Mindfulness

If you've ever sat down with a favorite meal that you couldn't wait to sink your teeth into, became distracted on your phone, and looked down to see your plate near-empty without remembering to enjoy a single bite, mindfulness is for you.

Mindfulness not only puts away distractions but quiets mindless "monkey-chatter" in the brain. It can be easy to get caught up in thinking about past and future events. It's worry over the past and future that causes anxiety. Mindfulness helps bring your thoughts back into the present to experience emotions and sensations to bring about a state of calm.

You can learn mindfulness independently or practice with a mentor or digital program. The latter is helpful if you are dealing with particular health problems.

Unless you prefer, you don't have to sit cross-legged on a pillow in an empty room with incense floating on the airwaves. While you should be in a quiet space, you can practice mindfulness anywhere once you get the hang of it. What you want to do is focus entirely on the present.

Mindfulness isn't about trying to make your mind go blank. If your brain begins its usual monkey chatter, observe without judgment and bring your thoughts back to the present. The following steps will help you get the most out of being mindful. 

• Sit up straight but in a comfortable, relaxed position. Let your spine curve naturally without hunching. Pay attention to your breathing. Take a couple of deep breaths to relax the body and clear the mind. Then, focus on breathing correctly. In and out. In and out. Find your natural rhythm. Next, you'll want to perform a scan to see if any areas of your body feel tight, tense, stiff, or unrelaxed. 

• Close your eyes and, while breathing naturally, focus on relaxing the tense parts of your body. It helps to relax your toes and work up to your head and face. It might help to imagine yourself floating in warm water. 

• Pay attention to what you feel (the sun, a breeze, your seat), smell, or hear.

• You can focus on a place that makes you feel whole, safe, and loved (by yourself or someone else), which can be an imaginary place or a place that exists. Again, pay attention to what you feel, smell, hear, taste, or hear in this special place. Stay a few moments and soak up the positive vibes.

• With your eyes still closed, return to the space you are in and focus on your senses and breathing. 

• In closing your mindful meditation, sit for a minute or two, take a deep breath, and slowly get up and hug yourself (or give yourself a mental hug).

Mindfulness can be challenging if you're the type whose mind is always racing. The idea is to keep doing it regularly until it becomes effortless to relax whenever you choose to. The results will lead to less stress and a happier mind, body, and spirit.

There are several Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes available online. 

Color Gazing & Gold Meditation

Color is absorbed through the eyes and skin. In color gazing, choosing any color you are drawn to can help balance your body's energy centers, bringing about more peace and calm. Simply gaze at a color for as long as you feel comfortable doing so. 

Gold represents masculine energy and enhances your connection to God and your strength. It strengthens your entire body, so many people "Go for Gold" when meditating. 

Imagine, if you would, a love so pure that you felt warm and safe from head to toe in its presence. Imagine you are a child of the most loving parents in the world, parents who never fail to let it be known how special you are and how much potential you have. Imagine your parents supporting your eternal survival and holding special powers to heal your wounds, dry your tears, erase all pain and suffering, and help your dreams come true. As you enter "Gold," know that this power and love surrounds you. Allow "Gold" to go wherever you need to be healed and protected within your mind, soul, and body. Gold is loving, masculine, protective, and transforming. Breathe it in and out until you are saturated. Bathe in it. Take what you need. Gold is limitless. Gold is the color of universal and eternal loving power and peace. Stay as long as you like, as long as you are comfortable.

When you leave "Gold" today, know you are a step closer to the person God created to be and prosperous in every way.

Once you can focus on visualizations, step it up a notch and clear your mind of everything. Do this for at least 5 minutes daily, which is true meditation. If completely clearing your mind is too challenging, repeat one word repeatedly (love, peace, calm, OHM) while gently breathing in and out.

Color-Gazing Meditation

Because color is absorbed through the eyes and skin, color-gazing meditations are a super easy way of balancing your energy and your emotions.  Simply choose a color you're attracted to from any of the colors below (click the link) and gaze at the color for 30 seconds or longer, until you start to feel your interest wane. 

• Violet Color Gazing Meditation
• Indigo Color Gazing Meditation
• Blue Color Meditation
• Green Color Gazing Meditation
• Yellow Color Gazing Meditation
• Orange Color Gazing Meditation
• Red Color Gazing Meditation

• Brown: Is grounding, heals the earth and the animals

• Green: Heals, balances, creates abundance, financial increase, calms stressful situations, persistence, fertility, and growth

• Gold: Brings wealth, charisma, and employment

• Indigo: Helps to enhance love to a more spiritual state between family members and in the home

• Orange: Provides optimism, expansiveness, confidence, enthusiasm, friendship, and community. Orange helps with nutritional issues and female sexual problems

• Pink: Encourages love, attraction, affection, peace, close friendships, harmony, and softness

• Purple: Adds personal spiritual perspective (between friends) and intuition and is calm, soothing, and comforting

• Red: Represents strength, courage, steadfastness, stamina, passion, sexuality, and sensuality.

• Silver: Produces enlightenment during lunar rituals

• Violet: Lends healing, better sleep, and communication with higher beings

• White: Stands for purification, fidelity, transformation, and love of all life. Use White when you are unsure of another color to use

• Yellow: Lends expression, freedom, playfulness, clarity, study, organization, and detail

Also, see Candle Magic.