How to Meditate - Is there a Simple Way to Meditate and Get the Benefits?

I was told if I learned how to meditate I would reap all kinds of wonderful benefits! I would feel more centered I would be more clear I would have less stress -- I would have more focus...

OK I thought lets do it! So to the bookstore I went... Wow lots of books on meditation!

I ended up buying several of them and started to read. Some of this information sounded like it was for the gurus up on the mountain tops!

They were talking about how to position my body, how to position my eyes Where my hands should beSome said I should say a mantra others said I should alternate breathing from each nostril

This did not sound like it was going to be easy! I was not at all comfortable with these body positions. Now I am aware some people like this and do these positions easily but for me I felt like I was twisting into a pretzel!

Remembering mantras and which nostril I was suppose to breathe with next making sure my feet were on the floor and my back rigid and all the while I had a gazillion thoughts running around in my head.

None of this was relaxing to me My head was even more full of thoughts trying to remember what I was and wasnt supposed to do. How was I ever going to find this meditative state of quieting the mind? I was ready to give up on meditation!

Then 2 things happened for me I bought a tape program on meditating I dont even remember that name of it but it said I should listen to this tape and I would reach a meditative state. It didnt tell me how to sit or how to breathe it just told me to get comfortable and listen.

At about the same time I read an article by Deepak Chopra. He was talking about meditation and he said that all of us will get thoughts that come into our heads while we meditate. Then he said in between those thoughts are gaps they are there whether we realize them or not and those gaps are meditation. I liked what Deepak said the message to me was that the gaps, the meditative state was/is there even if I was not aware of it. Then I popped in that tape I bought and for the first time I actually had some relief it only lasted a few minutes but as Deepak said it was there!

That is when I decided I did not need someone elses techniques I did not need to sit in a special position. What I needed to do was find what worked best for me I wanted something simple and flexible. Its now years later and I meditate on a fairly regular basis. When I say fairly regular what I mean is I do not have a stringent schedule of meditation. Most mornings I do meditate but there are those days that I dont. It isnt a big deal.

I dont have that tape anymore but I do usually listen to a cd with soft music or nature sounds I always sit in my comfortable reclining chair and I do direct my attention to my breathing. So when I start having a thought I gently redirect myself back to my breathing.

This simple way to meditate has brought me many benefits. I am calmer now I do not have as many thoughts at one time running through my head it is easier for me to quiet all of my thoughts. I feel that meditating has truly given me balance and the ability of focus. I am much more in tune with my own inner guidance. I feel clear and calm and balanced.

While I was very skeptical at first after I realized I could find my own form of meditation this whole process became easy and enjoyable.

If you want to learn how to meditate I would highly recommend getting some information from others and trying some techniques that you learn. Then you can make a decision of what works for you what feels comfortable for you.

When you find your own personal meditation practice your rewards will be great as you tap into your own inner voice.

Meditation is one of the Secrets of utilizing the Law of Attraction. Learn how to Deliberately Create Your Life - Visit Living the Law of Attraction ~~ http://LivingTheLawOfAttraction.com

Secrets Of Living A Good Life

Keep an Open Mind

Once you have made the choice to make the commitment to pursue your dreams, you will soon see something wonderful begin to happen in your life - the Universe will actually begin to help you achieve it.

You just need to keep an open mind and be ready to receive what you have asked for and what the Universe has in store for you. Often called the Law of Attraction, the simply theory of like attracts like is put into play once you begin dreaming, living and vibrating on a higher energy level.

By keeping an open mind and keeping your positive energy valve wide-open, you will soon experience that people will begin to enter your life who will take an active and direct role in helping you realize your goals and dreams. Likewise, events will begin to develop and unfold which may seem like coincidence at first, but as times goes and you find yourself closer to your dream, you will realize they are no accidents without value.

A great example of this principal can be found in the true story of Rudy Ruettiger. The motion picture Rudy tells this inspiring story. Rudys dream was to play football, but everybody told him he was too slow and too small. Yet, he kept an open mind, told the Universe what he wanted, and the Universe did indeed respond.

When he was 22 years old, a friend bought Rudy a Notre Dame jacket for his birthday. When he gave it to him, he commented Rudy, you were born to wear this jacket. These words touched and motivated Rudy to the point that he jumped on a bus and headed to South Bend with the hope of meeting with Notre Dames football coach.

