A List of Choices that Cause Us to Loose Energy

Here is a list of things that drain us of energy. It is a loss of energy and important for us to keep track of how much of the below list we do daily and that we do drain our energy if we do not pay attention to it.

accidents addictions allergies anger being controlled being scattered being unbalanced being unfocused boredom broken boundaries busyness claustrophobia compromise conflicts crisis criticism emotions excessive self review failure fear feeling threatened feeling victimized fights guilt having too many people around high expectations high humidity high temperature impatience inertia insults jealousy lack of sleep lack of stimulation laziness

lengthy meetings life changes long ‘To Do’ lists loss of esteem loud noise low self worth manipulation medications negative encounters negative news negative self talk nosy people not knowing orgasms over giving overeating overwork pain perfectionism physical changes poor diet procrastination resentment sadness shame shyness sickness stress tardiness technology unfinished business unscheduled events weather worry

Increase Your Energy – A List of Choices How To

Here is a comprehensive list of things we can do right now to increase our energy and therefore be healthier and function better, feel better, and operate on optimum capability. Feel better and increase your energy through healthy methods.

align yourself appreciate someone be more accepting be near or in water breathe more deeply brush your teeth celebrate center yourself complete some tasks create or appreciate art cry cuddle with someone or something dance day dream do puzzles do rituals do something different do things differently dress up drink more water drive eat engage in sex enjoy quality time enjoy something pleasurable enjoy the sunshine exercise fast forgive someone gardening get hair or nails done give to a charity go shopping

go to a show ground yourself have a massage have a relaxing meal hold hands with someone hug hug a tree journal laugh learn new things light candles listen to or play music make love meditate play play with pets pray read relax receive compliments reorganize retreat say ‘I Love you’ shower sing swim take a holiday take a nature walk take time for yourself take vitamins use your hands visit a friend walk barefoot write a self appreciation list

Hay House – Spiritual Retreats & Events 2009

Louise Hay formed Hay House in 1987, fully 22 years ago now. Beginning as an independent publishing company it has grown and evolved over the years. Activities now include HayHouse radio network launched in 2005 and an ever increasing number of annual events and author tours.
Louise Hay formed Hay House in 1987, fully 22 years ago now. Beginning as an independent publishing company it has grown and evolved over the years. Activities now include HayHouse radio network launched in 2005 and an ever increasing number of annual events and author tours.

2009 is no exception and in these challenging times of change and uncertainty more are more will be looking for information and guidance to navigate their life choices. Let’s take a look then at some of the wonderful opportunities on offer over the coming months.

With Barack Obama coming into office tomorrow there could be no better time to attend “I Can Do It!” This year in Toronto April 2-5, it will feature Colette Baron-Reid, Gregg Braden, Sylvia Browne, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, John Holland, Caroline Myss, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Marcelle Pick, Cheryl Richardson, Brian L. Weiss, M.D.  You can join your favorite authors for the whole retreat or go for a specific day.

Or April 30 – May 3 join a massive line up of – Colette Baron-Reid, Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph.D., Gregg Braden, Sonia Choquette, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Jonathan Ellerby, Ph.D., Steven D. Farmer, Jonathan Goldman, Jean Haner, Louise L. Hay, Robert Holden, Ph.D., John Holland, Mark Husson, Deborah King , Loretta LaRoche, Robert L. Leahy, Denise Linn, Frank Lipman, Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., Lauren Mackler, Denise Marek, Thomas Moore, Caroline Myss, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Robert Ohotto, Marcelle Pick, Chris Prelitz, Gary R. Renard, Cheryl Richardson, Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D., Ph.D., Caroline Sutherland, Eldon Taylor, Sandra Anne Taylor, Doreen Virtue, Brian L. Weiss, M.D., Lisa Williams, Marianne Williamson For I CAn Do It! in San Diego

And if you are into cruises and fancy seeing Alaska in the summer there is I Can Do It! 2009 At Sea July 11-18, 2009 Featuring Gregg Braden, Sonia Choquette, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Louise L. Hay, John Holland, Caroline Myss, Cheryl Richardson, Iyanla Vanzant, Brian L. Weiss, M.D.

Other highlights to look out for are  Wayne Dyer’s 2009 Live Tour
Excuses Begone! How to Change Lifelong Self-Defeating Thinking Habits

4/3/09 Toronto Canada

5/1/09 San Diego

7/11/09 Alaska

10/23/09 right here on Maui, Hawaii

An Intensive with Colette Baron-Reid
Your Partnership With Spirit …. Discovering the Truth of Having It ALL

Date: February 18, 2009 – February 22, 2009, Scottsdale Arizona

Your Partnership With Spirit …. Discovering the Truth of Having It ALL is a 5-day intensive about a Quantum Shift in perception. It’s about releasing false assumptions and beliefs that you’ve learned about yourself, and your relationship to the world around you. It’s about remembering, experiencing and reclaiming the powerful Truth about who you really are—Spirit first, human second.

Caroline Myss Tour -2009. This will be a day long workshop with Caroline Myss- Beyond Reason: Healing though Mystical Wisdom and Common Sense.

The day explores the mystical qualities involved in the experience of healing, instructing readers to move beyond the dilemma of needing to find logical reasons for why an illness has developed and instead get on with the task of personal transformation.

