iRest is a research-based transformative practice of deep relaxation and meditative inquiry that: releases negative emotions and thought patterns, calms the nervous system, and develops a deep capacity to meet any and all circumstances you may encounter in life. -Dr. Richard Miller

You can read the full writeup on the show from the original episode here.

The post OM070: Dr. Richard Miller On Healing Emotional Trauma With iRest Meditation appeared first on About Meditation.

This podcast is based on an essay from meditation teacher Jeff Carreira. You can read the original article as well as previous articles and podcasts with Jeff at the links below. Enjoy!

We understand everything through metaphors and falling in love is the perfect metaphor to understand the practice of meditation.

Language is a system that uses metaphors to clarify and reveal different aspects of reality. Words point to things or experiences.

Generally we assume that the language we use to describe things doesn't affect what they are.

But when we use words to describe something as subtle as meditation, the metaphors actually shape our experience of it. (Read more at the link below.)

The post OM069: A Meditation On Falling In Love & The Present Moment appeared first on About Meditation.

Let me ask you, what do you think of when you think about summer?

For a lot of us, that word evokes feelings of warmth and comfort and happiness. For me, summer is all about meditation.

I think of the magical twilight in summer. The pink, red, purple, and blue skies. The mysterious and stirring feeling of twilight, when a hush settles over everything. You hear the sound of crickets and frogs. All the sounds of the night reverberate under the dome of the summer sky.

I've always felt that in the summer, I get to actually hear the interconnection of everything. All the creatures sending up their songs into the ambient soundscape. In that way, hearing is a bit like seeing. You get to perceive the whole symphonic cacophony of life. It's glorious and it melts away your stress.

It's hard not to feel at home in the universe and in yourself when you tune in to that chorus of life. It ebbs and flows. And at certain moments it all goes quiet. There's a pause in the whole movement, and in that fraction of time, the cradle of silence comes welling up and swallows everything. That silence is pervasive under the night sounds.

The first time I every perceived the living quality of silence was on a summer night at twilight in Georgia sitting on the stoop of my Atlanta home. I was just sitting there listening and then I became aware of the silence. It was like a sound beneath all the other sounds. And I felt it calling to me. I became absorbed in that silence.

Summer is a time for easing into the warmth and the song of life. It's a time for paying attention and celebrating the rich fertility and abundance that's exploding all around us.

If you let yourself become quiet, if you settle yourself and listen carefully pay attention and you'll feel that abundance in the silence. You'll feel energy pouring through that silence. I've never felt that silence is empty.

On the contrary, when you really let go into it, it's full and it fills you like a tap filling a pitcher with cool and refreshing water on a hot day. It's the kind of cool drink that keeps you coming back for more. When you drink that silence, you can feel yourself being washed clean from the inside out.

For me, meditation is like summer. It's the release. The letting go. The relaxing into the ecstatic flow of life with a capital L. It's sitting on the shady riverbank watching the sun-soaked water roll on by. It's the dipping, soaring, swooping dance of the barn swallows.

And all of this in perfect stillness and perfect silence. It's coming to the table and the communion of all life. Meditation is partaking in the magic and the mystery of this moment without hesitation or judgement or separation.

Can you relax completely and let yourself slip into this stream of silent communion with life. It's that moment I woke up with my head on my lover's lap on a picnic afternoon when I was 15 and there was no end to the future. Everything was perfect and my heart was full and still unbroken. And even now, in this moment, in this endless summer of meditation, everything is perfect. Even with all the scars, the broken hearts, the challenges, it's all part of the pageantry of life.

In this moment, right now, with the song of creation all around me, all the wounds fade into the background and it's just the pure pulse of life. The goodness. The continuity. The unspeakable peace and silence that is always here. The conviction that nothing was ever wrong.

This summer, let yourself fall more deeply into life and see what you find. Take a vacation from your mind and it's constant rumination. Let yourself relax and be attentive to the miracle of life. Because, after all, that is what meditation is all about.

The post OM068: A Guided Meditation For Summer Abundance appeared first on About Meditation.

Do you know how to practice mantra meditation? It’s a lot easier than you might think.

However, there are a few things you need to understand before you get started.

First, you need to know the different between free and focused awareness. Then, you need to know where to put your attention while you’re chanting.

And then, it’s often helpful to get a sense of what you might experience when you practice mantra meditation.

In this episode, I share some of my recent experiences in practicing mantra meditation as well as some tips on how to practice.

