Category: Health and Self Care
Mid-Life’s Sacred Passage: How to Ascend Higher When Your Body Whispers Change
Many of us come to this practice of meditation with a proactive spirit, seeking deeper insights into the journey of life even before the clouds of challenge begin to form. That’s a beautiful, advanced stage of spiritual evolution! Just as a seasoned mariner studies the far-off weather patterns, let’s look with clear eyes at the major health shifts that middle age (40-60) often brings, and, more importantly, how a focused spiritual practice is the long-term solution for not just coping, but flourishing.
Last week, we wrote to you about some of the pressing problems faced by many of us. This week, we launched our online workshops, starting with strategies to combat health challenges as our first topic.
What worries middle aged people in America the most
Our quest at Sahaja Online has always been to provide a unique experience and more importantly, information and assistance that helps us naturally lead a spiritual lifestyle in today’s challenging world with so many distractions and tensions.
Learning how to meditate or techniques is just the beginning, we focus on adopting and orienting ourselves spiritually, so that both our lives and the practice of meditation can be effortless, so to speak. Feel like a breeze, in other words.
But that’s easier said than done, as most of you will appreciate. Consistency and persistence are truly the traits that will help us get there. And so, all you need to do is stay tuned and take the journey with us.
With decades of the practice of Sahaja, our belief is that success in one’s meditation practice should ultimately reflect in two important areas – our behavior should reflect the traits and the calming benefits helping face every situation in our life with ease. Second, it should provide a ready tool for us to solve every problem in our lives and guide us in the right direction.
So, not unsurprisingly, we decided to use AI to tell me the most pressing problems of middle aged people in America today. Here’s what ChatGPT said.
The best way to overcome tiredness
Relax, take it easy, get some rest, they’ll say. As meditation practitioners, we can certainly do something much better and specific than that.
We feel tired because our attention within us is tired, and we cannot cope and take it anymore. Ever notice how you feel tired or lacking motivation even when you haven’t exerted yourself physically or mentally?
When we keep our attention fresh, recharged, and raring to go, we can cope with nearly any level of physical or mental exertion.
The secret to having lots of energy is to work on our attention, cleanse it, and recharge it frequently.
Let’s examine how meditation can help with this.
Meditation – The Perfect Aide to a Weight Loss Program
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68% of Americans are overweight, and more than a third are obese. That is a lot of people who are potentially looking for solutions to lose weight and get fitter.
But, more recently and importantly, with the world being upended with Covid-19, the CDC states the following:
- Having obesity increases the risk of severe illness from COVID-19. People who are overweight may also be at increased risk.
- Having obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection
While the myriad of solutions and options for this are mind-boggling, a successful weight loss program is a combination of multiple facets that need to be followed with discipline – optimal diet, cardiovascular and strength training and staying active. In addition, the invisible factors in the success of such programs are subtle – they deal with motivation, accountability, and perseverance, amongst many others.
Meditation scores heavily in subtler areas along with scientifically backed research supporting its role in the primary weight loss facets or levers. It can be the central guiding force that makes a weight loss program successful.
Let’s see how.
Meditation can help get through social distancing
Last week, we talked about how social distancing has a silver lining and could be used to change your life positively in many ways.
But for those of us who are struggling with many problems in life, including financial, health, or family-related brought about by the pandemic of the century, meditation can be a massive help in getting through this period.
We examine some specific meditation-related methods for overcoming the stress and loneliness that forced social distancing can bring in our lives.