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Here’s a metaphor to illustrate our human quest. Have you ever stood under a waterfall? I did this in Hawaii. For the first couple minutes, it was exhilarating however, it quickly became too much. Life is often like that. The project or event we’re working on is initially compelling and then overwhelm sets in. Do not despair, here’s a remedy. The waterfall represents the daily cascading thoughts of our conscious mind. Without the balance of being able to step back, we get lost in the incessant chatter of our mind. We begin to suffer from stress, anxiety, depression, ADD, insomnia, headaches, high blood pressure... Then one day, a wise one enters our life and tells us there’s another way to live. They say it’s simple. Just move behind the waterfall. And guess what? When you step back, you discover, as I did, there’s serenity and charm. This is your Higher Self, the Silent Observer or Spirit. This quiet mind is the experience you culture during the practice of Effortless Meditation™. Your Higher Self is beyond or transcendental to all the activity of your mind. It is the silence beyond your thoughts. As we contact this stillness in our daily meditation practice, we begin to identify more and more with peace and love in our life. And how do we know this is happening? Here are signs: You used to feel anxiety and tension throughout your day, and now you feel love and bliss for no reason. You feel good just being you. You don’t have to try to feel that way. That is how our Spirit feels. Wouldn’t you like to cultivate this higher experience of life every day? We can have a spirit filled life. Well-being is our birthright. Meditation anyone? Please join me. Greg Schweitzer Director, Stress Reduction Resources 335 words

Let’s go deep. Just follow along, putting yourself in this conversation. Who are you at your core, i.e. who is the one inside who sees, hears, and loves? I’m Sally Jones, you say. I ask, who is Sally Jones? I’m the mother of Samantha Jones, you reply. Is that who you are? Did you exist before Samantha came into the world? Of course you did, so that must not be who you are at your core. This illustrates that at the most basic levels, our identity is muddled. There’s a relentless stream of thoughts and labels swirling around inside our easily distracted minds. In the busyness of our daily lives, it’s not surprising that we become bewildered. Has your life ever seemed like a drama, a movie? It’s as if there’s a cast of characters in our brain, playing with our emotions. You’re a banker, a mother, a daughter, and a runner. And each identity has a story to tell that plays out in our mind. Now, going back to the movie analogy, think of the roles that we play in our lives as the characters on the screen. If it’s a compelling movie, each character transports us into their story. In other words, we get enmeshed and often lose ourselves while watching. In the movie, we laugh, cry, become angry or anxious. The characters and story on the screen have, momentarily at least, taken over our lives. You may be thinking that you enjoy getting lost in a movie – it’s recreation. And I completely agree, however the key to a healthy life is balance. Getting swept up and losing ourselves in a two-hour movie is entertainment.  However, being lost and overwhelmed daily by the thoughts and emotions playing out in your mind has serious consequences. That’s why a stable foundation is vital. So where’s this going? A Foundation – the Solution Doesn’t everyone yearn for stability in their lives; we all feel better when we have  a sense of direction, meaning and purpose. No one enjoys being at the mercy of the dizzying array of daily stressors that hijack our conscious thinking mind. So, here’s a solution. To restore balance and control in dealing with the thoughts and emotions of our lives, we need a stable foundation. Without a foundation, for example, a beautiful home can collapse in a mighty storm. For you and me, a settled calm mind is arguably our best foundation. Because without it, we’re like a leaf blowing in the wind, or a ship without a rudder. But my mind is never quiet, never calm, you say. Well, I’m here to tell you that there is good news. Your mind can be stable, and is already stable at its core. What we all need to do is nurture and strengthen our mental core, our foundation. This will bring that inner calm that we all desire. Fortunately, doing this is simple because we have an important tool – meditation. The Silent Witness, Our Higher [...]