3/7/09 Boston MA

3/29/09 Mesa AZ

4/2/09 Toronto Canada

5/1/09 San Diego CA

7/11/09 Alaska cruise

Brian L. Weiss, M.D. 2008-2009 Tour
Many Lives, Many Masters: Experiencing Your Past Lives will be an all day workshop with one of the best know past life regressionists.

Do you want to know what happens before we are born and after we die and also our possible future lives. In such knowledge we awaken from the constrictions of our past conditioning to release anxieties and fears.

3/8/09 New York City

3/29/09 Seattle WA

4/2/09 Toronto Canada

5/1/09 San Diego CA

7/11/09 Alaska cruise

There are many other events with different authors and teacher full details can be found at Hay House Events 2009 Including Eckhart Tolle’s tour of Australia & New Zealand!

Meditation Retreats in Canada

Meditation retreats in Canada. Here are a few on-going meditation retreats in Canada and contact information if you are interested in attending a meditation retreat in Canada.

BC
Meditation Retreats	Bowen Island (near West Vancouver)	Bowen Lodge by the Sea. Group retreats, conferences, spiritual workshops, social events within a serene waterfront setting. Hot tub, fire place. Phone 1-877-947-2129 or email.
Meditation Retreats	Golden, BC	Beaverfoot Lodge. Gateway to Renewing the Self. Available for group retreats or individual spiritual getaways. Phone 1.604.595.4468 or email.
Meditation Retreats	Kelowna (So. Okanagan, BC Interior)	Seton House of Prayer. Retreats, spiritual direction, Christian counseling, peaceful environment; for individuals and groups. Phone 250-764-4333 or email.
Meditation Retreats	Salt Spring Island	Academy of Massage. Certified classes & retreats in Thai massage, Fusion Works, yoga, meditation, and hot stones. Phone (250) 537-1219 or email.
Meditation Retreats	Sunshine Coast (Halfmoon Bay)	Self Realization Meditation Healing Centre. Schedule includes monthly Silent Retreats. Spiritual guidance, Meditation Foundation, Counselling, Healing, Yoga available on request. Phone 1-604 740-0898 or email.
Ontario
Meditation Retreats	Cobourg (1.5 hrs NE. of Toronto)	Harmony Dawn Retreat Centre. Sustainable energy retreat provides perfect environment for inner spiritual work. Fabulous Food. Phone 705-696-2066 or email.

Meditation Retreats by State in the US

Meditation Retreats in the United States. Here is a list of meditation retreats categorized by state in the US.

Arizona
Meditation Retreats	Patagonia	Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center. Leading the world in fasting, detoxification, spirituality and health education. Phone: 866-394-2520. Web: www.treeoflife.nu
California
Meditation Retreats	Hayfork (Near Weaverville, Trinity County)	Silver Springs Mountain Retreat. remote rustic retreat center offering secluded cabins and tent camps on forested mountain with clear air, pure spring water. Phone 707 496 8840 or email
Meditation Retreats	Nevada City, California	Ananda Meditation Retreat. Ananda Meditation Retreat, spiritual rest & renewal offering private cabins, meditation temple, programs. Phone 530-292-3024 or email.
Meditation Retreats	Santa Rosa, California	Ananda Seva Yoga and Meditation Center. Yoga and Meditation Retreat-come deepen your spiritual connection in shared community. Low cost, scholarships available. Phone (707) 575-0886 or email.
Meditationi Retreats	Santa Cruz (near Watsonville, overlooking Monterey Bay)	Mount Madonna Center. 355 mountaintop acres overlooking Monterey Bay. Enjoy yoga classes, vegetarian meals, hiking trails, a lake for swimming, spa services, and hot tub. Phone (408) 847-0406 or email.
Personal / Spiritual Growth	Tomales, California (1.5 hrs N of San Francisco)	Blue Mountain Center of Meditation. Learn passage meditation, developed by Eknath Easwaran. Passage meditation fits naturally within any faith, philosophy, or way of life. Phone 800 475 2369 or email.
Colorado
Meditation Retreats	Red Feather Lakes (Northern Colorado)	Shambhala Mountain Center. FEATURE RETREAT. 600-acre mountain valley retreat. Buddhist meditation, yoga and other contemplative disciplines. Phone (888) STUPA-21 or email.
Florida
Meditation Retreats	Ona (near Sarasota)	Rasayana Cove Ayurvedic Retreat. Private cabin on 25 acres of pristine woodlands in central Florida. Ayurvedic treatments and meals to support meditation practice. Phone 863-494-7565  or email.
Indiana
Meditation Retreats	East Chicago	Bethany Retreat House. Silent atmosphere. Home-like setting. Private and individually directed retreats. Phone 219-398-5047 or email.
Maine
Meditation Retreats	Brooks	Rolling Meadows Retreat. Yoga and meditation retreats.  Yoga postures, pranayama, restorative poses, meditation, silence, organic vegetarian meals. Quiet 100 acre sanctuary in the hills of coastal Maine. Phone 1-888-666-6412 or email.
Montana
Detox Retreats	Big Timber, Montana	Hawley Mountain Renewal Retreat. Enjoy this pristine beautiful Wilderness setting through yoga, meditation and journaling, and renew your energy and spirit. Phone 877-496-7848 or email.
Michigan
Meditation Retreats	Lansing	Self Realization Meditation Healing Centre. Personally tailored retreats as well as group silent and spiritual retreats in a woodland setting in mid-Michigan. Phone 517-641-6201 or email.
New Mexico
Meditation Retreats	Sante Fe	Synergia Ranch offers a beautiful, reasonably priced setting for workshops and retreats. Phone 505-471-2573 or email.
Meditation Retreats	Taos	Vallecitos Mountain Refuge. Magnificent wilderness retreat center; meditation, contemplative and other retreats; inspirational mountain setting. Phone 575-751-9613 or email.
New York
Meditation Retreats	Rosendale	Sky Lake Lodge. A mountaintop contemplative center for meditation, arts and community just two hours from NYC. Phone 845-658-8556 or email.
Virginia
Meditation Retreats	Richmond (Williamsburg)	Woman to Woman Spiritual Retreats with Dr. Mary Anne Massey. Women’s personal/spiritual growth seminars, retreats, meditations on daily life plus eTherapy. Phone 757-566-2573 or email.

