Rowing provides a full workout, targeting your upper and lower body. It’s also a great aerobic exercise, getting your heart and blood pumping. Luckily, you don’t need an expensive rowing machine to enjoy some of these benefits. With inverted, upright, or incline rows, you can continue working your upper body. You won’t get the full-body …
If you’re not stretching before or after your ab workouts, you’re missing an important piece in your fitness routine. Unfortunately, a lot of people skip stretching before exercising their core. As with other muscle groups, your abdominal muscles benefit from dynamic and static stretching. Stretching helps reduce the risk of injury and promotes greater flexibility. …
After months or years of intense training, you may ask yourself, “why are my arms so skinny?” It’s a frequent problem and one that you can tackle with the right advice. When you struggle to add weight to your arms, it’s often due to one of several common mistakes. Maybe you’re not eating enough or …
Seated cross-legged isn’t the only good posture for meditation. Buddhist teacher B. Alan Wallace, for example, is a supporter, in certain circumstances, of the supine position. Equally, standing upright can be perfectly appropriate. This short article outlines two different “standing meditations” with some videos at the end. If you’re in a rush, watch the Kim …
Visualization holds a prominent place in the practices of most contemplative traditions. In one of Buddhism’s central texts, the Visudhimagga, for example, numerous visual objects are outlined, everything from colored wheels to bloated corpses.¹ The student is directed towards a particular one depending on their temperament. We probably don’t need to go to that kind of …
If you are constantly on-the-go and have a life that involves lots of traveling, you will not want to neglect your meditation practice. That’s because meditation helps to keep you calm and manage the stress that comes with having to change locations frequently along with the hectic pace that comes with airports as well as …
Candles have formed an integral part of most meditation practices over hundreds of years. In fact, some people use candles as a focal point when it comes to their meditations. Candles are effective for creating your own special meditation atmosphere and space, or you can use them to enhance the meditation with the use of …
I’m always interested in learning about new meditation techniques so I was excited to dig a little bit deeper into the ancient Hawaiian practice called Ho’oponopono. This article is the result of my research. I found it quite difficult to track down any original sources. Most of the books referenced in the Wikipedia article are …
“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ~ Meister Eckhart “Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.” ~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh Most of us meditate because it deepens our feelings of well-being, and it’s true that …
White light meditation is a popular little practice. You can use it almost anywhere to lift your mood. If you’ve got a few moments free throughout the day, I highly recommend learning this practice to fill some of those extra minutes with guided white light meditation. Visualization meditations have a prominent place in most of …
The lure of the quick-fix never really disappears. We know that get-quick-rich schemes or weight-loss miracles don’t really deliver. Although, we’re drawn to the quick-fix (perhaps only slightly) nonetheless. It does leave the interesting question, however, as to whether or not there really are some effortless paths to great results – like breathing exercises. I believe that …
When you’re meditating, you should aim to have a stable, straight posture and to be as comfortable as possible. Finding a good meditation bench, chair, or cushion will help a lot, especially if you have bad knees. The type of chair, bench, or cushion that you should use will partly be a matter of preference …
“Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.” ~ George MacDonald “You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.” ~ Jack Kornfield Developing a capacity for forgiveness …
We all have times when motivation is lacking. Contemplating the benefits of meditation can often give us the little bit of encouragement we need to get our bum on the cushion. This article looks at five of the most researched, most important benefits of meditation: Table of Contents: Improvements in Concentration | An Overall Decrease in Anxiety …
This guide has everything you need to know about Baoding meditation balls. If you’re new to using meditation balls, these balls are also commonly referred to as Chinese exercise balls, health balls, and zen balls. If you want to understand the history of Baoding meditation balls, understand how to use them and determine which meditation …