6 WAYS TO RELAX YOUR BODY & MIND

Feeling tense, irritable and overstretched? Pause for a minute...And breath...Deeply...And then experiment with these slow-down ideas...

1. EXAMINE YOUR EVENING

Skimping on sleep affects your stress levels and immune system. Leaving you sluggish, forgetful and tense. Aim for at least seven hours of sleep every night, and if your schedule allows it, a 20 minute power nap in the afternoon too. Remember, rest and relaxation go hand in hand. Have an effective wind-down routine, which includes switching off the TV at least an hour before you climb in to your bed. And avoid heavy meals and alcohol shortly before turning in.

2. GO THE HERBAL ROUTE

Try a few drops of lavender essential oil on your pillow at night to encourage restful sleep. When you feel stressed during the day, inhale a few drops of basil, clary sage, lavender and sandalwood essential oils on a tissue. If your anxiety is also accompanied by a headache or muscular tension, add drops of marjoram and chamomile. A soothing soak in a scented bath with few drop of these oils in the bath water can also aid relaxation.

3. STROKE A CAT

Or hug a dog. Animal "therapy" is powerful medicine, and a wealth of research shows that close contact with a much-loved pet can greatly reduce your anxiety levels.

4. EXPRESS YOURSELF

When certain feelings are uncomfortable for you, pick up a pen. Putting things down on paper is a healthy way of releasing emotions you don't want to express physically. Writing is a way to rid yourself negativity and anger, but it's also therapeutic tool for self awareness. As you commit words to paper, you begin to observe your patterns and wrestle with your demons. Writing helps you to explore concepts like forgiveness, courage and authenticity.

5. MEDITATE

Find a comfortable spot and sit or lie on your back . Choose a specific word that has positive connotations for you - a mantra, of sorts- and close your eyes. Next start consciously relaxing your muscles. Begin with your toes. Feel them loosen up, work through your feet, legs and torso, and all the way up to your head. Breathe deeply and slowly, and repeat the chosen word on every exhalation. After five minutes you should be able to sense the tightness leaving your body.

6. REMEMBER TO BREATHE

Give yourself the gift of 10 minutes. Lie down on your bed, or on a towel on the floor, with your feet about 50 cm apart. Your head and your neck should be aligned with your back. Close your eyes and practise diaphragmatic breathing with your hand gently resting on your abdomen. Ensure your chest isn't doing all the work. Concentrate on the rhythm of your breathing, until it becomes smooth and regular.

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

  Life is a journey. An ongoing adventure of fresh insights, big challenges and daily discoveries. All of us     

seek   balance and harmony as we navigate our path. I will be posting about how to learn simple ways to relax, revive, restore and refresh your mind, body and soul.

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION

Mindfulness meditation is not about achieving bliss or tranquility. Rather, its aim is to see things as they really are more clearly. This meditation is a form of "mind training". It will help you to bring awareness to the thing or a moment. To really notice what's happening right now. For example: often when you are drinking coffee or tea... How much attention you bring to the beverage that you have in your cup? Most of the time you are busy doing other things and the cup is "just there", like my green tea cup right now next to my computer. I am drinking tea while typing but my mind is in the words and not in the aroma and the warmth of the tea... So next time you making for yourself a cup of tea or coffee, smell the aroma of your tea or coffee, hold the cup between your two hands and feel the warmth of it. Feel how you drink taste, enjoy it, enjoy the moment. Forget everything else. Just have a "relationship" with you cup. Your will get more out of your short coffee or tea brake. This next meditation will help you to find a way to be more in the moment and you will learn to observe with awareness and perceive more accurately what your experience really is.
Start with 5 minutes daily. Gradually add a few minutes to your session each day until you can sit for 20 minutes.

