What is the point of meditation? How do you get started?

What is meditation?  It is bringing yourself into the present moment.  Just having one breath being fully present, that is meditation.  
Why do we need to bring ourselves into the present moment? - because that is where our power is, that is where our creativity is, that is where we live our lives.  We don't live in yesterday or tomorrow or this afternoon, we live in the now, the present moment.
We need to spend time alone, in meditation to be able to reconnect with ourselves.  To hear what we need, to hear what we feel.  Meditation allows us to calm the incessant chattering of the mind.  The mind chatters along the whole time.  If we don't spend time alone, we don't see our thoughts for what they are - just passing across our mind.  Meditation allows us to be observers of these thoughts rather than "victims".  We can observe our thoughts and choose which ones we wish to believe, or act upon.
Quiet time alone, enables us to gain divinely inspired ideas, enables us to connect to our needs, to hear what we need.  
I would recommend spending some time alone every day.  Alone and actively working on quieting the mind/not engaging with the thoughts that are travelling across your mind.
I personally find repetitive physical exercise one of the best ways to quieten the thoughts in my head - walking the dog, swimming, running, yoga.
We are so overstimulated with computers, tv, music, radio, adverts, people, social media.  My brain can feel quite frazzled from these at times.  
You could actively choose to switch all these machines off for an amount of time, and see how that feels.
Doing sitting meditation enables you to become more aware of your body, your thoughts, your emotions.  Calming yoga is also great for this.  By focussing on your "postures" and your breathing, the mind is naturally quietened, thus enabling you to do a sitting meditation.
There are many benefits to meditation - it can help reduce your stress levels, it can improve your sleep, can help you feel happier and more contented, can help you feel more connected, it can increase your attention span, improve your immune system and more...
If you have never meditated, you could start by sitting comfortably, with your back upright and just notice 3 breaths - notice the rise and fall of your chest/the air flowing in and out through your nostrils - that is meditation.  If you start doing just this at regular intervals throughout the day, you will most likely, want to increase and do more.
I have some free and low-cost meditations available to download at :
http://www.massagedownloads.com/product/3-minute-breathing-space/
Let me know how you get on!

Don't be jealous of others - life is not a competition............

Life is not a competition.  It is a gradual unfolding and discovering of who you are - if you allow it to be.
Don't be jealous of others.  Don't envy them or their lifestyle or their seemingly perfect life.  
Life is not greener on the other side - it is a different shade of green.
You cant walk in someone elses shoes, only your own.
We are all incredible and important beings.  We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.  If you don't know that already, then what an adventure life could be if you choose to work on finding this out for yourself.
I am reading a book at the moment called "Spontaneous Evolution" by Bruce Lipton.  Part of it is a scientific viewpoint on the law of attraction.  He explains the quantum physics behind how material objects come about.  (His previous book "The Biology of Belief" is better for explaining this however, this is a sequel).
He talks about how humanity is on the brink of destroying itself.  We are poisoning our air, our water, manipulating our seeds, destroying the possibility of pollination etc etc
He describes the human body as a collection of cells.  Each cell is vitally important.  It has its own job to do.  Each cell in itself is like a mini human body - it needs food, water, it uses its energy to action what it needs to do, its excretes waste products.  However, each cell is important in its own right.  A liver cell can't try and be a heart cell, or a red blood cell.  There is not point in competing because it would destroy the body that it is creating.
How would it be if we viewed human beings like this?  We are all sharing one earth.  We are all made of energy, as is everything around us.  We are all vitally important.  We each have a job to do.  But we also need to communicate efficiently, take what we need, perform our activities, any surplus goes to the collective storage point for when it is needed for a certain function/area.
There is no room for competition.  We all need to become in our power.  A liver cell will always be a very poor heart cell, or red blood cell.  It is better to be a well-functioning, healthy liver cell than a poor and weak version of a heart cell.
 Find out who you are, recognise how amazing and important you are.  Allow others to do what they need to do.  Take what you need and no more, trusting that there will always be enough.
If you notice you are feeling envy of someone else, or others, use this as inspiration to create changes in your life.  What can you do today, to make your life more how you would like it to be?
Encourage others to empower themselves.  Don't berate them or criticise them to make you feel better.  It doesn't make you feel better, it belittles you and negates your power.
Support and encourage others, while also supporting and encouraging yourself.  
Humanity is only as strong as it's weakest link.

Do you experience anxiety? Some ideas for working with shifting anxiety.......

