Meditation has been tested and proven very effective in promoting the body’s overall health and wellness. As a matter of fact, it is highly recommended by doctors. They themselves realized the value of meditation as an alternative medicine and don’t have second doubts about recommending it to patients. After all, it doesn’t involve taking any medicine or subjecting the patient to pain or heavy work that can affect their condition.

However, there are those who’ve been using meditation as a form of relaxation. Men and women who are conscious about their health include meditation as a part of their diet or exercise regimen. It is so effective in keeping stress at bay and in boosting the immune system.

Many practitioners have set a specific schedule for their meditation which they follow religiously. There are those who perform it once or twice a week while there are also those who do it daily. If you prefer making meditation a part of your daily routine you can do so.

Meditation at Home

You can meditate at the comfort of your own home everyday. You can meditate when everything is quiet and you’re sure that there’ll be no distractions like kids running and playing around or noise coming from vehicles. The best time to meditate at home is early in the morning or late at night when everybody’s asleep. This will give you the peace and quiet you need to make your meditation very effective.

So how can you meditate daily at home? First, you have to find the best place to meditate in like your bedroom or garden. You can set the right mood by playing some soft music in the background, dimming the lights, or light up aromatic candles and incense. Apply meditation techniques like feeding yourself with positive affirmations or by focusing on relaxing your mind and body through deep breathing or counting.

Meditation at Work

If you’re always too busy with household chores and tending the kids at home, you can still meditate at work. Although you won’t have the same privacy as doing it at home, meditating in your workplace is still possible. You can start by finding a nice spot to meditate in. You can go to the rooftop or the highest floor of the building where very few people visit. Many offices have makeshift gardens with potted plants and flowers on their roof and if yours is one of them, then you have found a nice place where you can meditate. Otherwise, you have no choice but to meditate in your cubicle or office.

You can’t also make use of candles and incense unless you want to cause the fire alarm to go off. Instead, use your Mp3 player or IPod to help you set the mood. There are now downloadable relaxation music which you can store in your player. You can play it when you’re meditating.

Of course you simply can’t leave your post and meditate. Do this during your break or during lunch time when everybody’s still having their lunch. Meditating 10-20 minutes a day in the office can already do wonders to your body. You feel less stressed out with deadlines and pressures from work. It can also help you remain calm especially when you get into a disagreement with a co-worker. Further, it helps you stay focused on your job.

According to experts, the best and easiest form of meditation is prayer. Now this is something anybody can do anytime, anywhere. You can close your eyes while sitting on your bed at home and talk to your Creator or you can sit with your back straight and eyes closed for a few minutes while at work and utter a short prayer.

Many people also find relief in talking to themselves just like with using positive affirmations. You can do this at home in your bedroom with the door locked to avoid distractions. Meanwhile, you have to perform it when you’re all alone in the office especially during lunch break or others will mistake you for an idiot talking to yourself.

Meditation is very beneficial. Make it a part of your everyday life by taking time to meditate at the comfort of your home or even when at work.

Learn easy meditation techniques for beginners and start meditating now

In actuality, your mind should be something that you devote much more time to. Given the fast-paced world we live in, we tend to forget how much our minds can do for us. We depend on outside influences for almost everything. This is a mistake, since studies have shown that most people only use a small percentage of their brains. With most of our brains simply sitting dormant, doesn't it make you wonder just what we might be capable of doing if we engaged them fully?

The Conscious Mind

Our conscious minds are what we deal with all the time. We think with them, create ideas, and plan for the future. You're reading this right now using your conscious mind.

Part of the power of the mind is taking control of your conscious thoughts. Most people talk in a very negative manner to and about themselves without even realizing it. Part of this is conditioning. Today we are expected to be the fastest, the most thorough, and the best at everything we do. When we fall short of these impossible expectations, we tend to berate ourselves.

Over time, all this negative self-talk takes its toll. Science is beginning to realize that how we talk and think about ourselves has a very real impact on our health, our happiness, and our lives in general.

Re-framing all these negative thoughts its the key to releasing a very simple power of the mind: the power of positive thinking. This is an easy concept, but it can be hard to implement properly. It's necessary to re-frame every negative thought we have into something positive. If you really can't think of a positive side to the situation you're thinking about, think about something in your life that is positive.

