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Archive for May, 2011

Finding Focus – Use Your Zen Meditation Timer

Meditation in Orchard

Meditation in Orchard

In the process of meditation, we ask the mind to let go of its tendencies to think, analyze, remember, solve problems, and focus on the events of the past or on our expectations about the future. Meditation helps the mind to slow down its rapid series of thoughts and feelings, and to replace that mental activity with inner awareness and attention. Thus, meditation is not thinking about problems or analyzing situations. It is not fantasizing or daydreaming or letting the mind wander aimlessly. It is not having an internal conversation or argument with ourselves or intensifying the thinking process. Meditation is simply a quiet, effortless, one-pointed focus of attention and awareness.

In meditation, we try to let go of the many mental distractions, preoccupations, and fleeting thoughts and associations common to our normal waking experience. We do this, not by trying to make the mind empty (which is impossible anyway) but by allowing the mind to focus on one subtle element or object. This leads the attention further inward. By giving ourselves a single internal focus of attention, we help the mind stop other stressful mental processes such as worrying, planning, thinking, and reasoning.

Students of meditation may use a sound (mantra) or visual image (yantra) to help concentrate the mind. A mantra may be a word, a phrase, a set of sounds, or simply a syllable. Concentrating on it helps students to let go of useless, distracting mental processes, and allows them to go deeper within themselves. All great spiritual traditions, both ancient and modern, have some system of pronouncing such a syllable, sound, or set of words which acts like a mantra. Om, Amen, and Shalom are examples. Mantras have powerful effects on the mental level, and those who are competent in this great and profound inner science can lead students on the path. The preliminaries are simple and easy and can be practiced without the guidance of a teacher, but when an aspirant begins to deal with the mind itself, an appropriate mantra will be necessary. Teachers choose a mantra according to the students’ state of mind and the extent of their burning desire to uncover the innermost truth.

adapted from Yoga International

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga & Meditation Timer.  It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

Gentle Tibetan Bowl Timer for Yoga, Meditation and a Gentle Alarm Clock

Gentle Tibetan Bowl Timer for Yoga, Meditation and a Gentle Alarm Clock

Now & Zen – The Zen Timer Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Posted in Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice


Definition of Meditation – Choose The Zen Meditation Timer with Chime & Clock

meditation

meditation

The word meditation is used in many ways, and that is why there is so much confusion about what it is and how to practice it. Some people use the word to mean thinking or contemplating; others use it to refer to daydreaming or fantasizing. Meditation is not any of these. It is a specific technique for resting the mind and attaining a state of consciousness that is totally different from the normal waking state. In meditation, you are fully awake and alert, but your mind is not focused on the external world or on the events taking place around you. Neither is your mind asleep, dreaming, or fantasizing. Instead, it is clear, relaxed, and inwardly focused.

Inner Dimensions
The Latin root of the word meditation is similar to the root for medical or medicate and implies the sense of “attending to” or “paying attention to” something. In meditation, you pay attention to your own deepest, innermost levels—dimensions of yourself which are seldom known. These deeper levels are more profound than the processes of thinking, analyzing, daydreaming, or experiencing emotions or memories. Meditation involves a type of inner attention that is quiet, concentrated, and at the same time, relaxed. There is nothing difficult or strenuous about creating this inner attention; in fact, you will find that the process of meditation is restful for the mind. In the beginning, however, the greatest difficulty is that the mind has not been trained to create this inner attention.

In every society, people are educated in the skills they need to survive and function in their culture: how to talk, think, work, and investigate the objects and experiences of the external world. We learn sciences such as biology, ecology, and chemistry in order to understand the world we live in, but we are not taught to understand or attend to our own inner dimensions. We learn to assimilate the goals, fashions, and values of our society without first knowing ourselves within and without. This leaves us ignorant of ourselves and dependent on the advice and suggestions of others.