Recently, after 14 years practicing a style of free awareness meditation that comes from the Advaita Vedanta tradition, I started experimenting with a mantra.

It's a tibetan Buddhist mantra which goes like this: Om Mani Padme Hum. So this six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra is associated with the tibetan Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion.

According the Wikipedia,

The first word Om is a sacred syllable found in Indian religions. The word Mani means “jewel” or “bead”, Padme meaning the “lotus flower”, the Buddhist sacred flower, while Hum represents the spirit of enlightenment.

As I was originally taught, the most important thing in practicing a mantra, is your intention. To give all of yourself and bend your mind completely to the chanting of the mantra, whether silently or out loud.

While your chanting, it’s also important to keep in mind the core meaning of the mantra…in this case, compassion.

The post OM067: How To Practice Mantra Meditation appeared first on About Meditation.

What is a mindful pregnancy and why is it important?

Pregnancy is such a blessing, heralding new life and the miracle of creation. But it's also a time of tremendous stress. That stress, if left unchecked, is potentially dangerous for both mum and baby.

So how can you mitigate stress and cultivate a mindful mindset during pregnancy to keep calm and carry on.

In this 2-part episode, we talk with long-time meditator and new mum, Aterah Nusrat about how to nurture a mindful approach to pregnancy.

In part 1, we explored Aterah's own spiritual journey, which started in a moderate Muslim household. Eventually, her spiritual interest led her to embrace and practice the perennial enlightenment teachings from the East.

In part 2, we explore in depth the relationship between mindfulness and pregnancy. As a brand new mother, Aterah has had ample time to reflect on the importance of bringing a mindful mindset to the beautiful ordeal' which is pregnancy, giving birth, and post partum.

Medical professionals are clearer than ever about the deleterious effects of chronic stress. In general, stress-related illness is responsible for a huge portion of our medical costs.

Our information saturated, do-everything now culture has everyone on edge. Relaxation is becoming a lost art!

This is especially troublesome when you're pregnant. You suddenly have a brand new array of concerns related to the health of the fetus in your belly.

Will she make it to term? Are you eating all the right things? How are you going to manage work and time off? And how on earth are you going to deal with actually giving birth??

According to the folks at WebMD:

Some stress during pregnancy is normal, just as it is during other times of life. But if stress becomes constant, the effects on you and your baby could be lasting   the kind of stress that's really damaging is the kind that doesn't let up,' says Susan Andrews, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist and author of the bookStress Solutions for Pregnant Moms: How Breaking Free From Stress Can Boost Your Baby's Potential. In fact, constant stress could alter your body's stress management system, causing it to overreact and trigger an inflammatory response.

Chronic stress may also contribute to subtle differences in brain development that might lead to behavioral issues as the baby grows, she adds.

Aterah Nusrat is Program Manager at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine based jointly at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital. She earned a Master's degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial College in London and a BSc in Chemistry and Environmental Science from the University of Kent.

Aterah has pursued meditation and mindfulness practices for over 20 years, nurturing her spiritual interests through Islam and eastern enlightenment teachings.

In her spare time, when she isn't climbing the steep learning curve of parenthood, she enjoys reading science fiction with her husband and cruising the green ways of her local neighborhood.

The post OM066: Mindful Pregnancy, Birth, & Postpartum appeared first on About Meditation.

What does a mindful approach to pregnancy look like and why is it important?

Pregnancy is such a blessing, heralding new life and the miracle of creation. But it’s also a time of tremendous stress. That stress, if left unchecked, is potentially dangerous for both mum and baby.

So how can you mitigate stress and cultivate a mindful mindset during pregnancy to keep calm and carry on.

In this episode, we talk with long-time meditator and new mum, Aterah Nusrat about how to nurture a mindful approach to pregnancy.

In part 1, we explore Aterah’s own spiritual journey, which started in a moderate Muslim household. Eventually, her spiritual interest led her to embrace and practice the perennial enlightenment teachings from the East.

Over the last 23 years, Aterah has logged thousands of hours of meditation and several hundred thousand prostrations. All this has served to help her build a powerful mindfulness practice.

In part 2, we explore in depth the relationship between mindfulness and pregnancy. As a brand new mother, Aterah has had ample time to reflect on the importance of bringing a mindful mindset to the ‘beautiful ordeal’ which is pregnancy, giving birth, and post partum.

Medical professionals are clearer than ever about the deleterious effects of chronic stress. In general, stress-related illness is responsible for a huge portion of our medical costs.

