Meditation has an almost infinite number of benefits for us humans. But what is meditation, really? And how does practicing it achieve all of these supposedly amazing things? If you’ve ever struggled with meditation, or never tried it at all, it’s probably pretty easy to discount it (it was for me). But this might make you take another look at it, so you can finally attain some of those advantages for yourself.

In general, what we call ‘meditation’ can be broken down into three basic categories.

1. The technique, or ‘human technology’ of your practice.
2. The meditative state itself.
3. The opened conscious awareness as a result of cultivating the meditative state over time.

Technique

There are many, many meditative techniques to choose from. Most of them have been developed and perfected over many thousands of years by yogis, masters, and other spiritual seekers. These techniques are the tools that allow us to meditate, they are not meditation in and of themselves.

All the technologies involve body relaxation and mental discipline. Because if you’re not in charge of your mind, your mind will have complete control of you ~ a common state of being for non~meditators.

You might like to meditate by reciting a silent mantra. You could focus on a candle flame, or Buddha statue. You could focus on the spacial relationship of your body and the universe, or simply observe the thoughts and breathe them along. There are many techniques, but each technique is just a method by which we can reach the meditative state itself.

The Meditative State

Depending on many individual factors, it might take a beginner meditator anywhere from a year, to 20 years to perfect their meditation technique. Perfecting that technique will allow them to enter into this second phase, the actual meditative state. (Don’t be discouraged if you think you are in the “20-year camp.” There are some things you can do to accelerate the process).

The meditative state is scientifically defined by the brainwaves that the meditator is generating.

The human brain is generating brainwaves every moment of every day of our lives. Brainwaves are the electrical impulses that are picked up and measured by sensors placed on the scalp and are divided up into ranges that define physiological human states of mind and body. Here is a brief breakdown:

1. Beta ~ 12-30 Hz (cycles per second). Regular waking consciousness takes place for the most part in the beta range. When the brain is generating these brainwave frequencies, it is externally focused and alert, utilizing critical thinking. When we get fearful or stressed, we generate even higher frequency beta waves and the body goes into fight-or-flight mode, and releases large amounts of stress hormones.

It wasn’t always like this. Human beings didn’t conduct their daily lives amped up on the brain chemicals of high-beta, of fight or flight response at all times like we do today. Rather, we could slip into that mode when it was appropriate, to flee a bear or to attack that evenings dinner… But to exist in that state all the time has some highly adverse effects on the human nervous system, not to mention emotional and mental state.

Unfortunately, today humanity is in a constant and habituated high~beta state. Stressed out and highly strung. Every panic at work results in the same rush of stress chemicals we’d experience if we were being chased by a tiger. Difference being, we don’t get to run off and utilize those chemicals any more. We sit at the office stewing while the chemicals build up, accumulating and doing damage to our bodies.

Next is low beta. Same states of thinking, but slightly less stress chemicals. What’s the alternative? You’ve probably already guessed that meditation relaxes you and gets you out of high beta. So what happens in meditation?

2. Alpha ~ This brainwave range is between 8-12 Hz. The first stages of actual meditation. When this is dominant, you will experience a comfortable state of relaxation, a lessening of critical thought, and an increase of creative imagination. To go fully into it, you will lose awareness of the passage of time and space to a degree, and experience your own rich inner world. You activate the healing process, access higher states of spiritual connectedness, and feel more compassion for your fellow humans.

3. Theta ~ 4-7 Hz. The only chance most modern people get to experience this state is in passing; on their way to sleep, or in REM sleep. It’s the twilight state between consciousness and sleep. But when you experience this state consciously, magic happens. It is the creative ‘holy grail,’ a state so fertile and creative that you can channel the wisdom of the universe through it. It is the state in which all humanity’s inventors, artists and genius’s get all their original ideas, and all saints commune with god. Pretty powerful stuff.

4. Delta ~ 0.1-4 Hz. Ordinarily experienced as deep, dreamless sleep. We release healing and restorative hormones and other chemicals during this state. Only very advanced masters can go into this state and remain conscious. Delta is the seat of the autonomic system, and in the deepest of meditation, the universal mind.

Conscious Awareness

After you have mastered a technique, that allows you to enter a meditative state, then you will begin to expand your conscious awareness.

You will also start to bring with you some of those qualities from Alpha (from your meditation) into your waking life. You’ll experience the world with less stress and more health and vitality. Imagine being in charge of your own mind and emotional states, being able to create the exact life you want, and live it with passion!

That’s what I want for my subscribers and my clients.