Meditation is a subtle and precise technique for learning how to pay attention to and understand the various levels of yourself—the body, the breath, and the mind.

adapted from Yoga International, by Swami Rama

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga & Meditation Timer.  It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

Meditation Timers

Meditation Timers

Now & Zen – The Zen Meditation Timer Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Posted in Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice


This Is Your Mind on Meditation – Choose a Zen Meditation Timer

mindfulness practices

mindfulness practices

People have been meditating for so long that no one can really say when or how it got started, but the reasons they do it haven’t changed much. Over the centuries, meditators have consistently found that their practice keeps them focused and emotionally stable, helps them to adapt to new situations, cope with stress in a positive manner, and be more creative. And yet, there is something more to it.

It’s difficult to define meditation in a way that accounts for the wide variety within established meditation traditions. Undoubtedly, specific techniques have evolved within each tradition to address specific human needs and to develop specific potentials, but much of what people call meditation may be better described as systematic relaxation, visualization, working with the breath, simple concentration, or just “spacing out.”

One of the promising ways we can get at a more complete definition of meditation is to look at what is happening in the brains and bodies of people from different meditation traditions when they are doing their practice and see what is similar and what is different. It may be that all meditative activity looks the same to the brain. Or we may find that certain practices engage specific parts of the brain and this is why they are suited to developing particular latent potentials of the mind.

Recently modern science has developed sophisticated tools to explore meditative practice for clues to how it affects our body and brain. And what they have been finding sheds new light on the power of meditation to make a measurable difference in our experience of the world. Even though there is a wide variety of studies being done these days, following a number of different approaches to meditation, the general trend of this research shows that we can exercise some degree of control over things we didn’t think we could change. The scientific study of meditation shows that once we break through our preconceived notions about human capacity, new possibilities for self-transformation abound.

adapted from Yoga International, by Jon Janaka

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga & Meditation Timer.  It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

Mindfulness Practice Tools for Wellness

Mindfulness Practice Tools for Wellness

Now & Zen –

The Zen Meditation Timer Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Posted in intention, Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice


A Simple System of Relaxation

yoga

yoga

A Simple System of Relaxation

1.  Lie down in the corpse pose and make yourself comfortable. Try a pillow under the head, and don’t forget a light blanket to keep drafts from drawing your attention outward.

2.  Give yourself a few moments to settle, and allow your body to soften into the support of the ground. Watch the breath until it and your heart rate are steady.

3.  Bring your awareness to each point listed below and allow the surrounding muscle tissues to relax.

Crown of the head
Forehead, temples
Eyebrows, eyelids, and eyes
Nose
(Focus on the breath flowing in and out of the nostrils, 2–4 times.)

Cheeks, jaw
Mouth, chin
Hollow of the throat
Sides and back of the neck
Shoulders
Upper arms, lower arms
Hands, fingers
Fingertips

(Inhale as if the breath is flowing down to the fingertips and exhale back up through the nostrils, 2–4 times)

Fingers, hands, arms
Shoulders
Chest and rib cage around the back to the spine
Heart center

(Inhale as if the breath is flowing down to the heart center and exhale back up through the nostrils, 2–4 times)

Abdomen
Sides, lower back
Hips, buttocks
Upper legs, lower legs
Feet
Toes

(Inhale as if the breath is flowing down to the toes and exhale back up through the nostrils, 2–4 times)

4.  Reverse the sequence, bringing awareness up the body from the toes to the head without pausing for breath awareness at the toes, heart center, fingertips, or nose.

5.  Take 10 breaths while keeping awareness spread throughout the body.

6.  Make a gentle transition to your next activity.

adapted from Yoga International, January/February 2006

Wellness Tools, clocks and timers for meditation

Wellness Tools, clocks and timers for meditation

Now & Zen

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Posted in Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice, sleep


7 Steps To a Snooze-free Meditation – Use Your Gentle Chime Timer

Utamaro Kitagawa, The Courtesan Hanaogi of Ogiya - 7 Steps to a snooze-free meditation

Utamaro Kitagawa, The Courtesan Hanaogi of Ogiya - 7 Steps to a snooze-free meditation

You can manage the urge to sleep with the practice of breath awareness.

1. Sit comfortably erect. Use a chair or a wall to support your spine if helpful.

2. Close your eyes and begin to follow the movements of your breathing. Stay with the breath for a few minutes, until your focus is steady.

