomes of these unconscious behaviors usually validate the negative belief. It is difficult to have visibility into that which we are unconsciously avoiding. By becoming aware of these thought patterns, beliefs, and emotions that arise within ourselves, we can begin to see our blindspots. It is through a gentle welcoming practice of allowing ourselves to acknowledge the false stories about ourselves that we become more whole, integrating the wounded past with our truth of the present. This work requires great self-compassion, knowing that we are doing the best that we can.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Stand in front of a mirror (real or metaphoric) as a means to reflect upon yourself. Ask yourself, “Who am I supposed to be?” See what words and images arise as you ask yourself this question. Notice the identities that surface, such as loyal daughter, good brother, patient friend, slender, wealthy, hardworking, attractive, athletic, generous, good listener, etc. Now, ask yourself, “Who would I be if I were none of these identities?” Again, pay attention to what words or images come up as you see yourself naked of the roles, identities, and expectations that you have placed upon yourself. What is left is the genuine you, the unmasked self. Look at this “self” with compassion. Seeing yourself free of roles or judgment fosters loving acceptance of ourselves just as we are.

8. Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence by Rick Hanson

Take-home message: Although you can’t change an experience, you can change how you feel about it. Rick Hanson, a leading neuroscientist, not only explains why the brain is more susceptible to negative thoughts and beliefs, but also shares how this wiring can be changed over time. We can shift our negative bias of thoughts to be more positive, healthy, and resilient. There is a famous saying that the mind takes the shape of what it rests upon. In other words, where we put our attention and what we focus on defines the wellbeing of our brain (experience, moment). Our brains are like gardens, we can either put up with the weeds and the flowers, or we can consciously pull up the weeds and grow more flowers.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Let’s break down H.E.A.L. 1. Have a positive experience. Find something good in your immediate situation, like a cozy chair, a beautiful tree outside, a warm cup of tea, or think of something or someone you are glad about in your life now or from the past. Or think of something that make you feel grateful, happy, loved or loving. 2. Enrich it. Let this thought fill your mind and enjoy it. Gently encourage the experience to become more intense. Take note of any sensations within your body that arise. 3. Absorb it. Intentionally sense it immerse into you as you immerse into it. 4. Link positive and negative material. While having this positive experience in your foreground and having your attention on the positive feelings within you, bring up in the background a past experience that has been bothering you. Alternate your focus from the positive sensations in the foreground to those negative ones in the background. (If the negative feelings hijack the positive, drop part 4 and stick with steps 1 to 3.)

Related: Ayurveda’s Best Advice on Brain Health

9. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown

Take-home message: Although we are used to protecting ourselves from being vulnerable, leaning into this discomfort is the key to love, joy, and peace. When we allow ourselves to face our weaknesses, we are actually demonstrating incredible bravery. There is a great deal of shame and sense of unworthiness that inhibits many of us from revealing our more sensitive, intimate self. However, if we can tap into the energy that fuels courage and the willingness to face our fears, we begin to chip away at the root causes of it: shame and unworthiness. We will need to be wise with whom we connect with when asking for compassion in a given moment. However, it is in the sharing with a confidant our experiences of shame and unworthiness that they begin to dissolve and loosen their grip on our well being.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Take 15 minutes and find a place where you can be quiet and not be disturbed. First, get quiet, then bring to mind a time in you past where you felt shame. Notice what this direct sensation feels like in your body as you observe the memory. These are future clues for you to be able to notice the next time you experience shame. Next, think of a courageous act that you could do for yourself that helps you feel less hurt. Plan a time you can do this activity. Finally, think of a person who you feel safe to share this vulnerable moment. A person who has the capacity to listen and empathize with your experience. Find a time to reach out to this person and share your shame experience.

10. Whatever Arises, Love That: A Love Revolution That Begins with You by Matt Kahn

Take-home message: What we are waiting for others to do or tell us, we need to do for ourselves. I love the message of this book because it reminds me to not wait for others to give to me what I need to give to myself. We spend a great deal of time hoping that others will validate our worthiness and satisfy our deepest desires. Instead, Matt Kahn asks us to love ourselves, all of ourselves! It might seem easy to love the me that is kind, generous, and understanding. Meanwhile, it’s more difficult to love those parts of ourselves that are jealous, arrogant, sad, guilty, angry, or unworthy. If we are willing to love ourselves when these emotions arise from within, we begin to heal the old wounds that have been suppressed until now. As we truly love all of the emotions that we experience within ourselves, we start experiencing a greater and greater sense of peace and acceptance.

