Meditation Archives - Page 9 of 27 - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Meditation

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Posted on February 5, 2025
in Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
6 Comments

The word “meditation” is often confused with “mindfulness.” Meditation is the discipline of sitting still in a particular posture in silence and solitude with focus on the breath. (You will learn more about it in Month 3.) Mindfulness is a state of total awareness of the mind that results from the daily practice of meditation. Mindfulness Meditation is also name of a meditation and is one of many meditations people practice such as Body Scan, Loving Kindness, Guided meditations and so on.   You have practiced focusing your attention on your breath. In so doing, you watch your own mind in the present moment. You witness yourself from a short distance. This is similar to looking at your own reflection in a life-size mirror. The way you study your face, your torso, the...

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Tuesday, January 4, 2025

Posted on February 3, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
3 Comments

My earliest attempts at journaling during the time of extreme trauma led me deeper into journaling. Within the span of eighteen months, my youngest brother was killed in an automobile accident, soon after that my mother passed away and my father followed her within a few months. This was the time when I also gave birth to our second child. She along with daily pouring out of emotions in words kept me sane and brought me back to my senses when I was in doldrums. Journaling was the source of emotional relief and healing. The practice transformed my life. I simply poured out my distress and despondence, pain and sadness on the pages. It didn’t matter what I wrote, only that I did. The very process of journaling kept me calm...

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Wednesday, January 30, 2025

Posted on January 29, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
4 Comments

The starting point of discovering who you are,Your gifts your talents, your dreams, is being comfortable with yourself.Spend time alone. Write in a journal.                              (Robin Sharma) It has been a month since we started this practice. When you sit at your Spiritual Power Spot does a calm come over you?  At times when I’m faced with a “shitty” emotional problem I let go of the brick wall of expectations that my inner critic builds. If that doesn’t work (and here’s where my journal comes to my rescue), at the top of the page of my notebook I write, “What should I do? How can I solve this problem?” Instead of carrying  my grievances and complaints around I vent them in my journal as no one else seems to be as intimate as my journal. Journaling requires...

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Tuesday, 28 January, 2025

Posted on January 27, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
4 Comments

Self-doubt is one of the major emotions we go through. There are days when we feel overwhelmed and sluggish without any tangible reason. What can you do? Let a rainstorm of words from the heavy dark clouds of emotions and passing thoughts fall on the pages of your notebook. Trust that by the end of two to three pages it will shed light on things you were only partly aware of and it will present possible solutions to your listlessness. I started doing serious journaling in my early fifties after I changed my professions from teaching to becoming a freelance writer. It felt so good, I wondered why I had not started journaling sooner. Not only was I able to free my mind of distress but my heart also felt lightened.  Writing...

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Thursday, January 23, 2025

Posted on January 22, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Writing
4 Comments

What you pour on the blank pages of your journal can be compared with autumn leaves. The mountain of dried leaves of your mental trash is all biodegradable. It decomposes into mulch. You sow few seeds and they sprout in fresh green saplings. It often happens, that upon rereading your journal after some time, you gain greater insight into the things that happened. Personal events gather universal significance. You realize such exchanges and events, good or bad, are human. You’re pleasantly surprised at where one year’s journaling has led you.  When I don’t journal for a while a restlessness gnaws at me. My mind feels muddled and overwhelmed with mosaic of petty thoughts and feelings. And when I do journal, it helps me heal my wounds, clear my mind. It affects the...

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Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Posted on January 20, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
4 Comments

INSPIRATIONThe eminent social psychologist, James Pennebaker in his book, Opening Up by Writing Down, writes that not fully expressing negative emotions, suffering in silence and keeping secrets—swallowing or pushing them down—affects your heart, mind and body for the rest of your life. By hiding your fears, anger, and hurt from the world, you hide from yourself. In order to replace the mask of social “goodness” and “niceness” with authenticity you must first recognize the anger, hurt or fear buried deep inside you. The recognition must be followed by acceptance of your negative emotions. Some of us may require therapy or hypnosis to cleanse the system but most of us can do this by writing them down. If you like, write a letter to the one who emotionally hurt you or pushed you to...

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Thursday, 16 January, 2025

Posted on January 15, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
4 Comments

It feels so good to empty all that anguish in your trustworthy friend, you journal. This writing exercise has two advantages. One, it lightens your heart and clears your mind. Two, when you reread it after one year or five, it feels different. You notice how it has lost its power over you. It turns into ash yet saves some energetic embers of ideas for you to use. What you pour on the blank pages of your journal can be compared with autumn leaves. The mountain of dried leaves of your mental trash is all biodegradable. It decomposes into mulch with a few seeds which sprout later. It often happens, that upon rereading your journal you gain greater insight into the things that had happened the previous year or many years...

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Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Posted on January 13, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
4 Comments

The eminent social psychologist, James Pennebaker in his book, Opening Up by Writing Down, writes that not fully expressing negative emotions, suffering in silence and keeping secrets—swallowing or pushing them down—affects your heart, mind and body for the rest of your life. By hiding your fears, anger, and hurt from the world, you hide from yourself. In order to replace the mask of social “goodness” and “niceness” with authenticity you must first recognize the anger, hurt or fear buried deep inside you. The recognition must be followed by acceptance of the negative emotions. Some of us may require therapy or hypnosis to cleanse the system but most of us can do this by writing in various forms. If you like, write a letter to the one who emotionally hurt you or pushed you...

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Thursday, January 9, 2025

Posted on January 8, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
5 Comments

The way we observe physical hygiene for cleanliness, we must cultivate emotional hygiene for mental clarity. What practices do you follow to cleanse your mind? Journaling is one. It clears your mind of the mess that is created every day. Writing it down lends an ear when you need it but can’t share what you have to say with others. It reveals possible solutions to your problems and heals emotional wounds. So if there is a problem on your mind or something is hurting or knotting your belly, why not jot it down on as many pages as it takes? Your honest outpouring in words carries an energy, it has power. Dump all that down and, depending upon the problem, watch how you come up with doable intentions and make resolutions...

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Tuesday, January 7, 2024

Posted on January 6, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
3 Comments

When you shine the light of awareness on yourself, you begin to awaken to an authentic life. How does one become conscious of one’s own self? Partly, with the help of daily journaling. When you pen down the thoughts and emotions that run through your mind like a broken record, leave them behind on the pages of a notebook. They will washout and leave you with clear mind and lightened heart. Place the bubbling thoughts of bitterness, anger, resentfulness or sorrow triggered by a family or social event on the pages of your journal. Then watch the petty or vindictive thoughts, careless actions or unnecessary words get soaked up by the pages. So go ahead, pour your heart out in that notebook and watch how it cures you. Your private thoughts...

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