After arriving in South Bend, Rudy had to enroll in Holy Cross Junior College in order to improve his grades. With no where to live, he slept in the maintenance room. After numerous setbacks and rejections, Rudy was finally accepted to Notre Dame and made the football team as a walk-on.

Even though the coaching staff never considered Rudy as a legitimate player (he was assigned to the practice squad week after week), he never missed a practice. Finally, Rudy had the opportunity to put on the Notre Dame uniform on the last game of the season during this senior year.

Everybody in the crowd was aware of Rudys commitment and goal. The crowd started chanting Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. The coach was so moved he put Rudy in the game with only 27 seconds to play. Rudy responded to his life-long dream by sacking the quarterback of the visiting team and was carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates.

When you carry your dream within, you too will be able to touch the hearts of the people around you. It is a truly wonderful experience when you discover the Universe does indeed help you achieve your goal.

Alex Blackwell is the author of The Next 45 Years - a website dedicated to sharing and creating happiness, life balance and success for the rest of our lives. To read more inspiration al stories and articles, please visit: http://www.thenext45years.blogspot.com

Arbinger Institute

London Builders - Kitchen Installation - Part One

What can be done to the kitchen? There are many different materials for kitchen dressing. It can be designed in one or several colors. If you want contrast, it can be created with the help of bright-colored dishes on the shelves, bright curtains etc. The materials for wall, floor and ceiling coverage depends on your financial situation. The most important factors are usability, endurance, and aesthetics of the chosen material. It should also match the general interior design in finish and color.

The most popular floor covering is ceramic tile. It can be perfectly combined with walls and table surface. Collection variability existing in the market, luxurious mosaic pictures, imitations of parquet or marble, diversity of formats allow to embody fantastic design ideas, impossible with any other material.

The only drawback of this material is that the ceramic tile may crack by falling of a hard object on it, and the feet are cold on them. But this is surmountable: one can use under floor heating, electric or water one. If you choose tile, take the one with rough surface, because smooth tile is made slippery by water, which often happens in the kitchen.

Natural wood is only little less popular. Its natural warmth, saturated tinges, vivid texture make a kitchen cosy, family and traditional. With wood, different variants are possible, too. Drawbacks of wood are its low moisture and chemical resistance and difficulties in treatment. If pieces of food or cleaning agent drops fall on it, there is a high chance that they would not be removed completely. Thick layer of lacquer or boiled oil partially protects the wood from these inconveniences. It should be renovated periodically for maintenance of the floor look. Sharp or hot subjects falling on the wooden floor track its surface inevitably.

Linoleum has been constantly popular for a long time already. It is a rather cheap, attractive and usable floor coating for any interior. Linoleum is antistatic and soft, doesn't attract dust, it is resistant to the direct sunlight and home dissolvent-free chemicals.

Its drawbacks are: low melting temperature, softness, vulnerability to dissolvent, and a considerable shrink. Light linoleum becomes yellow with time under the sunrays. The dark one soils itself less and preserves good look longer. But even dark linoleum has a short life. In 3 - 5 years it must be replaced. Choosing color, pay your attention to the bottom layer. It should be made of the natural materials. Such linoleum is more comfortable for feet, and statistical charge is accumulated less. The main drawback of linoleum is that it is easy to damage it with, for example, fallen cigarette-end or heels. Nevertheless, the number of those who prefer this kitchen flooring does not reduce. First of all, it attracts buyers with its price. If possible, choose natural linoleum, ecological material having bactericidal properties (bacteria do not propagate on this surface), heat-resistant, antistatic, resistant to chemicals and aggressive environment. The important feature of the natural linoleum is that it is not deformed under the furniture or heels.

Kitchen rival of the linoleum is laminated floor made of floor boards with laminated surface. Such floors correspond to lamellar pressed plastic - firm fiberboard with decorative enduring surface. They have several drawbacks. It is, first of all, the need to follow special treatment recommendations. For example, one must not use spouting water or wet duster with long fringe for cleaning. Accidental water drops on the laminate are also unadvisable. Laminated floors react to water just like parquet. Hard-to-remove spots (paint, glue, oil etc.) should be removed with the help of special-purpose chemicals - traditional agents, as wax, polish and others, do not fit them. Laminate is almost impossible to repair. Mending of any defect will remain noticeable. However, under the pressure, lifetime of laminated floor is 5 - 10 years.