1. Sit in a comfortable position on a pillow, chair, couch or floor.
2. Listen to the sounds around you while you relax. Practice letting the sounds come and go without holding on to them or pushing them way.
3. As you inhale think "in" and as you exhale, think "out". Let this action be a kind of home base.
4. When your mind drifts and thoughts starts to wander, pay attention what comes up. You may be aware of a pain in your shoulder for intense, or think about the argument from the night before. Acknowledges this thought and feeling, spend a moment with it and then bring your awareness gently back in to your home base. Rather than rushing past the new sensations you experience, bring your full awareness to them.
5. If you find yourself getting stuck in an emotion or sensation, it may help to put a mental label on it, to identify it as "anger" or "pain". Then bring your awareness back to your breath.
6. The traditional way to end this meditation is to acknowledge the positive energy you have created and to dedicate it to yourself and others. Try to practice this meditation everyday.

BASIC BREATHING MEDITATION

Breathing is the cornerstone of all kind of meditation techniques, this practice centers on something we always do but rarely notice: good quality breathing. You do not need to do anything with your breath but observe it first. Eventually you can work on changing your breath, and sending it into new areas of you torso. But at first, just become aware of each inhalation and exhalation; let your mind track how the breath moved, mapping where it goes to develop an understanding of your own unique "breathing identity"

You can even try breathing while wearing earplugs to amplify the internal sound of your breath and to block any distracting noises.

This breathing meditation is easy to do anytime and anywhere and you will get centered easily. "you can retreat to your breath whenever you are feeling dull, tired or stressed out. You can start with few minutes first and build it up to twenty minutes. The best way to do it is to be in a place you can relax and have a open window or good air quality.

How to do it?

1. Sit your legs crossed or lie down on your back and keep your body straight. Have a firm pillow or rolled towel under your knees. Your arms should rest about 45 degrees from your torso.
2. Breath quietly in and out through your nose, feel each breath as it moves through your torso. Feel where in your body the breath is moving and where it is not.
3. Begin to notice how your breath changes as you focus on it, and how your awareness changes in turn. 
4. When your mind begin to drift, gently bring it back to your breath.
5. Begin to bring your breath to areas of you body that feel dull or "un-breathed". Imagine your torso as a container, and try actively sending breath into the places it's not reaching, such as your pelvis or bottom part of your stomach area. Don't force the breath, just allow it to follow your consciousness. 
6. At the end of the session, wiggle your fingers and your toes, then stretch your arms and legs, if you are lying down, roll over to one side and pose before pushing up to a seated position. Roll up slowly, leading up you torso and raising your head last.
7. Have a glass of room temperature water and drink it slowly.

This meditation exercise will help you to detoxify your lungs and oxygenate your blood stream. It will also calm you down and help you to prepare yourself for a good night sleep.

MEDITATION

Meditation made easy


What, you think you can't do it, yes you can!
You think you are too busy, intimidated to meditate?
You won't be, once you find the style that's right for you...

Meditation is an excellent way to calm your mind, meditation is also one of the best things you can do for your body. Medical experts have shown evidences about the benefits that you can gain by practicing meditation. It will help you to boost your immune system, improve circulation, lower you cholesterol levers, ease chronic pain, help for insomnia, relief stress and anxiety, it will also help you to listen your own body.

The goal of the most meditation practice is simple: bring your attention to one thing to order to deepen your awareness of the present moment. For multitasks, paying attention just to one thing can be a challenge. The trick is to find a practice style that is right for you. If sitting and breathing is not your thing, try walking meditation or a guided mediation with a music and a voice that will guide you while you can lay on your back in the comfort of your own bed for example.

So this coming week I will bring you 5 different ways to try meditation and with these simple exercises you can find which suites you the best. Meditation does not to last long, even few minutes meditation can bring you calm and serenity in your life. Short meditations are even good for children. You can makes children to visualize wonderful things that can help then to calm down and be more concentrated at the school work, and often kids find it very pleasant and even fun...

THE JOY OF LIFE

How and where to find it?