This must be done diligently, every time a negative thought occurs, to yield optimum results. After a while, our brains become trained to accept and believe positive thoughts. This is exactly the same way we learned years ago to accept and believe the negative thoughts. This process requires dedication, but with steady use, this technique can unleash the power of the mind to transform seemingly overwhelming obstacles into problems that can be fixed. It's all a matter of perspective!

The Subconscious Mind

Our subconscious minds are what regulate our bodily functions like breathing. They create our dreams as we sleep, and they take in every single bit of information that we encounter. Think about how much information is flying at us these days, from every television show, internet website, and magazine. Imagine what this part of our mind can do for us if we harness its energy.

After all, it operates subconsciously. It has been designed to do several things, and it's used to operating without any interference from our conscious minds.

However, it is possible to change how the subconscious works. Positive thinking is a wonderful example of how the subconscious can be trained. From birth, all the messages we receive go into our subconscious. Over time, we develop automatic responses to certain things. Accepting negative thoughts is an example of this. Imagine how our lives could change if our subconscious minds refused to accept negative thought!

Affirmations are a wonderful example of how we can consciously adjust our subconscious minds. This sounds more complicated than it is.

Positive affirmations are simple positive statements, geared toward any part of our lives that we desire change in. Health, love and finance are common subjects for affirmations. Affirmations are always positive, and they are always said in the present tense. For example “I want to be happy” would not work. The subconscious does not respond to negative messages, or to requests. It can only be told what to do. A much better way to word this affirmation would be “I am a happy person, and I seek out happiness in every aspect of my life.”

By working on both parts of our minds, we can create astonishing change in our lives, and live much more peaceful and happy lives.

The Dangers of Astral Projection

Most dangerous side effects of astral projection are nothing more than myths.  The belief that the astral body might be unable to return to the physical one is untrue—the astral body will always return to your physical body.  It is a natural experience that is referred to in most religious texts including the Bible and the Koran.  Having been practiced for many Centuries, astral projection is considered to be a spiritual experience and a gift that has no dangers attached to it.  The only limits of astral travel are those imposed by the traveler, so you can go and see things you have only dreamed of until now.

Stages of Astral Projection

When you’re ready to attempt astral projection, the most important thing will be your ability to relax.  Before you can go any further, you must practice relaxation exercises, like meditation, on a regular basis.  Mastering this skill is your only hope of ever successfully astral projecting.  When you’re ready to attempt astral projection, you must relax completely.  Many use binaural beats to encourage relaxation, others prefer meditation and visualization—the key is to experiment until you find the method that works for you.  Breathing exercises will help to calm the mind and relax the body.

You’ll also need to shift your focus when preparing to astral project.  You must remove focus from the physical body entirely.  This can be done with binaural beats, breathing exercises, affirmations, and visualization.  As your focus shifts from the physical body, your relaxation will deepen.  The key is to keep your head clear throughout the experience, as any thought can interrupt the experience.  Remember that fear will be the biggest obstacle in attempting astral projection, especially for the first time.  Affirmations can help to dispel fear so you can move forward with the experience.

Once you have relaxed fully, you can begin the process of separation.  Let go of fear as your body enters the sleep paralysis stage and allow the state to take over.  You will most likely begin to feel a buzzing or vibrating sensation, which indicates your astral body is beginning to separate from the physical one.  The vibrations can also lead to feelings of fear, so be patient if you have to try a few times before you can get past them.

Methods of Separation

Once you’ve gotten to the vibration stage, you’re ready to separate.  There are a few techniques that might work and it’s best to find the one that is right for you.  This can take some time and practice, so again patience will be required.  Getting lighter is one method of separation.  In this option, you will imagine yourself getting lighter and eventually floating out of the body.  The roll out method is also a popular option.  This involves rolling out of your body, similar to rolling out of bed.  The rope technique requires you to imagine a rope hanging from the ceiling, which you will grab on to in order to leave your body.  Visualization and will power are other methods of separation.

Astral projection takes time and practice to master.  With hard work and patience, you can eventually find out what it’s like to travel the astral plane.  The many methods, techniques, and tools you can use to enhance the experience make it easier to achieve success.  With no limits on the astral plane, your astral body can achieve things that are not possible in the physical world. No matter what motivates you to attempt astral projection, overcoming fear will be the most important part of beginning the process.