3. Without losing your breath awareness, relax your body just as if you were settling it into bed.

4. Continue to follow your breath, maintaining your breath awareness as if it is virtually the only thing of importance in the universe.

5. Relax your mental effort. Maintain a steady hold on your breath, yet relax your body and mind.

6. Now begin to silently recite the mantra so-hum. Let that sound flow with each breath—so on the inhalation and hum on the exhalation. Sense that these sounds are gently blowing away layers of ashes that cover the embers of consciousness in you.

7. Continue for as long as you like. The urge to sleep may come and go, but do not let it dislodge your relaxed breath awareness. Gradually, as you become more rested, your sleepiness will diminish or even disappear. Over a number of sessions you can lengthen the time you sit.

adapted fromYoga International, by Rolf Sovik, PsyD, is co-author of Yoga: Mastering the Basics, May/June 2008

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga & Meditation Timer.  It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

bamboo meditation tools

bamboo meditation tools

Now & Zen – The Gentle Chime Timer Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Posted in Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice


Step-by-Step Meditation – Choose a Gradual Chime Timer

meditation practice

meditation practice

With practice, this beginner meditation will hold the mind steady even during periods of stress.

A well-trained, stable, and focused mind is an asset in every sphere of life, and essential for any spiritual endeavor. The practice below will develop your concentration, clarity, and inner stability, by providing a single object as the resting place for your mind’s awareness—the universal mantra soham. Practice daily at about the same time, starting with 10 minutes, and gradually increasing to 20–30 minutes, or longer.

Step  1.

Begin by training your body to be still and comfortable in a sitting posture. When the spine is erect with the pelvis, chest, and head vertically aligned, the breath becomes smooth, and the mind alert and relaxed. Sit on a chair, or cross-legged on the floor with a cushion or a folded blanket under the hips. Use enough support to lift the hip joints slightly higher than the knees. This minimizes the effort needed to keep the lower back from rounding.

Step  2.

Close your eyes and mentally draw a circle of light around yourself. The circle separates you from the world of daily life—both the outer world of perceptions and activities, and the world of your familiar preoccupations and thinking patterns. With this intention, see yourself sitting inside this circle of light. It delineates a space in which you can contain your awareness; let it protect you from disturbances, distractions, and mental dissipation.

Step  3.

Meditation

Meditation

Feel the entire body sitting comfortably still, release any unnecessary tension, and pay attention to the movement of the breath. Refine your awareness as you feel the breath become smoother and more subtle, expanding from the solar plexus into the limbs on the inhalation, and releasing back to the solar plexus on the exhalation. Be aware of the touch of the breath everywhere in the body.

Step  4.

Making sure the body and breath stay relaxed, focus your attention at each of the following energy centers, moving systematically through the body and inhaling and exhaling once at each point: eyebrow center · throat center · right shoulder · right elbow · right wrist · each of the right fingertips, starting with the thumb · right wrist · right elbow · right shoulder · throat center · left shoulder · left elbow · left wrist · each of the left fingertips, starting with the thumb · left wrist · left elbow · left shoulder · throat center · heart center · navel center · center of the pelvis · pelvic floor · center of the pelvis · navel center · heart center · throat center · eyebrow center.

Step  5.

Now rest your attention at the eyebrow center. Feel the ebb and flow of the breath through the inner space of the whole body, while maintaining your focus on the eyebrow center. Sense the vibration of a slow wave of breath. This vibration is the mantra soham (pronounced so-hum). Hear the sound so on the inhale, and the sound ham on the exhale. The breath is subtle and slow, so let your concentration be fine and sensitive, becoming more and more one-pointed, and gradually drawing deeper into the mind. Rest in this awareness as long as you like.

To finish the practice, gradually return your awareness to the flow of the breath in the body, the physical presence of the body, and the space around you. Remain aware of the breath and your inner connection as you release the body from your sitting posture. You may want to open your eyes into the palms of your hands, massage your face, and stretch your arms and legs before getting up.

adapted from Yoga International, by Sandra Anderson, Summer 2009

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga & Meditation Timer.  It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

Tibetan Bowl Timer for Meditation

Tibetan Bowl Timer for Meditation

Now & Zen – The Zen Alarm Clock & Meditation Timer Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Posted in Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice


Breathwalk Meditation

mindfulness practice

mindfulness practice

If you’d like to try another form of walking meditation, try this technique, recommended in the book Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body by Yogi Bhajan and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa.

