Beginning Meditation

There is no better introduction to the subject of meditation and a clear guidance for your personal direction of thoughts, than the beautiful words of Longfellow

Let us, then, labor for an inward stillness, An inward stillness and an inner healing; That perfect silence where the lips and heart Are still, and we no longer entertain Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, But God alone speaks in us, and we wait, In singleness of heart that we may know His will, and in the silence of our spirits, That we may do His will, and do that only!" Longfellow

When we settle down to relax following effort or activity, it is natural that we want to be comfortable physically. We tend to collapse into an easy chair, to possibly doze off possibly enjoy a nice doze for a minute or twoor many!. However, during this period, if we do go to sleep in order to refresh ourselves, we are unconscious. This is not the same as the state of meditation, which is a conscious and pleasurable refreshment experience.

As a beginner, if we wish to practice the simplest meditation we should choose a time of privacy when we know there will not be any interruption for half and hour or so. It is important to ensure there will be no sudden sound or disturbance.

The following is to serve as a simple guide until you feel confident and allow your own intuition to take over. There is no exact technique that is either right or wrong, so feel relaxed in your approach.

Be seated in a comfortable but upright position with hands relaxed in your lap or resting on your thighs if you are in a hard backed chair. Cross legged positions as usually assumed by yoga students may be better, but most people have to work hard through exercise to allow their limbs to be comfortable enough to allow the mind to be free when in this position. So observe the two most important factors, these being physical comfort and an erect spinal posture.

The eyes are then closed gently. It usually takes a few minutes to take stock of how you feel. You may become aware of sensations, sounds, feelings, light and shade, movement of the air and so on at first before settling down and able to focus upon your breathing.

Simply inhale through the nose for a count of four, and then exhale to the same count. Keep this rhythm going for a few minutes until you feel you can increase the count to six which is to be continued for a few minutes, increasing the count gradually as your feel inclined.

Then, still with eyes closed, focus upon what you see in front of your eyes on the screen of the mind. Allow impressions, thoughts, and images to pass across the screen and allow any ideas that your subconscious mind throws up for your attention, to have their say.

Then when your inside world begins to quieten down and you perhaps begin to wonder what you should be thinking about, select a quote, or a special word or phrase, poem or prayer that appeals to you and repeat it, over and over until you can concentrate fully upon it. Usually this is continued for some minutes until your mind begins to tire. Then stop.

Continue to sit still. Make no effort to control how you think or feel, just sit.

This is the beginning of the internal adventure into a more profound state of awareness which happens naturally as you regularly practice enjoying the state of just being.

Many find that the physical stillness of the body in contrast to the normal activity of the day is in itself relaxing. Some find these quiet moments filled with interesting feelings, thoughts or psychic experiences. Others are attracted to the practice of meditation as a spiritual experience.

Remember, meditation is a natural practice that allows us to feel peaceful, and refreshed. It is best not to influence your first introduction to it by having any preconceived ideas about how you think you should feel, what you hope to experience and so on, because it is your own private venturing into your inner nature and will bring you unique experiences which are yours alone.

Sally Janssen is one of the best known Yoga teachers in Australia, and is a former President of the International yoga Teachers Association. She runs an informational website that deals with the very spirit of traditional yoga. To benefit from her extensive knowledge be sure to visit her site at http://www.classical-yoga.com

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How To Improve Your Golf Swing

There are a few different things that you can do in order to help improve your golf swing. In this article we will take a look at some ways on how to improve golf swing techniques through looking at the way other sports are played and the components that they use. Certainly what you may be unaware of is that other sports such as basketball, tennis or racquetball can prove to be extremely beneficial to the way you play the game of golf.

You will notice when a person is playing tennis and are getting ready to receive a serve their actual posture will be extremely loose and springy, but will also be steady and well balanced. When first preparing to take any kind of shot during a game of golf you should be aiming to have the same kind of posture as a tennis player has. The best way of ensuring that your posture is correct is by practicing how you should be standing without a golf club initially. You now need to look at the way you are standing as well as how the weight is distributed through your body. Plus look and see if you weight is balanced evenly across your feet and through your body and how you muscles are tensed. Once you feel comfortable with the position you have adopted you can now take a golf club place it in your hands and attempt to recreate the position you had without the club.

When it comes to actually getting started and preparing your self will help to get your swing correct. Most tennis players will prepare to serve a ball by either rocking on the balls of their feet or bouncing the ball itself in front of them a few times. With golf you need to waggle as this will help your body to become a lot more relaxed and help to but more rhythm into your movement. It is important that a golfer waggles their whole body rather than just their club head as this will give them a better start when it comes to actually swinging the club.

If you want to ensure that when you play a round of golf and you want to see your game improving then it may well be advisable to use another sport to help along with improving your swing. Certainly how to improve golf swing can be done by using a tennis racket or baseball bat. What you need to do is spend some time just looking at the way in which you swing either of these pieces of sports equipment. Look closely at the position in which your shoulders and hips start in before you hit the ball and then look at their position after you have followed through. Using this method and the same motions you would use to hit either a tennis or baseball you can then apply this to the way in which you swing the club. By doing this you are actually able to shit your weight automatically through your body and this then provides you with the necessary power and finish that you are wanting to achieve with every shot you take during a game of golf.

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Copy VHS To DVD

There is technology available that allows users to transfer VHS movies to DVDs. This task consumes a lot of power. The volume of memory in the computer and the quickness of the CPU determine the rate and ease of the transfer. A CPU with a minimum of 2.8 GHZ and 512 MB of RAM is generally suggested.

The transferred VHS movies are stored, albeit temporarily, on the hard drive of the computer. This process takes up a lot of space. Buying a large hard drive just for this purpose may not be as unfeasible, as hard drives are fairly inexpensive.

dvd discs and burners have two formats, DVD+R and DVD-R. Of the two, DVD-R format is more common and in tune with most DVD players. Therefore, it is a more feasible format to use if the dvd player is connected to the television.

To copy VHS movies to dvd, you need competent video editing software that can capture analog signals from the VHS, edit the same and publish the video to a dvd format. There are devices on the market that assist in this task.

A video Capture card is probably the best choice for video editing. The higher the quality of the Capture card the better the results. Capture Cards come in a price range of $100 to $10,000. There is a distinctly cheaper alternative -- the external Capture device. This tiny box is the best option for a computer novice. There is no need for a video Capture card with this box, but it does not give the user the editing choices that are offered by video Capture Cards. The external Capture Devices sell for $50 to $150. Graphics Cards possessing video Capturing Capabilities are the third and the newest option. Graphic Cards are the ideal choice for people buying a new computer they are less expensive than purchasing a Capture card and a video card.

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