The joy in your life starts when you can be grateful of small things and what you have now. Many of us have lost the joy in their life partly or completely and we try to get it back in the artificial way by using alcohol, drugs and medications. The best way to get back the joy in your life is to let it "grow" with many small things that makes you happy. Negative attitude poisons your life. Most of the news in any kind of media are negative, all the positive ones only comes on the second position. It is useless to wait that you will get more joy in your life by winning a lottery. You have win in the lottery in many ways already, but you don't think it that way like I do and many other people too.
 I lived in south Africa for ten years and those years taught me a lot about life. Even after a holiday in the foreign country, we seem to see better how the things are at home and in many cases they are much better in our home country than somewhere else. I learned a lot about life and death during my years in South Africa. Many everyday life situations were much more difficult, but I found new dimension in my life. But you don't need to move to Africa to find this.

Yesterday has gone, tomorrow is future, live in this moment now and live strong...

Many times we are not able to be grateful for small or even big things, we just thing that so many things around us belongs automatically for us and we take many things for granted.

Sit down for a while to think, what bring you joy in your life and for what you are grateful for at this moment. Make a list, and see if there is anything else that you could ad on that list. Be positive. Being negative brings you more negativity. Fear brings more fear.

My life haven't always been easy but in the serious and even dramatic situations, I have always try to find that tiny little spark of something positive. That spark that gives you energy to carry on.
I think everybody of us have lost a love one and we all know that sorrow and grief takes time to get over. In these situation if we give all our energy to the sorrow and grief and berry us in these feeling, it will blind us to see the positive things that still is happening all the time around us. We just drown our self in the sorrow and can't look over it to find a tiny positive spark that could lift us into a boat that helps to see even the sorrow in an other angle... Sorrow and grief are part of our life and sometimes we have to face it to get through it, but so many of us really get drown in to it.

Some of us have a habit to complain about everything, nothing seems to make these people happy. So many of us can be happy to be born in a democratic country, at home we have running water and it is potable. We have good hospitals and professional people that can take care of us when needed, our children have a good and free education. We have good social security system, and still people are not happy about it. Ok we pay taxes but we can have some services for free. Most of the time we feel safe and we can walk and drive where ever we want without feeling threatened. At night you feel safe in your own bed.
In this point it is good you to know why I am thinking like this: As I told you earlier, that I lived in South Africa for ten years. One of the highlight of my life time was the first "one man, one vote" and the democracy that follow that. This country has taught me a lesson of forgiveness with its "Truth and Reconciliation" program, looking forward for a better future, but not forgetting the past. This country taught me a lesson about the joy of giving, nothing is lost, there you find always somebody in need. I had to go through sad times by loosing colleges with aids or in a violence attacks. In these cases the only
way is remember them with love and cherish the time we had together. I was able to "enjoy" an excellent
health care, because I was able to pay a good health insurance. I paid taxes and the only thing I got out of it was a deductions of 12 Rand/ child each year which is equal of 1,2 euros. I have to pay for my children's education, no lunch or health care at school like I had in Europe.
At home we use to live most of the time behind lock doors and burglar bars and we had to be careful where to drive in the evening.

But with all this, South Africa game me so much, The Rainbow Nation, with is beauty of nature, culture, people, weather and spirituality. It gave me so much of joy of life. All the new experiences expanded my   way to see life and I found there so many new things that are important in my life today. I am grateful for those lessons.

Here is a list about things that I have grateful today and they adding more joy in to my life:

• a meditation in the morning
• warm shower with some good music
• a cup of coffee shared with my best friend on Skype (She lives in South Africa)
• a one hour chat with my daughter, who lives in Scotland ( really grateful for those people who invented Skype)
• the rain that makes the mushrooms to grow around my holiday house in Finland and I could dance on my terrace in the rain
• a phone call of a friend and our meeting for a coffee tomorrow
• the work that I can do
• about the good energy that I can also share with others
• family and friends that I love and they love me
• my dishwasher
• about the feeling that I can be myself at any time
• about the feeling that I am truthful for myself
• receiving a nice sms
• the music that makes me to dance
• the skills that I have
• the Finnish smoked fish
• I am even grateful about my digestive problems, because it makes me eat more healthier and I feel much better
• a nice view from my chalet 
• the smell of the moist forest after the rain