Tag Archives: meditation

Driving Peace of Mind to Create the Life You Deserve

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1167118_still_lifePeace of mind affords you the ability to progress anything you desire with inner contentment and harmony.
When you have peace of mind, you are co-operating with your own internal energy source. This then allows you to express yourself in a unique way, an individual way that reflects your own personality.

Various research organizations around the world have discovered that lack of “Peace of the Mind” over a prolonged period could lead to illnesses such as mental disorders, stress, panic attacks, depression, anxiety, restlessness, sleeplessness and overeating.

In some cases, the prescription has been some “long doses of practical therapy on acquiring peace of mind” without any need for medication. In other cases, depending on the level and intensity of the illness, medication is administered in combination with therapy treatments.

When you are true to yourself, you are producing and emitting a very powerful energy that attracts like bees, because this intelligence within you will glow as “original”, it’s hot and it’s brilliant.

OK, let me just illustrate this with some examples:

We know that all over the world, people generally admire original work, for example, an original painting will be admired closely by those who are interested and highly motivated in this area of work.

The World Famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci, painted between 1503-1506 is still fascinating to this day, due to the unique and subtle modelling of forms and qualities, which gives it that “original” personal creativity that people love.

And people still admire this creative work with curiosity as to what was going on in the Creators mind when he was painting this masterpiece. It’s not surprising that this admiration for Mona Lisa still goes on, many years after Leonardo’s death in the year 1519.

Another example is the case of entertainment shows like Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent, which has captured the world all over. These ideas were pure creative thoughts starting from the “Mind at Peace with Itself” of the Creators.

The same would apply to original Music, Creative speeches such as President Obama’s famous Speech in 2004 in Boston, Massachusetts, well before he was elected or any other work that is purely original.

So, the interest generated by those who take time and make the best efforts to create from within is usually Captivating and Magnetic.

For example, if you go back, right back to the principal of anything in life, being creative and true to yourself is fascinating and enjoyable, because you could do it all day without noticing time go by and without strain or anxiety.

Having Peace of Mind to be Creative also captivates other people around you with a sense of encouragement or a feeling of higher aspirations for themselves, knowing that they too can create “peace of mind” and happiness by “enquiring carefully from within”, and then taking the necessary steps to get there.

Peace of Mind takes you to a different level of thought power and sets your mind to discover your own unique personality from within.

So you connect with your inner self in your own special way because this makes it natural to you, even as you go through challenges.

You’ll then appreciate that going through challenges is part of life and as long as you live, you’ll have challenges, so why not co-operate with your inner mind in harmony with yourself, seeking the peace of mind that afford you to fully understand yourself and what you want in life on a deeper level.

You see, some people just drift through life, and then wonder why things just don’t improve in their lives.

All that can change by carefully and gradually getting in tune with your life’s true desires, slowly but steadily.

The exercise of creating “Peace of Mind” should be practiced diligently until “Peace of Mind” is felt from within. Then the habit of maintaining peace of mind should be continued on a daily basis.

In doing this, there must be no mental hurry, strain, or anxiety to the body because when you have peace on your mind in harmony with your inner self, you are connecting with your true inner mind’s desires, understanding that “Peace of Mind” can skyrocket your creative abilities in a magnificent way.

Now, you may ask, how can this process be started when there seems to be so much for people to juggle with in modern day living?

OK, the first thing here is learning how to Relax, so that you can start on a platform of absolute relaxation because this is where you’ll begin to discover your own peace of mind.

Examples of how to start include:.

Breathing and Medication Exercises

You can start with simple breathing exercises and meditation. Look for a quiet location and make yourself comfortable, now take a few deep breaths then exhale with a feeling of ripples of relaxation going through you.

Make this a very personal experience and gradually peace of mind would begin to transpire as part of your personal life. Feel your body accepting this peace of mind and totality basking in your ideal peaceful desires. Make time to do this at least 15 minutes daily, believing that you already have it.

Images of Your Ideal Peaceful Scene

Create mental images of your Ideal desires surrounded with Peace and Love around you. Ask yourself questions like – what would give me a feeling of absolute peace right now? Make this picture as realistic as possible for you, and keep this picture steady in your Mind daily, with absolute belief.

