Imagery meditation

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Cooking Meditation as a Stress Relief Tool, Weight Loss Technique and Relationship Boost

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Do you like cooking? Do you cook at home for yourself or your loved ones? If your answer is yes, then there is always room for improvement to become a good stress free cook. If your answer is no, then let’s start cooking to reduce stress, lose weight, sleep better as well as lower our blood pressure and cholesterol level, prevent heart disease, reduce risk of cancer.

Meditation often involves turning attention to a single point of reference. Wikipedia

You might think that home cooking is complicated and time consuming. Not necessarily. It can be both a challenging and fun learning experience. Learning to cook as well as cooking by itself can be your meditation time if you put your mind into it.

Cooking Meditation as a Stress Relief Tool

1. The first step of meditation is concentration. In cooking meditation, you have to:

– pick the recipe or idea what to make,

– read the recipe carefully a couple of times,

– decide what to do first

– focus exclusively on making the dish without any distraction.

You maybe even have to repeat the ingredients a couple of times while you look for them in your fridge. Does it sound like meditation? Of course it does. Your mind is focused on preparing meal and distracted from all troubles and worries you have at the moment- refocusing helps you to relax and reduce stress.

2. Cooking consists of preparation time and cooking time. To have a stress free first cooking experience:

– pick your favorite veggies and put them together for a salad;

– add nuts, fruits, dry fruits (you don’t need cooking time – only preparation time to rinse, chop and mix all the ingredients).

– use olive oil as a simple dressing or try super healthy and easy to make Turmeric Dressing

– season with love and positive energy, and voila, you have created your own signature salad to impress your friends and relatives.

3. Another form of meditation is visualization. You can visualize what you want to prepare while you are in bed getting ready to sleep. Deep breathing and visualization of your future meal will help you calm down, relax, and sleep better.

If you want to reach your goals, you have to take one step at a time. To become a good and stress free cook, try to master the dishes you like with one recipe at a time.

Remember: home cooking can help you reduce stress and sleep better as well as improve your relationship with food and significant other.

P.S. For more tips on healthy cooking click to listen to my guests on “Feel and Look Fabulous with Irina”, radio show for women.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

Posted in Headache Migraine Relief, Healthy Relationship and Sex, Prevent Cancer, Stress Relief | No Responses »
Tags: Home Cooking, Imagery meditation, Meditation, Stress reief technique, visualization

Food Meditation as a Stress Relief Tool and Weight Loss Technique

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

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To gain the wisdom, and healing power and benefits of organic food, try this visualization exercise I adopted from the book Food as Medicine by Dharma Singh Khalsa. I call it food meditation. It will help you learn to relax which is very important not only for proper work of our metabolism but also to help you fall asleep fast. Visualization is a very powerful tool, so you can start using it right now, even before you eat organic. eat organic foods

Come to a comfortable seated position. Inhale and exhale through your nose, a few times, and allow yourself to completely relax. In your mind’s eyes, focus on your typical dinner plate. Visualize what you eat on an average day.

Is your plate mostly covered by an animal protein such as red meat, or do vegetables take up most of the plate?

Notice the color. Smell the aromas. Feel the texture of he food in your mouth, and taste the flavors. Is your plate absolutely healthful, or is there room for improvement?

Meditate on the changes you would like to incorporate into your plate to make it a perfectly healthful one.

Now, inhale through your nose, hold your breath for a moment or so, and let the breathe go out easily through your nose. Drift into an even more relaxed state of mind.

Now visualize the perfect plate for you. Perhaps, it will contain soy, for protein, in the form of tofu or a soy burger, or maybe grains, beans and nuts. If you eat meat, see only a small portion of chicken, or fish, and a larger amount of fresh raw, or slightly steamed vegetables. flow

Visualize the colors. See the orange of carrot, the red of beets, the dark green of kale, the pale green of broccoli, and the off-white of cauliflower. What colors are on your ideal plate?

Visualize a small portion of grains-perhaps, a bed of fluffy brown rice with sliced mixed vegetables. Finally as you sit, still very relaxed, see the size of your portions becoming appropriate to your physical activity level.

When you have let the picture of your perfect plate sink into your mind and it feels easy, peaceful, and effortless there, take a deep breath. Hold the breath as you stretch your arms up above your head, and then lower them as you exhale through your nose and relax. Enjoy the new awareness of your perfect plate.

This is just one of my stress reducers and holistic tips to lose weight, which I hope will be a ble to use to learn to relax. Let me know how it works for you.

P.S. For more tips listen to my guests on “Feel and Look Fabulous with Irina” Radio Show for Women.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

Posted in Benefits of Whole Foods, Healthy Recipes, Podcast, Stress Relief | 1 Response »
Tags: Imagery meditation, Meditation, Sleep, stress relief technique, Weight Loss Tips and Recipes, Whole Foods

Seven Minute Water Bubble Meditation to Beat Winter Blues and Have a Healthy Heart

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

February is a Healthy Heart Month to remind us to take care of our heart. The first step to a healthier heart is to reduce stress. I would like to share with you an imagery meditation called Water Bubble Meditation I learned form Barbara Knobova, a relationship coach while interviewing her on my Radio Show for Women “Feel and Look Fabulous with Irina” I hosted on BlogTalkRadio. Barbora gave us lots of tips on how to learn self-love, get rid of abusive relationship, deal with break-ups for our benefits, advantages of female frinedship and more. Click here to listen to our talk, in case you have missed it.

Turn on the video with Ocean Waves sound. Sit or lie down, be comfotable, feel comfortable.

Close your eyes, listen to the sound of the ocean and imagine yourself in the middle of the ocean, submerged in water, surrounded by bubbles. Every water bubble is a problem you have, a pain you feel, a painful emotion you feel in your heart. First, you are surrounded by lots of bubbles, they are everywhere. But with every breath you take imagine that bubbles start dissapearing, they are going way one by one and you are in the pieceful water. You are feeling more and more relaxed, more in piece and balance.

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Breathe, smile and be happy.

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert

NaturalCounselor.com

Posted in Feel Sexy, Stress Relief, Video Blogging | 1 Response »
Tags: Healthy Heart, Imagery meditation, Meditation, Water meditation

Take a Break and Relax with Butterflies

Friday, November 14th, 2008

Are you tired? Feel stressed out? How about tension in back of neck or head?

Why not take a break and relax for a couple of minutes.

There are a lot of variations of basic meditation. One of them suggests sitting for a couple of minutes doing nothing but being aware of our breathing. Just sit still for a moment inhaling slowly through your nose, then exhaling long through your mouth.

You can also use imagery meditation sitting quietly and picturing some place, thing, or activity that makes you feel calm.

When you daydream, watch a bird in flight, stare up at the clouds, enjoy the ocean or a beautiful flower, your mind is fixed on one thought and that is a form of meditation, one of the powerful relaxation techniques.

Study shows that meditation changes blood flow to the brain and decreases anxiety while it improves other mental functions.

Take a look at these beautiful pictures taken by my son’s girlfriend while visiting North America‘s largest enclosed butterfly conservatory at Niagara Falls. Aren’t they amazing? Enjoy looking at the buttrflies as long as you feel like. It will help you to relax and boost your immune system which is very important during cold and flu season. And don’t forget to