All of the ancient traditions have a variation on the following basic premise: We all live in a world of illusion. This illusion, (Sanskrit: maya) is created by our own minds. When we start to expand our conscious awareness through the meditative state, we ‘clean the dust off the mirror of our perception’ and get closer to experiencing reality directly. We have built our own maya unconsciously. Only through conscious expansion can we destroy it. And that is the aim: destruction of the false. 

When there are no unconscious fears holding us back, when there are no limiting beliefs, when there are no barriers to block us from life, we are free. Free in the moment to respond consciously, rather than to react negatively, unconsciously and automatically.

We gain choice! We are free to decide, and to act truly spontaneously.

Now, I do not claim to be at that stage of my development! That is called enlightenment. And no matter how much we try, no matter how much we desire, we cannot attain enlightenment. We can only prepare for it. And prepare we must, because it elevates our lives from conditioning, from control and from bondage. Preparation through meditation or yoga strengthens your mind, your body, and your soul. And maybe one day we will be blessed by grace.

But in the meantime, I for one am enjoying the process and the journey. Of experiencing my life improve, and the lives of those around me improve, because of my practice, my increasing awareness. And day by day, the freer I am to express my Self, to experience my connection with the universe, and to create the reality I desire for myself. What would you do with this power?

What is Meditation? Recap

So, we’ve learned that meditation is really the brain state that you experience after you have perfected a technique. And all of those wonderful benefits of conscious awareness are only gained after we spend time in that state. But what if you are one of the many people who can’t devote 20 years to perfecting a technique?

A lot of people have a genetic predisposition to fast thinking, beta brainwave production. Others are so habituated into the state, that it’s literally impossible to get into the meditative state by using a traditional meditation technique.

I was certainly one of those people. Here’s how I skipped over technique, and got straight into the state.

How to Shave 20 Years from Your Journey (or How to Jump into the Meditative State Now)

After around 6 or 8 months of learning to meditate (learning a traditional technique), I had my first experience of bliss. You might have read on my blog that that experience only lasted less than a second, but it was proof that it was working, and that eventually I could cure my depression. But at that rate, it really would have taken me 20 years of suffering.

I began to delve into neuroscience research, and spiritual teachings. And what I found really got me excited. It turns out that it is possible to stimulate the brain through a non-invasive technology to encourage it to produce any desired brainwave state.

Set the stimulation for 10 cycles per second, and you get an alpha meditation. Slowly drop it down to 8, 6, 3, and you can go even deeper than even an experienced meditator. All without a technique. You replace the ‘human technology’ with an audio technology. This was perfect for me. The technology was meditating me.

The technology works very much like a tribal dance. Drumming, chanting, and dancing all at a particular frequency encourages the brain to ‘beat’ in that same rhythm. Those trance-like states occur around 10 beats per second, resulting in an alpha brain state in the participant.

So, I experimented with some of the commercially available products, and spent quite a few thousand dollars trying each one and evaluating the results. One stood out as the best, but it still had its limitations and downsides.

But I couldn’t help thinking that I could overcome some of the limitations of the other products. So I began to develop my own. During this time I quickly recovered from my depression, and my life started to make sense again. I began to create my life as I wanted it to be. I installed my own EEG monitoring equipment and set it up to test every aspect of my own meditation product. Crazy? Yes! But, effective

Fast forward four years, and many thousands of dollars of development, and my own unique meditation product is ready for release. I’ve enhanced all the positive elements, and ironed out the limitations. I’m living proof of its effectiveness, and I’d love you to gain all the benefits that I have.

To find out more, and even try it for free, click here.

If you’re really serious about your growth, and want to accelerate your personal development, then this is for you. It’s the whole foundation of what I’m trying to do with this website: accelerated development, the very thing that’s allowed me to grow much faster from a very, very low starting point. From incessant and compulsive monkey mind~chatter, to a deep sense of peace and calm. From anxiety and fear, to passion and love.

If you’ve had trouble meditating, or just want to accelerate and deepen your current practice, you can start enjoying the emotional, physical and spiritual benefits of the deep meditative state instantly the very first time you use my Accelerated Meditation.

So, try it free now. And let me know what you think.

In this first free guided meditation video, I take you through the exact simple steps of how to meditate.

But in addition to that, I also teach what meditation is, a major misconception, and why meditation is a massively self-destructive force (watch the video for why). And of course, how to use it to open up those gaps between thoughts ~ to reveal your own bliss and joy that resides there.

