Meditation for Peace of Mind | Mental Health

2009-07-24T21:34:00.001-07:00

Kinds of content available on the internet take many forms. There is no dearth of content which can be found on the web.
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Of course, there are other kinds of content, like images and movies and programs like games, and such. Articles are attractive to people and search engines. Which is to admit that they are consciously written with this kind of audience in mind. The concept of writing for people is obvious. What is not so obvious is the concept of writing articles for search engines which is another topic altogether. Articles are mainly written by people but they may also be written by people and re-written by a machine. Article wizards they call them. While a picture may paint a thousand words, We still need words to describe it. A website would have a number of articles in it. Click here for alternative medicine and healing or traditional medicine.discount medstore | soma | soma carisoprodol | carisoprodol | recording | music recording | wellness | alternative medicine | alternative | cagayan de oro city directory |

2008-10-08T03:03:00.000-07:00

I do not meditate so much now. I don't know why. I seem to be contented with just thinking about things and not really applying myself to the things that might be called meditation. Being in Cagayan de Oro City is pretty good for me. I am planting bananas and I often ponder the role of plants in my life. I think of water and nitrogen and sunlight and I know that plants grow on these things. Am I doing something right?

I could be making a website now and Cagayan de Oro City is a good place to be doing that except that I do not have a server and I don't have the internet connection and public ip for communicating with the outside world. That could change if I get someone to buy me the hardware and some money for the internet connection. I will have to give something in return like, maybe make them website where they think they will make a lot of money. Who knows?

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2008-04-23T07:59:00.000-07:00

A few developments have come and they are good. Things have been bad these past few days and the evil culminated in today with a terrible emotional attack leveled at me. I finally decided it was the last straw and that I will no longer tolerate such abuse. I have been taking the abuse for a long time and this time the surrogate has gone too far. I will shake off the control and influence which subjugates me and make myself free. There is nothing to fear and I will face the world however it will take me. I have been debased by innuendos and calumny. I have endured all that. Well, enough is enough and I am going to remake myself into something proud and independent. I have reached the end of my rope and I will make changes. I know that I can and everything will be alright from now on.

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Anyway, here's Cagayan de Oro City with another one: Cagayan de Oro City. My Cebu City site has made pr1, surprise, surprise. Dumaguete is still in the boondocks as far as Google goes but Dumaguete has made some headway. Jai Alexander rocks!

There is always: Ching's Way and Ching's Web along with Ching's Best and Ching's Illusion. Way to go, Ching!

Related Link: Piano Player

2008-04-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

I have too often lost my Way and when that happens I feel as though there was no opening for me to squeeze through. Ching's Way is just another way for me to try and make sense of something that I seem to be clueless about. There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel and I have to keep on walking, taking one step at a time. This is Ching's Way and this is the way I am taking now.

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Ching's Way is just another way. Your could get lost in Ching's Web and all its intricacies. Ching's Illusion beckons you to something else and nothing is real. Ching's Best offers the rest of it while it is there.

2007-12-08T21:52:00.000-08:00

Where is my peace of mind? Nowhere. It's gone out the window. Strangely though, I am quite releived to know that I am once again in the hole. I am always in the hole. This time though, there was a fiction that the hole would actually vanish, this fiction persisted until this morning when my bubble burst and the dream went away as it always does. This time I am back to my old hole, that familiar darkenss that is my life. Here I am at home, here, I can feel the ground of my feet unlike the dream where I am flying off, floating on a cloud somewhere. Well, the cloud disappeared and I am once again in my hole. Strange things, dreams and holes. This is depressing the hell out of me so I will just talk about something else.

I came across something in my inbox this morning and it all about PPP or Pay Per Play. It is something new where your website can earn money from having a bit of code that plays audio ads. I know about the usual google ads and yahoo ads and all the other ads that are making money for websites but this is the first time I've heard of audio ads.

From the looks of it, it has lots of promise and people with websites could make lots of money from it. I cannot explain it fully here but you could get more info from here.

2007-10-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

I meditate on my life and my self and my relation to this universe. I do not know if I am right in the things that I do. There is a lot of criticism that I hear and I do not pay attention to them. Everyone wants something of me and they are very vociferous and aggressive about it and use words that pierce and pounce on my feelings that know better than to listen to such prattle. I am who I am and at times I have to brush with other people's minds and they somehow get ruffled by my directness. Is it because they have not come to terms with their own visions of their own selves? Is there a gap between the face that they show the world and the face that they see when they look inside themselves?

