I have been practicing meditation via the Self Realization Fellowship techniques for about 10 years now. Every time I practice them consistently, after a few months, I begin to get depressed. It turns into numbness and severe depression. The last time this happened, I gave up meditation for three years and I bounced right back to my normal self. I have began trying again this month to return to my meditation and hatha yoga practice and to deepen my spiritual practice by folding meditation back into prayer, contemplation and more traditional spiritual practices, but once again, the numb, depressed, black feeling comes back. This time it came back less than a week after I began practicing again.
I’ve looked all over the web and through many spiritual books but can’t figure this out. Have you ever heard of this before? It literally feels like something descends on me when I try to meditate. The first few days of meditation I felt wonderful - relaxed, peaceful. Then the depression and negativity kicks in and bam, I feel sick all over. I get chills and sweats, get depressed and hopeless, and I start feeling numb during the day. Once again, when I stopped meditating, it went away. Immediately the feelings lifted and I am back to my old peppy self.
Any ideas? I have never heard of this before. Psychologically speaking, I’m fine. So what the heck is going on? Any guesses?

(more…)

Here’s an interesting blog about what an Open Source economy and society would look like.
http://www.thelongtail.com
To some extent, the Open Source movement is a representation of the heart, for the heart gives all that it has and receives all that is given to it.
Susanna

If there is anyone with whom you would not like to be alone in an elevator, that is your signal that a reconciliation is needed, for the health of your own heart. Take the initiative to resolve your differences with that person so you do not have to fear them or be embarrassed by them. This will bring peace and contentment.

This exercise develops the width of the heart.

One way of understanding the dimension of the heart is to look at what celebrities have a certain dimension well-developed. Here’s a few celebrity examples.

The Height of the Heart: President George W. Bush; strong (though simplistic) sense of idealism, e.g. saving the world from “evil”; strong sense of optimism

The Depth of the Heart: Angelina Jolie; feels the pain of the world deeply and personally; seeks to help through making a personal connection with others

The Width of the Heart: John Travolta; easy to get along with; though he is into Scientology, he is spared the rough treatment fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise gets in the press

The Forward Dimension of the Heart: Muhammad Ali; tremendous drive and initiative; overcame many obstacles in service of the goal of his heart

The Inner Dimension of the Heart: Madonna; maintains daily practice of Yoga and Kabbalah studies

Your joy, creativity and courage are among the extraordinary products of your heart, the greatest assets of your life. But in order to preserve your treasure, you may have encased it in a vault. Effort will be required to find this inner pearl through its insulating layers. You will be continually guided by its throbbing and feeling. Your heart will respond to your effort to access it and become increasingly radiant and sonorous. As your heart receives your attention, it will blossom into your life and all that heart contains will be available to you. Your open heart will open the doors of opportunity in front of you, as every heart opens in response to an open heart. It is the qualities of your heart that make you most attractive to others, and most useful to the world. It is your heart that reveals to you your deepest desires, and gives you the power to successfully achieve them.
What would life look like if you adopted the belief that your life is the creation of your heart? That is, every challenge and obstacle, every pain and defeat, every success, every joy, every triumph, was the result of your heart?

Puran & Susanna

Here’s a nice blog post written by Talia Mana, of the Centre for Emotional Well-Being. Ms. Mana reviews a recent book by Brian Wansink: Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Dr. Wansink argues that we stop eating mostly due to psychological and visual cues rather than based on our hunger or satiation. When these cues change, we often end up eating too much of the wrong foods.

One example Dr. Wansink notes is the “bottomless soup bowl”. He did an experiment in which some people were given a bottomless bowl of soup. (more…)

We saw this blog post by Michael Smith, writing in Prana Journal. Smith writes about a recent article in Time Magazine entitled When Yoga Hurts. Smith notes that the article seems to be part of a ‘backlash’ against ‘trendy yoga’.

The Time article mentions research by the American Council on Exercise showing that Yoga does not provide much cardiovascular benefit, and therefore does not do much to strengthen the heart. The article also mentions that thousands of people have been injured in Yoga classes.

If the foundations of physical fitness and athletic performance are understood to be strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, agility, and speed, then it is clear that yoga asana practice alone (as it is practiced in most yoga classes) will not improve all of these, though it does help a great deal with strength, flexibility, and balance. Yoga can also help improve posture and body awareness.

We like what Smith says, though Yoga may not be the perfect form of exercise, it’s “a lot better than no exercise at all.”

Puran & Susanna

I’m really new to meditation and I have a question. I’ve heard that some people that meditate about one hour per day, only need to sleep about 3 or 4 hours per night (because of the meditation), could this be true? Do you have any other thoughts about meditation and sleep ?thanks in advance.
William Jacobsson

(more…)

Hi, this is David Burrows writing from last year’s conference and webcourse. Greetings.I am wondering what your take is on doing Heart Rhythm Meditation in a different way then you have prescribed. Today and yesterday I sat in meditation and just focused on the heart. In the cup of the heart I felt the presence we normally call God–the all compassionate One. I had the feeling the Heart was eclipsing my lesser self, sort of absorbing my personality into itself and taking up residence in the container of my heart. Is simply sitting and placing ones awareness in the heart enough then?

Second question, how does mixing this practice with other practices work? For example, having one session of Heart Rhythm Meditation, then later in the day a session of Buddhist meditation. I must mention that the type of Buddhist meditation I have been learning is “downward’ meditation into sensation; it comes from Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

(more…)

Where is your growing edge? What is it that you need? What is your obstacle, what is that problem which you must solve, but you haven’t yet? We’ve seen that this need often manifests in the areas of health, relationships, and goals, so we make each of these a major focus of our work.
This “pressing need” is a message to you from your heart. It’s the heart’s longing to grow and develop in its fullness. We see this pressing need as an integral part of your spiritual development; it is not a distraction, it is the work itself. Our interest is, how can meditation help you?
Susanna