Bandhas

Bandhas were classified as part of Mudras, and were handed down by word of mouth from Guru to disciple. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika deals with Bandhas and Mudras together and the ancient Tantric texts also make no distinction between the two. Bandhas are extensively incorporated in Mudra as well as Pranayama techniques. The Sanskrit word Bandha means to ‘Hold’ ‘Tighten’ or ‘Lock’. These definitions precisely describe the physical action involved in the Bandha practices and their effect on the Pranic body. The Bandhas aim to lock the Pranas in particular areas and redirect their flow into Sushumna Nadi for the purpose of spiritual awakening.  Bandhas may be practiced individually or incorporated with Mudra and Pranayama practices. When combined in this way, they awaken the psychic faculties and form an adjunct to higher yogic practices.

There are four Bandhas: Jalandhara, Moola, Uddiyana and Maha. The last of these is a combination of the first three. These three Bandhas directly act in the three psychic knots. Moola Bandha is associated with Brahma Granthi, Uddiyana Bandha with Vishnu Granthi and Jalandhara Bandha with Rudra Granthi. The Granthis prevent the free flow of Prana along Sushumna Nadi and thus impede the awakening of the Chakras and the rising of Kundalini.

Brahma Granthi is the first knot and it is associated with Mooladhara and Swadhisthana Chakras.It is linked with the survival instinct, the urge to procreate and with deep, instinctive knowledge, awareness and desire. When Brahma Granthi is transcended, the Kundalini or primal energy is able to rise beyond Mooladhara and Swadhisthana without being pulled back down by the attractions and instinctual patterns of the personality.   The second knot is Vishnu Granthi, associated with Manipura and Anahata Chakras. These two Chakras are associated with the physical, emotional and mental aspects of human existence. Manipura sustains Annamaya Kosha, the physical body, governing the digestion and metabolism of food. Anahata sustains Manomaya Kosha, the mental body and Pranamaya Kosha, and the energy body. Once Vishnu Granthi is transcended energy is drawn from the universe and not from the localized centers within the human being. The final Knot is Rudra Granthi, which is associated with Vishuddhi and Ajna Chakras. Vishuddhi and Ajna sustain Vijanamaya Kosha, the intuitive or higher mental body, and represent the transformation of an existing form, idea or concept into its universal aspect. When Rudra Granthi is pierced, individuality is dropped, the old ego awareness is left behind and the experience of unmanifest consciousness emerges beyond Ajna Chakra at Sahasrar.

The word bhanda means “to hold, lock, or embrace.” These potent practices train you to direct your prana or vital energy to different centers of your body. Bhandas provide direct demonstration of the Law of Dharma as you witness the immediate reactions in your body in accordance to specific actions you take. The basic principle with each bandha is to first accumulate energy in an area of your physiology, and to then release it. This process of building a force and then unleashing it discharges obstacles from the pathways of energy circulation. Like Traditional Chinese Medicine, yoga envisions the body/mind as a network of energetic channels, through which life force flows. These pathways are known as srotas and nadis. Srotas are circulatory channels in the physical body, whereas nadis exist in the subtle body. Health and vitality are dependent upon life energy flowing freely through the physical and subtle biological passageways.

Bandhas

• The word bandha means to “hold, lock, or embrace”
• The principle of each bandha is to first accumulate energy in an area of your physiology and then to release it.
• Jalandhara is designed to stimulate the network of nerves and energy channels in the throat

The Pursuit of Happiness

CBC News Online
Reporter: Eve Savory
Producer: Marijka Hurko
From The National

Erin Gammel is a shoo-in for the Canadian Olympic swim team. Canadian record holder, champion backstroker – unless something wildly unexpected happens, she’s going to Athens.

But four years ago she was a sure bet for the Sydney Olympics, too.

“Everyone kept telling me you’re a shoo-in,” she says. “And we had the strategy and everything was perfect. And I thought this is it, I’m going to the Olympics.”

