Category: Well-Being

3 Ways Breathing Exercises Support Sleep, Creativity and Spirituality

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A young woman is in profile against a dark background, gently blowing dandelion seeds.

Breathing exercises improve relaxation, focus, and oxygen flow to the brain, enhancing creativity. They reduce stress and anxiety, remove major roadblocks to clear thinking, and boost overall cognitive function. In other words, they make life feel better. In this article, we’re going to touch on 3 main ways you can use breathing exercises: to prepare for sleep, to stimulate creativity, and to support spiritual pursuits such as meditation and prayer. Breathing Exercises and Sleep Many people seek out breathing exercises as a natural and non-pharmaceutical way to promote better sleep. There are several reasons why breathing exercises may be helpful…

Learn this Fast and Easy Way to Stop Repetitive Negative Thoughts

Using a double-stop photographic technique, a bearded person appears to quickly move their head from left to right, eyes closed with a peaceful facial expression

Are stressful thoughts and negative emotions often on a loop in your head? It’s not fun. In fact, it’s stress-upon-stress that seems to take on a life of its own. It begins with feeling anxious about something and then your thoughts and feelings seem to spiral into a vortex of stress and negativity. It can feel as if you have no control and instead are being held prisoner by your own negative thoughts and emotions. Does this describe what you or someone you care about is experiencing? This article will help get this negative jumble of thoughts and feelings under…

How to Keep Meditating When You’re Angry at Social Injustice

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A close-up of a pair of hands appearing to hold fire sparks that glow bright orange and yellow. The half-face seen above the hands appears to be male and is calm and relaxed.

How do you keep meditating in the face of rage against injustice? It isn’t easy to consider anger and outrage in a meditation practice. Any meditation practice. And certainly not one in which you try to focus on universal love. I mean, who wants to love their enemy? Someone who destroys the values that you hold as important. No one, that’s who. But are the benefits worth the effort? The answer to every question is always love. I believe that, I know it to be true. But when you feel the breath of the enemy on your face, do you…

5 Easy Ways to Stop Unwanted Thoughts in Meditation in 5 Minutes or Less

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A person with short hair and dangling earrings sits with eyes closed, thumb to forehead, fingers point upwards.The background appears to be a bedroom with white walls and soft sconce lighting.

When many people first begin a meditation practice, the biggest questions often circle around the logistics. How can I create a space of time to make a meditation practice? Do I have to do it every day? How long every day? How can I make it a regular habit? Will I be able to do it? These are all valid questions, and answering them becomes a highly individual experience. But there’s a bigger, more long-lasting challenge to growing your meditation practice. Nearly everyone grapples with this, not only in the early days of creating a practice but often during every…

You Get A Gold Star for Positive Self-Talk

A spray of of 20 gold star shapes attached to a branch-shaped wire. The background appears to be wood painted dark blue and sparkly silver.

You get a gold star for positive self-talk! Perhaps you’ve practiced mindfulness today, even for just a few seconds. Maybe you’ve reminded yourself to treat others, or yourself, with compassion and kindness in the midst of a struggle. It could be that you were really starting to stress out, and instead you took a deep breath and refocused your thoughts to a happy memory. Perhaps you even simply took the time to notice that you’re feeling stressed out, which even just a few months ago you weren’t able to do yet. These are all versions of positive self-talk. And if…

8 Common Meditation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, Part 2

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A young man is seated, fingers interlaced in front of his face as if to meditate. His eyes are open and he seems caught in thought. There are cardboard boxes in the background.

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, we explored 4 of the 8 most common mistakes people feel they make in their meditation practice. In this second half, we’ll look at 4 more common mistakes and how to fix them or avoid them all together. Plus, be sure to read to the end to discover the secret bonus mistake that’s super common yet can be fixed in less than 30 seconds. Yeah, less than 30 seconds!  Okay, onto the next common misstep people make in meditation. 5. Meditating at the Wrong Time Finding time to meditate, let alone the best…