Our information saturated, do-everything now culture has everyone on edge. Relaxation is becoming a lost art!

This is especially troublesome when you’re pregnant. You suddenly have a brand new array of concerns related to the health of the fetus in your belly.

Will she make it to term? Are you eating all the right things? How are you going to manage work and time off? And how on earth are you going to deal with actually giving birth??

According to the folks at WebMD:

Some stress during pregnancy is normal, just as it is during other times of life. But if stress becomes constant, the effects on you and your baby could be lasting… ‘the kind of stress that's really damaging is the kind that doesn't let up,’ says Susan Andrews, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist and author of the book Stress Solutions for Pregnant Moms: How Breaking Free From Stress Can Boost Your Baby's Potential. In fact, constant stress could alter your body's stress management system, causing it to overreact and trigger an inflammatory response.

Chronic stress may also contribute to subtle differences in brain development that might lead to behavioral issues as the baby grows, she adds.

Aterah Nusrat is Program Manager at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine based jointly at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. She earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial College in London and a BSc in Chemistry and Environmental Science from the University of Kent.

Aterah has pursued meditation and mindfulness practices for over 20 years, nurturing her spiritual interests through Islam and eastern enlightenment teachings.

In her spare time, when she isn’t climbing the steep learning curve of parenthood, she enjoys reading science fiction with her husband and cruising the green ways of her local neighborhood.

The post OM065: From Islam To Enlightenment And Back Again (Mindfulness And Pregnancy Series) appeared first on About Meditation.

What is Vipassana meditation and how do you practice it? According to many, Vipassana meditation is the actual practice that gave rise to the Buddha’s enlightenment over two and a half thousand years ago.

Today, Vipassana is considered one of the most popular forms of Buddhist meditation.

In the West, it was popularized by contemporary American Buddhist teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield.

So what is Vipassana meditation? In simplest terms, it can be described this way:

Vipassanā-meditation uses mindfulness of breathing, combined with the contemplation of impermanence, to gain insight into the true nature of this reality.

For this episode of the OneMind Meditation podcast, we connected with long-time meditator and Whole U. founder Shannon O’Brien to learn all about Vipassana meditation.

Shannon just returned from a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat her 3rd Vipassana retreat and we were fortunate to chat with her while her experience was still fresh.

While Shannon humbly claims little expertise or authority in the realm of Vipassana meditation, she was able to offer us an in-depth view of this revered practice from the authority of her own experience.

She described the general arc of the retreat and three core steps or phases that you traverse over the 10 days. She described them as:

And this arc was all in preparation for the final step, which is metta. According to Wikipedia, metta can be defined as:

…benevolence, friendliness, amity,friendship, good will, kindness, close mental union (on same mental wavelength), and active interest in others. The cultivation of benevolence (mettā bhāvanā) is a popular form of meditation in Buddhism. In the Theravadin Buddhist tradition, this practice begins with the meditator cultivating benevolence towards one’s self, then one’s loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally towards all sentient beings. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, this practice is associated with tonglen (cf.), whereby one breathes out (“sends”) happiness and breathes in (“receives”) suffering.

Finally, we explored another key concept in the Vipassana practice called Sankhara. Roughly translated, these are the deep tendencies of our brains and minds to construct our sense of reality based on our fears and desires. They are mental constructs that exert a powerful influence on your choices and thus the direction of your life.

The beauty of attending a retreat is that you have the chance to see your sankhara’s clearly. With diligent practice, they become transparent to you. As a result, you’re often able to see reality more clearly, unobstructed by your normal mental constructs.

Sannon O’Brien is the Founder and Principal Advisor of Whole U. LLC. She founded Whole U. after six years working at Harvard and MIT, where she advised both undergraduate, and graduate students.

Shannon is the Producer and Host of Whole U. TV, which inspires viewers to “Live a balanced, purposeful life.” Shannon conducts assessments with Whole U. clients, helping them find the clarity, confidence, and connections to pursue their life’s work.

Shannon studied communications and media for 18+ years, earning degrees from Boston College; ICU in Tokyo, Japan (as a Rotary World Peace Fellow); and Harvard University-earning a Master’s in Technology, Innovation and Education.

She was born in the US, grew up 10 years in Europe, and has since traveled to 35 countries – continuing to open her mind to new people and cultures.

In this episode, I talk with Shannon O’Brien about:

The post OM064: How To Practice Vipassana Meditation appeared first on About Meditation.