Arthur Prudent is a developer of London builders: bathroom, kitchen installation - web site offering all aspects of builders services. London builders: kitchen installation. Part one

Home Remodeling Ideas

Advantages of A Custom Kitchen Cabinet

When you choose to remodel your kitchen with a custom kitchen cabinet, you are opening the door to a world of style, color and wood choices to name just a few. You can literally draw a picture of the cabinet that you want, and a craftsman will be able to construct our custom kitchen cabinet.

You will have many convenience options available to you as well, when you opt to use a custom kitchen cabinet. Do you want a cabinet with a pull-out spice rack; perhaps you would like a waste paper basket cabinet. You can have your custom kitchen cabinet with a mixer cabinet or even a home recycling center. The possibilities are restricted only by your imagination and your requirements when you are shopping for a custom kitchen cabinet team of craftsmen.

You dont necessarily have to replace your cabinets, there is always the less expensive alternative of a custom kitchen cabinet refacing with all the advantages of a custom kitchen cabinet. Not only will this be lighter on your pocketbook, it will take less time to install than if you replace your old cabinets.

You will be offered the same wide range of choices if you decide on refacing instead of replacing. You or a trained draftsman will take measurements of your kitchen and present you with a design plan for your approval. You will be able to customize your choices at a fraction of the cost of a conventional remodeling job.

Your existing doors and cabinets will be removed and then the veneer to the outside of your cabinets is applied. Then your brand new cabinet doors, drawers and complete hardware are installed, and you have a brand new kitchen. Refacing is not the same as kitchen cabinet staining or refurbishing. But refacing will give your kitchen a new personality in less time than traditional kitchen remodeling.

If you like the way it looks, you might think of adding more features. You can include new countertops, extra cabinets; roll out shelves or even a kitchen island. This will help to increase the value of your home and your enjoyment of spending time cooking and cleaning in your brand new kitchen.

Want to learn more about Custom Kitchen Cabinet?, feel free to visit us at: http://www.aboutkitchencabinets.com/Articles/Custom_Kitchen_Cabinet.php

Setting Up The Framing Square
Prefabricated Home Packages

What's The Lowdown On Variable Universal Life Insurance?

If permanent insurance with flexible premiums and options is important to you, youll want to choose a variable universal life insurance policy. This type of policy combines features of universal life insurance with investment options, so you have the potential for a larger death settlement than you would have with an ordinary policy. It is called a variable universal life insurance, because your investments and premiums are not fixed. They are variable because they depend on the current market conditions.

Variable universal life insurance has advantages over other life insurance policies, such as Globe Life Insurance or whole life insurance. With this type of life insurance you get to play the stock market and choose the investment funds where you want to put your money. With universal life insurance on its own, you cant control how your cash value is invested. When you combine it with variable life insurance, you can switch investments two or three times a year if you wish to get a higher life insurance settlement.

As with 30 year term life insurance and others, you do have a guaranteed death benefit. This amount could rise drastically if you have the right investments with a variable universal life insurance. The amount of the cash settlement varies, so that you could have lots of money one day and the minimum life insurance settlement the next.

The life insurance cost associated with variable universal life insurance is higher than other types. However, along with this comes the advantage that you have a tax shelter. The money you make through investments will not be taxed until you cash in the policy. The monthly premium you pay also varies, depending on market conditions. This may not appeal to you if you are on a fixed income and have to budget for the premiums.

Variable Universal life insurance is not for everyone. If you want to make sure that there is a death benefit to protect your family in the event of your death, then maybe you should look at a 30 year life insurance or ask for a whole life insurance quote. This way your money is guaranteed and you dont run the risk of losing it. The way market conditions are operating today, the many falls seem to indicate that the cash value of the life insurance policies are falling as well. Its better to be safe than sorry.

Variable universal life insurance gives you choices.

For a website totally devoted to Life Insurance visit Peter's Website Life Insurance Answers and find out about Online Life Insurance as well as Life Insurance Rates and more, including Life Insurance Companies, Term Life Insurance and Life Insurance Agents.

