HLTH 126 Holistic Health: Meditation

Buddha's Book of Meditation by Joseph Emet; Thich Nhat Hanh (Foreword by) A journey from 'brainfulness' to mindfulness, from self-control to self-regulation, and from indifference to compassion. Mindfulness meditation is an increasingly popular form of an ancient and powerful technique for reducing stress, elevating one's mental state, and improving the practitioner's overall quality of life. Award-winning author and mindfulness meditation teacher Joseph Emet now takes you down a step-by-step path to integrate this potent form of meditation into your daily life. Offering tips, techniques, and practices from mindfulness meditation - coupled with stories from the author's life as a teacher - Buddha's Book of Meditationguides you to a life teeming with the benefits of regular meditation practice. This volume also includes original music by the author that the reader can access through the web - calming the mind and enhancing the meditation experience. 'We can all take a few conscious breaths and let go of impatience, hurry, or stress as we go through our day. Living mindfully makes it possible to be in the present.'from the foreword by Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn An Invitation to the Practice of Mindfulness We may long for wholeness, suggests Jon Kabat-Zinn, but the truth is that it is already here and already ours. The practice of mindfulness holds the possibility of not just a fleeting sense of contentment, but a true embracing of a deeper unity that envelops and permeates our lives. WithMindfulness for Beginners you are invited to learn how to transform your relationship to the way you think, feel, love, work, and play--and thereby awaken to and embody more completely who you really are. Here, the teacher, scientist, and clinician who first demonstrated the benefits of mindfulness within mainstream Western medicine offers a book that you can use in three unique ways: as a collection of reflections and practices to be opened and explored at random; as an illuminating and engaging start-to-finish read; or as an unfolding "lesson-a-day" primer on mindfulness practice. Beginning and long-time meditators alike will discover in these pages a valuable distillation of the key attitudes and essential practices that Jon Kabat-Zinn has found most useful with his students, including: * Why heartfulness is synonymous with true mindfulness * The value of coming back to our bodies and to our senses over and over again * How our thoughts "self-liberate" when touched by awareness * Moving beyond our "story" into direct experience * Stabilizing our attention and presence amidst daily activities * Three fundamental mental factors that cause suffering * How mindfulness heals, even after the fact *Reclaiming our wholeness, and more The prescription for living a more mindful life seems simple enough: return your awareness again and again to whatever is going on. But if you've tried it, you know that here is where all the questions and challenges really begin.Mindfulness for Beginners provides welcome answers, insights, and instruction to help us make that shift, moment by moment, into a more spacious, clear, reliable, and loving connection with ourselves and the world. Includes a complete CD with five guided mindfulness meditations by Jon Kabat-Zinn, selected from the audio program that inspired this book.

Meditation Works by Livia Kohn Meditation is the inward focus of attention in a state of mind where ego-related concerns and critical evaluations are suspended in favor of perceiving a deeper, subtler, and possibly divine flow of consciousness. Usually accompanied by muscle relaxation, it has an overall beneficial and often healing effect. As such, it has made major inroads in Western society, aiding in stress relief, pain management, and various psychiatric conditions. Research in meditation tends to focus on the concrete healing effects of the practice, working either with a single form or using an indeterminate mixture of practices. So far studies work with minimal typologies often poorly defined and tend to neglect historical and cultural aspects. Meditation Works remedies this shortcoming. Based on extensive cultural studies and long years of practice, the author creates a new typology of meditation based on six distinct ways of access to the subconscious. In a special chapter on each type, she then outlines the physiology, worldview, and traditional practice as well as its modern medical adaptations and organizational settings. In each case, she substantiates her presentation with examples from the Daoist, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions. Providing a thorough theoretical framework combined with a comprehensive, analytical overview, the book greatly advances our understanding of meditation.