Over the past 40 years of teaching meditation, many clients expressed concerns about taking their prescribed medication. They want to take less, or at best, none at all. Can you relate? Fortunately there is good news. People find relief when they begin the practice of Effortless Meditation to access nature’s pharmacy. So where’s the problem? For some, their medications aren’t providing the relief they’d like. For others, it’s a slippery slope. One prescription medication leads to another and another. All too often people begin taking additional medication to deal with a side effect, such as anxiety or fatigue, of another drug they’re taking. To add insult to injury, pharmaceuticals do not come cheap. According to the AARP Public Policy Institute the average annual cost of a brand-name drug has more than tripled in the last 10 years, from $1,808 in 2006 to $6,798 in 2017. What does this mean to you? In the May 2019 AARP Bulletin, it states that older adults now take on average 4.5 medication each month. For the senior adult, this translates to an expense of over $30,000 a year for brand-name drugs. Even those who are fortunate to get all their medication in generic form, the fees are substantial. Is it any wonder that health insurance premiums have gone through the roof? Heal your brain - try Effortless Meditation My hope is that the above information is a motivator to take action. Don’t get me wrong, the use of modern pharmaceuticals can save lives, and ease pain and suffering. It behooves all of us to be informed healthcare consumers, and have relationships with doctors that we like and trust. A highly respected physician once told me that doctors know there’s more to medicine than drugs and surgery. They want to see their patients take self-care seriously although they find it’s often not easy to get this point across. Many of their patients are looking for a quick fix and magic pill. Who has the time for self-care? Today, however there is growing support to convince patients of the wisdom in caring for themselves. The science is in. There’s volumes of evidence that people who regularly meditate, eat well, and exercise are far healthier than those who don’t. For example, a five-year longitudinal study showed that a group of 2,000 individuals practicing Transcendental Meditation® (compare Effortless Meditation™) went to doctors and hospital 60% less than the control group that didn’t meditate. Here’s another illustration: A 71 year-old client took our Effortless Meditation course at a large university teaching hospital. Before enrolling in the course, his resting blood pressure was off the charts high, 190/90. After just three days of meditating twice a day, for 15 - 20 minutes at a sitting, Bernie was amazed by how good he felt. Three months later, his doctor couldn’t believe the change in his patient. Bernie’s blood pressure had dropped to 138/78! He took BP meds most of his adult life, and couldn’t remember ever having such low numbers. Over [...]

In Arianna Huffington’s book, Thrive, she tells about a turning point in her life. By many measures, she was extremely successful – fame, money, and extraordinary achievement. Then one day, she woke up in a pool of her blood after taking a fall precipitated by overwhelm and exhaustion. In that dazed moment, she wondered, is this success? The answer changed her life. I too had such a moment, a wake-up call; mine was at the age of 26. One dark evening, I totaled my sports car driving recklessly, way too fast, to a party. My precious car spun off the road and rolled into a field. I’d been driving like a lunatic for months. Racing around curves on winding country roads, and for what? An adrenaline high? Two weeks later, I was sitting in my bedroom meditating after a long work day. In the middle of meditation, my life flashed before my eyes. I saw the foolishness of my behavior on the evening of my accident. It was a revelation. I wanted to live, not throw my life away challenging myself to go faster. How did this fuzzy thinking happen? The search for happiness and meaning:an inside job As a teenager and young adult, I was led to believe that a college degree brought happiness. It was a ticket to success. I had gotten the degree three years earlier and had what many thought was a good job. Yet, I certainly didn’t feel successful or happy. Was something wrong? In those days, it was customary for me to come home from work tired and tense. Then make some dinner and quietly ask myself, is this all there is? I was frustrated, bored, and weary. Life was difficult. However, there was a glimmer of light on the horizon. A few months earlier, I took a meditation course and began a daily practice. I now looked forward to coming home from work to meditate. Each 15 – 20 minutes of sitting quietly in meditation brought relief from the tension of the day and recharged my batteries for the activity ahead. After meditation, I was at peace and happier. There were lots of changes. At some point in our development, like Arianna Huffington, many of us question life’s teachings and values. For example, during this period of introspection, my earliest mentor, my dear father tried to set me straight. He said, “you’ve got to get it out of your head that you’ll find work that you enjoy doing. People do not enjoy working.” Sadly, I had to tell him that I didn’t believe that. Some big changes were afoot. Approximately six months after my car accident, someone at the local meditation center asked me a provocative question. Had I ever considered becoming a meditation teacher? What? I was stunned that someone would suggest that I could teach others something as important as meditation. I knew how to be an engineer, but a teacher? Could I do that? After months of ruminating on this [...]