Simple Positive Self Talk

Aim to communicate positively with yourself and others around you on a daily basis and repeat statements like the following at least 20 times a day, once again, believing that this is you, creating absolute peace in your Life.

Ok, let’s say this together:

“I have absolute Peace of Mind in my life and this Peace of Mind affords me a fuller expression of things that I do, in harmony with my true creative energy”

Or you could say:

“Peace of Mind is always present and improving in my life on a daily basis”.

Understand that for some people, it may take some time for these statements to sink in, but do not concerned yourself of this because just as you eat food, this is “Peaceful” food for your mind.

At the same time, don’t seek anxiously to measure how this “Peace” is working within you.

Why?

Because it’s working on a subconscious level and in time it will begin to transpire in your daily life just as you proclaim and believe it.

Other sources of peace of mind would include your favourite music, walking in natural surroundings, your hobby, helping others understand and express peace in their lives, and living with a mental attitude that cultivates peace of mind.

And what would all this do for you?

It will eventually afford you the absolute pleasure of discovering your very own unique “Joy of living” that comes from deep within you. It builds harmony with your conscious and subconscious mind, allowing you over a period of time to eventually become Master of your own environment and circumstances around you, wherever you may be.

Get the FREE “Winning Your Life Purpose” Range of Resources at the address below and start creating your desires today. Joy Obihara is a Personal Development Practitioner helping people discover their unique Untapped Potential to create Lifestyle Freedom they desire. => http://www.joyobihara.com

The Fine Art of Effective Communication

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1168744_orchid_series_5On many of my workshops, I quote a piece of well known research into the effectiveness and impact of communication. The effect on those with whom we communicate is dictated by body language, tone of voice and our words. Body language accounts for an enormous 56% of the overall effect, tone of voice accounts for another 36% and the actual words we use only account for 8%.

I also discuss acclaimed communicators, like Jack Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Barak Obama and, unfortunately, Adolf Hitler. The effect they have or had on their audiences has been enormous, in some cases mesmeric and historically defining. These guys didn’t communicate by email or Twitter – sure Obama uses modern technology to deliver information – but the delivery of information and real and effective communication are two completely different things.

When I work with senior business people, often CEOs, they are concerned to ensure that they get their communication right – communication of key information, corporate vision, the next major sales campaign. As a result, what do we have in large organisations? Email, multiple emails (to cover the email writer’s ass!), Blackberries, intranets, forums – a long list of technology-aided dissemination of information. In the process, communication never actually takes place effectively, if at all.

When I work with personal clients, I often touch on personal communications problems – husbands and wives who no longer communicate – sports coaches who haven’t the first idea on how to effectively develop their charges’ talents , because very often sports people are highly visual and the coach doesn’t appreciate the fact.

Regardless of which aspect of modern life you look at, we’re all fooling ourselves into believing that we’re more effective communicators than ever. People text each other rather than talk. Twitter users are obsessed with getting more followers – quantity matters, quality does not. Same with LinkedIn – when I send a personal message to a contact, I invariably get a reply which, at first sight, seems personal but, in fact, is automatic and generic. Send someone your information and you automatically get their sales pitch back – everyone’s emailing, no one’s communicating. Friends “chat” on Facebook – but don’t actually chat anymore. I admit to being a Twitter user – and saw a wonderful “tweet” a couple of weeks back. The writer suggested that Twitter and Facebook should merge and be called TwitFace because so many idiots waste so much time and energy “communicating”, while no one’s really listening.

But – and here’s a big but – if you want to be successful and happy, professionally and personally, you can’t get by without being an impressive, real, communicator. To be an effective and impressive communicator, you need to both be present and have presence. First of all, at the very least, stop texting and emailing and pick up the ‘phone! Best of all, create time to actually, physically, be with those whom you wish to impress – that’s about the only way that they’ll be able to appreciate your body language. If you do that, of course, you open up a whole new can of worms. People start worrying about their body language – “experts” teach them how to use effective body language, which invariably comes across as false! If you have presence, however, body language looks after itself. What do I mean by that?

Truly great communicators have presence and, as a result, they are impressive. Presence simply means that they are more present in the moment than the average normal person. Research proves that normal people are never really present, only paying perhaps as little as 1% attention to the present moment. If you want to have presence, all you need to do is be more present – to do that, all you need to do is be more attentive to the here and now. That means that you give yourself space and time to notice and appreciate the present moment. If you develop presence, by your very presence you will become impressive – an inspirational communicator – one whose attentiveness to the moment and to those with whom you are present will simply enable your body language and tone of voice to be effortlessly effective.

