Vil du op til Færøerne i en uge sidst i maj og opleve Nordatlanterhavets smukke øer og rolige, venlige charmerende kultur, så tag på en skøn Yogaretreat, hvor du bliver forkælet fra morgen til aften.
19. maj – 25. maj 2019
Du kommer helt tæt på vulkanøernes sjæl.
Afslapning kombineret med indre sjælerejse og fysisk aktivitet i storslået natur.
Professionel yogainstruktør og turarrangør.
Skriv til mig på brianjacobsen@rocketmail.com, hvis du vil høre nærmere.
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
50 years of scientific research has unearthed a whole bunch of evidence of all the different life changing meditation benefits. Below I give you 15 ways meditating regularly has been shown to significantly improve your brain function and mood. But before reading them, follow the link and listen to some wise words about what happens in your brain during and after meditation. See you soon.
https://www.gaia.com/video/your-brain-meditation-joe-dispenza?fullplayer=preview
If you’re stressed out often, you’ve probably had those moments in your life where you made bad decisions as a result. Whether it’s details you missed for an important project or a big mistake you made that negatively affected other people, you know what it’s like when you’re not at your best.
What’s being impaired in moments like this is a skill called executive function.[1] Simply put, executive function is the part of your brain that helps you get results for goals you are trying to achieve. It’s what helps you do things like manage your time, pay attention, plan, organize and remember details.
Studies have shown compelling evidence that it helps people who have impaired executive functioning skills from conditions such as Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).[2] A study run by Dr. Lidia Zylowska showed 78% of adult participants with ADHD experienced a reduction of overall ADHD symptoms when they regularly used meditation practices.[3]
Moments of stress triggers your amygdala, also known as your “lizard brain”. It’s the primal part of your brain which is associated with fear and emotion and its primary function is to help you survive.
High levels of stress can make you enter into lizard brain mode where it is dominated by the amygdala. It can be described when one “flips his lid” and is controlled by overwhelming emotion such as fear or anger. Think about it as times you’ve been in a heated argument or deathly afraid of something that might hurt you.
When you are in this mode, other important parts of your brain like the pre-frontal cortex, which is the part of your brain that is capable of higher level thinking such as decision-making, self-awareness, empathy and morality, are turned off
Because the amygdala isn’t as great at logical thinking for the less straightforward situations of daily life, meditation can help decrease your stress levels by first getting you out of your lizard brain and back to being in the present moment, which then empowers you to respond to stress in a much better way.
For example, you might be in lizard brain mode thinking all the time about how to survive by making more money, but through meditation, you connect with what’s most important despite all the stress. You realize before it’s too late that you’ve been ignoring the more important things like connecting with your kids and maintaining intimacy with your spouse.
MRI scans have shown that after an eight-week course of mindfulness practice, the amygdala appears to shrink. And as the amygdala shrinks, the pre-frontal cortex becomes thicker.[4]
Basically, science has shown that meditation can help you become better at handling your stress by activating the part of your brain that makes better decisions.
Imagine a time where you told yourself a list of items you wanted to buy at the grocery store without physically writing it down. By the time you get to the store, you’ve forgotten what some of those items were.
This is when your working memory capacity has fallen short. You use your working memory when you need to place a sticky note in your mind so that you can use it in the near future. The problem is sometimes those sticky notes fall off by the time you need it.
If your working memory is the information that goes on these mental sticky notes, then your working memory capacity is how long you can have these sticky notes stay on before it falls off. The longer time you have to hold information, the more time you have for reasoning and comprehension to occur.
Meditation has been shown to improve your working memory capacity.
One study had about 200 teenagers assigned to either a mindfulness meditation practice, yoga, or were wait-listed as a control group.[5] Results showed that the teenagers participating in the meditation group had significantly better working memory capacity than those participating in the other groups.
If you’ve ever had a time when you were talking with someone and you had trouble finding the right words to express what you were trying to say, you’ve had a moment where your verbal fluency wasn’t at it’s best.
Verbal fluency as defined by verbal skill expert, Min Liu, is the “ability to find the right words at the right time or in the right situation.”[6]
When sixty-three University of North Carolina, Charlotte students with no meditation experience volunteered for an experiment that studied the effects of meditation on their verbal fluency, results showed that there was a significant improvement in verbal fluency in those who engaged in mindfulness meditation versus those who did not.[7]And to add to these impressive results, the group who meditated only did it for 20 minutes a day over four day period.
With all the information at our fingertips in this digital age, it’s easy to get distracted. We are exposed to an average of 10,000 marketing advertisements a day and it’s hard to discern what the important things we should focus on are. The artificial A.D.D. culture we’ve created has made us have significantly shorter attention spans due to information overload.