A physician was recently asked, what’s the #1 behavior contributing to people’s ill health? Not surprisingly she said it was the way in which people deal with the stress in their lives – workplace, family, finances, and health, to name a few. It does seem that everything is vying for our limited attention. Open your email, and … you get the picture. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Add to the mix, work projects and deadlines, relationship concerns, world news, and social media posts. We are wired up and melting down. How do we stay sane and calm? How can we thrive when it’s so easy to get lost in the pressures of our daily lives? Even many common coping mechanisms - caffeine to power us through the day, and the use of alcohol and recreational chemicals to wind down in the evening - add to the problem. Stay with me, there is hope. Turn to your Higher Self First, let’s get a little abstract for just a moment. Who is it that's lost in the pressure? Best-selling author, Dr. Wayne Dyer gave us an insightful story. A woman phoned him one afternoon and within a few minutes, she was irrational and losing it. Fortunately, before becoming a celebrity, Wayne was a counseling psychologist. Skillfully he jumped in and interrupted the caller’s tirade. He told her he wanted to speak to the person who had it together to look up his phone number and dial the phone. You see, he knew that there was more than one self “in there.” The emotional, hysterical self was not the one that he wanted to converse with. Like it or not, we all have an unhinged voice(s) in our head, while simultaneously a centered higher self or silent witness exists inside. This is our true self, the one that notices the chaos without getting overwhelmed by it. Which self is dominate in your life? If your life is out of control far too often, your small or lower self is running the show. It’s time to bring your wise, true self to the forefront. The question is, how’s that done? An analogy helps. Image being on a ship at sea when a storm comes up unexpectedly. Everyone onboard is scared, this could be the end. However, if there was scuba gear on the ship and you knew how to use it, you could put it on and dive deep into the water where you’d experience calm and delight. Our mind is like this. Fears, insecurities, and stress are on the surface and deep within at the source of thought is the peace of your Higher Self. A worthy goal is to bring balance to your life by cultivating the stability that already exists deep within. The crazed woman on the phone with Wayne was thrashing about on the turbulent surface of her mind. Fortunately, she was talking with someone who knew how to change the situation by helping her reach inside [...]

The American Heart Association says that 1 in 4 deaths in this country are due to cardiovascular disease. It’s the leading cause of death for both women and men. The good news is there’s much that we can do about heart disease other than be dependent upon medication and surgery. Just regularly take steps to implement the following proven lifestyle strategies in order to live a longer, healthier, and happier life: 1. Get adequate rest and sleep 2. Eat nutrient rich food 3. Exercise, move your body Chronic Stress and an antidote: Deep rest In this short blog, we’ll focus on #1 on the above list. It’s arguably the foundation to our heart health and well-being. Rest heals, and it requires little mental or physical effort. Just close your eyes. It doesn’t get easier! You don’t have to try to change or do anything. If you’re thinking that you don’t have the time to rest, there’s something that you do not understand. We require rest to sustain the energy needed to live. Without rest, we aren’t focused, alert, or wise. Fatigue begets dullness which begs the question, Why are we so tired? All signs point to the stress in our busy lives. Last week, a client said everyone knows that stress is bad. He was talking about chronic stress, and reflecting on his experience as a physician. When we’re stressed, our heart rate rises, muscles tense, digestion slows, and our immune system activity is suppressed. During the stress response, the body gears up to survive threats whether they are real or imagined. Now, stress is not all bad. The stress response could save your life if you were being chased by a tiger. Our bodies are designed to be able to handle such isolated or intermittent stress. The problem we face today, however, is that stress is chronic – it’s in our face to some degree every hour, most days. To confirm this, watch the news, drive to work, open your email, or have a family meeting. Take notice if you heart isn’t beating more rapidly during some of these events. That’s the influence of stress. Yes, it’s good to pay attention to these influences because the negative impacts of stress accumulate over the months and years. It’s best to take corrective action proactively. A critical step is to get an adequate amount of restful sleep daily. It is a key to a healthy heart and a happy live. Most adults need 7 to 8 hours. Yet sleep association and government statistics tell us that 1 out of 3 Americans aren’t getting enough sleep. If you are in that group, consider getting to bed earlier and learning to meditate. Meditation: What’s the big deal? Meditation is one of the best things we can do to improve our response to the stress in our life. In other words, we handle stressful situations more effectively when we meditate regularly. So, how do we get started? There are many ways to meditate, and [...]