We develop presence through calming our mind and re-developing our innate ability to pay attention to the here and now. This can be done through something as structured and formal as daily meditation (highly recommended by the way!) or by simply creating space and time for, for example, going for a stroll to appreciate what you see, feel, hear, smell and taste. If you deliberately set time aside to regularly practice your attentiveness, then you will have the necessary presence when the critical moment demands it. Then, you will be an exponent of the fine art of real and effective communication.

Copyright © 2009 Willie Horton; Willie’s work in the area of self-improvement and meditation has been described as “life-changing” and “phenomenal” by clients from every walk of life. His acclaimed two-day personal development workshop is now available online at Gurdy.Net

Meditation and Sunny Summer Days

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1157759_red_and_green_grapesCast your mind back to when you were a child – maybe eight or nine years old. Remember those long, sunny, summer holiday days that seemed to go on forever? Remember how you had no idea of time – what time it was, the way time was passing – it was like everything was effortlessly enjoyed in a timeless daze. And, remember, even though you might have had lots of those long, timeless, sunny, summer holiday days, the school holidays seemed to be over almost as soon as they’d started – time flew when you were having fun. When we were children, we lived in timeless state of mind. We were open-minded, fully involved in what we were doing – building sand castles, playing football, chasing, whatever – we soaked up new knowledge and new experiences like sponges.

What has this got to do with your present adult life? What, if anything, has it got to do with meditation – after all, I’ve mentioned meditation in the article title?

It has everything to do with your adult life and your ability to be effortlessly happy and successful. You see, the difference between us now, as adults, and how we were as children is that, as children, we fully experienced each moment – as adults research suggests that we only 1% experience the here and now. As children we experienced each new moment using our five senses. Many of us who have the pleasure of being parents remember how our children, at two- or three-years old, fully experienced a new toy or present. The gift was investigated using all five senses – it was looked at from every angle, felt, torn, pulled, smelled, licked, shaken and stuck in places that the manufacturer had probably never envisaged!

In the same way, though not as obvious, we experienced our long sunny summer holiday days in a five sensory way – we were involved, engrossed, immersed in the pleasure of the moment. To put it more blandly, we were fully paying attention. Again, research suggests that, as adults, not only do we only pay 1% attention to the here and now, we cannot, in fact, pay attention at all – even to things to which we’ve decided to pay attention. More importantly, recent neuro-psychological research suggests that our ability to achieve success and happiness is directly correlated with our ability to pay attention.


In other words, we need to become, once again, like little children to achieve effortless happiness and success. We need to be childlike in our ability to fully experience the present moment – because it is only in the present moment that everything is happening. Quantum physics tells us that the universe is vibrating in and out of existence in the present moment. Similarly, it tells us that we are all one – in constant non-local communication – in the present moment. What does that mean? It means that, only in the present moment, all possibilities, all opportunities, all happiness and success is happening, before our very eyes – all we have to do is open them.

And that’s where meditation comes in. Undoubtedly, some have experienced an altered state of mind through meditation. But, I’m a very practical person – I need to put bread on my family’s table each week, and to do that I need to do practical work with my clients, mainly business people. So I look at meditation in a very here and now practical way. Meditation teaches me – and my clients – how to pay attention all over again. It teaches us how to become like a little child – noticing, perhaps even marvelling, the sound of our breathing, birdsong, an itch, a twitch. In other words, meditation re-trains us in the art of simply paying attention to the present moment – without analysing, second guessing or prejudging what’s going on, the way normal adults do.

In that way, we enter into unity with a responsive universe – one that quantum physics proves responds to our input of energy. From a mathematical perspective, the equation is simple – if I put more of my energy (more than a normal 1%) into the moment, universal energy responds – in the moment. From a psychological perspective, I activate parts of my brain that are never otherwise activated in normal adults, unless they are experiencing a “peak performance moment”. From a personal perspective, I achieve mental clarity and presence – and presence is a gift that makes my life effortlessly successful – in everyday practical ways.