Try this mindfulness exercise: Creating your own personal love statement helps us hear the words that we wanted to hear when we were younger, but did not hear or did not hear enough. Ask yourself, “Who, in my present or past experience, hurt me the most? And what were the words they didn’t say that would have allowed me to heal.” Whatever words come to you are just what you need to hear. The love statement can change from day-to-day or week-to-week. The important part of the exercise is to repeat this phrase as many times a day as you can and with deep intention.

The post 10 Books that Will Help You Find Peace of Mind This Year appeared first on Sonima.

Most people want to succeed in life; that’s a given. But actually getting to success? That part is a little trickier. What many don’t realize is that there’s an incredibly useful tool to reach success right at their disposal. In fact, the mindset required to reach success lies within.

Whether it’s in your career, family relationships, friendships, health pursuits, or any other area, tapping into your consciousness through meditation can be the first step toward succeeding in any goal. Here’s how.

1. Meditation opens you up to more opportunities.

Success in any aspect of our lives is limited by our own narrow belief systems. We create a comfort zone around our belief system and we tend to stay within that. But meditation helps you work toward a process of transformation so that you can create a new belief system that gives you the confidence to step outside of your comfort zone.

When you know yourself, and your own inner nature, the unknown becomes less scary. If you’re committed to your meditation practice, you can actually bring everything into your comfort zone. Nothing is impossible only when your comfort zone is infinite.

2. Meditation helps you to take the first step.

The first step in any process is the most important. After all, it’s a requirement for reaching the final destination of a journey, and most people aren’t clear on what the first step actually is. The first step is to know your goal. So to take it, you need to know which direction you’re taking that step in. To have that all in place, you need to have clarity of mind.

The quickest route to clarity of mind is meditation. Meditation connects you with your inner core, energy, and consciousness. It brings in a defined picture of who you are and what it is that you sincerely want deep down. This is true for any aspect of your life (work, family, health), and in turn, allows you to take that first step. Suddenly, you have the ability to map your goal, route, and destination. When you have that in place, success is yours. All you have to do is follow the map you’ve laid out.

Related: How Meditation Can Help You Work Smarter

3. The act of meditation is a success in itself.

Meditation is one thing that is not dependent on any goals because there is no failure. There is only success. The more you succeed, the easier it becomes to repeat the process in other contexts. Let’s say you start meditating with the goal to have less stress in your life. You’ll achieve that, but there are so many other fringe benefits you’ll get along with what you initially wanted. You’ll also experience more peace, a clearer mind, more energy, more kindness, more love. When you meditate, you’re connecting with your own inner core nature, which contains all these attributes, and they flourish, whether you are purposely trying to reach them or not.

Here’s the secret: To find success, you don’t actually have to try so hard. Meditation nourishes your roots and when that happens, your whole nature and potentiality blossoms.

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Going green is so good for you, and we’re not just talking about spinach smoothies. Studies show that being in nature can improve memory, promote sharper thinking, enhance the ability to focus, and improve mood as well as immune function. Living in a city is no excuse. You can find patches anywhere and everywhere. Make it a habit to get fresh air at least twice a day to soothe your mind and restore mental energy. Listen to this guided meditation as you head out for a stroll, no matter where you live.

1. Urbanites, Hit the Streets

City life is most challenging when it comes to connecting with the rhythms of nature. Circadian rhythms can easily get screwed up by all night dining options, street lights, honking horns outside your window, etc. What is less clear is how to get your fix of nature effectively and mindfully. Commit to finding ways to be outside, breathing fresh air, and connecting to the essential rhythm of the place. It may be a rhythm syncopated by car horns and more concrete than green pastures, but it is still possible to find the beauty in all of it.

On a concrete jungle walk, determine that you will stop at every light and look around at the architecture of the buildings. Look up at the sky. Notice how many trees line that block or planters, or not. Take a few deep, relaxing breaths, drop the shoulders, feel the weight of yourself on the sidewalk, and carry on. Make your way to a riverside or park, and sit there for at least five minutes to enjoy quiet contemplation.

With open eyes, make an effort to soften the gaze so that you are taking in the scene almost in peripheral vision. No major focus or intensity of attention. Just breathe and notice how it all feels. You will likely notice patterns of movement, sound, and smell. You can feel your seat on the bench or in the grass. Breath and notice the rhythm of life carrying on around you.

2. Mountain Folks, Take a Hike

Set out on your hike with a sense of self. Stand still and tall before you start. Feel your feet grounding, your head rising, and your breath filling your lungs. Listen to the sounds of nature around you. What can you hear, smell, taste? Take a final deliberate deep breath and head off.

