I came across this story a little while ago regarding Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche  and I thought it was such a lovely story to share in regards  of how to create more lasting happiness.  I believe that all people strive to be happy to be loved and maybe meditation gets us a little closer to that.

Now onto the story…Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a Tibetan lama who has been declared to be the happiest man in the world.  He was not born into wealth and comfort. He spent his earliest years in a remote Himalayan village lacking even the most basic amenities. Nor was he a lucky winner in the genetic lottery for moods. In his book, Joyful Wisdom he recounts being extremely anxious as a child in Nepal, having had what a Manhattan psychiatrist would likely diagnose as panic attacks, and how he cured himself of this chronic anxiety by making his fears the focus of his meditation. He has had to earn his happiness.

Rinpoche seems eclectic in studying paths to well-being, including Western recipes. A few years ago, he attended a five-day meeting at the Mind & Life Institute that brought together a group of neuroscientists and the Dalai Lama to discuss ways to overcome destructive emotions. He found that the Western scientific findings on emotions had much in common with his own approach to cultivating well-being.

But when it comes to his own pursuit of happiness, Buddhist theory and practice are Rinpoche’s chosen tools. He has done several years-long meditation retreats, in the privilege of some of the most renowned Tibetan masters.  However, what do we mean by happiness and how is this defined.  Is happiness supreme joy or states of equanimity?

Richard Davidson who heads the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, has found one distinct brain profile for happiness. As Davidson’s laboratory has reported, when we are in distress, the brain shows high activation levels in the right prefrontal area and the amygdala. But when we are in an upbeat mood, the right side quiets and the left prefrontal area stirs. When showing this brain pattern, people report feeling, as Davidson put it to me, “positively engaged, goal-directed, enthusiastic, and energetic.”

Mingyur Rinpoche came to Davidson’s lab as one of a dozen or so meditation adepts, each of whom had put in anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 lifetime hours of meditation. Research on expertise in any skill shows that world-class champs have put in at least 10,000 hours of practice; these were Olympic-level meditators.  One of the first findings from the research showed that when these adepts meditated on compassion, activity in key brain areas increased up to 100 percent, notably more than was the case in a control group who were taught the same meditation practice. The more lifetime hours of practice, the greater the increases tended to be. All this seems to confirm the idea that in the realm of positive moods, as in nearly every endeavor, worldly or spiritual, practice matters.

So can we all get a taste of Rinpoche’s bliss? Davidson worked with Jon Kabat-Zinn, a teacher of mindfulness meditation from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, to see how a group of novices might gain from these methods. Kabat-Zinn, who has pioneered this contemplative method with medical patients to ease their symptoms, taught mindfulness at a high-stress biotech company; these beginners meditated for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks. Davidson’s measures showed that after the eight weeks they had begun to activate that left prefrontal zone more strongly — and were saying that instead of feeling overwhelmed and hassled, they were enjoying their work. So while the Calvinist strain in American culture may look askance at someone sitting quietly in meditation, this kind of “doing nothing” seems to do something remarkable after all.

Of course, there’s no guarantee of greater happiness from meditation, but the East has given us a promising path for its pursuit.

If you are interested in starting a regular meditation practice, the Intuitive Walking program will be starting in April outdoors in a beautiful natural setting in San Francsico.  To learn more about the class and to register, click here- http://www.intuitivelywell.com/walking_class.html

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Rituals for Relaxing

You may feel that you’ve adapted to the intense rhythm that modern life requires, but if you’re experiencing sleepless nights, your nervous system is probably rebelling. It may be stuck in a state known as arousal, where your sympathetic nervous system is triggered. In this state your mind will race or your palms might sweat. Your body will secrete more stress hormones, and your temperature and metabolic rates will rise, as will your heart rate. There is very good evidence that people with chronic insomnia have elevated levels of arousal in general.  Some insomniacs have higher levels right before they go to sleep. However, by creating a routine of soothing rituals, you can bring your nervous system back into balance and transform your sleep patterns for good.

Whether it’s yoga to reduce muscle tension, breathing to slow the heart rate, or an herbal massage to calm a racing mind, a simple routine can be the most effective and safest road to a better night’s sleep. There is growing evidence that small behavioral changes can make a big difference in getting some good shuteye. A 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that participants who made modifications like reducing stimuli in the bedroom and learning relaxation techniques improved their sleep more than those who took drugs.

Tuck in Early

The first step to feeling well rested is to institute a regular bedtime. Maintaining consistency will help keep your circadian rhythms—the biological changes that happen every 24 hours—steady. Eventually, your body will naturally understand and crave sleep during these hours.

Create a Wind-Down Period

The next step is to create some space between your busy day and sleep time. You can’t just work until 9 at night, and then stick your head on the pillow and fall asleep.  Try and cut down on or eliminate evening classes and exercise that leaves you feeling amped up. When you come home, honor this transition by playing relaxing music, lighting candles, putting on your favorite pajamas, or end your evening with a sequence of slow passive yoga poses. Think of the yoga precept ofpratyahara: Withdraw your senses in order to turn inward.