Do you always feel down? Are you easily disappointed? Do you find it hard to face the challenges that life hurls at you every now and then? If yes, you definitely need to start thinking positively.

Being an optimist or positive thinker can make significant changes into your life. As a matter of fact, many life coaches agree that positive thinking is the key to living the kind of life you want- free of worries and living each day with joy. Optimists always look at the brighter side of things and compared to people who’re empowered by negativism, they succeed more in life.

If you’re still having doubts on what positive thinking can do for you, check out its top 7 benefits below:

Keep stress at bay with positive thinking

Did you know that one very common cause of stress is pessimism? Thinking about negative things every single day can make you feel all stressed out. Positive thinking does the opposite. Instead of making you feel like it’s the end of the world, optimism helps you live life joyfully. Having a positive outlook in life makes worries go away thus you don’t feel stressed at all despite the problems that haunt you.

Improve relationships

Positive thinking also helps you appreciate other people around you. Instead of merely looking at their flaws and mistakes, you make it a habit to look at their positive attributes. You get to accept individuals for who they are and learn to appreciate your differences. Once you think positively of others, they’ll do the same with you. It’ll also help you develop your interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. You become a person anybody wants to be friends with.

Boost self confidence

Positive thinking can also do wonders to your self esteem. It helps you have a positive outlook about yourself. People are not perfect but once you think positively, you learn to love yourself for who you are and accept your limitations. You can appreciate you for who you really are. Having a positive outlook in life won’t make you think about the distractive things like gossips that people say about you. On the contrary, you’ll find others’ opinions helpful in improving your personality. Just start thinking positively to remove negative energy.

Live a healthier lifestyle

People who want to live healthy often opt for conventional ways like dieting and exercising regularly. What most individuals fail to realize is that positive thinking can help them live a more fulfilling, rewarding, and healthier lifestyle. Exercise and diet are pointless if you’re always too tired thinking about the burdens of everyday life. Thinking negatively can lead to stress which in turn cause other harmful ailments like high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Positive thinking is the best way to start living a healthy lifestyle and it doesn’t cost a thing.

Improve work performance

Do you ever wonder why there are many employees who do their job right despite their meager income? It’s because they think positively. They condition their mind that once they prove how good they are in their job they’re most likely to get a raise or a promotion faster. Positive thinking helps you focus more on what you can do for others without expecting anything in return, just like in your job. However, rest assured that once you show an excellent job performance it won’t be long before you achieve your desired job position.

Gain loyal friends

People love being with someone who thinks positively. If you’re an optimistic individual don’t be surprised if many people love to hang out with you. You’ll be attracting men and women alike with your positive attitude, especially those who need some guidance or someone they can rely on. Your positivism can be contagious too.

Strengthen your relationship with your Creator

People who’re optimistic are those who know how to count their blessings. Indeed, having a positive outlook in life can help you see the wondrous ways God help you especially in dealing with your problems in life. You learn to count your blessings and appreciate everything that Go has given you.

There’s nothing wrong with being optimistic. As a matter of fact, it’s just what you need to live your life to the fullest. Positive thinking is very beneficial especially in the way you treat yourself and others around you.

Bill Harris has been involved in personal development for over thirty-five years as a seeker, teacher, public speaker, author, musician, composer, therapist, workshop leader, and founder of the Centerpointe Research Institute.

And more recently, you would have seen him in the hit movie, "The Secret"

In this special interview that I've recorded with Bill, he's going to share with you some of his deep insights on the nature of the mind, meditation and brainwave synchronization.

But he's also going to go a little beyond that and answer some controversial questions - including what he believes to be the big flaw with the philosophy of the "The Secret" and why so many people still struggle with the concept of the Law of Attraction.

You are going to discover a truly remarkable man with a personal philosophy that demonstrates the importance of giving and the incredible results that follow...

Check out the interview here.

As a personal note, I've been a HUGE fan of Centerpointe and the Holosync system, so I'm really going to stress how absolutely mind-blowing it is to have a chat with THE Bill Harris. So make sure you check it out, and tell us what you think too!

Indigo children refers to a New Age belief that some children, especially those born after the late 1970s, represent a higher state of human evolution. The term itself is a reference to the belief that such children have an indigo colored aura. Beliefs concerning the exact nature of Indigo children vary, with some believing that they have paranormal abilities such as the ability to read minds, and others that they are distinguished from non-Indigo children merely by more conventional traits such as increased empathy and creativity.