Taking as little as 20 minutes a day for five days to engage in meditate has improved one’s attention, which shows the power of simply making a subtle shift and spending a tiny fraction of your day simply being present.[8]
All the signature folds you see on the outer surface on the brain that look like windy roads have been formed to help increase the speed of brain cell communication. The formation of these folds is known as gyrification. Since your brain doesn’t have any space inside your skull to get bigger, it undergoes gyrification to increase the capacity of your brain function.
Long-term meditators have been shown to have a larger amount of gyrifcation compared to those who don’t practice meditation.[9] More interestingly, a direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years, which is proof of the capability of our brain to continue growing even as adults.
This means the more you meditate, the faster and more efficient your brain becomes at processing information, which can be especially useful in moments where you need to think fast.
When your brain is solving a challenging problem, it requires the skill to focus attention on what’s most important amongst a large amount of information.
A simple example of your brain at work engaging in such conflict resolution is when you’re at a loud party talking to a friend. If your brain didn’t detect and resolve all the conflicting stimulation around you by helping you ignore all the noise around you and focus on your friend, you’d probably have a sensory overload.
The same principal applies when you run into larger conflict resolution challenges. You need to be able to determine what’s most important and focus your attention on it.
Multiple studies have shown that participants in groups who partook in meditation practices had performed higher on evaluations that tested conflict resolution skills compared to groups that didn’t.[10]
This goes to show why those who meditate generally have a lower stress level. Their brains are more adept at conflict resolution.
The Harvard Business Review has conducted experiments that have shown that 10-12 minutes of mindful meditation practices were enough to boost creativity.[11] The majority of participants who were part of the meditation arm of the study reported that it helped them “clear their minds, focus more on the task at hand, and come up with original solutions.”
Mindfulness meditation gets ideas flowing directly to your neocortex, which is where all of your creative thinking takes place. It’s no surprise why some of the most leading companies have introduced meditation in the workplace as a result:[12]
“The Walt Disney Company was an early adopter of meditation in the workplace, as they noticed a dramatic increase in creativity after employees meditated on creative solutions. General Mills is another company which reports improved innovation as a result of sitting in stillness and has meditation rooms available to their staff. Google has an in house mindfulness program called ‘Search inside Yourself’ and has built a labyrinth for mindful walking meditations.”
About 6.8 million Americans suffer from General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and even if you’re not one of them, chances are you at least worry about something on most days.
When worrying becomes a normal part of your daily life, it can take its toll on you and you find yourself losing sleep, being tense and have a racing mind that won’t sit still.
Meditation has been long established as an antidote for anxiety. Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist recruited fifteen healthy volunteers with normal levels of everyday anxiety to test out this theory.[13] The participants had no previous meditation experience. After engaging in four 20-minute mindfulness meditation classes, it was reported that anxiety was noticeably reduced in every session that they meditated.
The brain imaging scans taken of these individual revealed that meditation was providing anxiety relief by activating the anterior cingulate cortex which is one part of the brain that helps with the control of worry. Scans also revealed decreases in the grey matter of the amygdala which is the part of the brain that plays an important role in anxiety and stress.
Most of the neurons in your brain are contained within a portion known as grey matter. It’s within the grey matter where essential things such as memory, emotions, speech, decision making, and self-control take place.
After you reach 30-years-old, your brain begins to slowly shrink.[14] But evidence shows that those who keep their brain in shape by engaging in regular meditation practices can prevent the shrinking altogether.
One study from UCLA showed that in long-term meditators, age-related grey matter loss was less pronounced compared to those who didn’t meditate.[15] Brain scans of the participants who had been meditating for an average of 20 years even showed more grey matter volume throughout their brain than expected.
Cognitive flexibility is the vital function that’s been described as the ability to adapt behaviors in response to changes occurred in the environment.
Imagine if you started to live in a new country, your level of cognitive flexibility will determine how fast you can adjust to all the changes to your environment such as having the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car, learning the local language and figuring out the nuances of the new culture.
Meditators performed significantly better than non-meditators as examined in a study which brought participants through exercises that tested cognitive flexibility.[16] The study indicated that mindfulness is closely linked to improvements to cognitive flexibility.
So if you’re ever having trouble adjusting to a new situation, maybe a little meditation will solve your problem.
A research review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) of Internal Medicine in January 2014 showed meditation was about as effective as an antidepressant.[17]
Another study on mindfulness meditation published by psychologists from the University of Exeter found it to be better than drugs or counseling for depression.[18]They found that after four months of meditating, about 75% of patients felt well enough to stop taking antidepressants.