Meditation for Beginners by Jack Kornfield Step-by-Step Instruction for Newcomers to Meditation Have you ever thought about trying meditation, but didn't know how to get started? OnMeditation for Beginners, renowned teacher Jack Kornfield uses clear language and step-by-step guidance to show us how to start--and stick with--a daily meditation practice. From the basics of how to get started to dealing with distractions, this complete course introduces us to the Insight tradition of meditation that has helped practitioners throughout the ages cultivate profound inner calm and a lasting capacity for happiness. Available in three formats,Meditation for Beginners offers us a variety of entry points into this life-changing practice. In theDVD edition, we join Jack in a live 99-minute session that brings you the experience of a meditation retreat in your living room. With the integratedbook and CD, Jack shares teachings based on the original video program plus six guided practices on audio. The two-CDaudio program distills the information from the DVD and integrated book-and-CD course, providing four guided meditations for those ready to dive right in to practice. Topics covered in each program include: How to use breathing, posture, and attention to enter the meditative state * Simple and effective strategies for dealing with "busy brain," and other common challenges in meditation * How meditation can help you deepen compassion, find healing through forgiveness, and dissolve your fear of death * Four cornerstone meditations for your practice--from resting in the moment to experiencing lovingkindness, and more With his gentle delivery and ability to translate ancient practices for modern audiences, Jack Kornfield has become one of the most accessible and sought-after teachers for helping first-time meditators get their start. Now you can begin to develop the foundational skills to start your practice immediately--and discover the life-changing power of meditation for yourself--withMeditation for Beginners.

Meditation by Ian Gawler; Paul Bedson Meditation is increasingly recommended for relaxation, for enhancing relationships and well-being, to increase performance in sports and business, for personal growth, and to assist healing. Introducing mindfulness-based stillness meditation, Ian Gawler and Paul Bedson explain how to build a daily meditation practice. The authors also show how meditation can be used to work with our emotions, aid healing, manage pain, or as a spiritual practice. Meditation is a path we can pursue and refine throughout our lives. Drawing on modern science as well as ancient Eastern traditions and the authors' own extensive personal experience as practitioners and teachers, this guide offers the techniques and understanding needed to explore meditation practice deeply. It is also an invaluable resource for meditation teachers from all background.

Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn Come to your senses with the definitive guide to living a meaningful life from a world expert in the connection between mindfulness and physical and spiritual wellbeing. "[The] journey toward health and sanity is nothing less than an invitation to wake up to the fullness of our lives as if they actually mattered . . ." --Jon Kabat-Zinn, from the Introduction Jon Kabat-Zinn changed the way we thought about awareness in everyday life with his now-classic introduction to mindfulness, Wherever You Go, There You Are. Now, with Coming to Our Senses, he provides the definitive book for our time on the connection between mindfulness and our physical and spiritual wellbeing. With scientific rigor, poetic deftness, and compelling personal stories, Jon Kabat-Zinn examines the mysteries and marvels of our minds and bodies, describing simple, intuitive ways in which we can come to a deeper understanding, through our senses, of our beauty, our genius, and our life path in a complicated, fear-driven, and rapidly changing world. In each of the book's eight parts, Jon Kabat-Zinn explores another facet of the great adventure of healing ourselves -- and our world -- through mindful awareness, with a focus on the "sensescapes" of our lives and how a more intentional awareness of the senses, including the human mind itself, allows us to live more fully and more authentically. By "coming to our senses" -- both literally and metaphorically by opening to our innate connectedness with the world around us and within us -- we can become more compassionate, more embodied, more aware human beings, and in the process, contribute to the healing of the body politic as well as our own lives in ways both little and big.

Meditation As Medicine by Dharma Singh Khalsa; Cameron Stauth Imagine being able to rid yourself of a host of medical or psychological maladies without medication or psychotherapy. You can- with the noninvasive, cost-free and scientifically proven method outlined here by the internationally renowned Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa and Cameron Stauth. Meditation as Medicine highlights an array of revolutionary techniques doctors and patients can use in conjunction with conventional medicine to target and alleviate afflictions ranging from arthritis to ulcers to cancers. Simple and easily customisable to suit your lifestyle, Khalsa's medical meditations are presented with detailed instructions on everything from posture and movement to particular mantras and specific breathing patterns. Far more powerful than standard meditation, medical meditation has been proved to balance and regenerate the body's ethercal and physical energies, forging an extraordinary healing alliance.