Before you play the video, I would suggest to you to take this very seriously. Don’t just play the video for a few seconds to see my winning personality , but really make sure to block out the time to do this. Play the whole thing. Because, once you have watched the video, and followed along with me,  you will be able to take what you learn and meditate every single day from now on.

Free Guided Meditation #1

Here are the ingredients:

• A quiet place to sit for 15 minutes
• A distraction free environment
• An upright, comfortable sitting posture

The Meditative Experience

As I was recording this meditation for you I experienced a very profound and “deep” state of being. I felt my “heart center” open, and a very warm tingling throughout the body. Occasional tingles would run up my back, and gently reverberate downward again. It was a peaceful and joyous experience.

BUT, I have had equally important meditations where I felt the exact opposite of this. I’ve felt impatient, uncomfortable, even angry during meditation. Just know that whatever you might feel during meditation is fine. Just observe it, and allow it to be.

If you do experience any so-called “undesirable” or “negative” sensations, it’s most likely your mind fighting you back. It’s unwilling to submit to your command, having been so used to controlling you for all these years. You are in control. Sit with the feelings, and accept them as happening. Sit. Breathe. Relax.

It’s all part of the journey.

How did you go?

When you have completed the meditation, please share with us how you went with it. I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below. And for more practical information, you can go to my meditation page.

What Will Smith Can Teach Us About Success

Will Smith has a very physical and palpable excitement for life. You can see it clearly in the video. It’s contagious and it makes him interesting to watch. No wonder he’s a movie star. That passion is magnetic. But what else about him contributed to his success? Let’s look at what Will believes about himself, the universe, and other people.

Clarity of Belief

Will believes that the seed of greatness exists in all of us. That he controls his own destiny. Because without this none of his achievements would be possible.

He believes this so strongly that he’s even willing to die for it. There is no confusion in his mind about who he is and what he believes – in fact, that’s all he needs to know. Think about the clarity and confidence that is necessary for him to believe that. His mind is clear, and he has faith in his ability to take action.

Simplicity

He recognizes that human beings try to complicate things. “It can’t be that easy,” they say. But he believes that it is. Don’t over-complicate things.

Origins and Free Will (pun only half intended)

Where you start doesn’t matter. Growing up, Will Smith knew he was on a path to something greater. But clearly, he didn’t take anything for granted, expected no handouts, and worked extremely hard to create his life.

Talent Verses Skill

Will knows the difference between talent and skill. Talent is a natural gift, where skill needs to be mastered over years of discipline and practice. He doesn’t consider himself particularly talented, instead his distinction is his work ethic. He’s willing to put in the time and sickening effort to develop his skills. And it’s the skills that are important.

He places massive emphasis on developing skill. Only way to do that is to work at it. And the longer and harder you work at it, the better you will be at being able to communicate your talent and art and achieve what you want.

Define Your Standards

Will drew a line in the sand for himself: In his treadmill example, he says it will end in one of two ways. “You’re getting off first, or I’m gonna die.” That is the extent of his dedication.

Impossible is Nothing

When Will was 12, his father tore down a wall in front of his business and told Will and his brother to rebuild it. A huge task by anyone’s standards. A year and a half later, they’d done it. His father then told them, “Now, don’t you ever tell me there’s something that you can’t do.”

So, don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say that you’re going to build the greatest wall that’s ever been built. Instead, you say, “I’m going to lay this brick, as perfectly as a brick can be laid.” Done every single day, soon you will have a wall.

There is so much to takeaway from this lesson. First, do your best in the eternal moment of now. Have a direction but, be present in what you are doing now. Second, your true output and creativity can only come to fruition through consistency of effort. This builds long-term thinking/planning, and conditions you against the hollow feelings of instant gratification.

Make a Difference for the Better in People’s Lives

If you’re going to be here on this planet, you have a spiritual responsibility to make a difference for the better. Every group you come in contact with should be uplifted for having met you. Be a fountain, not a drain.

He wants his life to mean something, and for the world to be better because he was here. Your life will become better by making other peoples’ lives better.

What’s Your Vision?

Will’s vision is a noble one. He wants to represent an idea, represent possibilities to other people. He fervently believes that he can create whatever he wants to create, and wants to inspire others to think and do the same so they too can have success.

Step one before anything else, is that you have to believe in what you want to do. “There’s no point in having a plan B, because it distracts from plan A.”

Get Real

“Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.” Doing what everybody else does, will get you the same results as everybody else. The second he decides on what he’s going to do, he sees it as already done. Decide on what you want, then walk your own path.