Even if you aren’t suffering from clinical depression, meditation will uplift your mood if you’re feeling down.
Mindfulness meditation has been shown in clinical trials to reduce chronic pain by 57 percent and that seasoned meditators can reduce it by over 90 percent.[19] Brain scan studies show that meditation can physically alter the structure of the brain so that it no longer feels pain at the same level of intensity.
Hospital pain clinics now prescribe mindfulness meditation to help patients suffering from all kinds of diseases such as cancer, arthritis and heart disease.
Just like many other studies researching meditation benefits, you can see the results of meditation within a short time frame even if you’ve never done it before.
Wake Forest University conducted a study that took 15 healthy participants and performed brain scans while inducing pain. A certified instructor took them through mindfulness meditation over the next four days and by the fifth day, there was about a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity ratings while they were meditating compared to when they weren’t.[20]
If you’ve ever found yourself giving into the temptations of eating that tub of ice cream when you’re on diet or lighting up that cigarette when you’re trying to quit, meditation might be the exact thing you need to give you that extra push of self-control.
In fact, meditation can even help people recover from various types of addictions. Meditation activates the anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex which are the parts of your brain related to self-control.
One study showed that smokers who were assigned to do 5 hours of meditation spread over two weeks showed a 60% reduction in smoking compared to the smokers who didn’t meditate.[21]
If you’ve ever experienced the pleasurable experience of the “runners high,” then you know what it feels like to have a release of endorphins in your brain. While endorphins are neurotransmitters that your body uses as a natural painkiller, it’s also responsible for the overall sense of happiness you sometimes feel.
When a study compared 11 elite runners and 12 highly trained meditators, results showed that both groups had noticeably elevated levels of endorphins after running and meditation. More interestingly, the pleasurable effects of endorphin release were measured in these groups and the meditation group scored higher.[22]
On top of all these amazing meditation benefits, meditation is easy to do and you can actually do it right now.
Here’s a very straightforward and simple step-by step instructions that you can immediately implement to start experiencing the benefits of meditation:
If you want some more live guidance or would love to learn more about meditation, Headspace is an amazing app that I use regularly. They do an amazing job of explaining what meditation is and walk you through how to do it even if you’re totally new to the concept.
The ultimate solution to being happier in life isn’t to try and make things easier, but to make yourself stronger. Meditation will develop the mental strength you need and lift your mood.
Imagine yourself starting your day feeling ready and prepared to take on what comes. Stress keeps knocking on your door but you let it right in and send it right back on its way out.
You’re able to stay focused on what matters to you most and you feel intimately connected with yourself again. You feel like you’re in your prime. You’re no longer a mindless zombie who’s going through life in a daze. You’re finally living instead of just existing.
So take a moment, practice being present and soak it all in. You’ve now just figured out how to keep your life beautiful.
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
Hi there. Time for action.
You are responsible for your health, so do good things for yourself.
I hope I can inspire you with this ordinary day in my life. This is what I do every morning except point 6 – 8. You have to have variaty in your training to train different kind of things in your body and also break patterns that will easily accur in each and every ones lives.
Sorry about the headless guy ;o). But it is not headless meditation. Focus on deep breathing and the same time feeling Mother Earth below you.
Stretching is very good for your body in the morning.
The last stretching exercise “pick apples” is in the right place ;o)
The next video is warm up with the sandbag. You must have a sandbag. It is just perfect training.
Now I am ready for the 1 km warm up before I begin the very hard training of WiseMovement Circle Crossfit series as you can see below.
After each of these stations I run 1 km with different kinds of run. Backwards, sidewards with armswing and crossing legs, high speed, low speed and up and down stairs. Then I am ready to do the circle crossfit again. This I will do four times this day.
After this it is time for the muscle stretching and 1 km slow run home for the breakfast. Well earned…..don´t you think ;o).
I wish you the best training. See you soon. More healthy :o).
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
Mindfulness- being completely present to the life you’re living and what you’re doing- is something that can’t be understated. Expanding your awareness changes every aspect of your life, in every way. It really is as simple as that. The more you do, the more you’ll discover your own unique peace and joy- and the more you’ll be able to let go of personal struggles.
Everything we do, even the smallest act, is noticed by those around us. Friends, family, coworkers, all imitate each other subconsciously and repeat these acts. In this way, we’re all interconnected. Because of this, by helping yourself you can create waves of influence in the world, expanding to each person you meet. You don’t need money or power…you just need to find yourself.