Come into these sites: Squeak Smalltalk Adventure, The Ordinary Life, Politics: Divine Right of Kings and Presidents, Creation, Life, Consciousness.

Do I meditate properly? Maybe not. But I do take my self seriously. That is, I do not pretend to be something that I am not. I do not flatter myself. There is nothing to gain by that except a bloated ego which is sure to make a hell out of my life. I do think that there are certain scenarios in my life that would be good for everybody but alas, this is seldom shared by even one person at all.

Our favorites are: Ching's World, Green Tea, Dumaguete, Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City, Papoy, Moira Trinity Cagayan de Oro, Dumaguete, Cebu are all in the Philippines in the world of Ching.

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2007-08-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Meditation, contemplation. What do these words have in common? There are Catholic orders which are termed contemplatives and they spend their days internally contemplating, perhaps meditating, circling around their minds in search of something which may elude them if they opened their eyes and search for that something outside. To be sure, the outside world is full of distractions and worldly householders are constantly beset by mundane matters relating to wealth, health, material pursuits, fame, pleasures and sensual gratification.

Meditation, peace of mind, seeking internally what might be inaccessible otherwise. Meditation brings peace of mind. This is very obvious to those who do some kind of meditation. Simply closing one's eyes and paying attention to what one's mind is doing may be called meditation or contemplation. Engaging in this very rudimentary form of meditation immediately confers a degree of peace to the mind of one who engages in it even if only for a short time.

Ching's World is a state of mind, so to speak, an attitude that is not so obvious.The inner world is reflected in its pages of scenic beauty and human endeavors.

2006-08-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

The mind is constantly agitated

The mind is constantly being bombarded with many stumuli that comes from external and interal sources. Internally, th body my be feeling hungry or needing some nutrients and signals this need to the brain which in turn agitates the mind into some action to attempt to alleviate or to remove the irritation. If one is hungry or thirsty then one just looks for food or something to drink. There are countless external stimuli which can cause the mind to be restless and agitated.It could be the weather, the neighbor's cat or dog causing a racket, a dripping sink. It could be the television or the newspaper bringing bad news that make you feel helpless and alone.

Ordnarily, we just tune out these stimuli but it does not really prevent them from affecting us sub-cosciously. They do wreak their havoc on our subconscious and this type of agitation is much more insidious and much more difficult to detect and guard against because it is stealthy and secret in nature. We find manifestations of this type of agitation in dreams and feelings of listlessness or nervousness. Psychologists and psychiatrists recognize these as symptoms of a much deeper significance. There are many theories which are proposed to try and correct this situation.

The ancient texts speak of meditation and in some cultures, dream-control, rhythmic dancing and prayer. There is a common thread that runs through these different methods and that involves using the mind in a very specific way. In Mantra Meditation, the mind is made to repeat a particular sound or Mantra and to get the mind to focus on that sound while ideating on the meaning of that sound. This is largely practised by Yogis and Buddhista and Taoists with different techniques coupled with physical exercises to bring the body's state in parallel to the mind's state. Asanas are prescribed in yoga to allow the body to become more subtle and enable it to attune to the subtle vibrations brought about by deep meditation. It is well-known that the body loses its parallelism with the miind and spirit when neglected and may cause serious injury.

The whirling Dervishes which are famous for their dancing and whirling where they go into trances has similarities in the practices of African and Native American rituals which serve similar purposes. Rhythmic dancing with drums and gongs being played can be found in many religious activities of different cultures. These can be found in Jamaican and Caribbean communities that practice a type of ritual that has African origins merged with Christian ideas. The basic theme which can be observed in these practices is in losing the consciousness and giving in to deeper layers of the mind in much the same way that meditation is a way to dive deep into the subtle layers of the mind through the use of the mantra.

Prayer is a very common way of dealing with external life. It involves invoking a superior, divine entity and surrendering to the will of this Sublime Entity while imploring and pleading for mercy and blessings for oneself and one's family. There is a perverse form of prayer practised in order to bring sicknes, suffering to another in retaliation for some insult or harm being done to the implorer. In this case, one prays to a dark and evil entity to wreak its havoc on the intended victim.

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2006-07-07T22:09:00.001-07:00

Mental health

What is the norm or standard for measuring mental health? The problem of mental health is very difficult to assess precisely because of the nature of the mind. The mind is something which cannot be seen; it's manifestation very often can only be observed when a direct action has been made as in the case of a man in a rage. He might be seen ordinarily as a mild-mannered man who never causes any trouble, and a blowout will not be predicted at all if we just base our assessment from purely external behavior. He might be seething inside, a facet of his character or personality that will not be known even to people close to him unless they have a telescope into his mind.