She was racing at the Olympic trials in Montreal. She hit the lane rope, lost her concentration and lost her place on the team.

“It was just extremely disappointing. I was depressed. I was just really sad. I was crying and I couldn’t control myself,” Gammel says.

Erin Gammel cried for two years. Help was to come in a way she would never have dreamed, from Dharamsala in Northern India, 5,000 kilometres and cultural eons away.

Dharamsala is the home in exile to thousands of Tibetans who followed the Dalai Lama, after China occupied Tibet.

For 25 centuries Tibetan Buddhists have practised and refined their exploration. For generations they probed their inner space with the same commitment with which western science explored the external world and outer space. The two inhabited separate worlds.

But now, they are finding common ground in a remarkable collaboration.

In March 2000, a select group of scientists and scholars journeyed to Dharamsala. They came to share insights and solutions – to human distress and suffering.

Among them was Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist from the University of Wisconsin. He finds nothing contradictory about doing science with Buddhists.

“There is almost a scientific-like attitude that is exemplified by Buddhist practitioners in investigating their own mind,” he says. “Their mind is the landscape of their own experimentation, if you will.”

The westerners had been invited by the Dalai Lama himself to his private quarters.

For five days, monks and scientists dissected what they call “negative emotions” – sadness, anxiety jealousy craving, rage – and their potential to destroy.

One of the participants, Daniel Goleman, author of the book Destructive Emotions, says, “As we were leaving the U.S. to come here the headline was a six-year-old who had a fight with a classmate and the next day he came back with a gun and shot and killed her. It’s very sad.”

Why would the scientists seek answers in Tibetan Buddhism?

Because its rigorous meditative practices seem to have given the monks an extraordinary resilience, an ability to bounce back from the bad things that happen in life, and cultivate contentment.

Richard Davidson’s lab is one of the world’s most advanced for looking inside a living brain. He’s recently been awarded an unprecedented $15-million (Cdn) grant to study, among other things, what happens inside a meditating mind.

“Meditation is a set of practices that have been around for more than 2,500 years, whose principal goal is to cultivate these positive human qualities, to promote flourishing and resilience. And so we think that it deserves to be studied with the modern tools of science,” Davidson says.

A little over a year later, in May 2001, the Dalai Lama returned the visit to Davidson’s lab in Madison, Wis.

His prize subjects – and collaborators – are the Dalai Lama’s lamas, the monks.

“The monks, we believe, are the Olympic athletes of certain kinds of mental training,” Davidson says. “These are individuals who have spent years in practice. To recruit individuals who have undergone more than 10,000 hours of training of their mind is not an easy task and there aren’t that many of these individuals on the planet.”

The Dalai Lama has said were he not a monk, he would be an engineer.

He brings that sensibility – the curiosity and intellectual discipline – to the discussion on EEGs and functional MRIs.

But this isn’t really about machines.

And it isn’t about nirvana.

It’s about down-to-earth life: about the distress of ordinary people – and a saner world.

“The human and economic cost of psychiatric disorder in western industrialized countries is dramatic,” says Davidson. “And to the extent that cultivating happiness reduces that suffering, it is fundamentally important.”

The monk and the scientist are investigating – together – the Art of Happiness.

“Rather than thinking about qualities like happiness as a trait,” Davidson says, “we should think about them as a skill, not unlike a motor skill, like bicycle riding or skiing. These are skills that can be trained. I think it is just unambiguously the case that happiness is not a luxury for our culture but it is a necessity.”

But we believe we can buy happiness…if we just had the money. That’s what the ad industry tells us. And we think it’s true.

People’s theories about what will make them happy often are wrong. And so there’s a lot of work these days that shows, for example, that winning the lottery will transiently elevate your happiness but it will not persist.

There’s some evidence that our temperament is more or less set from birth. So and so is a gloomy Gus…someone else is a ray of sunshine – that sort of thing.

Even when wonderful or terrible things happen, most of us, eventually, will return to that emotional set-point.

But, Davidson believes, that set point can be moved.

“Our work has been fundamentally focused on what the brain mechanisms are that underlie these emotional qualities and how these brain mechanisms might change as a consequence of certain kinds of training,” Davidson says.

His work could not have been done 20 years ago. “In fact, 20 years ago, we had dreams of methods that allows you to interrogate the brain in this way, but we had no tools to do it.”

Now that we have the tools we can see that as our emotions ebb and flow, so do brain chemistry and blood flow. Fear, depression, love … they all get different parts of our brain working.

Happiness and enthusiasm, and joy – they show up as increased activity on the left side near the front of the cortex. Anxiety, sadness – on the right.

Davidson has found this pattern in infants as young as 10 months, in toddlers, teens and adults.

Davidson tested more than 150 ordinary people to see what parts of their brains were most active.

Some were a little more active on the left. Some were a little more active on the right.

A few were quite far to the right. They would probably be called depressed. Others were quite far to the left, the sort of people who feel “life is great.”

So there was a range. Then Davidson tested a monk.

He was so far to the left he was right off the curve. That was one happy monk.

“And this is rather dramatic evidence that there’s something really different about his brain compared with the brains of these other 150 people. This is tantalizing evidence that these practices may indeed be promoting beneficial changes in the brain.”

