INTERVAL MEDITATING™

Good day and I hope you are having a great week.  Last week I mentioned I would share a technique that occurred to me that comes in handy when little challenges pop up during the day that knock you off course from the pursuit of you goals. I call it INTERVAL MEDITATION ™.

Now people have different opinions on meditation.  Most agree that it is good for you. Many people also find it difficult to make time for it on a regular basis. I happened to stumble on this technique as I was struggling to control my temper when it comes to dealing with my two small children. I had noticed that my patience was running thin quicker and quicker. If you have read last weeks post, you know that the use of GRATITUDE ROCK helped, and as I concentrated on the good vibrations, this technique just came to me and I find it very effective.

Meditating is nothing new or mystical to me. I have been meditating since I started to practice martial arts at the age of 13. As I grew older, I moved away from routine practice of it due to "other important" things like sleeping, and life getting in the way :-) .  I went back to regular practice of it shortly after being introduced to The Law of Attraction and reading Esther and Jerry Hicks' books.  Now I make an effort to schedule times to do it, but I found that I can use it another way and with practice make a habit of it as part of my daily dealing with challenges.

Here is the gist of Interval Meditation™. Instead of having to sit for 15 minutes, two times per day, which is ideal, you will brake the meditation into intervals through out your day. When do you do it? Whenever something comes up that upsets you or when you feel your emotions are about to take a nose dive. Here again we are going back to another lesson which is you have to be aware of your feelings and listen to them.

How do you do it? When challenges lurk their heads into your day, if you can and have the freedom to sit and close your eyes, do so, but that may not be possible. Closing your eyes in the rush hour traffic is not really practical. You may also not be able to sit. It does not matter.  You are going to go through an interval of breathing in this manner where ever you are.  Start by taking 3 deep breaths. These should be abdominal breathing not the shallow chest breathing. Imagine a balloon in your stomach that you are filling. Inhale through you nose, and exhale through your mouth. Then Inhale for a count of 4 (inhale, 2,3,4) . Hold for a count of 4. Exhale for a count of 7.  Do this for five cycles,and more if you have the luxury of time.  That will be your interval whenever something irks you. The challenging situation that you have to deal with, is your personal trainer in the gym that screams and motivates you to  "keep going, do it, go, go, go".

What ever upsets you is your cue to start your interval. Three deep breaths followed by three to five cycles of inhale,2,3,4; hold ,2,3,4; exhale 2,3,4,5,6,7.  This is a great way of getting your diaphragm under control, and to exercise it.  As you see the inhale is shorter than the exhale. When you inhale BE SURE to breath deep with your stomach and not with your upper chest.  Remember to pretend there is a balloon in your tummy and you are filling it.  So you take a huge inhale during the four count, and control your exhale to make it last for the 7 counts forcing out all the air.

Why does it work?  When you are upset it is difficult to clear your mind or achieve the "no mind" state of meditation.  That is OK.  That is why you concentrate on counting, and the reason why the count changes. When you are concentrating on your counting, it is harder for your thoughts to lead to other thoughts as we humans do naturally. Researchers say we have 60,000 thoughts per day. Quietening the  mind is a misnomer for meditation unless  you are  a Buddhist monk, or have been practicing for many years.  The trick is to concentrate on thoughts that do not lead to other thoughts. Concentrating on  counting numbers as you breath, is a simple method of keeping track of your thoughts. Another way to do meditation when you  have more time is to count your breathing. If you lose track of the numbers or you start to daydream don't worry. Just accept it, and come back. This is why this interval meditating is so effective. You're not doing it for a long period of time which increases the likelihood that  you start to daydream.

As Abraham Hicks teaching says you are allowing your cork  to pop back up to the surface which is our normal vibration of well being.  Try the Interval Meditation™ from now on when faced with a situation that triggers negative emotions. If you miss an opportunity to use it, do not worry. Do it when the feelings come up. Perhaps you get upset at not doing this exercise when something else upset you. There is the trainer calling you to action. Notice how great you feel after a few days.

The time commitment should not be an issue because if something upsets you, or is challenging to you, you will get a better and a fresher perspective by taking the time to do this exercise, Rather than trying to tackle it head on at the moment. Therefore the only time that you cannot do this exercise is on those days that nothing bothers you. When you have one of those days I would say you have achieved your goal.

I hope this post was beneficial to you. Please feel free to share this with anyone who may benefit and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.