Shortcuts to Inner Peace Anyone?

Ok we know we should meditate don’t we? I know I ought to (isn’t ought to much nicer than “should”) I think so anyway). There are so many benefits, it helps health and well being on a mental and physical level, clearer thinking, less anxiety, good oxygenation etc . Despite this and the fact that we know it can be as simple as a few minutes a day of being peaceful and mindful we don’t seem to get around to it. By that I mean I don’t. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy yoga, the mindfulness gives you a sort of moving meditation (although of course you ought to be meditating in your asana practice too…not always happening here though.) Tai Chi and probably knitting provide a similar benefit but still, we should be comfortable with being still and quiet in the mind.

It can be hard. I have tried on and off over many years to establish a regular meditation routine but it seems to slip away from me unnoticed until the monkey chatter in the mind becomes overwhelming and I start again. The last few days I have had chattering mind due to the fact we are moving (not  to the house, gee get with the program I am moving to Hobart CBD now! Yes I know how quickly plans change but this deal is done!) and popping out of bed before I am awake to check on the baby (always fine) or see if it is time for an early morning Yoga class (not for another three hours- go back to bed woman!).

It can be hard to get back to sleep so I have resurrected something a thing I used to use when our first son was a baby but had forgotten it. Listening to audio which helps your brain waves get into Theta pattern (bear with me here) which is apparently what your brain does when you are meditating. The advantage here is you can just pop in your headphones and lie down and away you go. I have uploaded mine to my mp3 player now and keeping it next to the bed it has worked like a charm. Even if I need a nap (realllly need a nap, you know- eyes hanging out of the head tired) listening to one of these tracks (around 24mins runtime) is amazingly refreshing. I have Yoga Nidra as well but they seem to take a lot of concentration whereas there is benefit in these tracks as long as you are listening through stereo headphones, you don’t even need to breathe in  special way or clear your mind.

You may have seen advertisements for similar things. It’s called Brain entraining I believe. It’s a thing. One product was heavily advertised in the late 90’s/early 00’s promising to have you meditating deeper than a Zen Monk and offering a sample CD. I tried the sample Cd which had sort of bells bonging in your ears and subliminal brain wave altering messages. It seemed to work quite well and I felt very refreshed but I was stuck on the price Which is around $180 USD. I would want to be pretty convinced for that money. Instead I found a cheaper substitute from Imramma Institute which offered a CD for meditating (or lying down and listening- do not drive whilst listening, OK?) and a couple of CDs for focusing whilst concentration (which I suppose I should really listen to at some stage in my life, like maybe when I am writing instead of checking Twitter all the time!) They cost $30 altogether.

So anyway, years down the track I have them on the mp3 playera pair of $1.85 and I am revisiting the whole thing. So far so good, I am not going to pretend it is a deep spiritual experience akin to years of meditating but I would like to bet that if I had my brain waves monitored you would find at least some of the claims are true; the time flies too, you know when you close your eyes and it feels like a second later but you have been asleep for hours- just like that.  The rest leaves me much more refreshed than normal naps too. I am amazed that when I am so tired I literally feel sick and cannot go on I listen to one of the Insight tracks (which just sound like rain by the way, no bonging bells).  Such good results for a reasonable price. WHY ISN’T EVERYONE LISTENING TO THIS? Maybe it is because the claims sound unlikely? Too much? I don’t know- they sound more realistic than many of the magazine diets to me and lots of people go for them! Ah well. I am interested to see that the Immramma Institute are offering audio to increase your intuition and problem solving.

I haven’t examined the science yet but the Insight audio has and is yielding good results for me. Maybe I will listen to the focus audio when I am writing and working and see how that goes and report back!

It probably warrants some more in-depth exploration really. It looks like there might be quite a few different products from different places online.  I will check this out too.

Oh and you ought to be meditating!

Have you tried any shortcuts to quieting your mind? What have you found that works for you?

Image credit here

The Bum Wiping Cake and Other Tales

A mentioned in my last post our four year old is a character. He came running to me full sob- tears plopping off his red face- yesterday because the cat had eaten his salmon sandwich whilst he had left the sandwich to see what the noise was- he thought it was Zombies. Lesson learned, take your sandwich with you when you check for Zombies.
I found out the other day he has been calling one of the carers at day care fat so I apologised on his behalf and found he has also been congratulating her for wearing her not insubstantial breasts “Oh good, you’re wearing your boobies today!”.
I have also mentioned that one of his current little quirks was a failure to attend to his hygiene as he should. Yes I am talking bum wiping. He didn’t. I think it may have started because his arms were too short to reach but then it started getting stupid. No details (I don’t want to be a poo blogger…)but needless to say something had to be done so I asked him what to do. His answer was swift and decisive. He wanted a cake. Actually it’s his standard answer for most things and not always appropriate but I saw a chance for some blatant food bribery here  a reward system for appropriate behaviour. Anyone who thinks that food shouldn’t be used as a reward doesn’t live with my family but is welcome to take over proceedings to show me a better way, they can also clean my house whilst they perfectly parent the children. Anyway, enough of my defensive rant, back to the cake. It was decided that yea verily, every day he wiped his backside would be recorded by putting a chick pea in a baby food jar and once there were ten he could have a cake. It took two and a half weeks but we are there! He was so excited to make a marble cake with me using the Thermomix he was shaking with excitement like a little Chihuahua (I did mention he really likes cake right) It looks a bit odd, I can’t ever seem to get the marbling right.

 So feast your eyes on the Great Bum Wiping Cake and some Iced tea in an old seventies Tang bottle  a vintage jug and I will try to forget the name whilst I eat it!

P.S. I couldn’t hack the dairy free thing, I also got hideous Gastroenteritis three days in and the baby wasn’t any less or more windy either way so I thought “sod this” and ate some cheese.