Here, the Olympic athletes of meditation meet the Cadillac of brain scanners.

Khachab Rinpoche, a monk from Asia, came to Madison to meditate in perhaps the strangest place in his life: the functional MRI.

It let’s scientists watch what happens inside his brain when he switches between different types of meditation.

They want to know how his brain may differ from ordinary people, and whether that change is related to the inner contentment the monks report.

So they test how subjects react to unpleasant sounds and images flashed into the goggles they wear in the MRI.

Normally when we’re threatened one part of the brain is tremendously active, but in the monks, “the responsivity of this area is specifically decreased during this meditation in response to these very intense auditory simuli that convey strong emotions,” Davidson says.

It’s very preliminary work, but the implication may be that the lamas are able to move right through distressing events that overwhelm the rest of us – in other words, one of the keys to their happiness.

It may tell us something about our potential. “Our brains are adaptable, our brains are not fixed. The wiring in our brains is not fixed. Who we are today is not necessarily who we have to end up being,” Davidson says.

Tibetan Buddhism is said to be one of the most demanding mental endeavours on the planet. It takes 10,000 hours of meditation and years in retreat to become adept. Few of us can imagine such a commitment.

But that doesn’t mean the benefits of meditation are out of our reach.

Zindal Segal is a psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. He uses meditation to treat mood disorders.

It’s based on Buddhist teachings and its called mindfulness.

Michael Herman, senior partner with the law firm of Goodman and Goodman, meditates in his office.

“Very few of us can sit for 10,000 hours to be able to do this but the interesting thing is that we don’t need to. These capacities are available to all of us,” Segal says. ” We’re talking about paying attention, we’re talking about returning wherever our minds are to this present moment. These are things that we all have. We don’t have to earn them, we just have to find a way of clearing away the clutter to see that they are already there.”

Meditation is now out of the closet. The word is, it eases stress, drops blood pressure, helps put that bad day at the office in perspective.

Meditation is being mainlined by the mainstream, from corporate offices to factory floors.

These days it’s not unusual to find hospitals like St. Joseph’s in Toronto offering meditation programs. Some 360 people pass through the eight-week course every year.

Like most, this program has taken the simplest form of Buddhist teaching and adapted it for busy lives.

“Meditation is a skill, and like any skill it needs to be practised. So we use the breath as the place where we start to practise but eventually what we want to be able to do is to be able to use the awareness of the breath in our daily lives,” Segal says.

“When we have the ability to do that we can then use the breath when we’re standing in line at a bank, or if we’re having an argument with a spouse, as a way of grounding ourselves in the middle of something that is disturbing.”

Something disturbing, like the mind movie Erin Gammel couldn’t escape: the day when she failed to make the Olympic team.

“I just remember my hand getting caught in a lane rope and thinking to myself, it’s over,” Gammel says.

She lost her focus, her place on the team, and her heart to swim.

“It affected my entire life. I cried at the drop of a hat. I wasn’t improving and it didn’t look like anything was really improving. And I felt everything I did I seemed to fail at,” she says. “That was part of the depression and the sadness because I felt like I was failing at the time. Nothing was going well.”

Until she hooked up with the National Swim Team’s sports psychologist, Hap Davis. Davis had been fascinated by scientist Richard Davidson’s work.

He had a hunch that reliving the trauma was suppressing that part of Erin’s brain on the left that Davidson had found was so active in happy people.

He devised a rescue plan – a breathing meditation that she was to do before and after repeatedly viewing the video.

“If a person can ground themselves and feel centred with meditative breathing they can get to the point where they can look at it and view it with a critical mind, with a mind that is capable of being open to the experience and looking objectively at what took place,” Davis says.

“You know what it felt like during the race. It felt like I stopped absolutely dead. But in the video I look and it looks like just a little glitch. Nothing.”

It’s more than two years since they’ve needed to study the tape – because it worked. Erin’s joy of swimming returned; she’s winning race after race.

“She’s more resilient emotionally. She’s more stable emotionally. She’s more consistent in terms of performance,” Davis says.

“Meditation isn’t necessarily about happiness but it makes you happier. I guess that is how you would say it. And I feel more confident. That I know how to work with this stuff and work with bad things that happen in my life,” Gammel says.

Once again there’s one more race to win – the trials to make the team that goes to Athens.

“This is my year. That’s what I keep telling everyone. This is my year to make the Olympic team because making it through all those times there it’s just going to happen, I know it is. lt’s just going to happen,” she says.

“Meditation has been around for 2500 years so it’s not like a new practice,” Davis says. “But science is catching up to an old tradition and the evidence seems to be emerging that meditation can change the pattern of brain chemistry or blood flow in the brain.”

And now there’s proof meditation can change the brains of ordinary people and make them healthier.

Promega is a biotech company in Madison, Wis., where the researchers from the Brain Imaging Lab recruited typical stressed out workers – office staff, managers, even a skeptical research scientist, Mike Slater.

“Things were chaotic and crazy. We had a newborn. We had three deaths in the family. So it was a pretty topsy-turvy time,” Slater says.

All the subjects had activity in their brain measured…and half – including Mike Slater – were given an eight- week course in meditation.