So I work up this morning feeling anxious.  Why?  No particular reason!  Nothing is different from yesterday, except today I have an anxious feeling in my stomach area and my mind is looking around for things for me to worry about.  I think the term is "free-floating anxiety."
Was there a conversation that I had yesterday that unsettled or upset me a bit but not enough that I was aware at the time?  Did I have a dream that led to me waking up feeling anxious?
Is it the change in season, the turning in of autumn.  Will I survive the long winter emotionally?
Now that I am feeling anxious, I notice that little things are troubling me today.  I am looking to misinterpret text messages and emails.  My confidence has dropped.  My motivation levels have dropped.  Wow!  What a difference a day makes.  
Yesterday, I was feeling energised, motivated, confident.  Like I knew what I was doing with my life!  Ha!  Not now!
Im sharing this, because I know I am not alone.  This is a common experience, especially amongst women.
So, what to do?  Shall I feed this anxiety, look around for things to worry about, watch the news and feel anxious about the state of the world?  Shall I have irritable conversations with people today?  Shall I lie on the sofa and watch trash tv so I don't have to deal with it?
There is a part of me that wants to do all of those things.
But fortunately today, there is a bigger part of me, that wants to change how I deal with my anxiety.  I am choosing to let go of my anxiety.
I recognise that all feelings/emotions are transient.  They will all pass.  One of my meditation practices is imagining that all my thoughts and feelings are passing across my mind on a conveyor belt.  Occasionally, I see one that I decide to believe.  Today, it was "I am anxious.  I am little.  I am unempowered.  I am vulnerable etc"
  So I have decided to put those ones back on the conveyor belt and pick up another thought/affirmation.  "I am safe."  And another - "I am confident" and another "I am empowered; I am motivated; I am alive and vibrating with energy; I am passionate; I am loved; I am supported by the universe."  Each time I pick another thought, I feel slightly stronger.  
Each time I add to my anxiety by feeding it with another anxious thought, I feel slightly weaker.
So affirmations work for me.  This does need a bit of time and attention.  But I can do it while I'm doing other jobs, walking to work, loading the dishwasher, preparing food etc
Other things that work for me - physical exercise, it quietens my mind.  Especially quiet repetitive exercise like swimming, walking, running.
I also find that doing a chakra clearing meditation (I have one recorded that will be for sale on my website very soon but I can email it to you beforehand if you would like - contact me for more details).
The last thing I would highly recommend, is to be loving with yourself.  Maybe run yourself a nice hot aromatherapy bath; or have an early night with a hot water bottle; or have a quiet night in, listening to some uplifting (not melancholic) music; or going to a yoga/meditation class; or to watch an uplifting (not depressing/thrilling/horror) film.
These techniques can be used for any other emotion that you might be working with - eg anger, sadness.
Hope this helps - would love to hear about any other techniques that you might use!  

Why are you rushing around all the time? What can you do about it? What are you waiting for?

Impatience, irritation and frustration are so common in our society.  We pack our lives with too many things, then rush around from one thing to the next.  We can get frustrated in traffic jams, always trying to get one over on other drivers, overtaking/undertaking, speeding away from the traffic lights.  Do you find yourself sitting at traffic lights frustrated at how long its taking?  Do you find yourself queuing at the supermarket checkout irritated about how slow the person in front  or the cashier are being?  Do you find yourself feeling hurried when getting up and going to work?  Are you stressed in the traffic going to work?

What are you waiting for?  What are your hurrying for?  Whats the rush?
When you get to work, you then spend a lot of the time clock watching for your lunch break, or time to go home. For what?
You're going to get home from the supermarket or from work to go home or somewhere else.  Whats the rush?  
We are always anticipating that the next moment in our lives will be better than the one we are in.  But the next moment is just another moment and our life is made up of these moments.  Our life can be found in all these moments, in the traffic jam, in the queue at the checkout, in the walking to work.
We rush home to what?  To spend time with our family?  To have our dinner?  To relax?  When you're with your family, are you 100% with them or are you thinking about what job you need to do next, cook dinner, sort out the washing.  
Or are you carrying stress or overthinking from the day you've had at work, or a difficult conversation you had with a friend?  do you really relax?  When you're cooking dinner are you rushing to cook dinner because theres something on tv?  Or you're going out with friends?  When you're out with friends are you 100% present?  Or are you thinking that you need to keep an eye on the time because you don't want to have a late night because you have to get up for work.
So many of us work to live and live to work.  What for?  We then look forward to our 2 week holiday, where we can relax and spend time with our family or friends.  Do we relax, are we present on our holiday?  Do we know how to be present?  Maybe we unwind for the first week, but then the 2nd week is often spent, wistfully counting down the days until the holiday ends and we're back to work.
Some of us love our work, but are still spending a lot of time clock-watching, hurrying to the next task.  
Not meaning to be depressing but this is how a lot of us spend a lot of our time: clock-watching, waiting for the next thing to happen, hurrying from one task to another, wishing away the time we spend queuing, commuting, travelling, wishing our lives away, looking forward to our next holiday.  Then when we have an activity we really want to be in, we are untrained in knowing how to enjoy the moment, so that moment passes all too soon, and we didn't even relish it and enjoy it to the full.

