Quick Tips for Balanced Living - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0893892432 ISBN 13: 9780893892432

Publisher: Himalayan Institute Press, 2007

Synopsis

A selection of engaging essays where everyday people share their methods for stress reduction, relaxation, meditation and more. Excerpted from Yoga International magazine.

About this title

From the Publisher

Concentration is the prelude to meditation. Unless we cultivate the habit of concentration in other areas of our lives, progress in meditation will come slowly or not at all. Simple, everyday tasks are a good place to begin. Experiment with focusing on brushing your teeth when you’re brushing your teeth, for example. If you find your mind rehashing an argument with a friend, or jumping ahead to fantasies about the party tomorrow night, gently but firmly bring it back to the task at hand. Focus on the bristles moving against your teeth, the way the toothpaste feels on your tongue, how the brush handle contacts your hand. There are plenty of opportunities to train our concentration in the course of routine tasks—washing the dishes, making the bed, walking up the stairs. Choose several, and each time you find yourself engaged in those particular tasks, form the habit of keeping your mind centered there, taking hold of it as it wanders off and bringing it back to rest on what you have chosen to do here and now. Buddhists call this mindfulness; yogis call it dharana (concentration). Practice it in more and more areas of your life, and notice its effect on your meditation pose.

About the Author

Linda Johnsen is a long-time student of religious philosophy and spirituality and an initiate in the Shaktavaita Tradition. She holds degrees in Eastern and Western Psychology, and has post-graduate training in theology and Sanskrit. She has traveled to India and lived with women saints. She is a writer for several spiritual magazines and a contributor to several anthologies, including The Divine Mosaic: Women's Images of the Sacred Other. Linda is also author of Yes Publishers' Daughters of the Goddess: Women Saints of India, which received Midwest Business Association award for "Best New Age Book of the Year," The Living Goddess: Reclaiming the Tradition of the Mother of the Universe, and A Thousand Suns. Linda resides in California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Himalayan Institute Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0893892432
• ISBN 13: 9780893892432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 104