By all accounts, we know that the human person exhibits many mental traits or propensities. He shares many of these with animals but there are some which can only be termed as higher mental propensities. A person can be driven by lust or greed or any of a number of emotions or feelings. It is said that the senses alone can drive a person to pursue countless things that appeal to him. His motor organs are another source of motivation whether it be for satisfying bodily needs like thirst, hunger, action and exercise.

Deep inside a person's mind, thoughts are created and destroyed not without affecting his life. His mind may take possession of these thoughts and amplifies them to the point that they may be termed as obsessive or compulsive. It may not come to that but still it could still command him such that he would have an attraction or aversion to any number of things or even ideas. A person's state of mental health therefore is dependent on many factors which contribute to the making of his personality or character.

Ordinarily, there are natural checks and balances which enable the individual person to function within the norms of society. However, there may exist events or happenings which have a deep impact on a person's psyche that ultimately change him for the better or the worse. The more obvious examples are physical or emotional trauma which do have deep effects which might not be readily seen externally. Another type of event is sometimes called religious experience which also affect profoundly the individual and not always in a good sense.

2006-07-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

Peace of mind

Something which has become a rare commodity nowadays is peace of mind. This is especially true in urban areas where a large number of people share a relatively small physical space. One would think that living in a densely populated area would increase one's chances of increasing one's circle of friends. This is not the case and it has served to erode the one area in human life which fosters peace of mind. One feels secure when surrounded by people that one knows. One can confide in friends who would be sympathetic. Family is always a given when talking about comfort and security but we find more and more that there can exist conflicts between members of the family. In the light of family conflicts, would people would rather seek comfort at home or take their chances with strangers? How does one find real peace of mind? Alcohol and drugs have become the bane of society precisely because this. Peace of mind is difficult to find. Alcohol and drugs offer the numbing quality of oblivion and cause unhappy people to become even more unhappy when they get hooked on these vices.

People need people. This is not just frue in song but in real life. The need to communicate, to reach out, to belong, to be part of something is an inner need that doesn't seem to be served by living alone in a big city. In a big city, there is the added danger of being mugged, raped, assaulted and harmed physically. This is truly an irony.

Small wonder that more and more people socialize through the Internet. One doesn't have to leave one's home to be with someone. In the millions of chatrooms in cyber space are millions of souls seeking connection and meaning in others who feel the same need. Sad to say, predators that abound in the streets also have their counterpart in Cyber Space who find plenty of prey in the Internet. The anonymity of the net makes people even more vulnerable because they would tend to let down their guard and be ensnared by the glib words of someone who may be pretending to be what they are not. Add to that the overwhelming need to be loved or needed and you have a recipe for pain. How is one to find peace of mind?

Peace of mind is just that. It exists in the mind. One cannot find peace of mind outside of oneself. Trying to find happiness and satisfaction in people or things would only set one up for disappointment and betrayal for it is a fact that people look for their own advantage and people in need of loving are very vulnerable to predatory advances. Things might bring a measure of satisfaction to a person but this is merely transitory because toys become boring very quickly. How then is one to find peace of mind? How is one to achieve that very difficult Holy Grail, so to speak?

One must look inward to find peace of mind. One must realize that the very thing that drives a person to look for satisfaction is desire. The desire to be happy and satisfied drives a person to run here and there looking for that ephemeral quality. It is a real paradox. The need for peace of mind drives a person to find happiness externally. Failing in this again and again one must realize that real happiness is to be found inwardly by looking deep inside oneself.

Meditation involves shutting out the noise of the outside world and to tune in to the internal world. It involves looking at one's mind and trying to make sense of it. It involves watching one's thoughts and realizing them for what they are: mere thoughts, expressions of desire. The mind has been described as a thought machine which takes input from external and internal stimuli triggering the mechanism of desire. Each thought therefore pushes the self to run after the object of that thought. This goes on endlessly without let-up. Little wonder then that peace of mind seems to be something unattainable. It is unattainable for those who chase after it in the external world. People and things cannot give one peace of mind. Peace of mind can only be won after a heroic struggle in one's inner arena.

2006-07-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

Stress and Anxiety

Stress and snxiety are the major factors threatening the mental health of modern man. While there were occasions for stress and anxiety in older times, it is not as acute or as prevalent as today. The pace of the world today as well as ever-increasing tevels of population have conspired to pummel the human psyche like never before. As technology has advanced to enable man to create more products and wealth, it should stand to reason that human satisfaction should also rise to the level of the production of these products which are designed to satisfy men's wants. Unfortunately, this increased productivity has only served to increase man's appetite and craving for more and more consumer products while leaving him largely unfulfilled.