In Buddhism, it’s taught that compassion is a trait of a deeply developed human being. It’s easy to look at others and have contempt for their actions, or be upset with their life choices. After all, not everyone is perfect, and certainly not everyone is going to do thing how we’d like them to be done. But compassion means seeing beyond that and understanding people are on their own path- whether we like it or not. Moreover, most people are motivated by urges of past pain that they are not even aware of, and are trying to alleviate it. This kind of attitude creates peace within, and heal wounds that you may be hiding from yourself. Not only that, but it’s a powerful way to connect with others.
Giving isn’t just about the gifts we buy others at certain times of the year; it’s also about how we impact others lives. Compassion, presence, and love are all gifts that cost nothing, and will be rewarded by everyone around us. Life is a balance between giving and receiving.
In Buddhism, it’s taught that there are 3 main obstacles to finding happiness:
Every human being suffers from these 3 vices, and as a result humanity as a whole struggles to move forward. The more you work to let go of them, the more you’ll be able to find peace and influence the world for the better.
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
To study Buddhism is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self.
– Dogen Zenji
Defining Zen (禅) is like trying to describe the taste of honey to someone who has never tasted it before. You can try to explain the texture and scent of honey, or you can try to compare and correlate it with similar foods. However, honey is honey! As long as you have not tasted it, you are in the illusion of what honey is.
The same goes with Zen because Zen Buddhism is a practice that needs to be experienced, not a concept that you can intellectualize or understand with your brain. The information here won’t cover all of what of Zen is, but is a starting point to the Zen experience.
At the heart of the Japanese culture lies Zen, a school of Mahayana Buddhism. Zen is, first and foremost, a practice that was uninterruptedly transmitted from master to disciple, and that goes back to the spiritual Enlightenment of a man named Siddhārtha Gautama (Shakyamuni Gotama in Japanese) – The Buddha – 2500 years ago in India.
The practice of Zen meditation or Zazen (座禅 – za meaning sitting, and Zen meaning meditation in Japanese), is the core of Zen Buddhism: without it, the is no Zen. Zen meditation, is a way of vigilance and self-discovery which is practiced while sitting on a meditation cushion. It is the experience of living from moment to moment, in the here and now. It is through the practice of Zazen that Gautama got enlightened and became the Buddha.
Zazen is an attitude of spiritual awakening, which when practiced, can become the source from which all the actions of daily life flow – eating, sleeping, breathing, walking, working, talking, thinking, and so on.
Zen Buddhism is not a theory, an idea, or a piece of knowledge. It is not a belief, dogma, or religion; but rather, it is a practical experience that lies inside of you. You just have to open your mind and let your energy flow then ZEN will come to you.
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
Always on the move. Always on my way to achieve something. I set myself many goals. I want, I want, I want to have it, get it because it gives me prestige, acknowledgement and happiness. That is what I think, that is what I feel. But does it give me inner peace? Does it really give me real happiness, pleasure and peace in my soul?
…When we know how to take control over our emotions at this point, we are in control and have the ability to think clearly. This knowing and skill saves our health and gives inner peace. You can learn to take control.
A way to find that inner peace is to be good friends with your body. You have to learn to be 100% part of your body. Your body and soul has to be fully connected and work together. Therefore you have to find the FLOW with your body through different kinds of activities.
“You have a choice. Live or die. Every Breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be or not to be.”
Chuck Palahniuk
To get there you have to learn how to breathe right. Breathing is your anchor. Breathe as deep as you can and try to feel your whole body at the same time. Feel the great force your posses.
There is a way to access your inner peace instantly when you find yourself suddenly in a situation which makes you feel stressed, worried and overwhelmed. It is good to know that we have to think positive, however when your body is under pressure and tensed it is nearly impossible to access those ‘positive’ thoughts. As your breathing changes to shallow and blood doesn’t receive enough oxygen, your brain is not working clearly. Your body creates a state of emergency, this state is good when you have real danger in life, as it gives you strength to fight and defend yourself. However in today’s world we get this state too often and it just damages our health. In this short article, I’ll show you the way to access your inner peace instantly with a simple method of breathing. It will help you in difficult situations and give you power, clear mind and calmness to deal with the situation.
When we are suddenly faced with stressful emotions, where there is no real danger – we can apply these 2 STEPS:
1. Identify the way you breathe. There are 2 ways of breathing and I’ll give you the differences, so you can identify what way you are using.
2. Switch the Breathing. You will know how to switch your breathing and I’ll give you easy instructions, so you can practise.
…How to identify the way of breathing?
1. Stressful Way of Breathing.
When you breathe in, your chest rises and when you breathe out, it falls. As you are breathing using your chest muscles, it is tiresome and they can’t inflate the lungs as well as the diaphragm. And as your brain needs more oxygen in a stressful situation, to be able to think clearly, you start breathing much faster. This fast and shallow breathing actually is not helping you to get calm, it makes you more stressed and anxious. It seams that you are breathing in a way that there is not enough air available. At this same time your body produces poisonous chemicals, which accelerate aging, damages health and effects general well being.