As soon as you think that “unrealistic” idea, you’ve made it real. Thoughts and ideas are physical. “The world is not something that’s there to push us around, rather I’m here to bend the universe into creating what I want.”

We are not at the effect end of the cause/effect spectrum. We are at the cause end – if we decide to be. And decisions are opportunities for redemption. Forget everything that has gone before, take responsibility for this moment, take responsibility for your life from this moment, and decide who you’re going to be, what you want, and how you’re going to do it.

From that point of decision, the universe will rally behind you and cause things to line up and help your actions.

Focus

Dissipation of your efforts is the enemy of success. Focus your attention like a laser on what you want, and dedicate all your time and effort to that.

Fear

Use the feeling of fear to motivate yourself. Attack those things that you are afraid of. Face your fears, and take action through the feelings. So you’re not only conquering your fears, but building the feelings of success in everything you do.

What Are You Going to do Now?

It’s obvious from Will’s interviews that he’s given a lot of thought to his personal development, his beliefs and his vision for his own life. But what about yours? Are you as clear in your mind about who you are? About what you want to create in this life? About how you’re going to make others’ lives better? I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments below.

For more about Will Smith’s Secrets to Success click here.

What We Can Learn From A Productive (and Inspiring) Creator

Wow, I stumbled across this today and was really impressed. Here’s a guy who is dedicated to the output of his creativity. Ze Frank is incredibly productive, but by his own admission, is fallible and human. Of course he is, all the greats are, and so is everyone else. But isn’t that his point? Even the greats and high-achievers have trouble with motivation, and starting, and following through. Is what makes great people great, just doing what the rest of us don’t? Is there hope for us? Do we all have greatness inside? You probably know my answer to this (YES!). But we have to do what Ze is telling us in his inspiring piece of video art. Let’s look closer at what’s going on:

Don’t Be Afraid of ‘Jumping the Shark’

When Happy Days was nearing the end of its plausible storylines, Fonzy literally had to ‘jump a shark’ on water skis to keep the viewers interested. It became a film & TV in-joke, that when a show has run out of ideas and creativity, they have to come up with some spectacle to keep their audience. But it’s the death knell. No creative person wants to risk jumping the shark, because they will be the laughing stock of their peers, desperate and alone. If the Fonz couldn’t keep cool, how could you? But by being afraid of it, we are more likely to attract it. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and creativity dries up anyway, and we’re done. So, we can’t be afraid, we just have to go for it, and trust our inspiration, talent, and our skills. We all hate starting something, we just gotta bust through and do it!

I don’t want to start. But I will. This is an invocation for anyone who hasn’t begun, who’s stuck in a terrible place between zero and one.

Nothing is Perfect

Perfectionism does not equal perfection. As a reformed perfectionist, I know this only too well. It’s like a disorder, where you are paralyzed by an imaginary fear that whatever you do won’t be good enough, and the only disguise is arrogance and snobbery.

Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes, but he’s a little bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parties.

Perfection be damned. Get to work, use your talents and skills to consistently build bit by bit. And get yourself a swimsuit.

Be In The Now, and Love Your Tribe

Ze loves his viewers. I mean it. What he achieves can only be possible by being in love with them, and being in love with the work he creates forthem.

Let me not think of my work only as a stepping stone to something else. And if it is, let me become fascinated with the shape of the stone.

If you want to make an impact, Create a vision around your tribe. And grow your tribe.

Remove Distractions

Let me not hit up my Facebook like it’s a crack pipe … keep the browser closed.

I love the truth behind that statement. We are not infallible and shouldn’t be expected to be impervious to temptation. So remove it, and you won’t be distracted. Get the job done.

What did you think of Ze Frank on productivity, creativity and inspiration?

UPDATE: Watch the rare video at the end of this post of Jobs talking about his vision of reality and the personal limits that we accept. Best 46 seconds you’ll spend today!

This is a follow up post to Unlocking Your Intuition, which shows you a method of expanding your intuition. You can read it here.

At the moment, I’m reading Walter Isaacson’s book, Steve Jobs. And though I’ve read three other books about Jobs, I really like the depth this one goes into, the author having had ready access to the subject himself.

I won’t spoil the story for you, but one small part really stood out to me that I had to share and talk about it. Steve went on a spiritual journey to India when he was 19, and came back with some fascinating insights about intuition (emphasis added).

Steve Jobs’ Intuition

“The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.

Western rational thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and is the great achievement of Western civilization. In the vilages of India, they never learned it. They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable but in other ways is not. That’s the power of intuition and experiential wisdom.

