Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: How Close Is God In Prayer?

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: How Close Is God In Prayer?: From Denny: This quote is really about All That Is larger than ourselves. Just when we think one power is so huge we discover there is a much larger Power living right inside us, ready for the asking.

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: How Does Solitude Clear Our Perception?

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: How Does Solitude Clear Our Perception?: From Denny: Meditation and deep prayer is all about first quieting the monkeys of the mind - those daily "To Do" lists that crowd out deeper consideration of the thornier issues in life. We all know how imperative it is to go to a relaxing place in Nature to quiet our emotions from stress.

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• Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: What Is Your Daily Meditation Focus, How Do You Know You Succeeded In The World? (poemsfromaspiritualheart.blogspot.com)
• Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: What Is Your Daily Meditation Focus, How Do You Know You Succeeded In The World? (dennysguestbloggers.blogspot.com)
• Visual Insights: Dennys Photo Gallery: Awesome Quiet Landscapes by Adrians Art (dennysquotes.blogspot.com)

Dennys Guest Bloggers: Travels to India: Experience of The Walking Meditation

Dennys Guest Bloggers: Travels to India: Experience of The Walking Meditation: From Denny: Check out this post of a woman's travel back to her ancestors' homeland in India. She and her husband decided to practice the meditation known as Vipassana. The concept is that by focusing upon every action in the moment you end up clearing your mind of clutter and worries.

It also can be quite tiring as you learn to focus that deeply for long periods of time. Trust me; you do get better at it. It's like exercising a muscle; the more you exercise the stronger you get.

This writer, Chaya Parmessur, recounts her new experience with good humor as she travels on her spiritual path.

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: What Is Your Daily Meditation Focus, How Do You Know You Succeeded In The World?

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: What Is Your Daily Meditation Focus, How Do You Know You Succeeded In The World?: From Denny:  You awaken in the early morning.  What is your first thought?  Is it to get the coffee going so you can turn your brain on, chasing away the sleep cobwebs?  Is your first thought to start that To Do List in your head even before the sun rises?


Too often we fill our lives with "musts" and an endless stream of physical tasks all nagging for our attention.  Jumping to those demands can easily get us out of balance, stressed out and excessively tired.


Have you ever considered changing what you think about when you first open your eyes in the morning?  Know that you will get around to attending to your daily routine.  Things have to get done and they will - but are you giving yourself the gift of cherishing that first thought in your day?

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: What Value Do We Place On Alone Time?

Image via Wikipedia

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: What Value Do We Place On Alone Time?

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: A Delightful Way Of Seeing Our Lives

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: A Delightful Way Of Seeing Our Lives

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: 7 Thoughtful Quotes About The Future

Image by symplicity00 via Flickr

Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: 7 Thoughtful Quotes About The Future: "7 Thoughtful Quotes About The Future"

The Soul Calendar: Music: Training Your Brain to Concentrate Better

The Soul Calendar: Music: Training Your Brain to Concentrate Better: "You want to hit that meditative level where you get into the zone of clearing clutter from your mind and can easily do that problem-solving at a faster rate."

How Do You Cultivate Inner Happiness?

This is what I've featured today over at Beautiful Illustrated Quotations, my Quotes blog:

From Denny: What I so enjoy about quotes are two things: they are short, and therefore, easy meditations and also they often speak a facet of the truth in an amazing way! This is the first quote I've run across that discusses more than cultivating personal harmony or doing outward actions to help cultivate happiness. When you read between the lines what this author is talking about is acquiring a particular attitude toward self BEFORE you begin cultivating happiness - pretty cool take on it!

Quote

“Happiness is really a deep harmonious inner satisfaction and approval.” — Francis Wilshire

Photo by h.koppdelaney @ flickr

happiness meditation harmony mental health arts literature health self-help love Francis Wilshire quotes quotations

Brain: Meditation: Grow the Brain, Grow Your IQ

From Denny: Looks like science is beginning to catch up with what the truly spiritual people already know! Meditation makes us more intelligent! And now science has figured out the obvious.

Who did the study?

The study was published in the journal NeuroImage by the researchers from The University of California at Los Angeles.

Regular meditation has been found to enlarge the size of the brain. For those who have been meditating for a very long period of time brain scans revealed they had significantly larger amounts of the little grey cells.

Which area of the brain was larger?

Researchers using an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanned the brain's hippocampus because it is the area of the brain that is associated with our memory and learning ability. They found the area to be much larger in those who practiced regular meditation.

What was found in those who did not practice meditation?

Turns out the areas of their brains linked to emotion were much larger. The study inferred that with a larger emotionally area it is more difficult for a person to control their emotions.

What are the benefits of meditation to our brains?

It helps tremendously to maintain emotional control. Those who meditate are better focused and can control their emotions far better than those who do not meditate. Another benefit is reduced levels of stress which help boost the immune system. Some of this has been known from previous studies.

What has not been known until now about the link between the brain structure and meditation?

They studied 44 people, only half had practiced meditation for 5 - 46 years. They tended to meditate for between 10 - 90 minutes each day. Deep concentration was said to be part of their meditation routine.

The MRI scans verified "significantly larger cerebral measurements in meditators." It is these changes in the brain structure that might explain why meditators "have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions," according to Eileen Luders, lead researcher, "The differences in brain anatomy might give us a clue as to why meditators have these exceptional abilities." The brain has been proven to change its structure over time as revealed in previous studies.

Summary

Researchers found in meditators increased brain size in the area of the right hippocampus and in the right frontal cortex, enlarging the brains' measurements.

For now researchers are speculating about this area of the brain so closely linked to our emotions. Eileen Luders wonders, "These might be the neuronal underpinnings that give meditators' brains the outstanding ability to regulate their emotions and allow for well-adjusted responses to whatever life throws their way."

Written by Denny Lyon