Meditation Training & Workshops: Self-Happens!

Meditation training and workshops available for private and group sessions.

Learn simple and effective ways to calm your mind and emotions and experience a state of inner peacefulness and well-being.  Regular meditation practice can increase your productivity and enjoyment of life.  It can also help you discover how to free yourself from disturbing thoughts and feelings and have more harmonious relationships.   Studies of meditation have shown reduced stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure, reduced chronic pain, improved health, vitality and self-esteem. 

 How Does Meditation & Relaxation Training Improve Your Health?

Research has shown the following benefits of meditation and relaxation training:

(Psychological/Emotional Benefits)

*Reduces anxiety and eliminates phobias.

*Reduces stress and reverses the “fight or flight” reaction.

*Creates a sense of inner peace and calm.

*Accelerates the psychotherapeutic process.

*Useful in smoking and weight reduction programs.

*Improves grades at school.

(Physical Health Benefits)

*Improvement for asthma sufferers.

*Strengthens the immune system and reduces viruses.

*Reduces cardiovascular problems.

*Increases blood flow to the heart.

*Improvement for diabetics.

*Increases athletic performance.

*Reduces chronic pain.

*Lowers blood pressure.

*Lengthens life span.

(Work-related Benefits)

*Reduces sick days.

*Improves productivity.

*Improves work performance.

*Decreases use of employee insurance benefits.

*Stimulates creativity.

*Increases job satisfaction.

*Improves relationships with supervisors and co-workers.

 

How Stress Can Affect You

 

When you are in a stressful situation the body responds with the Fight-or-Flight Response.

1) The sympathetic nervous system stimulates receptors in the heart that make it beat faster and harder, preparing you to fight or run away.  This can cause the coronary arteries to constrict.

2) The brain causes other organs such as the adrenal glands to secrete stress hormones (adrenaline) and steroids (cortisol), which circulate in the blood until they reach the heart. 

A series of physiological reactions occur:

1) The muscles contract, helping to fortify the body’s armor to help protect it from injury.

2) The metabolism speeds ups the heart rate and the amount of blood pumped with each beat increases.

3) Breathing increases, providing more oxygen, to do battle or run from the danger.

4) The digestive system shuts down, diverting energy to the muscles that are needed in order to run.

5) Arteries in our arms and legs constrict so that less blood will be lost if you become wounded.

6) Blood clots more quickly so as not to lose blood due to injury.

Chronic stress can cause: 1) Tension, anxiety and/or depression. 2) More blood clots in the arteries which reduces blood flow to the heart.  3) Arteries in the heart to constrict which can cause spasms.  When a coronary artery goes into spasm it can injure the lining of the artery leading to cholesterol deposits and plaque build-up.  4) High blood pressure.  5) Weakened nervous and immune system. 

(Adapted from Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. Random House, 1990.)

 

Private training sessions are available tailored for the individual student's needs.  Additional meditative enhancements: aromatherapy, knitting/crochet instruction (as a meditative practice), walking meditation. 

Meditation Sessions for children/adults with Autism and other Special Needs.  Why should parents and educators try developing "mindfulness" practices in children and adults with Autism?

"Facing each other, we stand like one person looking into a mirror.  We are the other person’s reflection.  Each having the problem of not being able to communicate to each other because we do not understand each other’s language.  In that instance, we are the same.   And it becomes clear that we must form a language we both can use and understand.

 

Also, special workshops (for individuals and small groups) are offered.  Meditation Intensive Class: An intensive group class that is focused on Transformation Meditation and breathing techniques.  Topics to include: what is meditation; breathing and relaxation exercises; benefits to meditation; obstacles to meditation; different meditation techniques; principles of Transformation Meditation; and more.

For more information or an appointment, contact Debra McGauley-Eichhorn at (201) 281-7145 or at debra@craftingacalmerself.com.