The rat race or the race to be ahead of everyone else has made man more affluent but largely stressed and unfulfilled. This is a real paradox and man has forgotten the real delights of nature and simple living. Man has left behind his real source of power and energy which is nature itself. He has lost touch of his inner self and this has left him more and more alienated from himself and other people and the environment. Tall buildings might symbolize the loftiness of his aspirations but it has also kept him from the natural world. Instead of breathing fresh, oxygen-rich air, he must live in artificial environments which circulate unhealthy air. The natural ionization of the atmosphere that happens during a thunderstorm is unavailable to him as he lives inside airconditioned buildings.

It is no wonder then that man's closest companion is stress and anxiety. This fact reinforces the need to go back to techniques which the ancients have devised to bring the mind's attention to inner peace and find the endless source of inner strength and energy. Learning the techniques of meditation can alleviate stress and anziety.

2006-07-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

Depression

One of the biggest obstacles to obtaining mental health is depression. It is now recognized as a disease of the mind although it might be termed as an affliction of the spirit. Under its spell, a person feels weak even when he is a giant of a man physically. When it strikes a man, he has no defense for it because it strikes at the very core of his being and he feels totally hopeless and helpless. it occupies his mind and all he could think about is how low he is feeling. He does not feel like moving about or doing something productive, such exercise he deems useless. He seeks oblivion and may turn to drink or drugs to banish the feeling of uselessness that envelops him. This only makes it worse for him. He feels lethargic and sleepy.

They say that faith can move mountains. A man who is inspired by faith the exact opposite of a man in the grip of depression. One might say that these are manifestations of the same mechanism of the mind but differing only in the flavor or coloring of it. Many peorple exhibit both symptoms and used to be termed manic-depressive but the more modern term is bi-polar disorder. It is not surprising that all of these things are happening in the province of the mind. Western scientists and philosophers tend to dichotomize the human being as being made up of body and mind. Oriental philosophy tends to see a human being as a whole being and view the body as nothing more than the cruder aspect of the mind. In Tantra, the body is called kamamaya kosa or "the food layer". A man therefore seen as having many layers that perform certain function but nevertheles participate in one being.

The body therefore, directly influences the functioning of the mind. In Chinese philosophy, the repository of emotions are the different internal organs. To take an example, the kidneys are seen as the vessel containing fear and is the organ directly concerned with the water factor. As such, a man in extreme fear may lose the control of his bladder and wet his pants. The organ that is related with sadness or sorrow is the lungs. This would perhaps explain why people with good lungs are very energetic and cheerful.

If we accept this theory to be correct then we might perhaps postulate that keeping the body fit through outdoor activities and good exercise can help alleviate feelings of depression. This is not to say that such a simplistic approach is the cure-all for depression. It simply states that there might be a physiological basis for depression and getting the body's energy system moving could flush out the undesirable stagnancy that plagues the body. Coupled with meditation, great strides can be made to maintain a balance in the chemical secretions and energy levels of the different organs of the body thus promoting physical as well as mental health.

Meditation stabilizes the physical processes and promotes harmony in the different organs of the body thereby accelerating healing in the affected portions of the body. Meditation calms down the parasympathetic system and allows the secretion of endorphins and higher-level hormones that creates a feeling of well-being. Very little is known about the pineal gland but in ancient texts, it is credited with secreting a substance they term as madhu which means "honey"

One seldom finds a person who meditates who is depressed or depressive. It appears that meditation causes mental equilibrium to be achieved thereby attaining peace of mind and mental health.

2006-07-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Meditation and auto-suggestion

When one thinks of one thought and keeps on repeating that thought continuously, it can be termed as auto-suggestion. Many self-help courses advocate this technique in order to change or alter one's perception of oneself. Hence, a girl or a young woman may say while looking at the mirror,"I am good. I am pretty". Repeating this process regularly will create an effect in the mind where one begins to see how one is good and pretty. This can also work in the opposite direction, when one thinks of not being good enough or of not being pretty enough. External suggestions can become seeds of self-induced feelings like, when one is told that one is pretty or being told that one is stupid pretty soon one begins to believe that suggestion.

The power of repetition has been known to propagandists and advertisers for a long time such that a saying has been coined: "a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth". Such is the power of repetition. Rumours work they same way: a suggestion is made and is accepted by the mind as true and then passed on to another without verifying its truth and is passed on again and again until it begins to sound like gospel truth.