Observe the sitting in the traffic.  Let the car in the side road come in front of you.  Notice your frustration.  Drive at the speed limit.  How does that feel?  Frustrating?

Our life is happening in the moment.  Right now.  How do we become in the moment, the present moment, the here and now?  We stop.  Right now.  Breathe.  Notice our breath.  Notice the rise and fall of our chest.  Notice the sounds around you.  Notice the colours around you.  Notice your physical body.  Are you aware of your hands, your back, your feet, the muscles of your face.

I think most of us would agree, ultimately, we want to feel peace of mind, contentment, happiness.

The more we practise being in the present moment, the more peace we invite into our lives.  Our creative power is in the here and now.

Courses, workshops and meditation groups in Brighton with Elaine Gibbons.

www.elainegibbons.co.uk

Do you want to create change in your life - a How to guide.....

Change is all that is happening, every moment of every day.
I love this ancient chinese proverb "The only certain thing in life is change"
According to quantum physics, matter (human beings, computers, rocks, trees, water) is formed of atoms, which consists of subatomic particles constantly moving.  It has been recognised that we affect these particles with our attention and our intention.  We are surrounded by an energy field that responds to our thoughts/intention/attention/beliefs/  So we are literally creating our lives with our thoughts.  Atoms that are resonating at the same frequency attract each other.  Our thoughts have a magnetic field effect.
To start the process of creating change, you need to initially get really clear about what you want, where you want to be heading, what your vision is.  If you don't give the universal energy field a clear picture about what you wish to draw into your life, it will respond to your most dominant thoughts.
Thoughts are creative.  Every item or object was once just a thought or idea in someone's mind.
I personally have moments where I am completely going with the flow of what is happening in my life and other times where I have huge amounts of resistance and frustration.  
Then there is the issue with belief!  Surely I can't ask for something that seems so far from where I am right now?
When you are asking for something you want to create in your life, your negative beliefs about not receiving can be so strong )for whatever reason) that a huge amount of negativity can come up, which needs to be processed/released to effect change and movement in thoughts.
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now) talks about how the ego doesn't want change and we create resistance.  He says, when faced with a situation you don't want, you either take steps to change it, or you accept it, everything else is futile, a waste of energy and taking away your power from the present moment; the power that comes with knowing that thoughts are creative.
Your thoughts of today are creating your tomorrows.

Do you work with affirmations? A "How To" guide:

Working with affirmations:
Affirmations can be a really powerful tool to work with when you're looking to invite changes into your life.  

When you are sitting with your vision board/visualisation (that we have discussed in previous blogs) or you have written your dream down in a beautiful journal; or you have created a beautiful collage with magazine cuttings/pictures and you are starting to work with this visualisation a few minutes each day; maybe you have started sharing this vision with a friend or others and you are getting yourself some support with your dream manifestation.  
Working with affirmations can then really help support this work and move it on.

So, take yourself to this dream scenario/vision, and imagine that you are already living this life, what would you beliefs have to be if you were already living this dream life?  Sit with this for a few moments.  Start writing down these beliefs, in the present tense. 

For example:
I am loved
I am supported
I am wealthy
I am abundant
I am living in my dream house
I am living with my ideal partner,
I am surrounded with love and support
I am vibrating with perfect health
I am happy
I am vibrant
I am alive and enjoying life
I am in my dream job.  I am supported and acknowledged at work.

Start writing all these beliefs down.  Ideally start the affirmation with I am.  Use the present tense.  Maybe start putting them around your house.  

One of the ways of working with affirmations is when you say "I am wealthy" for example, then notice your negative thoughts and feelings that come up when you say it.  So if you say "I am vibrating with perfect health" - what thoughts then follow that - it might be
"oh but I'm not really"  "My back hurts"  " I have got arthritis" "I am in pain." 
Write these negative thoughts down, write them down and release them.  Ask your higher self to transmute this negativity, to help you release these beliefs that are no longer serving us.  Let go of these negative thoughts.  Because if you want to create this vibrant health, or these perfect finances, or this ideal job, we need to let go of our negative thought patterns and beliefs around it, because the universe doesn't give back to us what we think, it gives back to us what we believe.

So we can be saying/repeating "I am a wealthy person" but in our heads believing that we are not, that we are in fact poor.  

You could start by saying "I am choosing to allow wealth into my life"  This might feel more believable.  Go back to an affirmation that you can believe and that you can start to work with.  "I am intending to attract more money into my life."  "I am starting to believe that I can become more wealthy."
I am intending to be vibrantly healthy.  I am asking for guidance and diving inspiration for  ideas that help me in achieving perfect health.

