Hello and Welcome!  

This is second in a series of articles. II:  Heal your Soul, Move Spirit from facilitator to Leader.

I. Change your Attitude, II:  Heal your Soul, III:  Balance your Life

II:  Heal yout Soul, Move SPIRIT from facilitator to leader and your direct point of focus toward meditation, Breath, prayer, and a search for unity

Meditation, Prayer, Breath daily or twice daily to redirect and refocus your energy, attention, and intention.

Spirt focus, clarity, and connection as a primary focus connects spirit, mind, and body, so that you create what you desire rather than avoiding what you fear.  It increases access to your balanced, core-self and increases your ability for critical thinking, flexibility, and quick responsiveness.

Belly breathing alone can reset your cells, mood, emotion, realign and center you.

Brain scans on long-term meditators show that regions associated with attention, self-awareness and sensory processing are thicker in meditators, and that this can offset age-related cortical thinning: this is strong “evidence for … cortical plasticity” (Lazar SW, Kerr CE, Wasserman RH, et al. Neuroreport. 2005;16(17):1893-1897).

Thinking about what happens with stress, meditation and breathwork diminishes and eradicates the negative effects of stress.  When Mind is in control the power to reduce stress is limited; when your leader is Spirit the opportunity to engage in mindful meditation allows for powerful healing effects.

“The regular practice of meditation may have neuroprotective effects and reduce the cognitive decline associated with normal aging.” (Pagnoni G. Cekic M. Neurobiology of Aging. 2007;28(10):1623-7).

Evidence found as a result of mindful meditation:

• –>>Increase in cortical thickness in areas assoc. w/ attention, interoception, & sensory processing such as prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula;
• using this network to attune to internal senses via the social neural circuits involved in interpersonal attunement, including the middle prefrontal regions, insula, superior temporal complex, and the mirror neuron system->> all from mindful meditation practice.
• AND, more positive Amygdala responses include:  positive affect regulation by optimizing prefrontal cortex regulation of the amygdala including Left sided anterior activation,
• this allows development of a tendency toward positive emotional responses & approach /reward oriented behavior,
• (which aids in decreasing symptoms of depression and anxiety)(Applied Mindfulness Current Psychiatry Vol8.no12p40 2010).

Consider the power of the serenity prayer:  release what you cannot control, shift what you can control, discern the difference.

Any of these 7 activities can increase your spiritual meditative connection:  

1. Soothing/meditative music; singing
2. Meditative walking, running; hiking,
3. dancing; Tai Qi, Qi Gong
4. yoga practice;
5. Prayer; focused breathing, meditation
6. Gardening, meditative focus while performing repetitive motion chores,
7. Any activity that brings mind/thinking to neutral and offers a spiritual connection with whatever feels spiritual to you

Next read III: Balance your Life, Nourish your body and connect to your community.

See how you can institute these shifts today, and read the following article.  i: Change your Attitude, II: Heal your soul, III:Balance your life.  Enjoy, enlighten, and inspire your self, and your life in every aspect of it,  Namaste., () in love and light, bg

Gineris, Beth. Turning NO to ON:  The Art of Parenting with Mindfulness, 2011; Turning ME to WE:  The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness, 2013.  www.bethgineris.com