Coming back after seven weeks in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the Western world as well as its capacity for rational thought. If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things–that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and  you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.“

There is power in those words. Jobs clearly learned that only when we quiet the chattering monkey mind is there silence enough to hear the truth in the moment, and utilize intuition for the betterment of the world.

Imagine what you could create and achieve if you could summon your intuition and inspiration at will? Intuition is yours to develop.

Jobs also emphasizes practice and discipline! Whatever method you choose to practice on your path, (yoga, meditation, mindfulness, neuro-feedback) you must commit to it and make it a part of your life.

Steve Jobs effectively reshaped our world and he’s obviously an extraordinary case, with infinite factors lining up to contribute to his success. But his questioning of the universe, and his dedication to personal development and spiritual enlightenment, would surely have played a very large factor in his achievements. If each one of us could use just a tiny proportion of the spiritual power Steve did, imagine the ‘dent’ we could all put in the universe!

I’m convinced that these powers are in every one of us, latent. Never to be used unless sufficiently called on by desire, or adversity, or a passionate mission to enhance the lives of others. Steve Jobs sure did. Will you?

Click on the image to zoom in.

How I Structure My Personal Development Plan

I‘ve got a couple of emails lately about how I structure my overall plan for my own development. Although I have a vision statement, goals, an action plan, and a to-do list, I have to admit that I didn’t really have a concrete breakdown of the structure.

So I started sketching out the “big picture.” Pretty soon, I’d gotten way, way too deep into the details and had to remind myself to pull back and chunk up to the big-picture structure and stick to the structure.

The result is my personal development plan sample, shown above. It starts with three main branches:

1. Body
2. Mind
3. Spirit

Body

I put body first in the priorities because here in the physical realm, our whole experience as human beings has a physical foundation. Our ability to do anything, including using the mind, and having spiritual experiences is dependent on the body.

You can’t fully experience your True Self if you mistreat your body with bad (non-)food, or don’t exercise. So in my plan, the next two layers are:

1. Nutrition
2. Exercise

I eat an exclusively whole foods, organic (where possible), mostly vegetarian diet. I also partake in cleanses and detoxification. I’m also going to experiment with a completely raw diet in the coming months. My fiancee is a whole foods expert and wonderful chef, so I’m well looked after there. If you want more info, I’d recommend you check out Sally Fallon for conscious nutrition as well as Don Tolman.

My exercise regime consists of high-intensity, short duration weights (kettle bells) and body-weight workouts. I’ve gotten the best results from doing the bodyrock.tv 30-day challenges (they’re great fun, and free).

Mind

I put “Mind” next because it is only through mastery of mind can we truly experience Self, bliss and at-one-ment. In my own personal development plan sample, this is where I spend most of my time and energy. In this category I have:

1. Meditation
2. Mind Mastery and Education
3. Bio-feedback brain-training

If you’ve been reading my blog for any time now, you know how much I love meditation. It is the path of least resistance toward clearing out the false in one’s conception of reality. It eventually leads to pure experiences of reality such as true love, bliss, presence, pure consciousness and compassion ~ all root feelings without opposite.

What I call Mind Mastery is all the learning that I do that relates to mind, psychology, spirituality, practical philosophy, and neuroscience. When you begin to learn how the brain functions and how the mind organizes things, it speeds up the results of your meditation. The cognitive learning seems to speed up the intuitive and experiential wisdom.

For example, knowing that the brain tends to create, attract, or be attracted to the object of focus, you can train yourself to only think of the things you want, and keep it off those that you don’t want. As a consequence, your reality reflects those things that you prefer in life, over what you don’t.

It also includes becoming crystal clear on your own goals, beliefs (especially those limiting ones), values, strategies and meta-programs. Attaining mastery means eliminating limitations, fears, and anything else that holds you back from your dreams and potential as a human being.

Here’s the secret-sauce: Bio-feedback brain training. In my quest, I became very interested in learning what spiritually enlightened masters were doing with their brainwaves. Research shows that if you can generate similar brainwave patterns, you can experience similar states of being. That was very attractive to me, so I bought specialized EEG equipment and got intensive training.

I now have an advanced meditation session where my own brain-states are ‘fed back’ to my awareness, so I can train closer and closer to the desired states. I read that after a session, a Zen Roshi remarked that this technology would shave 20 years from a students practice. Are you starting to see why I named this site Accelerate Me?

This equipment has also allowed me to develop and test specialized guided meditation recordings that achieve unprecedented levels of consciousness in the listener.

