There are many different types of meditation, from the complex to the simple, but I’m going to show you a quick and easy method which anybody can learn with few minutes practice.

First, find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for about 15 to 20 minutes and sit in a straight-backed chair.

Place your feet on the floor and rest your hands comfortably on your lap.

Sit upright and imagine a thread pulling the top of your head up toward the ceiling.

Now, imagine that your belly is balloon – as you breathe in, the balloon expands and as you breathe out the balloon collapses in toward your spine. This abdominal breathing method ensures that you’ll be using your diaphragm instead of your chest muscles which promotes greater relaxation.

Concentrate on the movement of your belly, expanding and contracting, and also on the sound of your breath as it goes in and out of your mouth. You probably won’t be able to concentrate on both things at once – your attention will flip from one to the other which is OK.

Be aware of any thoughts which arise in your mind. Watch them as if from a distance. As if they were images projected onto a movie screen without making any judgements either way – negative or positive.

After a few minutes you’ll probably be pulled into a thought and completely forget to be aware of your breathing. But as soon as you realise that you’re not aware of your breathing – you’ll be aware again!

Your meditation will be like this: 

(1) Being aware of your breathing.

(2) Becoming lost in a thought and forgetting about your breathing.

(3) Realising that you’ve forgotten about your breathing.

(4) Becoming aware of your breathing again.

(5) Getting pulled into a thought again.

(6) Realising that your not aware of your breathing…

…and on it goes. But with regular practice you’ll get pulled into thoughts less and less.

When a trivial thought pops-up (like, “I wonder what’s on TV tonight”)  you’ll be able to dispel it by focusing on your breathing.

Past memories may pop-up for review, un-resolved conflicts may come to the surface – don’t dispel these, watch them without making a judgment.

Each problem dealt with reveals other problems underneath. Like layers of an onion being peeled away.

Continue meditating for about fifteen to twenty minutes, then open your eyes but don’t stand up straight away, wait for a few moments to re-orient yourself first.

Congratulations! You now know how to meditate.

Do this technique twice a day for a week and you’ll be amazed at how more relaxed and less stressed you feel.

This was a scene from a movie I saw on TV the other day. Although I don’t watch much TV these days, I am a movie fan.

The movie was “The Taking of Pelham 123.” Not the recent remake but the old version starring that fine American actor, Walter Matthau.

In case you don’t know the story, i’ts basically about a group of violent criminals who hijack a subway train and demand a million dollars for the safe return of the train and passengers.

Now, the part that got my attention was when the passengers realised that their hijackers had jumped-ship (er…train I mean) and rigged the dead-man’s-handle in the driver’s compartment so that it would continuously accelerate untill something stopped it…like a wall!

Well, when all pandemonium broke loose and people were screaming at the top of their lungs, one of the passengers sat down, closed her eyes and started that well-known “Buddhist” chant – Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Apart from the fact that chanting is not a good way to meditate, (I don’t think that the Buddha himself taught chanting as a meditation technique), in this situation meditation of any kind is absolutely the wrong thing to do.

* Meditation is a way to improve yourself each day a little bit at a time.  

* It’s a way of seeing and realising your faults without making a judgement.

* And just the power of realisation alone can cause positive change in you.

* It’s a way to develop your power of insight so that you’ll be able to make the correct choice when you need to.

* It’s a way to positively harness your powers of concentration and imagination.

* And, ultimately, it ‘a way to bring out the genius hiding within you.
 
But everything has its correct place and time. There is a time for meditation and reflection and there is a time for action.

P.S. Sorry again for the delay. I’ve been really busy lately but I’m working on the new audio meditation in any spare moment I get
     (apart from watching the odd TV movie!)

P.P.S. Don’t miss your chance to get the new Audio Meditation Package If you haven’t already done so, you can get on the first notification list by clicking on the link below.
http://www.controlyourstress.com/audio-meditation-package.html
 

ROUTINE!

Yes routine!

If you want to learn any new skill well, you have to establish a routine.

Some years ago I realised that I wasn’t as fit as I could be and should be. Although I taught Martial Arts, I was doing more teaching than training and had gotten fat and unfit.

So I decided that I’d go running.

Off I went to the sportswear shop to buy the necessary gear: running shoes, track suit, tee shirt and neoprene shorts
(someone told me you needed these to stop chafing!)

Now I had all the stuff I needed and I decided I’d run three days a week.

Monday afternoon came around and I thought.

“Ah! I’ll go for a run.”
I put on my new tee shirt, running shoes, neoprene shorts and track-suit trousers and then my wife said, “Mike can you give me a lift to the supermarket, I have to do some shopping.”

“I can’t” I said “I’m going for my run.”

“You can run later” She said, “It won’t take long.”

So off we went to our local Tesco supermarket, but when we got back I didn’t feel like running anymore.
The motivation that had been building up all day had vanished.

And something would always come up  up every time I wanted to go running.

If you have a busy family like ours there is ALWAYS something going on.

Whether it’s to take one of the kids to a birthday party or go shopping
or pick someone up from the train station.

