Fans of Pink Floyd Will Appreciate This

Hello again. Today’s featured awesome image is one that fans of the legendary band Pink Floyd will certainly appreciate. Thanks to Favim.com for the image.

Dark Side of the Moon Guitar & Plectrum Image

Awesome!

P.s. – see here for an explanation

Awesome Variations

Continuing from the previous post on ‘Common Meditation Practices’, AWESOME INSPIRATION will now take a look at some awesome variations on the theme of meditation. Not all of these require the posture, stance or techniques of the common practices. See what you make of them!

#1 – Music Meditation

When music is playing, you cannot help but hear it. Even if you do not focus on it, you cannot prevent the sound by reaching your ears unless you physically block them. Music meditation simply involves transferring the meditative mindset to the act of listening to music – being aware of every sound in the present moment. Choose any piece of music that you find inspiring – jazz, classical, rock, reggae – whatever is to your taste. Close your eyes , let it wash over you and fully experience the music.

Because of the nature of sound, this shows why meditation audio tracks can be an effective way to develop the skill of meditation as a beginner. Music meditation is recommended to anyone, including beginners. Doubtless you will have experienced music meditation before and probably without realising it. Probably, you were at a concert or festival or perhaps just when listening to your iPod. It was a moment when you shut out everything apart from the glorious/exhilarating sounds in your ears. It is an awesome way to remind ourselves to live in the present.

#2 Walking Meditation

Another practice that is recommended for everyone including beginners and sceptics. And again, you will definitely have experienced walking meditation already, probably without realising it. When out walking, preferably in a natural environment, adopt a meditative mindset. That is to say, try to stem the flow of inane thoughts and instead try to observe, try to fully absorb every wonderful detail of the world around you. Once you open your eyes to the world, you will be awestruck by how much there is to see: the spectacular diversity of life in the world – how many plants and insects there truly are – complete ecosystems every few square metres. So much passes us by, because we are wrapped in our thoughts, the internal narrator keeping up a flood of insignificant chatter. There is a lot of detail that gets missed. The positive side is that there is so much more to see when you open your eyes up to how awesome and inspiring are world truly is.

Walking has long been a popular pursuit of people with problems on their mind. Something about the rhythmic motion of walking is naturally relaxing for the body and the mind. Achieving this sense of inner calm then helps you to organise your thoughts and find solutions. It is as Einstein said: we cannot solve our problems with the same thought process that created them.

#3 Body-Scan Meditation

This practice is in fact becoming more and more common as it is frequently used as the meditation technique to follow yoga. To perform a body-scan meditation, become fully relaxed, either by sitting or lying down. Starting with your head, focus all your attention on the scalp and visualise the scalp being placed in a state of deep relaxation. Continue down the body, doing the same with the forehead, the eyes, the face (smiling helps), the jaw, the neck, the shoulders, the arms and hands, the chest, the abdomen, the hips, the thighs, the knees, the calves, and the feet. At this point, you should be feeling extremely relaxed. This is also a good technique to apply before sleeping. You won’t normally make it to the end of the body-scan before you’ve fallen fast asleep.

#4 Quick Meditation

It is falsely believed that meditation needs to last a long time to be effective. Although the practice is best enjoyed when it is longer – and although longer practice tends to result in the greatest benefit – the value of quick meditation should not be underestimated. Quick meditation can take less than a minute. Simply close your eyes, wherever you are, and focus on your breathing. In fact, try it now: breathe deeply in and out five times (feel your stomach rise on every inhale and flatten on every exhale). Then open your eyes and you will feel instantly a little refreshed. Try it for longer and the feeling of clear-headedness afterwards increases. You do not even need to focus just on the breath for this. You can instead focus on a particular goal you intend to achieve, or on a positive affirmation, or on the sounds you can hear, or on your own thought process. This is an awesome little practice to adopt, particularly when you find yourself in the midst of seemingly stressful situations. Remind yourself about some simple universal truths. Stress is in the mind, hakuna matata, always look on the bright side, everything’s going to be all right – and then face life with a smile.

#5 Healing Meditation

This meditation practice is more advanced but has been proven to be highly effective. It requires a state of deep relaxation and focus and is often performed from a sitting position. During this meditation, the practitioner focuses on some aspect of the body that requires healing. The practitioner then visualises focusing the mind’s healing energy onto that part of the body. Visual techniques used to achieve this can vary, although a common one involves visualising the healing energy as a warm, white-golden light that shines on the affected area. For sceptics, it should be noted that the fact that the body’s healing process is influenced by the mind is extremely well-documented. There are a great many case-studies illustrating that people with a positive mindset heal faster and more effectively than patients with negative attitudes. Furthermore, the placebo effect illustrates that external stimuli are not required for healing, only the mind’s belief that the body will heal. This meditation technique manifests this belief and the results can be miraculous.

#6 Cold Shower Meditation

This one is only for the daring. A cold shower is an awesome way to kickstart the day. Like meditation, cold showers have a variety of benefits, from waking you up and revatilising you to being good for your immune system and skin. This practice involves adopting the meditative mindset while having a cold shower. Close your eyes and fully experience the cold water on your skin – don’t experience it as pain, only as the sensation that it is (pain is a label of the human mind). It will be hard not to be caught up in the present moment. This need not take long – from five breaths (see #4 quick meditation above) to however long you like really, as long as you’re conscious of water usage.

#7 Darkness Meditation

This last one is a serious challenge. Only for advanced or dedicated practitioners. It is said that Tibetan monks spend several days in darkness, meditating, to help them achieve enlightenment. Just one whole day spent meditating would be a serious challenge. Once you’ve exhausted all the time you can spend sleeping, you’ll have a lot of time for reflection and for meditation practices. Inevitably, though, you will learn a lot about yourself and human nature from this sort of practice. Ban all forms of media (including books). Ensure you can access your basic needs of food, water, fresh air, warmth and a place to excrete. Then give this one a go, if you dare!

Darkness Meditation

I hope you have enjoyed reading about all the meditation practices listed in these two posts. All feedback and comments are welcome!

Wisdom from Bob Marley

This week AWESOME INSPIRATION is celebrating the life and legacy of Bob Marley! Here follows a selection of inspiring quotes from the reggae legend himself. These quotes really rather speak for themselves and are a source of awesome wisdom.

Interviewer: Are you a rich man? … Do you have many possessions?

Marley: My richness is not in possessions and things, y’know. My richness is in life.

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“One good thing about music: when it hits you, you feel no pain” 

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“The greatness of man is not in how much wealth he gets, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively” 

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“Don’t worry about a thing, ‘cos every little thing is gonna be all right” 

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” When one door is closed, don’t you know that many more are open” 

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“Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.” 

Axis of Awesome 4 chord song

Today’s awesome/inspiring video features a performance by the Axis of Awesome, an Australian comedy rock trio, on a quest to prove that to play a successful pop song requires the use of only 4 chords.

It is very entertaining and has been performed with great talent by the trio at various comedy festivals around the world. Off the back of this success, they have gone on to release an official music video with new material and costumes:

Awesome!