Spirit

Spirit I left for last. We are all energetic, spiritual beings having a physical experience here in this reality. While we are here it is our responsibility to live life to our fullest potential, with love and compassion for others. We are a fractal sliver of the universe, experiencing itself in a life filled with wonder and surprise.

To experience reality, unencumbered by the false, is our highest purpose. And for each of us, that is unique.

Personal Development Means Living Life to the Fullest

In writing your own personal development plan, remember to keep it ‘big picture.’ Chunk it up like mine and keep it simple. You might have different values and different ways of categorizing each element, but so long as it resonates with you, then you’re on the right track.

Want to stop procrastinating once and for all? Here’s a quick tip that actually works.

Firstly, why do we so often fail at controlling our procrastination? There’s something we want to get done, and more often than not, we’ll allow ourselves a moment of distraction. That moment turns into hours, and by the end of the day that action item is left unchecked.

Well, it’s obviously something that we are doing internally, that makes us procrastinate. Perhaps there is fear attached to that thing we have to do? Like writing a speech you have to give publicly, or preparing for a meeting with the boss.

Or maybe it’s simply that we just don’t like to do that thing? Do you know anyone who actually likes preparing their tax returns? No matter what the action item is, there are going to be a ton of them in our lives, so we better equip ourselves with some tools to manage, if not downright eliminate, procrastination.

Everyone does it, and I was no exception. Full disclosure, I still procrastinate sometimes, but nowhere near the amount I used to. And using this tactic I’m actually fairly productive now

So, what’s the cure doc?

We know from our meditation to let things be as they are. This is acceptance and surrendering to reality. So let’s try a little experiment. I did. And it’s been working a treat for years.

Procrastination Activities

Plan your day as you normally would. You have your to-do list of action items, or schedule of events for the day. But now, you are going to add some things.

Add in your favorite “procrastination activities.” If you can’t keep away from your email inbox, book in a half hour before lunchtime, and a half hour at, say, 4:30 pm. (Okay, if you’re a real email addict add another 30 minutes in there somewhere, but I suggest you get some help with your inbox!) Add in anything that you do to procrastinate during the day.

• Coffee breaks
• Random paperwork
• Reading the paper
• Facebook
• Web surfing
• Watching TV
• Cigarette breaks (another one to seriously consider dropping completely)
• Snacking

If you do any of these things you can see how enjoyable they might be. Also, how completely useless and unnecessary.

The point is to schedule these things in, and follow your bookings. Make specific times for these activities and stick to them. Don’t do them all in a row, but put them between your productive tasks.

In order to commit to all the things you need to do to procrastinate, you are likely to see and feel how wasteful these activities are. Your productive time is being squeezed, and you are wasting your life. And all for what? To delay doing something that might be a little uncomfortable? To put off what you think might scare you? To distract you from your life?

Hard work often pays off over time, but laziness always pays off now.

~ Anon.

If you’re a particularly bad procrastinator, this exercise might bring you to the conclusion that you’re in the wrong business or job. You aren’t enjoying what you’re doing. So, the solution for you might be to find something else entirely, something that will satisfy your values in your career. Then, as if by magic, your procrastination time will be reduced. Or perhaps transformed into merely “break activities,” where the activity you’re doing isn’t for escape, it’s just while you’re recharging.

If your procrastination isn’t as severe, then planning in a few of these activities will lessen the pressure that you might put on yourself to get something done. You will be allowing yourself a little time to clear the mental RAM, and reset before the next task.

I did this a few years ago for about a week, and I got quite upset with myself for wasting my life away. I very quickly reduced that time spent procrastinating without any other motivation or willpower. When it’s the meaning of your life on the line, you don’t need any greater motivation than that.

Power Tip for the Advanced

During the scheduled procrastination activities (or whenever you find yourself procrastinating), put your attention into the body. Become mindful of the here-and-now, and just watch with awareness what you are doing. Bring your full consciousness into the activity, and simply watch what happens.

Anything done with your complete consciousness will reveal its full truth to you. If it’s not good for you, you’ll simply decide with awareness to stop doing it and likely never do it again. Or at least have the choice whether to do it or not in future.

So give the ‘stop procrastinating schedule’ a try for at least a week, and let me know how it goes.

Inspiration can be an elusive state of being. But when you’re in it – you sure know it. The feeling fills you with an abundance of creativity and the motivation to actually get the job done. Your connection with Source is free-flowing, and you seemingly exert no effort, even though your output can be through the roof.

My personality type thrives on creative output, and becomes stifled and frustrated when not creating something. So naturally developing inspiration is very important for someone like me. But I’d argue that it’s important for everyone, in most areas of life.