When a child is constantly berated and called "a bad boy", the thought that he is a bad boy will be implanted in his mind and it will serve as a powerful suggestion that he is indeed a bad boy. This will create a low self-image will be dificult for him to overcome. The power of suggestion is therefore something which is not to be taken lightly and should be used only to create a good feeling in people. While corporal punishment has been discredited as an effective way of raising children, verbal abuse has not been widely disseminated as a more insidious form of punishment. Constant verbal abuse will debase a person's sense of self-worth and cause mental anguish and emotional stress.

In order to counter such feelings of worthlessness, very often a person will need the help of psychiatrists or psychoanalysts to uncover the deeply-rooted feelings of resentment and hopelessness. It is a sign that in this day and age, we have not yet learned to promote mental health and peace of mind. We have mastered the art of hurting other people in ways that cannot be seen. The ancients have recognized the principle of non-hurting but this principle has largely been forgotten owing to the rush for fame and fortune and power, to succeed politically and economically. One can help oneself by using meditation and techniques of auto-suggestion to reinforce feelings of innate worth.

Meditation can help develop a sense of self-worth and reinforce the feeling of being important in the universe. This brings peace of mind and mental health. Meditation relies on the power of positive auto-suggestion to work its magic.

2006-07-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Meditation and contemplation

Meditation is often equated with contemplation. Is there a difference between the two? Are the effects the same? Do they both promote mental health and peace of mind? Could we perhaps say that the two terms are inter-changeable? Let us analyze both terms and see if meditation can be correctly used to denote contemplation and vice versa.Contemplation as practiced by the Catholic clergy involves thinking about religious subjects very often centered around Jesus Christ and His passion. Popular topics or subjects of contemplation are also the lives of the Saints. The object of contemplation is to elevate the mind by directing one's thoughts to higher ideas and attempting to raise the consciousness.

One of the effects of contemplation or meditation is lower blood pressure and slower heartbeat. These have the effect of attaining better physical health and peace of mind. Anxiety and stress are associated with high blood pressure and increase heart rate. If left unchecked it can cause damage to the heart and other vital organs. It is therefore observed that in the Monasteries of Contemplative Orders in the Catholic clergy there is an atmosphere of peace and calm that pervades their monastery. This is caused by the mental vibrations of a higher nature caused by meditation and contemplation being done by monks on a daily basis.

Thoughts can have external effects. This is easily demonstrated. Take an angry man tormented by angry thoughts. He begins to shout and berate somebody for whatever reason there may be to trigger his anger. People around him can feel or sense his emotional energy bursting from within him. In much the same way, a child or a baby gurgling with happiness brings smiles and feelings of joy to those nearby. Emotions are not passive things that affect one person alone. They are powerful energies which reach beyond the source to affect others in the vicinity.

2006-07-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

I remember very vividly the time when I was around eight years old during the Holy Week, which Catholics around the world observe, when my mother gave me a small booklet which depicted the Passion of Jesus Christ. It had drawings depicting His ordeal at the hands of his Roman tormentors, the forty lashes that He endured, the vile words and calumnies, the heavy cross he bore and his eventual crucifixion and death. I did not fully understand the meaning of all this but I felt intensely the pain that He must have felt and my mother said that He died for the sins of the world. These were concepts which an eight-year-old boy could hardly grasp but it caused me to go deep within myself and and I entered into a world which seemed so real to me. I was not aware of it as being my imagination but it felt like I was seeing Jesus being brutalized for my sins and I felt carried away in the feeling of pain and mental torture. that caused tears to well in my eyes and I found myself sobbing uncontrollably.

I was caught up in this pain and misery for quite a while and I carried on this quiet sobbing until I had no more tears to shed, and a calm feeling came gradually over me as if something had been lifted from my chest. This was my first foray into the world of the mind and it showed me in a powerful way how it could affect and control the way that we feel. I realized that while I was in that state, I could not help but feel the sorrow and passion which I imagined Jesus Christ felt two thousand years ago.

The mind is a powerful thing and the ancients have realized this and devised various forms of meditation to try and make sense of the world beyond the obvious and the material. While what I had experienced could hardly be called meditation, hysteria might be a better word for it, the whole episode left a very lasting impressions on me.

We know now that meditation can help to calm the mind and contribute to our mental health. Many forms of meditation have been suggested and many methods and processes have been devised. There is a general agreement that meditation has a direct and powerful influence not only on the psychological aspects but also on the physical and physiological processes which could be characterized as beneficial to both the mind and the body. Physical health and mental health therefore can be attained from meditating on a daily basis.