If you have a companion, make an agreement that while you might talk as you walk, each time you stop, you will do so in silence. You will stop. Inhale and sweep the arms overhead and exhale, letting the arms trace a graceful arc around your body. Inhale and exhale two more times like this. Then stand. Gaze softly at the horizon or lower, unless you are feeling tired, in which case, gaze skyward.

Now watch, listen, smell. Feel your skin and notice the quality of your breath, deep and full. Watch the birds and bees and anything else that attracts your attention. Observe without engaging it. If you start thinking or attaching memories, then acknowledge and let them go easily, returning the focus gently on other aspects of the present experience.

Related: A 5-Minute Walking Meditation for Mind-Body Connection

3. Beach Babes, Find Your Flow

Walk down toward the shore. Feel the sand between your toes, its temperature and texture. Once you find a dry spot near the water, take a comfortable seat. Soften the gaze toward the horizon and let sensation arise and dissipate. Engage with the rhythm of the sea. Notice the smells and the sounds. The rhythm of the waves, the undulation of the water. See the movements of tiny birds along the shore, or hear the wail of the wind. Inhale and exhale in a gentle rhythm so quiet that you hardly notice where your body touches the air around you. Just be a gentle observer and when thoughts or memories or desires or to-do lists arise, redirect the mind to the ever-moving water, the soothing sounds in the air and your own breath…even the sounds of your blood flowing through your body.

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Creativity 101: The act of living is an art, according to Ayurveda, and the art of life is in the practices that cultivate wellness. It just so happens that the best practices for this are linked to greater creativity, which, in itself, contributes to greater happiness.

Studies show one must be creative, generative, positive, engaged, present, and mindful to optimize overall health, good immune function and more. Doing creative things is also a proven mood enhancer, however, what this looks like can be different for each of us. What remains the same is the mindset that allows for creative impulses to flow. We all need to partake in practices that involve unrestricted observation as opposed to restrictive repetition. We need to start training our minds to notice everything from inner sensations to mood to feelings as well as smells and tastes in the present moment, keeping the attention flexible and unrestricted.

Related: Finding Your Story Through Poetic Meditation

When you have taught yourself to be more open to experience, you will increase your creative impulses because creativity thrives in a mind that is open, receptive, flexible and non-judgmental. The undeniable truth is that acts of creativity—be they poetry writing, pottery, painting, writing, creative problem solving at work or openly, empathically resolving an argument—are keys to increased happiness and satisfaction. At the very least, states of creative thinking are known to improve memory, reduce rigid thought-processes and encourage flexibility all around.

In many respects, creativity is the art of being open to what is. Here are four basics to think about incorporating into mediation or life, in general, without judgement or expectation:

1. Act with awareness and attention.

Even for a few short minutes, engage with undivided, un-opinionated attention.

2. Observe everything around you.

Notice internal phenomena, like bodily sensations, emotions, memories, thoughts and external ones like sights, sounds, smells, touch.

3. Notice, but don’t overthink it.

Observe without analyzing, and experience your surroundings without processing it judgmentally.

4. Accept the situation.

Start turning away from “I can control and change this or that” to “It is what it is.” From “I cannot do this, it’s too hard” to “This may be difficult, but let’s just see what I can do with it today.” Laugh or shake your head, but don’t evaluate the present moment experience.

You can be serious and still take yourself lightly. Negativity has a deleterious effect on creativity, closing the mind, while judgement-free, mind-wandering optimism makes for the freedom of thoughts, which is so essential to creativity.

Ready to get your creative juices flowing? Train the mind to attend, observe, notice, and accept without too much focus or analysis to the phenomena that passes your mind’s eye without judgement, without distraction. I have found that a short meditation practice, like this one (listen to the video above!), primes the pump for regular sessions of creative work.

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When you’re moving from a waking to a sleeping state, there is a very short time in between when your mind is transitioning from conscious to unconscious. Normally, you can’t directly influence your subconscious when you’re awake, but at that moment, the subconscious mind is more present and accessible than it usually is. In this brief time, you can actually get a direct line to your subconscious mind, allowing it to absorb the thought seeds you plant without being judged by the conscious mind. Because of this, the moment before you fall asleep is a prime time to set intentions—whether they’re big, small, realistic, or outlandish.

In this meditation, I’ll guide you through the process of capitalizing on this unique moment and setting intentions that can help to change your life for the better. Before starting the meditation, it’s a good idea to think about what kind of intention you want to set. You can use this technique to enhance any aspect of your life, whether it’s material, physical, or emotional. It can even be about getting better sleep! The only requirement is that you define your intention very clearly in the present tense, then do the meditation and follow the steps described.