Why Developing Inspiration is a Top Priority

For me (writing this blog), I feel the inspiration as ideas to write down.

If I don’t write them there and then, the muse, the inspiration, will pass and not return for some time. It becomes elusive.

But I soon realized that the more I practiced, the more easily I could get back into the flow, and essentially ‘tune in’ to the muse and channel infinite intelligence. Letting the mind get out of the way, the fingers are free to type or scrawl the message that needs to be brought to life. We can always edit it later, but that initial inspiration is key.

So, the more we listen to our inspiration and respond with action, the more the inspiration will respond to us. We can call upon it, and it will deliver.

At the same time, you can’t force it. It’s elusive to the critical mind, and to the chattering-monkey mind, it never comes. It takes practice, patience, and discipline. That’s because it comes with routine, repetition, and hard work.

It’s the result of feeling and clarity. It requires that “you” (your self-concept or ego) get out of the way (it requires that you generate some low-alpha or creative-theta brainwaves). It’s a learned bodily state, meaning that if you’ve ever been inspired in your life, you can develop the ability to call upon it at will.

How to Develop Your Inspiration:

• When you have the inclination, write it down.
• When you hear ‘the voice,’ write it down.
• When you feel the muse, write it down.
• When you are stirred to action, act.

These are some of the many sparks of inspiration. And when we are called, we must respond. It’s our duty.

If your field is writing, then you must write down your ideas during the moment of inspiration, whenever it calls. Middle of the night? Get a notebook and a torch. Middle of a commute? Get a dictaphone app. Point is: take action on the inspiration. Respond to the communication, real-time.

If your field is art, painting, photography, film, or other visual art, writing down your ideas as they come knocking may also do the trick. But also be prepared to sketch, storyboard or color. Take action there and then.

What If I’ve Got Writer’s Block, What Then?

You might be over-worked, over-stressed, or disconnected with your true self. You can’t remember the last time inspiration came a knocking. Time to take matters into your own hands and get down to business. You need to do two seemingly opposite things.

1. Surrender
2. Get disciplined

Surrender to your here and now situation. Don’t pile on any emotional judgement or suffering on top. Let it be as it is. Now.

And exercise discipline to stick to a work schedule:

Sit down at your desk and write, inspiration or not. Set a two page goal or something. Let the work be as crappy as whatever comes out.

The first draft of anything is shit.

~ Ernest Hemingway

Pretty soon, following your set routine, inspiration will know where and when to find you. Sitting at your desk at your set time, your hands will begin to flow with the ideas of the universe, fully inspired and seemingly automatic. You will be the midwife to the ideas that need to come into this world, the ultimate creation of the divine, just lending it the body to bring it to life.

You are the conduit of the divine.

The Secret to Calling Your Intuition Whenever You Need It

The secret to putting it to work for you, is to first serve it. Understand that it is there primarily to bring some thing, whatever it may be, from nothingness into this reality. If you honor its “voice” with here-and-now action, it will honor your intention and show up when you call.

What is your relationship with inspiration? Let me know in the comments

Photo: fras1977

Here’s a simple but massively effective tip on how to put yourself into a hugely creative state. Are you ready for it? You’ll miss it if you blink

Take a shower.

That’s it! Instant creativity. Every morning, when I take a shower, the ideas start to flow as fast as the water. It’s a virtual torrent of solutions to problems, article topics, visual imagery, product ideas, or new ways to teach and deliver value.

It’s all there ready to write down or otherwise act on when I’m out of the shower.

“But that doesn’t happen for me. Thanks for nothing!”

Relax. Here’s how you can gain instant access to your creativity (and I don’t take that claim lightly – you really can do this).

First, let’s look at why this works for me, and then chunk up to find the principles at work.

When I shower, I’m engaged in the simple task of washing the body. I’m in a space I spend only a small fraction of my day. It’s a different environment.

And one more thing about the shower. As the water vaporizes, it charges the air with negative ions. Same thing happens at a surf beach. Human beings feel good when in an environment charged with negative ions.

Make it Work for You:

1. Change your environment.
2. Engage in menial/manual work.

The new environment stimulates the senses. Menial work encourages you to become consciously present. The shower is a natural place to focus on your body, and the body is the path to becoming present and spiritually aware.

So presence changes your brain state and allows the compulsive thinking of the chattering “monkey mind” to take a break. A working meditation.

The blissful void of presence and engagement in a task will be filled with “higher-level” creative inspiration, and the tremendous motivation that goes along with it to get the job done. Inspired right-action usually follows.