Nosh and Nibble

The diet mantra “Don’t eat before bed” isn’t always the best advice. Some folks benefit from nighttime noshing. “When you sleep, you are repairing your tissues,” says Aadil Palkhivala, a certified Ayurvedic practitioner and the founder-director of Yoga Centers in Bellevue, Washington. “The body needs nutrition when it’s going into a state of healing.” Depending on your constitution, bedtime snacks might include spelt toast and butter, organic milk, or lentil dahl. And of course, during the day, it’s important to eat healthful fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains to promote rest at night. “Sleep is a yin process, but when food has chemicals in it, it becomes yang and the mind goes into an aroused state.  Eating foods such as cooked apples, Brussels sprouts, tofu, millet, oats, walnuts, and squash are also good choices to keep energy levels up at night.  Also, use common sense: If you want to sleep well, don’t drink alcohol or caffeine after 5 p.m.

Strike a Pose

After you wind down from your day, notice how you feel before doing an evening yoga routine. Are you wired or tired? “These need to be treated differently.  If you are amped up, 10 minutes of poses like twists, standing poses, and active forward bends to burn off excess energy. If you are tired, do some restorative poses or breathing until you feel more refreshed and relaxed—and then hit the sack. Though it seems contradictory, it’s common to be too tired to sleep. Everyone thinks that when you can’t sleep, you have too much energy, but usually people have too little energy: They are too exhausted to get to sleep. Restorative poses can help.

Massage Away Tension

A soothing massage releases muscular tension and helps the transition to bed. Try rubbing your head, neck, face, and arms with warm, unfiltered organic sesame oil. This puts a shield around the body and also makes you feel nurtured.  You can also include someone in your ritual by asking them for a yawn-inducing rubdown: The spine from the neck downward should be stroked for about five minutes with a gentle touch.

Breathe for Ease

Breathwork is another excellent addition to your nightly sleep routine. “Every time you exhale, it slows your heartbeat and that helps calm you down,” says Roger Cole, an Iyengar Yoga teacher and a research scientist specializing in the physiology of sleep. Try two parts exhalation to one part inhalation. For example, start by exhaling through your nose to the count of 6 and then inhale through your nose to the count of 3. Do this for 5 to 30 minutes before bed.

Keep a Journal

When it’s time to go to sleep, do you start replaying the day’s events or think of what you need to do in the morning? A great evening ritual is putting your thoughts on paper: Write down the contents of your mind to get all of your worries out before your head hits the pillow.

Get Warm

When you go to bed, you want your skin to be warm. If you’re feeling a bit cool, drink a warm cup of herbal tea or take a bath and remember to bundle up.  Have a blanket, socks, and a sweater nearby.

Guide Your Relaxation

After getting into bed, try a body scan as you lie in Savasana (Corpse Pose): Progressively tense and then relax each part of your body. If you have trouble doing this on your own, get an audio CD of meditations, guided imagery to help. This is good for people who have mental chatter.

Once you’ve chosen your specific nighttime ritual, repeat it every night to cue your body that it’s time for sleep. After a few weeks of practice, your sleep will improve. These things don’t work instantly, but over time you normalize arousal and sleep starts to get better.

Sweet Dreams.

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Fall is Flu Season.  The change in weather and shorter days can often lead to not having enough time for ourselves and/ or practicing healthy habits.  Swine Flu has been on everyone’s minds lately and Dr. Martha Howard, a holistic doctor recommends some natural ways to boost our immunity.  Following the three tips below will help you to stay healthy during the fall season and holidays.

The first recommendations are to get a natural hand sanitizer, such as Clean Well.  Clean Well is an herbal based sanitizer with herbal based ingredients like thymol and oregano oil.  There is evidence that those natural defenses are less likely to create resistant bacteria and viruses [than conventional hand sanitizer with chemical agents]. Plant oils and alkaloids are too complicated for oganisms. Plain, alcohol-based sanitizer is fine, too. Put at least a dime size blog on palm and then rub all over hands and fingers, especially the fingertips, until hands are dry. Hand washing is equally good.

Hand washing for your family.  Have your child sing “Happy Birthday to You” for the length of hand-washing. That amount of time is adequate to get rid of organisms.

Secondly, it is recommended to boost your Vitamin C intake.  Adults need between 1.5 and 2.5 grams of vitamin C per day to be healthy. It is reasonable to take 500 mg vitamin C 3-5 times per day. Take it to bowel tolerance; if you get loose stools then back off. For children it would be comparable by weight. Plain ascorbic acid is fine. Allow children to drink 6 to 8 ounces of water with each dose. Vitamin C goes out of body in 3-4 hours, so you can take another dose after that time.

Lastly, If flu becomes widespread in your area, Chinese herbs can be helpful. Several combinations can be effective with flu. The first is Zhong Gan Ling, and the second is Yin Chiao. Both can be taken around three times per day, following directions on the product. It would be important to get some of both of those formulas to have on hand in case of swine flu outbreak. If it looks like flu is going around, start taking them and then take them for a week to 10 days. In the face of those herbs, the virus can’t multiply or grow. You can also try the homeopathic remedy Oscillococcinum.

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