My clients often ask me am I enlightened! I’m not even sure if I understand the question, never mind the answer. But I do know the answer to their question “Is there any measure of how present you are in the here and now?” The answer is simple – your mind experiences time-less-ness, where time both flies and is suspended – it’s like “Remember those long, sunny, summer holiday days that seemed to go on forever?”

Copyright © 2009 Willie Horton Willie’s work in the area of self-improvement and meditation has been described as “life-changing” and “phenomenal” by clients from every walk of life. His acclaimed two-day personal development workshop is now available online at Gurdy.Net


A Clear and Present Mind – Meditation and Flow

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Copyright © 2009 Willie Horton

1155076_arizona_cactus_3Most people lead normal lives. Those lives are, generally speaking, repetitive – where anything spectacular rarely happens. Of course, the normal life is punctuated by the spectacular – falling in love, marriage, the birth of a child, the odd special holiday. But, generally speaking, normal lives plod along.

Research tells us that at least 96% of us are normal and that normal people are rarely really engaged in or attentive to what they are doing in the here and now – research estimates that the normal person is only 1% engaged. In other words, the normal person is only 1% present in the only place and time we have – the here and now. If you consider the findings of quantum physics, that the universe works on the basis of energy exchange – that is universal energy responds to our input of energy – it is little wonder that the spectacular is a rare occurrence in the normal life. After all, universal energy will hardly notice if one only invests 1% energy in the present moment.

The same research indicates that normal people rarely experience “peak performance” – that’s the spectacular that I was talking about a moment ago. However, we also know that we can experience peak performance or peak experience if we become more engaged or more attentive in the present moment. You see, a peak experience is peak because it is so out-of-the-ordinary that it grabs more than 1% of our attention – an abnormal amount of our attention. When our attention is that engaged, parts of our brain that are otherwise inactive become highly activated. It also works the other way around. If we deliberately pay more attention to the present moment, if we deliberately become more engaged in the here and now, those same parts of our brain become highly activated and, as a result of our own choice, we experience a peak moment. Or, to put it in terms of the University of Chicago, we experience “flow”.

When we are in flow, universal energy flows with us. Because we are abnormally present to the moment, universal energy notices and gives us an abnormal return on our investment. Life flows – we seem to be the right person in the right place at the right time. Things we need to happen simply fall into place. We stumble across opportunities that take us in the right direction. Carl Jung would have called that synchronicity. A quantum physicist would explain it in terms of universal energy’s ability to respond to our intentions.

Many of us have experienced that type of “flow” – at some point in many lives it comes naturally. But, the more burdened we become by the cares of everyday life, the less likely we are to experience flow. That’s when many of my clients meet me for the first time. They either find themselves at a crossroads in their professional or personal lives and hanker after that “flow” that they may have once experienced or that they inherently know is “out there”.


In fact, flow is “in there” – it is within. Flow is found by calming one’s mind. Research tells us that the normal mind has 50,000 random thoughts – most of them useless – each day. That noise in our heads distracts us, takes us away from the moment, disables our desire to be more present and focused, more effective and “turned on” in the here and now. As a result, flow doesn’t flow! We get stuck in the rut that is repetitive normal living – where flow is no longer experienced, where life becomes mundane and routine.

To re-experience flow, you have to take an inner journey, one which involves switching off that useless distractive noise. It’s as simple and as challenging as that! Because our thoughts will always be with us, we have to learn how to let them pass, we have to learn how not to give them our energy. In doing so, we begin to learn how to invest an abnormal amount of our energy in the present moment. In doing so, we activate those otherwise dormant areas of our brain and, once again, experience flow.

How does one turn off that incessant inner chatter? I give my clients a variety of “mental tools” – but the one that’s most effective is meditation. Meditation is like a multi-purpose power tool – it gives you the ability to ignore the mental noise completely and not only enter into flow whilst meditating – but enables that clear and present state of mind become your default state of mind as you go through your normal day. In that way, your normal day becomes abnormal, your ordinary life becomes extra-ordinary.

Many people meditate – and, for many, it makes precious little difference in their lives. But meditation, practiced with the purpose of disciplining the mind to pay attention to the here and now, will bring you into flow, will change your life – beyond recognition.

But, be under no illusion. Meditation is a lifelong journey requiring discipline and daily commitment. However, for the investment of a few minutes in each twenty four hours, the returns are more than well worth it.