For the best possible results, the intention itself should be short and sweet—just a few words or a quick sentence. Something like, “I always sleep well” or “I make healthy choices.” Though you can set different intentions on different days, I’d recommend sticking with the same one for 28 days, since that’s the length of the natural human cycle—making habits, the menstrual cycle, and more. Once you’ve manifested one intention, you can move onto the next, making use of this powerful natural tool for literally making your dreams come true.

WANT MORE SLEEP? Sign up here for weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest.

Related: A 10-Minute Meditation for Deep Sleep

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By now, you’ve hopefully gotten accustomed to preparing your body and mind for sleep by using breathing and counting exercises to clear your head. If you haven’t, check out the first 10-minute meditation in our spring Better Sleep Series here. Next up, we’re focusing on improving the quality of your shuteye to help you feel more rested.

Have you ever gotten seven to eight hours a night and woken up feeling like you haven’t slept a wink? Most likely it’s because you didn’t spend much time in a deep sleep state—the third phase of sleep. The first two phases, preceding deep sleep, are waking and dreaming. Reaching deep sleep is optimal for feeling recharged. This meditation’s mission is to maximize your duration in this state.

To go into deep sleep, a few things need to happen. First, your body needs to be at total rest. Second, your mind also needs to be free of thoughts, which naturally happens when you’re asleep. Third, your mind needs to be relaxed. That means when you’re falling asleep, and in the hours before bedtime, you’re not having any stressful, worrying, or negative thoughts. These types of thoughts encourage your mind to stay at a surface level during sleep because they’re keeping you in a stimulated, agitated state rather than a calm one.

In this meditation, we’ll achieve these three requirements together. You’ll learn to run through a mental checklist to assess whether you’re really truly relaxed and ready to go to bed. You’ll start by checking your body: Where are you holding tension? Where can that tension be released? Then, you’ll check your mind: What is your state of mind? Are you carrying any mental burdens at this given moment? Next, you’ll check your breath: Is it in your throat, chest, or belly?

Lastly, it’s important to always have some happy thoughts or memories before you doze off to help counterbalance anything stressful that happened during the day. Since people normally wake up in the morning with the same thoughts they had when they fell sleep, this is even more crucial. Positive thoughts not only impact your ability to reach deep sleep, but also the entire following day. Though I won’t prompt you to think positive thoughts during the actual meditation, I will encourage you to turn your attention to something you’re grateful for or happy about should you find your mind wandering in the moments before you fall asleep.

WANT MORE SLEEP? Sign up here for weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest.

Related: This Is Where Positive Thinking Begins

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According to the CDC’s latest statistics, more than a third of the U.S. population is sleeping less than seven hours per night. That means that a good amount of Americans are sleep-deprived. Why is this such a big deal? When you’re sleeping, your brain is recalibrating itself, which means it’s working even more than when you’re awake. In order to start each day feeling fresh, focused, and ready for what lies ahead, good sleep is crucial.

But even when someone makes a conscious decision to get more sleep, they still sometimes fail. What you may not realize is that how you prepare for sleep—not just when you’re getting ready for bed, but also throughout the day—makes a huge difference in getting the quality and quantity of rest you need.

As for how to lay the groundwork for good sleep throughout the day, all the things you’ve commonly heard before—no caffeine in the afternoon, avoiding stressful news programs right before bed, powering down electronics a couple of hours before you sleep—will help you achieve a better night’s rest. What and when you eat, how you stimulate or relax your mind, and how much stressful interaction you have can also make an impact. Ideally, the two hours before you hit the hay are spent doing things like reading, meditating, and enjoying quality time with your family. These are all activities that can help you drift off in a positive, relaxed mood, which will only improve the caliber of your sleep.

This introductory meditation, the first of three in our spring Sleep Better Series, will help you prepare your mind for rest through breathing and relaxation techniques. Each month, I’ll be introducing a new meditation to be practiced right before bedtime as often as possible over the next 30 days, all with the aim of helping you sleep better.

In this 10-minute meditation, and the ones that follow, there are going to be some common instructions: Get in a relaxed body position, lay down in bed with your feet about a foot apart and your palms facing up and away from your body. When you have crossed legs, for example, you’re not allowing your muscles to be fully at rest. Once you’ve gotten yourself into this position, turned off the lights, and take a couple of deep breaths. Now, press play.

WANT MORE SLEEP? Sign up here for weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest.