Check out this awesome video from ABC, featuring Diane Sawyer investigating the issue:

Find out more about Indigo Children here

This has been floating around the net for quite some time. But everytime I see it, it never fails to bring a bit of hope into my day!

I hope this trailer for this very exciting movie does it for you too.

We'll be trying to contact the producers of this movie and hopefully we'll be able to land an interview, right here on Mindhacks.org - SO STAY TUNED!

Many women let their self esteem be affected by the stereotype that media created of a perfect woman. 

Many of them become obsessed with becoming this idea created by business people that does not exist in the real world.

The real intention of media is to push women's self esteem down so women can buy their products to push their self esteem back up again.

However, women do not realize that they are all beautiful because they are all real. Mothers, sisters, wives, etc with big hearts and love are the ones that we all should really admire. They are our real models that deserve to be followed.  

Watch this unbelievable video showing how models are fabricated by the media:

Einstein attempted to explain the close relationship between science and religion which gave him a reputation of being an atheist. He believed that science could not be created if there was not an interest in understanding the invisible laws of the universe.

However, the existence of something supreme was not the question for him. The fact that he suggested that the universe and its events could be controlled by human will was what created a lot of controversy. 

"The main source of the present-day conflicts between the spheres of religion and of science lies in this concept of a personal God," he argued.

Scientists aim to uncover the immutable laws that govern reality, and in doing so they must reject the notion that divine will, or for that matter human will, plays a role that would violate this cosmic causality."

 

Einstein & Faith

By WALTER ISAACSON

He was slow in learning how to talk. "My parents were so worried," he later recalled, "that they consulted a doctor." Even after he had begun using words, sometime after the age of 2, he developed a quirk that prompted the family maid to dub him "der Depperte," the dopey one. Whenever he had something to say, he would try it out on himself, whispering it softly until it sounded good enough to pronounce aloud.

"Every sentence he uttered," his worshipful younger sister recalled, "no matter how routine, he repeated to himself softly, moving his lips." It was all very worrying, she said. "He had such difficulty with language that those around him feared he would never learn."

His slow development was combined with a cheeky rebelliousness toward authority, which led one schoolmaster to send him packing and another to declare that he would never amount to much. These traits made Albert Einstein the patron saint of distracted schoolkids everywhere. But they also helped make him, or so he later surmised, the most creative scientific genius of modern times.

His cocky contempt for authority led him to question received wisdom in ways that well-trained acolytes in the academy never contemplated. And as for his slow verbal development, he thought that it allowed him to observe with wonder the everyday phenomena that others took for granted. Instead of puzzling over mysterious things, he puzzled over the commonplace.

"When I ask myself how it happened that I in particular discovered the relativity theory, it seemed to lie in the following circumstance," Einstein once explained. "The ordinary adult never bothers his head about the problems of space and time. These are things he has thought of as a child. But I developed so slowly that I began to wonder about space and time only when I was already grown up.

Consequently, I probed more deeply into the problem than an ordinary child would have."

It may seem logical, in retrospect, that a combination of awe and rebellion made Einstein exceptional as a scientist.

But what is less well known is that those two traits also combined to shape his spiritual journey and determine the nature of his faith.

The rebellion part comes in at the beginning of his life: he rejected at first his parents' secularism and later the concepts of religious ritual and of a personal God who intercedes in the daily workings of the world.

But the awe part comes in his 50s when he settled into a deism based on what he called the

"spirit manifest in the laws of the universe" and a sincere belief in a "God who reveals Himself in the harmony of all that exists."

Einstein was descended, on both parents' sides, from Jewish tradesmen and peddlers who had, for at least two centuries, made modest livings in the rural villages of Swabia in southwestern Germany.

With each generation they had become increasingly assimilated into the German culture they loved--or so they thought. Although Jewish by cultural designation and kindred instinct, they had little interest in the religion itself.

In his later years, Einstein would tell an old joke about an agnostic uncle who was the only member of his family who went to synagogue. When asked why he did so, the uncle would respond, "Ah, but you never know." Einstein's parents, on the other hand, were "entirely irreligious." They did not keep kosher or attend synagogue, and his father Hermann referred to Jewish rituals as "ancient superstitions," according to a relative.