What is flow? According to Dr. Greg Cartin, a sport psychology consultant who works with professional athletes, artists, and performers, it's a unique intersection of skill and challenge where the challenge at hand is just a hair more demanding than our actual skill level.

These are the conditions that give rise to flow states, when we are so immersed in the moment that any trace of self-consciousness falls away and we are oblivious to the passing of time.

In this episode, Greg talks about the psychology of flow states and how mindfulness informs his work coaching pro athletes on their mental game.

Everyone knows that at the highest level, athletes need to hone their mindset as much as their bodies. But how do you do that? And what do flow states have to do with it?

According to Greg, nowhere is this mental game more pronounced than in professional golf. Pro golfers have an abundance of down time, when they are alone with their thoughts. How they relate to that time often determines the final outcome of their performance.

That's where Greg's mindfulness work comes in. Using new therapeutic models which feature mindfulness at their center, Greg helps pro golfers and other athletes and performers to be ok with whatever they're thinking.

He summarizes his approach like this.

By not constantly fighting the negativity, we are able to free up our minds to focus on the task at hand. Through this process we are able to increase our chances of achieving optimal performance. This is the true benefit to my clients. The ability to perform at your best while experiencing normal human thought.

In other words, he helps his clients to embrace present moment awareness through mindfulness. Because in that space of presence, there is no fear or anxiety, the two major obstacles to performance. There is only the task at hand.

I invited Dr. Greg Cartin onto the show because of his inspired approach to mindfulness coaching. Although Greg mostly works with high-performing athletes, I believe his insights and approaches are universally applicable. And, I think you're going to find them useful in your own life.

The post OM063: The Science & Psychology Of Flow States with Dr. Greg Cartin appeared first on About Meditation.

By penetrating very deeply the present moment, the past and future fall away, and you become free. Fear is the demon that prevents us from letting go of the past and the future, that in turn, keeps us from spontaneously plunging into the present. ~ Joe Gifford

Do you fear death? Does the promise and mystery of life have to fade with our youth? We've all inherited so many of ideas about what old age looks like. Those ideas color our view of life. But are you ready to have your assumptions overturned?

In this episode of the OneMind Podcast, we interview the ever-inspiring Joseph Gifford. He's 95 years old and he radiates more vitality than most people half his age.

Joe is a former professional dancer. Today, he teaches symphony orchestra conductors and actors how to tap into their essence as they perform. According to Joe's website:

Joseph Gifford is a respected and honored teacher who has worked with conductors, singers, and instrumentalists for over thirty years. He brings to his students the possibility of going beyond personal boundaries, to grow into new pathways that lead to the deeper and wider dimensions of the timeless world of music.

As one of his students said, Working with Joe Gifford can be a life-changing as well as music-changing experience. His workshops offer a supportive, challenging and expansive environment, which encourages an exploration of the very essence of music itself.

In 1973, Joe started down the path of meditation when he encountered the work of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who founded Transcendental Meditation. He's been meditating ever since. In the process, Joe became a teacher of The Radiance Technique/Authentic Reiki and his meditation practice has evolved with different teachers and influences.

It's uplifting and poignant to hear Joe's passion for meditation and the mystery of life. From Joe's perspective, the same inspired intelligence that radiates through Rembrandt's paintings and Beethoven's symphonies runs through our veins too. He works to help his students access that native intelligence.

I invited Joe on to the show because I wanted you to benefit from listening to someone who has lived and loved as long as he has. And I think you'll appreciate what a enormous role meditation has played in shaping his creative passion for life.

The post OM062: 95 Year Old Yogi On The Joys of Life, Death, & Meditation appeared first on About Meditation.

What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness? Recently I joined fellow meditator and Showrunner Harry Duran, the host of Podcast Junkies, to discuss this question and much more. It was an honor to join Harry on his show.

We explore the importance of meditation teachers and mentors, the power of going on silent retreat, the difference between mindfulness and meditation, the incredibly short time we have here on earth, and more. Here were a few highlights from the show:

Key Takeaways

I recommend Harry's show, Podcast Junkies if you haven't listened before. According to Harry, Podcast Junkies was born out of a genuine interest in and curiosity for a growing league of podcast hosts. It's hosted by Harry and it features wide-ranging, authentic and sometimes candid interviews with this family of voices behind the microphone.

The post OM061: The Real Reason I Started Meditating appeared first on About Meditation.