Then everyone – meditators and controls – got a flu shot, and their brains were measured a second time.

The meditators’ brain activity had shifted to that happy left side. Mike Slater was almost too successful.

“I was pretty happy all the time and I was worried that maybe I was masking some stuff that might really be irritating me so I stopped it and my wife noticed an increase in my irritability, so, you know, I have both sides of the experiment now. It calmed me down and I stopped doing it and my irritability increased,” he says.

That wasn’t all. Their immune systems had strengthened.

“Those individuals in the meditation group that showed the biggest change in brain activity also showed the biggest change in immune function, suggesting that these were closely linked,” Davidson says.

Davidson and his team had shown meditation could shift not just mood – but also brain activity and immunity in ordinary people.

And they’d answered a potential flaw in the monk study.

“Someone may say, well, maybe these individuals are that way to start out with. Maybe that’s why they’re attracted to be monks,” Davidson says. “And we actually can’t answer that on the basis of those data, but with the Promega study, we can say definitely that it had to do with the intervention we provided.”

There are reasons to believe the insane pace and many aggravations of daily life can be dangerous to the health of our minds and our bodies.

We can’t push the delay button on a busy world and we can’t bail out.

But perhaps meditation is a way to encourage a sense of well-being – a deep breath in the centre of the whirlwind.

“As the Dalai Lama himself said in his book The Art of Happiness, we have the capacity to change ourselves because of the very nature, of the very structure and function of our brain,” Davidson says. “And that is a very hopeful message because I think it instills in people the belief that there are things that they can do to make themselves better.”

Meditation and Yoga Events and Information

	Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health - http://www.kripalu.org Information about residential workshops, professional trainings, and retreats in yoga, holistic health, and self-discovery.
	Satchidananda Ashram – Yogaville - http://yogaville.org/ Buckingham, Virginia. Spiritual community offers workshops and retreats in Integral Yoga, meditation, teacher training, stress reduction, healing. Tours and treks to Nepal.
	Pura Vida Retreat: Costa Rica - http://www.puravidaspa.com/ Vacations include Yoga and Meditation programs.
	Purple Valley Yoga Centre: Goa, India - http://www.yogagoa.com/ Conduct Ashtanga Yoga courses. Details of location, courses, and tariff.
	The Expanding Light Retreat - http://www.expandinglight.org/ Yoga and meditation retreat center in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. Organized programs, flexible private retreats.

	Feathered Pipe Foundation - http://www.featheredpipe.com/ Workshops in Montana and the Caribbean. Yoga-oriented adventure travel in Peru and India.
	Present Moment Conscious Living Retreat - http://www.presentmomentretreat.com/ Offer Yoga and Meditation classes and workshops in Mexico. Details of facilities, course content, and schedule.
	Yoga Thailand - http://www.yoga-thailand.com/ Offer Yoga classes and retreats on Ashtanga yoga, pranayama and meditation. Includes information on schedule, accommodation, travel information, and fees.
	Yoga Holidays - http://www.yogaholidays.net/ A listing of yoga courses, meditation retreats and ayurveda vacations in locations around the world. Mostly Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga.
	Shoshoni Yoga Retreat: Boulder, Colorado - http://www.shoshoni.org/ Offering Yoga and Meditation programs for all levels.

	American Meditation Institute, Averill Park, NY - http://www.americanmeditation.org/ Wellness, meditation, and yoga institute. Online newsletter, schedule, products.
	Hatha Yoga: Greece - http://www.yoga-paros.com/ Content, location, and price of the Yoga courses conducted in Aliki on Paros islands.
	The Midnight Sun Ashtanga Yoga Retreat - http://www.yogaartsmagic.net/ Private retreat on a Finnish island offers weekend workshops in Ashtanga vinyasa yoga.
	Yasodhara Ashram: Kootenay Bay, British Columbia, Canada - http://www.yasodhara.org/ The ashram founded by Swami Sivananda Radha offers year-round workshops, yoga courses and classes, retreats and residency programs.
	Where is Ramanand? - http://www.yogirama.com/ Worldwide workshop schedules for Iyengar Yoga instructor Ramanand Patel and classical Indian musician Pandit Mukesh Desai. Site also includes Ramanand’s Bay Area class schedules.

	Yoga Plus Centre: Crete - http://www.yogaplus.co.uk/ A vacation centre in Crete offering Astanga Yoga and other mind/body orientated courses, with accommodation and vegetarian diet, in a remote and beautiful environment.
	Yoga Oasis - http://www.yogaoasis.org A retreat center in the Hawaiian rainforest featuring daily yoga classes and vegetarian meals.
	La Buissiere - http://www.yogafrance.com Yoga and walking holidays and retreats in South West France. Small friendly groups. Accommodations with large pool in private wooded park. Guided walks and optional cultural tours.
	Milagro Retreats - http://www.milagroretreats.com/ Offer Yoga retreats in Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
	Holistic Holidays - http://www.hoho.co.uk Holidays to help you relax and feel well. Yoga based, with leading therapists, in luxury villas, time to yourself; fresh air and clean water in the sunny Biosphere of Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands.