Step 1. Begin walking at a normal pace, tuning into your body and breath. If you’re not already, begin breathing smoothly and diaphragmatically through your nostrils.

Step 2. Coordinate your breath with your stride, inhaling for four steps and exhaling for four steps. Continue for at least one minute.

Step 3. Begin to practice a variation of anguli pranayama. Take four short, staccato puffs of air through the nostrils—one puff for each step. (This means you are dividing your inhalation into four segments that are synchronized with four consecutive steps.) After the first puff, your lungs should be about one-quarter full; after the second: two-quarters full; after the third: three-quarters full; and after the fourth: four-quarters full.

Without pausing, exhale in the same fashion, contracting the abdominal muscles and pushing the navel to the spine for four steps (and four segments of the out-breath), so that the final puff pushes the last quarter of air out of your lungs. Continue this pattern for five minutes, then walk and breathe normally for three minutes.

Step 4. Now, repeat the eight-minute practice. This time, as you synchronize your segmented breath with your stride, mentally say the mantra “Sa Ta Na Ma” on each inhale and audibly whisper the mantra “Wah Hay Gu Roo” on each exhalation. (One sound for each step and each segmented breath.) Repeat these mantras in coordination with anguli pranayama for five minutes, then walk and breathe normally for another three.

adapted form Yoga International, Former Yoga+ editor Shannon Sexton writes about food, travel, yoga, and natural health, Summer 2010

Posted in Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice


Earth’s Fractal Beauties

Zen Alarm Clocks Awaken You with 'Golden Ratio' Progression of Chime Strikes

Nautilus Shell by Now & Zen, Inc., Boulder, CO

The beauty of the natural world is not easily described—not by poets, and not by geometry. A circle, triangle, or square doesn’t do justice to the colorful crenulations of the eroded canyons of the Badlands, the frost on a windowpane, the roiling thunderheads in a stormy sky, the rocky coast of Scotland, and a luscious head of ripe cauliflower, or the bifurcating structure of the lungs and the nervous and circulatory systems. The complex and irregular forms of the natural world are fractals—complex shapes that exhibit a similar structure at a wide range of scales. Zoom in, zoom out, the pattern remains the same. The structure of every piece holds the key to the whole structure. The entire image is stored in each part of the image. Any object or form that is a similar shape at different scales is a fractal, described by a very simple equation iterated billions of times.

“The universe is full of fractals. Indeed, it may even be one,” writes Ian Steward in Colors of Infinity.

The class of objects the fractals describe include not only a myriad of shapes in the natural world, but also the World Wide Web, the stock market, and a familiar kidney-shaped textile pattern from India called paisley. Paisley made a grand debut in America in the ’60s, when it decorated John Lennon’s 1967 Summer of Love Rolls Royce. Now it adorns everything from carpets and wallpaper to neckties, gangsta bandanas, and T-shirts for yoga lovers, though its origin as an Indian/Persian motif remains obscure.

But perhaps the ancient seers intuitively understood that the paisley pattern displayed the underlying order in the cosmos, illustrating the Sanskrit adage, yatha brahmande, tatha pindande: as in the cosmos, so in the microcosm. So the next time you see frost on the windowpane, a mountain in profile, the bark on a tree, or a paisley print on a loved one’s scarf, think of it as the thumbprint of God—and a reminder of the intelligent, wondrous nature of the universe

adapted from Yoga International by, Sandra Anderson / co-author of Yoga: Mastering the Basics and has taught yoga and meditation for over 25 years.

 

Factals Everywhere, Burgundy Zen Alarm Clock with Wave Dial Face

Factals Everywhere, Burgundy Zen Alarm Clock with Wave Dial Face

Now & Zen

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

 

Posted in Meditation Timers, Meditation Tools, mindfulness practice


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