Tips on how to meditate blissfully.

• We have succumbed or surendered life to hurry and haste. Is it not so? Our day begins with hurrying up to the workplace or college, hasty eating of food, hurrying up to catch the bus or trainn Have you ever thought what would be the ultimate of surrendering ourself to haste. The result is that we loose all our life pleasures, get ourselves strained and over stressed resulting in blood pressure and other undesired ailments at a very early age. I kept thinking to myself where does the solution fie for this problem/ The solution that came to my mind is meditation.
• I have also observed many people complaining that meditation did not give them possitive results. On analysing I realised that peoople become over enthusiastic and succumb to haste as usual even while meditating. Here are a few tips as to how to meditate blissfully.
• Practice meditation as a potent spiritual activity irrespective of any religion that benefits and enhancees your life dramatically.
• Keep thinking and saying in your mind that you are practising meditation as a tool to transcend you to eternity and that you continue to enjoy it without becoming addicted to it.
• Be like a child during meditation. Remove all notions and ideas that you heard from others as otherwise expectations and hopes will make you overenthusiastic making you hurry or haste durinf meditation. 
• Avoid comparing the benefits that you gained in the previous days with the meditation that you are performing today as this will you slow yor down in the process.
• While meditating keep saying to yourself that "I have the whole tine of the world  available to me for meditation. I am born in this world just to meditate and realise myselt. Request to the God to reveal himself before you".
• Breathe as slowly as you can. Take 5 to 7 seconds to inhale, 5 seconds to hold and 5 to 7 seconds to exhale. If you are doing this in 2 to 4 seconds it is an indication of haste overtaking.you in meditation.
• Consider meditation as a karma yoga that every one needs to perform to promote one's health.
  

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How to avoid being lonely and be healthy?

When you are missing friends and family, blood pressure may soar and your immune system weakens. People with a good network of friends tend to live longer than those without friends. They are also less likely to fall victim to depression. However, loneliness is more common these days. We live longer, have fewer children and are more likely to move away from our home towns and often, we are no longer part of close-knit communities.
Health effects:

• Raises blood pressure: The most lonely people had blood pressure readings 30 points higher than the most sociable, making them 3 times more likely to get heart disease or have a stroke, as compared to those with normal blood pressure.
  
• Lowers immunity: High levels of the stress hormone cortisol is found to be more common in lonely people. It can suppress the ability to fight off infection.
• Interferes with sleep: Loneliness interferes with sleep and poor sleep is linked to obesity and depression.
  
• Encourages bad habits: The lonelier you are, the more likely you are to eat fatty, sugary foods and the less likely you are to exercise.
  
• Faster progression of alzheimer's: It is not known why loneliness affects Alzheimer's, but it is true that it could be the result of a lack of mental stimulation.

How you can get connected:

• Make the effort with family: Ask your family to stay in touch and try to plan regular meetings. If you have more spare time than them, accept that and you may have to do more of the running around. Meanwhile, stay in touch with them through phone calls, texts and e-mails.
• Go out of the house daily: Even if it is just to go to the shop, make an effort to go out. Smile at people and make conversation with someone you see regularly. Smiling not only releases feel good chemicals, but it also attracts people.
  
• Learn a new skill: Learning something new keeps your brain active. Sometimes, it could open up a whole new world.
  
• Exercise: Not only does regular exercise help prevent heart disease and chances of stroke. It can also slow the progression of Alzhelimer's.
• Join a group: If you choose something you are really interested in-whether it is walking, reading or music-you will instantly find that you are with like minded people.
  
• Be a volunteer: People who do voluntary work for 2 hours a week have lower depression rates and better health than those who don't.
  
• Get a pet: Owning a pet helps lower blood pressure, boost immunity and ease depression. Walking a dog every day is a great way to get out and meet people.
  

Tune in to music to turn on to health

• Consider these. Getting up in the morning to the chirping of birds, children sleeping when the mother sings lullaby, youngsters joging with iPods plugged to their ears and elders wandering in search of laughter clubs. All these surely anchor energy in our body and mind. Further, we can not forget that the world was created from the initial sound OM. So the body, mind and the world are connected by the power of sound. Of all kinds of sounds music has an instant effect on a person's mind.
• Musical notes when vibrate at certain frequency effect the brain waves and the body also responds. The musical notes travel down the spinal cord to the autonomous nervous system which regulates the heart beat rate, blood pressure, muscular power and the body metabolism.
• Various classical Indian music ragas are perfect for relieving stress and relaxing the body. Music soothes the soul. From times immemorial, people have listened to ragas to relieve mental stress. Raga Jaijaivati is suitable for an evening session while raga Darbari is best for an early morning exercise.

Walking for excercise and pleasure

Image by chooyutshing via Flickr

• Walking is the easiest and most popular form of exercise.
• Walking has been widely practised as a recreational and fitness activity since ancient times.
• Walking is the slower and surest way to fitness.
• People walk for many reasons: for pleasure, to rid themselves of tensions, to find solitude, or to go from one place to another.
• Everyone who walk regularly does so on the view that it is a good excercise.
• Walking is an easy way improving physical fitness when done briskly on a regular schedule, it improves the body's ability to absorb more oxygen during exertion, reduces blood pressure, increases the efficiency of the heart and lungs and helps to burn excess calories.
• Walking offers protection against obesity and high blood pressure, the leading rish factors for heart attack and stroke.
• Brisk walking one mile in 15 minutes burns just about the same number of calories as jogging an equal distance in 8 1/2 minutes.
• Although increasing walking speed does not burn significantly more calories per mile, a more vigorous walking pace will produce more dramatic conditioning effects.
• Walking appears to have a substantial psychological payoff. Beginning walkers almost invariably report that they feel better and sleep better, and that their mental outlook improves.
• Walking also can exert a favorable influence on personal habits. For example, smokers who begin walking often cut down or quit. There are two reasons for this. One, it is difficult to exercise vigorously if you smoke, and two, better physical condition encourages a desire to improve other aspects of one's life.
• Walking has several uniquc advantages. Everyone can do it. No lessons or training required. The only thing one need to do is to slowly increase the pace and the distance and walk very often. It can be done any where and at any time. It can be done even alone. It can be done in all seasons and climates. It involves no cost.
  
• With so many advantages attributed to walking why should not enjoy walking regularly and pave a way to good health.