Willie’s work in the area of self-improvement and meditation has been described as “life-changing” and “phenomenal” by clients from every walk of life. His acclaimed two-day personal development workshop is now available online at Gurdy.Net

Photo: Gayle Lindgren


Practical Meditation for a Better Life

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1185030_sake_cupAll my clients meditate – some more than others – but all of them, at least some of the time. What kind of people are they – these meditators? Mainly business people – a lot of CEOs, Directors, General Managers – but a lot of ordinary, everyday people too – people just like you and I. Some of them meditated long before they ever met me – but most of them admit that, whilst they felt good whilst meditating, it didn’t make a massive difference to the cut and thrust of their everyday lives. So – two questions: What’s the point of meditating if it makes no difference to your everyday life? And, if it makes no difference, why do my clients meditate?

Answering the first question’s easy. There’s little point in meditating if it makes no difference to your everyday life. Now, I’m sure that it does make some difference for even those who thought it made none – so there’s always a benefit in doing anything that’s better than living an automatic mindless life like so many people do (that’s not me being judgemental – that’s scientific fact – read the psychological proof!). But meditation, if properly applied, should make an astounding difference to every aspect of your life – every day, if not every moment of every day.

Meditation is the most effective way to achieve everyday effortless happiness and success. Meditation provides you with a means of taking control of your own mental capacity, of your own ability to give your undivided attention to the task in hand, whatever the task in hand might be. Meditation provides you with the means of channelling your energy – physical, mental, spiritual, it’s all just energy – into the present moment where, quantum physics proves, the energy of the universe will respond to that input.

Over the next few paragraphs, I describe how meditation helps you achieve all this.


Meditation is a mirror image of the normal routine of the average everyday. The meditator is plagued by distraction, frustration and useless thought. The body tries to trip you up – whether it’s an itchy nose, back pain, one of your legs going to sleep. These “obstacles” mirror the frustration we all feel when success appears to be elusive, the annoyance of negative people who are itching to get you embroiled in their dramas, the distractions of useless “what-if” worries and the debilitation of self-doubt. When you meditate, you learn not to let the thoughts distract you, you learn how not to react to your leg going to sleep, you learn how to not scratch that itchy nose. In other words, you learn how to simply let such distractions, frustrations and annoyances pass – as such frustrations, distractions and annoyances pass in our ordinary everyday life. If you learn how to stay focused whilst meditating so that you don’t scratch that itch, you will become untroubled by distractions, annoyances and frustrations that can otherwise plague us during our ordinary everyday life.

The discipline of meditation teaches us to observe the present moment. We experience the reality of the here and now. As a result, we stop looking for something else, for more. The constant struggle of the muddled, dissatisfied normal mind stops – we learn to stop searching because the present moment is complete. We begin to realise that life’s struggles are only in the mind – fear, worry, doubt, lack of self-esteem are simply no more than useless thoughts – but thoughts that, nevertheless wreck people’s lives and people’s happiness. Learn how to stop struggling through the discipline of meditation and the struggle of everyday life will simply stop. Effortlessly.

Meditation is often misunderstood. It may well lead you to an altered state of mind – indeed, that may be the ultimate objective. But, today, the discipline of meditation will enable you truly live today to the very, very best of your ability – free from all the normal inner voices that tell us we can’t do our very, very best.

An investment of five, ten or fifteen minutes each day will mean that the rest of the twenty four hours will be a completely different experience to anything the normal mind could imagine. Sure, bad things will happen during the run of the day. Sure, distractions and frustrations will abound. But the difference will be that, unlike the normal person who reacts to such things and makes them worse, you will be able to act with a clear and present mind. And just like the itchy nose, the distraction or frustration will pass.

But that is only the beginning. Because with a clear and present mind you will enter flow – a scientific term coined by the University of Chicago. In flow, you will hit your peak performance. In flow, universal energy will respond to the simple fact that you’ve invested more of your energy in the present moment than all the normal people who half-live their lives in doubt and frustration. You will become abnormally happy and successful. All for a few minutes each morning.

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Willie’s work in the area of personal development and meditation has been described as “life-changing” and “phenomenal” by clients from every walk of life. His acclaimed two-day personal development workshop is now online at Gurdy.Net

Photo: foxumon