5 Minute Meditation – the Altered State

Meditation takes us into an “altered state” – a state of brainwaves different from our usual waking state. The various altered states are helpful for things such as creativity, stress reduction, intuition or healing.

 Altered states are also known as “meditative states” or “hypnotic states”. That’s because the various brainwaves active in meditation are also active in hypnosis or self-hypnosis. 

So how do we know if we’re in an altered state, anyway?  What’s it feel like?

Surprise. You’ve probably already experienced it, not once, but many times…

• Ever gotten so into a TV program that you lost track of what’s going on in the room around you?
• Ever gotten lost in your own thoughts and completely missed what the person talking to you said?
• Ever been so focused on a movie that you “jumped” when something happened in the movie theatre?
• Ever driven from one place to another and not remembered the trip in between?

These are all examples of everyday “altered states” when your brain was so focused on one particular stimuli that it filtered out all other extemporaneous ones. Altered states tend to include a singleness of thought, shutting down mntal multitasking for awhile, and leading to an experence that’s calming, relaxing and feels really good.

The practice of focus can take you into a meditative state. The practice of relaxation can, too.

And we’re going to look at a few ways that you can incorporate altered states into your daily routine in bite sized morsels that feel great and do you good.

More coming

Catherine

Foresight

6/23/11

www.ForesightYourPsychic.com

www.ForesightYourCTPsychic.wordpress.com

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5 Minute Meditation – Your Brain on Meditation

You can sit in a lotus position. You can chant. You can focus your thoughts nd calm the “monkey mind.”

But, when it comes down to the core of it, to better understand meditation, we need to get to know our brain waves…

Like so many other things in life, brainwaves are made up of vibrations- vibrations at different speeds. To give a simple overview:

• At Beta, you are wide awake and alert but processing everything that is going on around you. A conscious state, good for concentration, cognition, and productivity
• At Alpha, you are more focused and screen out extemporary stimuli. Relaxing and pleasant, great for stress reduction, visualization and creativity
• At Theta, you’re in a “”twilight state” between waking and sleeping. Helpful for meditation, intuition and memory; and also helpful for reprogramming your beliefs, especially unconscious ones.
• And at Delta, you’re in deep, restful sleep. Essential for health and healing.

( for more details on brainwaves, click here )

As you can see, different activities are better with different waves. And meditation both utilizes different brain waves, and helps us access them more easily in other situations. Most meditation falls into alpha state, theta state or on the boundary in between the two.

And that’s how meditation can be chanting, or mantras, or the lotus position; and can also be walking, or breathing, or doing the dishes. Any activity that you can do that takes you into that “altered state” can be a meditation, with the benefits associated with that.

So, what’s that state feel like? How do I know when I’m in that state? Do I have to put on electrodes to know if I’m meditating?…

No electrodes required (although feel free if you like…)

Let’s look at that altered state found in meditation next.

Catherine

Foresight

6/16/11

www.ForesightYourPsychic.com

www.ForesightYourCTPsychic.wordpress.com

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