The solution…establish a routine. One that can’t be changed easily

So I asked my brother if he would like to go running.

Luckily he said yes and we planned to go at 7pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It worked! We ran every week for about a year. I can’t remember now why we stopped.

Perhaps we should start running again. Now…where did I put those neoprene shorts?

P.S. Sorry I’m a bit behind schedule with the new Audio Meditation Package.
     But I’m trying to finish it as soon as possible. Please bear with me.

P.P.S. To get on the New Audio Meditation First Priority List and to be
       notified before the general public click the link below:
       http://www.controlyourstress.com/audio-meditation-package.html
If you have any questions please leave a comment

But they wanted to keep Jo in overnight, to be on the safe side, and said they would call me if anything happened.

And something did happen!

I got a call at 10am saying that they’d taken her to the labor ward and I should get there asap!

Well, to cut a long story short, at 15.30 my wife gave birth to a 7 pound, healthy , beautiful baby…BOY!

Yes! The scans were right. It was a boy afterall.

Mother and baby are now at home and both doing fine.

And here’s a picture of our new son:

 And the name we chose was…Nicholas!

 I want to offer my thanks to everyone who gave baby-name suggestions.

And special congratulations to Lana who also chose Nicholas and will receive a free copy of the Audio Meditation package. (I have your email address Lana and I’ll be sending you a mesage).

Don’t Miss Your Chance to Get The New Audio Meditation Package
(there’ll only be 50 copies)
click on the link below to add your name to the first notification list
http://www.controlyourstress.com/audio-meditation-package.html

meditation machines!

Now, I’m not against technology (in fact I’m a big fan when it’s used wisely) but there’s a time when you want to get away from TV, radio, computers, mobile phones and al the other electronic gadgets and gizmos that pervade our lives.

And to depend on another gizmo to meditate…well! I’d rather learn to use what I was born with.

In fact we were all born with the best meditation machine ever created…

…our own bodies!

Yes! When you learn to tune-in to your body, you’ll be able to feel the different emotions which control you.

But you’ll be able to feel them in a positive instead of a negative way.

What’s the difference between an emotion experienced positively as opposed to negatively?

Take the emotion of fear, for example.

When you experience fear in a negative way, you can become locked into a downward spiral of:

1. resenting the thing which caused you to react with fear in the first place.

2. which leads you to become more sensitive to the thing which caused you to react with fear.

3. Which leads to more fear…

But…when, through correct meditation you become in-tune with your body, you experience an upward spiral of:

1. Experiencing fear

2. Not resenting but feeling the fear-location in your body

3. Which increases your awareness

4. Which leads to less fear…

Now, of course there are times when it’s normal to experience fear

If you’re crossing the road and a car misses you by an inch, your body will be flooded with
adrenalin, your heart-rate will shoot through the roof and you’ll feel fear.

These bodily reactions are there for a reason – to give you the speed and energy to avoid the danger.

But when the danger is over your body should return to normal and your mind should also return to normal.

If you’re meditating correctly this is what you’ll experience but no electronic bio-feedback machine will ever be able to give you that.

P.S. Baby name to be announced soon

Well, the meditation has been availiable for a few years now but only in ebook format. And when I at last got ’round to making an audio version guess what happened…?

I’VE LOST MY VOICE!

I haven’t even had a cold for at least 2 years and now I can barely speak!

Most people have an Achilles heel, a physical weak point that always seems to be the part that is most vulnerable. Mine has always been my throat.
 
A similar thing happened about 15 years ago when I was due to go on a 5-day meditation seminar.

About 2 days before I was due to leave, I started to get a sore throat. It got so painful that I thought I wouldn’t be able to go.

Even when I started the 150 mile drive to the venue, it was if I had 2 voices in my head – one was saying I should turn around and head home as I was too ill, the other one was saying I should attend the seminar.

Well in the end, I did go to the seminar and I was very glad I did.

The sore throat got steadily worse during the 5 days but, strangely, I had no other symptoms.

But as soon as I got in my car to drive home, it dissapeared!

Call it the Ego or the Id or the Subconscious Mind, but it was as if something in me didn’t want to hear the truth.
I’m meditating on my throat and I hope to be ok soon.

Perhaps you also have  a weak-point, an Achilles Heel?
All the best

Mike Hughes

P.S. to get on the First Priority List for the new Audio Meditation Package and to be notified before the general public
click here:
http://www.controlyourstress.com/audio-meditation-package.html

P.P.S. If you have any questions please email me at:
mike@controlyourstress.com
 

So I asked our 3 daughters:  Jessica (12), Alexandra (10) and Sophie (7) what their favorite boy’s names were.

 Eventually they came up with 10 names.

Jessica chose:

1. Christopher
2. Daniel
3. Vladimir (I don’t know where she got this one from!)

Alexandra chose:

1. Jaden (this is apparently a character in Yu Gi Oh)
2. Demitri

Sophie chose:

1. Anthony
2. Nicholas
3. Michael
4. Joseph
5. Aaron

What is your favorite name?

Please leave a comment below and let me know which name you prefer or add one of your own.

 Mike Hughes