Your spirituality is as individual as you are. Just as you wouldn't choose one of six faces or dresses to wear for the rest of your life, spirituality is about doing what inspires you. If you're new to exploring this dimension of yourself, start by trying some simple relaxation techniques, listed below.
Open Your Focus
Has anyone ever told you to "soften your eyes"? It's strange, but Les Fehmi, PhD, a brain scientist and author of The Open-Focus Brain, reports that when we "sharp focus" our eyes are our response to stress increases; when your eyes are in "soft" or "open" focus, you relax.
Try it. Read this paragraph, and then look up at whatever's in front of you. Without moving your eyes, allow your attention to broaden, taking in everything you see. Slowly expand your focus to include everything you can hear, smell, feel, and taste. As your focus opens, you'll stop thinking in words, become more present, and see more beauty around you.
Mindfulness
The point of meditation is to become mindful; most mental activity, distracts you from knowing what's actually going on in and around you. We're often lost in thought or worry, absorbed in the past or future. Meditation brings you right back to where you actually ARE by training your brain. Try this beginner's exercise found on oprah.com (remember to close your eyes after reading the instructions ):
1. Sit in an upright but comfortable way. Scan your body to check that you're relaxed-your eyes, jaw, shoulders, belly, hands, legs. Sit and know that you are sitting. Become aware of your breath moving in and out. Think "out" when you feel the fall of the exhalation, "in" when you feel the rise or pressure or stretching or tingling of the inhalation (what are the sensations?). When your mind wanders-there's no question it will-acknowledge that you've lost contact with your breath, and watch the next inhalation roll in.
2. The most important thing to realize is that every moment you notice you've wandered off is a moment of being aware, of clarity. That's what you're going for. What does it feel like? Within nanoseconds, you'll be thinking again, and becoming aware that you're thinking, and starting again. The more you do it, the more you'll have the experience of that pause when the mind is actually clear and present-that taste of freshness.
3. You can do this anytime, for any amount of time. Try it for a minute, try it for 10. Pay close attention to a single in-breath, a single out-breath. Every experience of awareness makes the next more likely. The enrichment to your life has to be experienced to be believed.
Cultivate Gratitude
When you have a few minutes, try and think of three things you are grateful for in that present moment. Start out small-say, "I'm breathing!" Appreciative people tend to be happier, more content and more humble.
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