The Benefits of Guided Meditation

Guided Meditation

Recently I have been getting so many messages about meditation that I finally just couldn’t ignore them and started meditating. I have tried meditating before and had a really hard time. I realized I was trying to do it on my own without a teacher. This often doesn’t go well when we are trying to learn something new. It was kind of like trying to teach yourself complex math with just a text book and no teacher (I should know; I have tried to do that before but that is another story). I have since discovered the benefits of guided meditation. In guided meditation you listen to someone who guides you through visualizations and relaxation techniques and for me this has made all the difference between failure and success. At some point I may be able to do meditation on my own without listening to an audio but for now, I am loving listening to them. 

The Benefits of Meditation

There are so many benefits to meditation and if you want to improve your life dramatically in a whole host of ways then there is no reason you should not be practicing meditation.

We live is such a stress oriented, active society but often we are working so hard to try to create a good quality of life but that are stressed in body in mind which is not a good quality of life. Meditation can help give us the perspective, peace, and focus we need to change our life in dramatic ways. I love this quote about meditation, “Meditate for an hour every day unless you are too busy. In that case meditate for two hours.” If you are so busy you can’t find an hour (or ten minutes) meditating can help you refocus and figure out how to work better and smarter. 

Here are a few benefits of meditation on health and wellness. The percentages are compared with non-meditators:

• More focus (10x)

• 75% less depression

• 30% less anxiety

• 65% more well-being

• 50% less disease

• Pain reduction

• Reduce alcohol and substance abuse

These statistics are from over 100 scientific papers on meditation. You can read more about this and download a free meditation guide here: http://liveanddare.com/benefits-of-meditation/

Practicing Meditation

There is a reason they call it practicing! Meditation is not easy at first but most people expect that it should be. It’s like any new kind of exercise program, its hard at first! And I really do think of this as an exercise program; it’s exercise for the mind. You wouldn’t expect to run a marathon without training so don’t expect yourself to be able to meditation easily without some practice first too. It sounds simple to sit and focus or not focus depending on how you look at it for a few minutes to an hour at a time, but it will feel hard at first and that’s ok. It’s called a practice for a reason because you do need to work at it. And there are many benefits from doing even if it seems like you are terrible at it at first. You may feel like you are doing anything but relaxing or emptying your mind or whatever. Do it anyway and after a period of time, your mind will quiet and you will feel peace. 

Here are a few tips for successful meditation practice:

• Find a peaceful and quiet place where you can relax without distractions 

• Get comfy (I like to lay down)

• Drink water so you are hydrated and not distracted before you start

• Have dim lighting or candle light to help your mind be less stimulated

• Listen to peaceful music or a guided meditation to help you start

• Don’t set expectations, just allow yourself to have the experience, whatever it needs to be

If you want to explore meditating, there are some great easy resources to do so. You can download my grounding and clearing audio meditation which helps you learn how to ground yourself and clear your energy field. There are also some great free guided meditations on Spotify’s Guided Meditation playlist. You can check that out for free here. Deepak Chopra has some great free ones as does Philip Permutt on that playlist so there is literally no reason not to try it. 

So I know that meditating can seem daunting but there are so many benefits if you can work through any resistance you have to it. There are literally so many benefits to it, it is silly not to at least try it .

Acid Addiction, The Hidden Addiction

I was recently had a huge realization that I have been addicted to acidic foods. For years I have been shifting and releasing certain foods and cleaning up my diet. What I now realize is that many of those foods and drinks had one thing in common and I just now made the connection. Nearly everything I have given up because it was making me sick has one thing in common; they are acidic. After doing a little research, I realized this is an incredibly prevalent problem. 