Building Codes And Remodeling

Second Life - The Basics

Ever since Internet became a widely available tool, people always imagined and used it as a virtual universe for chatting, buying and selling or simply socializing. Whether we like it or not, the Internet has become a secondary, virtual life, for many and on this premise the concept of the metaverse was born. The metaverse is a virtual universe that copies, more or less, the real life Universe and one of the clearest ways to express a metaverse is through what is known today as a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. Some of these MMOs create a fantasy world of their own (take for example World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online or Everquest) whereas some simply offer a real-world alternative universe, as is the case of Second Life, one of the most popular such phenomenons on the Internet.

Second Life Basic Premises

The Second Life metaverse is based on an Earth-like world, known as the Grid. This grid consists of land masses and free areas and the world is divided into 256x256 areas of grid called Regions. Each of these regions, powered by their own servers, has its own name and a content rating (either Mature or PG), some being more stable than others. The land masses in Second Life are controlled by Linden Research (called Linden Labs in the game) and each of the programs users are called Residents.

Residents of Second Life have an avatar that can be of either sex, wear different clothing, or have different physical attributes, simulating the real life universe entirely. Residents can communicate in this environment by several means, including local chat, which is further divided into normal chat (which can be heard in a 25m area), yelling (heard in a 96m area) and whispering (18m area) but Second Life also offers a form of instant messaging for private conversations, regardless of the chatting residents position in the Grid.

Residents can also buy, sell and manage property and items in Second Life for a currency called the Linden Dollars (or simply L$). Theres a virtual exchange rate in this metaverse, that fluctuates slightly, but a stable rate seems to be revolving around the 270 Linden Dollars to one US Dollar ratio. Youre probably anticipating what Im going to say next: you can actually make real life US Dollars, using Second Life Linden Dollars. Either by selling land or items, you can cash in some nice income, given the fact that you put some dedication into your Second Life avatar and you can read the virtual economy of its world.

Second Life Conclusion

So should Second Life be considered a game? Should it be put in the same category as other Massively Multiplayer Online worlds as the ones created by World of Warcraft and the likes? In principle, Second Life doesnt share the same premises that these fantasy worlds offer, for example it has no real objectives, no levels and no abilities, which makes many object to the fact that its a game per say. Still, Second Life has the purpose of entertaining its Residents through its simulation of real life, so its yet unclear whether we should watch it as a game or not. What is clear is that this is becoming a quickly increasing phenomenon that appeals to all genders, all ages and all religions, bringing us closer together in a virtual metaverse than we are in our real lives.

Want to make real money with Second Life? You can make a fortune playing second life. Even quit your 'real' job. We are giving away a FREE second life business.

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Simple Layout And Framing

5 Ways To Lower Your Homeowners Insurance In Santa Clarita

Santa Clarita homeowner's insurance has varying costs. These costs, or premiums, are dependent upon a number of things. These include the type of coverage you choose to carry, the amount of your deductible, and the kind of home you need to insure. Santa Clarita is located just north of Los Angeles, California, in an area prone to earthquakes and heavy rains at certain times of the year. Here are 5 tips for lowering your homeowner's insurance rates if you live in Santa Clarita.

1. When you are purchasing a home, look closely at the location, building materials and quality of construction of the home you want. Newer homes will cost less to insure for at least the first five to seven years. In an earthquake prone area, such as Santa Clarita, choose a home with wood frame construction. This type of construction will be more likely to withstand this kind of disaster.
2. Every year, look at your possessions. If you have expensive jewelry, furs, silver or fine art work, you are probably paying extra to insure them on a floater policy. You may no longer own these items or you may find that you do not need to insure them for as much as you currently have your homeowners policy set to cover.
3. Purchase your homeowners insurance and automobile insurance policies from the same company. This way you will receive a discount and, also, have only one company to deal with in case of a claim.
4. Maintain a strong credit record. Your insurance company most likely uses credit information to determine the price of your homeowners insurance policy. Check your credit record annually to be sure that the information stated is accurate.
5. Raise your deductible limit. The deductible is the amount that you must pay before your insurance pays when you have a claim. By raising this deductible to $500 or even $1000 on your homeowners insurance you may be able to save up to 25% on your policy.

By checking with your insurance agent you will be able to discuss your individual situation and circumstances to get the best possible rate. Remember that price is not everything; the service and reputation of your agent and insurance company will mean more to you when you have a loss or claim.

To find out more about how to lower your homeowner's insurance rates go to http://www.InsuranceSantaClarita.com

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