	Midwest Yoga and Wellness Conference - http://www.midwestyoga.com/ Based at Indian Lakes Resort near Chicago features Yoga teacher training and intensives.
	Villas Shanti - http://www.villasshanti.com/ Retreat center in Cancun, Mexico, provides schedule of yoga workshops, plus information about accommodations and the local area.
	Hamsa Yoga Sangh - http://www.hamsa-yoga.org/ Courses and workshops taught by Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath at centers in the U.S., India, and in other locations. Teachings are based on Babaji’s Kriya Yoga.
	Radiance Retreats - http://www.radianceretreats.com/ Conducts Yoga retreats in various parts of the world with Judy and Jessie Chapman. Company based in New South Wales, Australia.
	Via Yoga: Sayulita, Mexico - http://www.viayoga.com/ Offer a range of 7-day yoga vacations for all experience levels. Details of accommodation, schedule, and rates.

	Durga Sadhini Centre - http://www.nawajyoti.com/ Schedule, content, and price of the retreats in the Lot Valley, south of France.
	Prajnana Mission - http://www.prajnanamission.org/ Kriya Yoga retreats and seminars at ashrams in 3 locations in India. Founded by Paramahamsa Prajnananandaji.
	Yoga Retreats in Ireland - http://www.yogaholidays.net/clare/index.htm Information about yoga retreats held on Clare Island, an island off the West coast of Ireland.
	Global Yoga Journeys - http://www.globalyogajourneys.com/ Offer yoga vacations, retreats, and teacher training in Costa Rica, Swiss Alps, Tuscany, and New England.
	Centered Yoga - http://www.centeredyoga.com/ Describes yoga retreats and teacher training in Thailand, Ireland, and Costa Rica.

	San Blas Yoga Retreats - http://www.sanblasyogaretreats.com/ Accommodation, facilities, and price of the Yoga retreat on the Pacific coast of Mexico.
	Keythorpe Yoga Retreats: Leicestershire, U.K - http://www.keythorpeyoga.co.uk/ Information on the itenary, upcoming retreats, location, and teachers.
	Hatha and Ashtanga Yoga - http://www.sonyaluz.com/ Small family owned and operated centers in Costa Rica and Peru. Retreats are designed and led by Sonya Luz Hinton.
	Inward Bound - http://www.inwardboundadventures.com Holistic fitness retreats worldwide combine yoga, meditation, NIA, Pilates.
	Montezuma Yoga: Costa Rica - http://www.montezumayoga.com/ Schedule and prices of the Yoga classes and retreats in Montezuma.

	Ibiza Yoga, Spain - http://www.ibizayoga.com/ Retreat near Benirras Beach describes teachers, accommodations and dynamic ashtanga yoga courses starting in May 2002.
	Yoga On a Shoestring - http://www.yogaonashoestring.com/ Schedule and location of the Yoga holidays/retreats offered.
	Solstice Yoga and Vacations in Mexico - http://www.solstice-mexico.com/ Oceanfront Yoga resort. Details of Hatha yoga classes, workshop schedule, and accommodation.
	World Conscious Yoga Family - http://www.geocities.com/worldyogafamily/ 21-day intensive retreats in the Himalayan foothills, offering spiritual philosophy, morning meditation, daily yoga classes,l ectures, discussions, and workshops on Yoga.
	Yoga Retreat - http://www.sahayoga.com/ A weekend yoga retreat on Big Island, opening November 2003, including yoga, meals and accommodation.

	Inner Harmony Yoga Retreat Center - http://innerharmonyyoga.com/ Located in forested southern Utah. Offer Yoga workshops and retreats.
	Ashtanga Yoga Retreats - http://www.ashtangaom.com/ Offer retreats in Southern Spain. Details of location, facilities, and teachers.
	Health Habitravels - http://www.healthabitravels.com/ Offer Yoga retreats, workshops, and vacations with Tannis Kobrinsky.
	Sunflower Retreats - http://www.sunflowerretreats.com/ Offers Yoga vacations in Casperia medieval village in Sabina (1 hr from Rome).
	Barbara Luboff - http://www.yogainmexico.com/ Offers Yoga retreats, workshops, and vacations in Mexico.

	Heart and Mind Programme - http://www.heartandmind.org/ Events and retreats in England and Ireland. Led by experienced yoga and meditation teacher.
	Balance Arts - http://balancearts.com/ Partner Yoga retreats in Hawaii, Mexico and other locations.
	Sivanayoga - http://www.sivanayoga.com/ Offers Yoga retreats in Costa Rica. Location, facilities, description, and fees.
	Ram Sangha Retreats - http://www.ramsangha.com/ Offer Yoga retreats in New york and Costa Rica.
	Tanglefoot Lodge - http://www.tanglefootlodge.com/ Location, facilities, and cost of the Yoga retreat in Ontario.

	Pleasant Valley Sanctuary - http://www.pleasantvalleysanctuary.com/ Location, directions, schedule, and rates of the Yoga retreat in the foothills of Sierra Nevada in Northern California.
	The Healing Source: Phoenix, Arizona - http://healingsource.com/ Offer Yoga and Meditation retreats for women. Also conduct Kundalini yoga classes.
	Yoga Holidays in Spain - http://www.spainyoga.com/ Offer Yoga holidays at Cortijo de Santa Cruz above the town of Orgiva in the Alpujarras, Andalucia. Information on location, schedule, facilities, and fees.
	Swara Inspiritations - http://www.swarainspiritations.ca/ Schedule, description, and cost of the Yoga classes and retreats offered.
	Billy Doyle Yoga Retreats - http://home.clara.net/b.doyle/1_retreats.htm Describes yoga retreats in the Kashmir tradition, in England, Greece, and other locations.