Its really important to release the negative, don't ignore it, if it's there, we need to bring it to our awareness to be able to observe it and release it and to start choosing to believing more supportive thoughts.

I am choosing to believe that anything is possible.
I am intending to start to believe that there are other ways of attracting what I want into my life.

Buddha  " We are a result of all we have thought"

When you are working with these affirmations and your visualisation of your dream, don't sit around wondering how you are going to create this new life.  Don't get into your intellectual rational logical brain about how things are going to change.  
Just give this information about your new thoughts and beliefs to the universe and watch it return and reflect back to you, what you are thinking about and creating.  Hand it over.  This is what I want, I am changing my thought pattern, I am raising my energetic field to receive more of what I want into my life and then wait to see what the universe gives back to you. 

See what new people and situations come into your life.  The conversations you overhear or have with others.  The books you happen to start reading.  The tv programs you are drawn to watch.  Notice the divine symbols and inspired guidance that is coming your way.  Listen to your inner voice.  Act on any intuitive thoughts and feelings you have.  Follow any divinely inspired ideas that come to you.
Start looking out for divine signs and inspiration!  Enjoy the journey!

Transform your Life: Follow your Dreams

Courses, groups, workshops from September 2015

www.elainegibbons.co.uk

Working with Divine Inspiration. Dare to be different.

Look out for divine signs, inspired ideas and synchronicities - follow these to your dream life!

Following on from previous blogs, you've worked through the previous suggestions, you have got your vision board, you have done some visualisation of your dreams, maybe started working with a friend/support group.  You've got some clarity, handed it over to the universe, working with some affirmations.  The more you do this work, the more energy you give to this, the closer your dream becomes.

But your dream life is going to come to you through certain channels.  For example, it might be that if you are looking for a dream house, you can't just sit and visualise, you still need to act.  You need to contact the agents and tell them what you want.  Go and visit some places.  If you want a new amazing job, get as clear as you can about all the qualities and then start asking around, looking in the job adverts, applying, going for interviews etc

So when you are handing your vision over to the universe, and you're working with your affirmations, and your 30 day diet of breaking the habit of negative thinking, you're really starting to introduce positive thoughts into your life that will take you in the direction of your dreams; you do then need to start looking out for Divine Signs/Symbols.  

It might be conversations you overhear, books that are recommended, a conversation you have with a friend, something you read on a billboard, or the side of a lorry.  A lorry drove past me yesterday with the only words along the side "Follow your Dreams"!!!  What are the chance of that!

How are you feeling, what's your intuition, what are your hunches?  Follow your heart.  What is your heart saying to you, follow your feelings, follow your passion.  This is how we "hear" our inner voice, through our feelings.

Through meditation, we can quieten our mind, or through gentle and/or repetitive exercise - yoga/walking/swimming/running.  Sometimes a flash of inspiration can come to you.  Don't sit and try and think out how or what to do with your logical brain.  You need to sit quietly, quieten the mind and feel.

Sometimes you get a sudden bolt of an idea.  But more often, it's a quiet whisper.  Call a friend, or watch this program, or read this article, or go to this place.  Follow these whisperings.  The more you listen to and follow your intuition, the louder it becomes.  It is a practice and all new practices need discplined practise.  Dare to be different.  Follow your dreams.  Be brave.  Where is your passion.  Follow your heart.  What motivates you.  Don't follow the crowd.  Have confidence in your intuition.  Your soul calls to you through your dreams/your passions.  

Notice the signs and the symbols that are coming from the universe.

Expect change in your life.  If you are asking for change, expect things to start changing.  Change can feel really scary.  There's a leap into the unknown.  Have faith.  Sometimes things seem to be dropping away from you and you didn't expect that to happen.  Expect the unexpected.  Be courageous.  Some people leave your life, some people start to come into your life.  You might not be getting on well with people that you have known for years.  Maybe their energy no longer resonates with yours.  But you will also be attracting new people into your life, that resonate more closely to where you are now at.
Maybe you want a new job. Maybe you lose your job - which can feel very traumatic and worrying.  Trust the process.  You have to let go of certain things to create space for new things to come to you.
Ask the universe for what you want, then start to believe that you can have this, then you have to receive it.  ASK BELIEVE RECEIVE.  This means that you need to change and to expect changes.

Question yourself.  Challenge your current beliefs.  Is this particular belief still working for you?  Does it make sense that you are still clinging on to a particular belief?  Do you need to start choosing to believe different things, that life can be different?

Work with meditation and mindfulness.  Do you want to carry on choosing to believe the range of thoughts that travel across your mind?  Or can you observe and detach.  Then choose to believe more life-enhancing thoughts.

Transform your Life : Follow your Dreams

Courses, groups, meditations in Brighton from November 6th.

www.elainegibbons.co.uk