It all started when I was realizing that I was having cravings for carbonated water. I no longer drink caffeine, sugar or any sweeteners including fruit or vegetable juice so that eliminates most fun things to drink. I started drinking carbonated water assuming that is was a healthy option. I have been addicted to enough foods and drinks to recognize my addictive pattern when it rises up. Anytime we crave something, there is always an addictive component so I was surprised at how strongly I was craving soda water. So I did a little research and learned carbonated water is highly acidic. Since that is the only thing, aside from perhaps some salt or minerals that differentiates it from regular water, I started digging into the topic and did some research. What I learned shocked me. I learned that not only is carbonated water acidic, it is highly acidic. When I looked into what else is acidic, it turns out that some of the most acidic foods and beverages were things I had already given up. Even though I had noticeable digestive and systemic reactions to certain foods, they were pretty much all also acidic. So I came to the realization that I have been an acid addict and not the psychedelic kind but the kind that is in so many of our foods and drinks. Since I consider myself to be a fairly educated person on health, wellness, and nutrition, I decided that if I was didn't know about this, a lot of other people probably didn't either so I decided to write this to help educate people on the dangers of acidic food addiction and consumption.

Acidic Food Consumption Symptoms

The symptoms of an overconsumption of acidic foods and the resulting effect on the body (acidosis) are universally bad. They include:

• insomnia
• weight gain
• muscle atrophy
• bone density loss
• demineralization
• acne
• nausea and/or vomiting
• illness and disease
• cancer
• fatigue
• drowsiness
• brain fog and cognitive decline

I don't know about you, but none of those things are things that I want in my life. I had been feeling for some time like I was not as vibrant as I should be given my health regimen, diet, and lifestyle and when I pinpointed this issue, a lot of things suddenly made sense.  

I started drinking carbonated water more after I gave up liquor as it was a sort of fun drink I could have at a bar or restaurant that was not just plain water. I also started buying cans of La Croix because they were convenient to take on the road and were not plastic (which I try to avoid for numerous reasons). 

One thing that struck me about this realization is that when we have an addiction, the body and tries to satisfy it in a new way if the original source has been taken away. For example, if you are addicted to sugar, and you eliminate refined sugar from your diet, you may suddenly crave starches, grains, or fruit which processes to sugar in the body. So I was unknowingly falling into this trap when I gave up other acidic foods and started to consume a lot of sparkling water. 

Acidic Foods and Drinks to Avoid

Since I don't think many people think about the acidic content of their foods, here is a highly acidic food and drinks to avoid:

• dairy products
• bread and grain products
• most meat
• carbonated beverages
• alcohol
• peanuts
• caffeine
• table salt
• sugar and most sweeteners
• vinegar
• pickled foods
• canned or preserved foods

This list is basically a list of all of the foods and drinks that I have loved, consumed in large quantities, and then given up over the last several years. I just never made the connection that they had something in common. 

Other Contributors to an Acidic System

There are other lifestyle choices which will make your system more acidic and lead you to be less healthy. Here is a list of those contributors:

• cigarettes and tobacco and nicotine
• stress
• carbon monoxide
• lack of sleep or poor quality sleep
• most drugs including aspirin and opioids

Now most of these things are things we tend to recognize as being problematic health-wise. It is interesting to note that many of these are also highly addictive behaviors or substances individually so when you look at the acid correlation, it makes sense.

How to Reverse Acidosis

To reverse an overly acidic system (acidosis), there are several simple things you can do to regain your health. Most are simple changes and others simply require refocusing.

To alkalize your system, you can do the following:

• eliminate acidic food and drink from your diet
• ensure you have good sleep and sleep hygiene
• release stressful habits, patterns, and situations
• take small amounts of sodium bicarbonate (baking soday) daily
• drink lots of fresh, pure water (add fresh lemon if desired)

Please note that I highly recommend seeking the advice, guidance, and monitoring of a health professional or nutritionist to advise you.

I decided to write about this on my spiritual blog because if we aren’t doing well physically, we cannot do well spiritually. Eating an acidic diet causes brain problems and since our brain is like command central so for our bodies so if that isn’t doing well, we are not likely to be spiritually centered as well.

It came as a shock to me that almost all of the foods I was eating were acidic and causing a whole host of problems for me. No wonder even though I was eating organic food, I wasn’t feeling my best. I was eating a diet that was acidic without realizing and I think a lot of people do that same. I hope this information helps you! Best of luck on your health journey! 

You can read more about Laura Powers and her health and spiritual journey and tips on her website, www.healingpowers.net.