Consequently, when Albert turned 6 and had to go to school, his parents did not care that there was no Jewish one near their home. Instead he went to the large Catholic school in their neighborhood. As the only Jew among the 70 students in his class, he took the standard course in Catholic religion and ended up enjoying it immensely.

Despite his parents' secularism, or perhaps because of it, Einstein rather suddenly developed a passionate zeal for Judaism. "He was so fervent in his feelings that, on his own, he observed Jewish religious strictures in every detail," his sister recalled. He ate no pork, kept kosher and obeyed the strictures of the Sabbath. He even composed his own hymns, which he sang to himself as he walked home from school.

Einstein's greatest intellectual stimulation came from a poor student who dined with his family once a week.

It was an old Jewish custom to take in a needy religious scholar to share the Sabbath meal; the Einsteins modified the tradition by hosting instead a medical student on Thursdays.

His name was Max Talmud, and he began his weekly visits when he was 21 and Einstein was 10.

Talmud brought Einstein science books, including a popular illustrated series called People's Books on Natural Science, "a work which I read with breathless attention," said Einstein. The 21 volumes were written by Aaron Bernstein, who stressed the interrelations between biology and physics, and reported in great detail the experiments being done at the time, especially in Germany.

Talmud also helped Einstein explore the wonders of mathematics by giving him a textbook on geometry two years before he was scheduled to learn that subject in school. When Talmud arrived each Thursday, Einstein delighted in showing him the problems he had solved that week.

Initially, Talmud was able to help him, but he was soon surpassed by his pupil. "After a short time, a few months, he had worked through the whole book," Talmud recalled. "Soon the flight of his mathematical genius was so high that I could no longer follow."

Einstein's exposure to science and math produced a sudden transformation at age 12, just as he would have been readying for a bar mitzvah. He suddenly gave up Judaism.

That decision does not appear to have been drawn from Bernstein's books because the author made clear he saw no contradiction between science and religion. As he put it,

 "The religious inclination lies in the dim consciousness that dwells in humans that all nature, including the humans in it, is in no way an accidental game, but a work of lawfulness that there is a fundamental cause of all existence."

Einstein would later come close to these sentiments. But at the time, his leap away from faith was a radical one.

"Through the reading of popular scientific books, I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of free thinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression."

Einstein did, however, retain from his childhood religious phase a profound faith in, and reverence for, the harmony and beauty of what he called the mind of God as it was expressed in the creation of the universe and its laws.

The Dichotomy between Science and Religion

Around the time he turned 50, he began to articulate more clearly--in various essays, interviews and letters--his deepening appreciation of his belief in God, although a rather impersonal version of one.

One particular evening in 1929, the year he turned 50, captures Einstein's middle-age deistic faith. He and his wife were at a dinner party in Berlin when a guest expressed a belief in astrology. Einstein ridiculed the notion as pure superstition. Another guest stepped in and similarly disparaged religion. Belief in God, he insisted, was likewise a superstition.

At this point the host tried to silence him by invoking the fact that even Einstein harbored religious beliefs. "It isn't possible!" the skeptical guest said, turning to Einstein to ask if he was, in fact, religious. "Yes, you can call it that," Einstein replied calmly.

"Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious."

Shortly after his 50th birthday, Einstein also gave a remarkable interview in which he was more revealing than he had ever been about his religious sensibility. It was with George Sylvester Viereck, who had been born in Germany, moved to America as a child and then spent his life writing gaudily erotic poetry, interviewing great men and expressing his complex love for his fatherland.

Einstein assumed Viereck was Jewish. In fact, Viereck proudly traced his lineage to the family of the Kaiser, and he would later become a Nazi sympathizer who was jailed in America during World War II for being a German propagandist.

Viereck began by asking Einstein whether he considered himself a German or a Jew.

"It's possible to be both," replied Einstein. "Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind."

Click here for full article>>

If everybody went out today and hugged a complete stranger imagine what effect this would have on human nature throughout the world. 

FREE HUGS!

Sometimes, a hug is all we need. Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, a man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

As this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.

Watch this incredible show of human spirit and then I urge you to go out and hug a stranger, 13 million people the world over already have:

What Do You Feel Right Now?