You can see how this is similar but different to a closed-eyes meditation, where the goal is presence and stillness for their own sakes.

How to cultivate the Creative State

If a simple shower doesn’t yet have this “instant creativity” effect on you, don’t worry. You can build up to this slowly. Just keep meditating, and the time will come. Or find another environment to “trigger” the state (I used to go into the state when I was a teenager mowing lawns).

Tips

I don’t ever take a shower with the purpose or intention to have a good idea or gain an insight. It just comes unforced. Treat it with patience and respect.

It’s a lot like life in that respect. Do the work in the spirit of giving, not expecting anything in return. Ironically, that’s when the magic happens.

The more you meditate, the more creativity you bring into your waking life. The creative showers came only after a year or so of meditation, and have been gaining more and more power ever since.

Where do you think I got the idea to tell you about this?

“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.”

~ Vinay Joshi

Enjoy your next shower                                   Photo credit: Winterofdiscontent

There are many reasons why someone would want to get into meditation.

• Health issues
• Depression
• Low energy or motivation
• Lack of spiritual connection
• Poor creativity
• Waning mental ability & cognitive skills
• Trouble in relationships
• Stress and past emotional trauma issues

And for every problem, meditation seems to have the relative solution. Meditation:

• Improves physical health
• Cures depression
• Restores energy and passion
• Provides deep connection with the universe/spirit
• Enhances creativity
• Improves cognitive skills and abilities
• Expands point of view and compassion for others
• Heals emotional traumas

The really great thing is, that whatever the reason for starting, all the other benefits tend to manifest as a natural consequence. You wanted to de-stress from work? You also find your relationship with your spouse is getting better…

Meditation was once an important part of most cultures around the world. But sadly today, where we are encouraged (programmed?) into becoming either corporate ‘sheeple,’ or debt-slave serfs, that important practice is discouraged (meditators in popular media are portrayed as woo-woo, hippie losers).

Having a daily meditation practice encourages free-thought, gives you access to powerful inner-guidance, and allows you to perform right-action in your life.

Awareness

It’s the magic word: awareness. Meditation expands the awareness of your own mental and emotional processes and patterns. After a little while, you begin to become aware of what your attention focuses on, a process that is usually completely unconscious, and deeply ingrained.

Your attention determines your thoughts → Your thoughts determine your emotions → Your emotions fuel your actions → And your actions determine your results in life.

Awareness Gives You Choice

When that awareness starts to arise, you then have a choice – in real-time.

“Do I choose to eat that candy bar when I really want to lose weight?”

“Do I choose to watch TV when really I want to grow my business?”

“Do I choose to pick a fight with my partner when really I want love and affection?”

These little moments of choice will become more and more frequent in your day-to-day life, and you will exercise your choice to create your life in the way that you want it – rather than in the compulsive, unconscious way we were raised to live.

So, let’s start meditating!

The Best Meditation Technique for Beginners

There’s only one technique I recommend for someone new, and here it is:

1. Select a gentle piece of music without lyrics (new-age stuff is good) or a playlist that lasts for 20 minutes.
2. Find a quiet spot to sit where you won’t be disturbed for the entire time.
3. Sit upright in a comfortable chair, close your eyes and relax your body.
4. Take several beep breaths, then settle into a natural breathing rhythm. Breathe into your stomach (this stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, or a relaxation response).
5. Begin to notice your thoughts. Don’t try to fight them or push them out. Don’t follow them into a daydream either. Just notice.
6. After a few minutes, bring your attention into your body. Specifically, your stomach, and notice your breath. In and out.
7. Keep your attention on the breath. Like gentle waves ceaselessly lapping at the shore, your breath comes in, and goes out.
8. If a thought comes into mind (and they will, relentlessly!), simply return your focus to the breath without judgement.
9. Continue until the music stops and your 20 minutes is up.

You will likely return refreshed and buzzing with energy.

Now, depending on the emotional point you are starting from, there is a chance this process will completely frustrate and annoy you. Good! It’s working.

What to do if Meditation Annoys the Heck out of You

This is where I started my meditation practice. Angry, depressed, fearful and annoyed. Lovely!

Ever heard that Beatles song “Let it Be?” Let that be your ‘mantra.’ (No, don’t literally use that as your mantra, but just let it be, man!). Whatever comes up for you in meditation, just know that that is what is supposed to be happening for you at that moment. If you get fidgety and uncomfortable, put your awareness into the discomfort.

Persist. You’ll only know how worth it it was when your life is how you want it to be, and not some sad rerun of today.

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