	Sadh Desha - http://www.sadhdesha.com/ Yoga and meditation retreat in the San Juan Islands, north western Washington.
	Yoga-Journeys - http://www.yoga-journeys.com/ Workshops, classes and retreats in the San Francisco Bay area (California), as well as journeys to sacred spots around the world.
	Healing Heart Yoga Center - http://www.healingheartyoga.com/ Schedule of Yoga retreats and workshops in U.S.
	Gray Bear - http://www.graybear.org/ Hohenwald, Tennessee based lodge offers weekend or week long yoga retreats at their facility.
	Yoga Weekends Away - http://www.yogaweekends.co.uk/ Schedule and details of the Yoga week ends and retreats In Somerset, United Kingdom.

	Hridaya Hermitage - http://www.hridayahermitage.com/ Offer retreats in Hatha Yoga, Meditation, and healing. Located in Industry, Maine, United States.
	Swami Bhaktipoornananda - http://www.yogaworkshops.8m.net/ Offers Yoga workshops.
	Himalayan Yoga Meditation Center - http://yogaunity.com/ Yoga and meditation retreat in Hunterdon county, New Jersey.
	The Sun Centre - http://www.thesuncentre.net/ Offer Yoga vacations and retreats in the south of France.
	Byron Bay Yoga - http://www.byronbayyoga.com/ Describes Hatha Yoga getaways and retreats in New South Wales, Australia.

Aphrodite Trails - http://homepage.eircom.net/~aphroditetrails/ Yoga and meditation holidays in the Akamas peninsula in Cyprus.

Osho meditation events in Osho Multiversity, India

Reduce Stress Through Meditation

There’s nothing like economic calamity to focus the mind. But instead of obsessing over your job security or declining 401(k) balance, try diminishing your stress with a new assist from a very old tool: meditation.

Stretching back thousands of years to ancient spiritual traditions, meditation has been attracting a growing following of secular practitioners in recent years. While it’s still not exactly mainstream, data released in December by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, an arm of the National Institutes of Health, show that 9.4 percent of adults surveyed in 2007 had tried meditation at least once during the previous 12 months, a significant increase from 7.6 percent in 2002. And 1 percent of children had zoned in, too.

Your choices are extensive—mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, and the latest trend, compassion meditation, are three of many approaches, each with a slightly different intent. Compassion meditation aims to foster a feeling of lovingkindness toward others, for example, while mindfulness meditation focuses on awareness and acceptance of the present moment.

Whatever the variation, certain basic elements are common to all forms of meditation. Comfortably seated, lying down, or even walking around, you focus your mind on your breath, a word, a mantra, an object—something specific—possibly for a few minutes but perhaps much longer, gently pushing away distracting thoughts. As you learn to stay focused, you experience a sense of calm. Your body relaxes. Your breathing slows. Your heart rate drops.

Many of those who practice meditation turn to it to help them deal with emotional stumbling blocks like stress and anxiety. It can also be used to change unhealthful eating habits
or to battle substance abuse. And studies continue to add to the ways in which meditation might be able to play a therapeutic role—for example, it has been shown to bolster HIV patients’ immune systems, ease chronic pain, and reduce blood pressure.

Gene control. New research has been taking these discoveries to a deeper level, revealing how meditation and other relaxation techniques work in cells, turning on and off genes that are associated with inflammation, cell aging, and free radicals, all of which are associated with damage to cells and tissues. French philosopher René Descartes famously believed that the mind and body were separate entities, but emerging evidence is proving him wrong.

“What this shows is that you can actually change the brain with the mind,” says Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a coauthor of a study demonstrating such genetic changes that was published in July in the online journal PLoS One.

Meditation’s psychological and physical effects both are tied to the “fight or flight” response. When we are under stress, the brain sends hormones and other substances racing through our system to ready us for action. We become hyperalert, our heart rate and breathing speed up, our muscles tense, and our digestive processes shut down. While modern Americans are less likely to face physical danger than were our prehistoric, mastodon-hunting ancestors, there’s no shortage of other sources of stress. High-pressure, overbusy lives, coupled with the unrelenting economic uncertainty of much of the past year, can put the body in a constant state of hypervigilance. That’s not good. An ongoing state of revved-up alertness can damage tissues and organs, suppress the immune system, and cause anxiety and depression.

Mental workout. The calm that meditation engenders produces physical and emotional changes that represent the flip side of fight-or-flight. For those with overtaxed lives, a bonus of meditation is that a little of it apparently goes a long way. One study of individuals who were new to meditating showed measurable brain and behavior differences after just two weeks of daily 30-minute sessions, says Richard Davidson, director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But meditation is like any other workout: To reap the benefits, don’t stop. “This is mental exercise,” says Davidson. “If one wants [benefits] to continue, you have to continue.

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