2. Relaxed Way of Breathing.
When you breathe in your belly rises and when you breathe out – it falls. Long and deep breathing. You are using your diaphragm, which easily expands your lungs and you have enough oxygen, so you can think clearly and be calm. The rhythm of the breathing is steady. When you watch a baby sleep and you see the baby’s belly rising up when it breathes in, down when it breathes out. That is the relaxed way of breathing. The air is sufficient and the state of body is relaxed. You know already what it is and do it naturally when you yawn or sigh.
Pure joy of movement is how Debbie Hanoka describes salsa dancing. She says the energy of both the crowd and her partner help her stop thinking about what happened five minutes ago and get her to focus on what’s happening on the dance floor. “It feels like a rollercoaster where you don’t know what’s coming next so you just let it happen and go with it,” she says.
For those who can’t lose themselves in the pumping and pounding of cardio and weights, yoga offers the ultimate opportunity to experience a “be here now”-type mind-body connection. For Pip Coburn, a marathoner who’s recently turned to yoga for some balance in his workout routine, the flow in yoga is truly about being present in the moment. “There are times when I forget that there is anyone else in the class and all I hear is the instructor’s voice guiding me and encouraging me,” he says. “There is just this moment. And all’s right with the world.”
It makes sense that swimming and flow go together for so many people. You’re cushioned, soundproofed and soothed by the water. There’s no crowded fitness class to contend with—it’s just you slicing through the water. Cait Drap, a triathlete who trains with Full Throttle, the elite triathlon team at New York City’s Chelsea Pier’s Sports Center, says flow didn’t always come easily, but now she relishes her time in the pool. “Usually it takes a little warm up to get that feeling of flow,” she says. But when I reach it, I can stay there forever. Then it’s just kick, pull and go.”
Running is often referred to as a moving meditation. For people like Tina Gowin, an avid half marathoner, it’s almost hypnotic. “When I first started running, I was always very aware of every move my body made,” she remembers. “I worked on my form and at a certain point, my body learned a specific rhythm. I didn’t have to think about every move anymore. Now some of my runs feel more like a daydream, and I finish up thinking, ‘Wow, did I just do all that?’”
Placing one foot in front of the other is an easy way for just about anyone to achieve flow. While it’s possible to do this walking on flat pavement, Kathy Aleoba takes it one step further (so to speak) by hiking up steep mountain trails. Her flow comes from what she calls a “freedom of the hills.” She says: “There’s a moment where you let go and start to trust your feet. I stop overthinking everything and just feel the movement.”
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
Despite the aesthetically astonishing images of people bending their body into elaborate positions, the fascinating Instagram stories of sincere yoga practitioners, etc., the reality is you don’t have to be acrobatic or a contortionists to maneuver into yoga postures. In fact, enhanced flexibility is one of the primary aims of the art of yoga. Hence, you shouldn’t worry about not practicing yoga because you are not pliant.
The science of yoga is a holistic practice that lengthens the tissues and muscles of a body, reduces tensions as well as opens and mobilizes the joints to their optimal range of motion. The yoga practices make practitioners more tune and conscious of their body helping them spot the areas that require some release and extra attention.
There are a lot of yoga postures that a non-flexible person can start with in order to loosen up the stiff areas and to improve flexibility.
Here is a list of the best ten yoga poses for Non-Flexible People. Take a look at the steps and corresponding benefits of the yoga asanas.
Begin your yoga journey with this foundational pose and walk on the path of flexibility and the mind-body connection.
A powerful yoga asana for the beginners that strengthens the core and amplifies the flexibility.
A strengthening yoga posture that stretches the spine and enhances the flexibility of a body.
A great pose that creates joint stability alleviates muscle tensions.
Build balance, confidence, and center your mind with the practice of Vrksasana (tree pose).
This yoga asana opens the inner thighs and strengthens the legs.
Stretch, lengthen, and strengthen your body through the performance of Uttanasana.
A simple backbend yoga posture that is highly beneficial for the hips and hamstrings.
An excellent yoga posture that benefits the shoulders, upper back and arms. It releases tension held in shoulders and back.
A relaxing posture that equally stretches, lengthens, opens, and resets the whole body.
Don’t let inflexibility overpower you, instead delve into the practice of yoga and greatly enhance your flexibility and joint mobility.
https://diyactive.com/10-yoga-poses-for-non-flexible-people/
Love, Health And Wisdom
Brian