Related:  A 90-Second Solution to Sleep Better Tonight

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“The only way out is through.”  – Robert Frost

It’s incredibly challenging to sit with any emotional pain, but learning to let it pass through you is the only way to truly begin the healing process. Use this short guided meditation practice from Sanjeev Verma to help you face this distress and alleviate your anguish slowly over time. You’ll come out stronger in the end for your courage and patience.

Related: The Power of Breath for Physical and Emotional Balance

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When bears hibernate, their metabolisms slow to about 25 percent of their normal, active rates for some, reports one study, which may explain why they wake up so rested and ready for spring. We, humans, can’t quiet our metabolisms the same way, nor do we want to, but we can nourish every aspect of ourselves (mentally, emotionally, and physically) so that we, too, can feel incredibly relaxed, present, and rejuvenated without hitting snooze all winter-long.

Cold weather can be exhilarating, but the lack of strong, consistent natural light and warmth can easily get you down, making you feel as grey as the clouds, uninspired, and vulnerable to illness. Wintertime invites a pace that is slower than the other seasons, reminding us that it is the best time to rest, recover, reflect, and plan for spring and beyond.

In the science of life, known as Ayurveda, we think of mid- to late- winter as a kapha (earth and water) season characterized by cold, damp and heavy qualities. When balanced, kapha qualities offer stability, lubrication, vigor, immunity, and strength. When out of whack, however, these same qualities can turn negative, contributing to sluggishness both physically and emotionally. A build-up of mucus can result in bronchial issues, colds, weight gain, and, overall, negativity and depression.

Ayurvedic principles say it is important to take advantage of the natural instinct to hunker down while keeping positive and bright and the immune system fired up. Here are three ways to make the most of winter and set a healthy, vibrant tone for a lush and fruitful spring, and rest of the year.

1. Exercise and self-massage daily to maintain all systems go.

Start with a short, yet invigorating, morning practice to lubricate cold joints and keep all systems—from circulatory to lymphatic to nervous—clear and flowing. Focus on grounding and centering even as you get your blood pumping. If you’re into yoga, begin with sun salutations and warrior poses to open the chest, throat, and sinuses. If you’re not a yogi, then go for any simple series of movements that get the blood flowing, such as jumping jacks, pushups, leg lifts, and sit-ups (check out this Essential Bodyweight Workout video!).

Related: Yoga Tutorial: Sūryanamaskāra A

Follow-up your practice or workout with a warm oil self-massage. Use sesame oil, which you can heat up by running hot water over the bottle. Sesame oil has natural warming properties, too. Shower, then trap the warmth by wrapping yourself up in cozy clothes and a blanket. Don’t forget to keep your head warm, too, especially when you go outside!

2. Stock up on these three nourishing nutrients.

Vitamin D
When you don’t have enough daylight hours to absorb the sun’s benefits, which include relaxing the muscles, soothing Seasonal Affective Disorder, and helping the body maintain healthy sleep rhythms, you must turn to vitamin D supplements for extra help. Take these vitamins either alone or in combination with calcium and magnesium.

Ginger Tea
A staple in my winter arsenal, this herbal tea tastes delicious, acts as an anti-inflammatory, aids with digestion, and eases cold symptoms.

Turmeric
This immune-boosting spice can be taken in capsules or as added seasoning in food. A teacher showed me this recipe to keep my kids healthy years ago, and I’ve relied on it ever since.

Recipe for Turmeric Paste

Ingredients
Turmeric powder (organic)
Honey, raw or Manuka
Black pepper

Directions
Combine equal parts of turmeric with honey and a pinch of black pepper (not cayenne). Store the paste in a glass jar. At the first sign of a cold, lick a teaspoonful every couple of hours.

3. Meditate as a tool for introspection.

Tap into an underlying sense of peace that is always present within, but gets drowned out by the busy life and the overactive mind with this easy, deep meditation called Yoga Nidra, or Yogic Sleep. Plant seeds for the future in a calm, rested, less stressed mind. Start by developing an intention for your life and for the practice. Learn to focus your awareness on your breath, bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts. This is an ideal way to learn to welcome whatever is present without getting caught up in it.

This is the art of conscious relaxation and it is a completely guided restorative practice that you do lying down. It will guide you toward a state of mind that naturally allows you to liberate the tensions, stresses, and anxieties we all hold deep within. In this peaceful, guided relaxation process, the brain waves drop into the theta state, where deep levels of healing take place on the emotional, mental, and physical planes.

Listen to the Just Sit meditation (check out the video above) and feel the benefits that will give you a healthy grounded base from which to greet the demands of spring when it comes around.

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