This meditation is a little different.  I am proposing a structure to get you started, but you should do what makes the most sense for you.  Take 15 minutes and practice praying.

A timer may be useful.  Some kitchen timers have a single beep every five minutes.  That would be great for this exercise.  Each morning, find a quiet space.

It may be useful to make lists throughout the day so you can include things in your prayers.  Remember, there’s no “cheating” when it comes to prayer–any way you pray is the right way.

First, focus on Thanksgiving for fives minutes.  List the things you’re grateful for:  Family, friends, success, opportunities, your talents, inspiring people, and so forth.  List as many things as you can.  When you run out of things to list, sit quietly for the remainder of the five minutes.

Second, make Petitions for five minutes.  Ask for focus, for clarity in your goals.  Pray for people you know, for the souls of those who have passed on, for aunts and uncles and cousins.  Pray for people with whom you work.  Ask for the skills and the ambition to do your best in your work.  Again, when you run out of things to list, sit quietly for the remainder of the five minutes.

Third, sit quietly and Listen.  Close your eyes.  Take a few deep breaths.  Focus on your breath as you can feel it moving in and out.  Don’t focus on your thanksgivings or your petitions.  Don’t try to think.  If a thought or noise draws your attention, make note of it and bring your focus back to your breathing.  Do this for five minutes.

Then, find some quiet time in the evening and repeat this prayer activity.  It may be for a shorter period of time, but try to include all three pieces.  Repeat for 30 days.

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We have discussed several aspects of “focusing” on your success.  Lots of books have been written on the concept of focusing on the moment, but I want to relay an incident that brought this point into focus for me recently. Brought clarity to focusing on the moment.

I take Bikram-style yoga classes several times a week.  This is a special type of yoga consisting of 26 poses in a hot room (about 100 degrees).  Each class takes 90 minutes.

A few weeks ago I was in a 6 AM yoga class.  About half way through, the instructor said to me “I’d like to see a little more effort there, Karl.”

My first thought was, “Hey!  I got up in the middle of the night to be here for a 6 AM class!  I’ve done 45 minutes of strenuous exercise and I’m about to do another 45 minutes of strenuous exercise!  In a room that’s 100 degrees!  There are only four other people here!  I’ve already put out the effort.”

After a little reflection, of course, I had a different perspective.  All those things were true.  But, after all, I was there to exercise.  And I’d gotten up in the middle of the night to go to a 6 AM class in order to do myself some good.  So I actually had many reasons to put in a little extra effort at that moment.

The lesson is simple:  You have the ability at any moment–at every moment–to put out a little extra effort.  When you find yourself in a meeting you want to escape, or at a cocktail party you can’t handle, or performing a dreary task at your desk, that’s the moment to focus on your success.  You are in the situation:  Make the best of it.  Put out a little more effort.  Then move on to the next moment of your success.

In the same vein, you have the power, at every moment, to take a breath and consider whether your first reaction to a situation is the reaction you wish to exercise.  You experience your life one moment at a time.  Being aware of that, and experiencing it at a conscious level, will give you many more opportunities for success.

So, let’s see a little extra effort out there.

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There’s a good book called Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder by Edward M. Hallowell, John J. Ratey.

The book deals with a wide variety of subjects and not just ADD. Among other things, the authors make some recommendations for basic principles of what you might call “Brain Management.” In other words, here are some tips for maintaining a well-oiled and well-working brain:

• Take 30 second breaks from work or any activity that keeps your brain “on”
• Get enough sleep
• Rest your brain as you feel overloaded – just 30 seconds
• Eat the right food
   - not too much carbs
   - not too much caffeine
   - not too much alcohol
   - whole foods
   - balanced diet
   - proteins with breakfast
   - omega 3 fatty acids
• Exercise 3x week
• Pray or meditate – even for 3-5 minutes
• Have positive human contact. That is, do fun things with interesting people. Don’t stay in your room, isolated from the world.
• Keep a Journal

These are interesting pieces of advice for everyone with a brain. In a very real sense, they apply to everyone, everywhere.

The authors contend that we don’t give our brains a chance to turn off. We don’t give it natural breaks.

Interestingly, there is research to show that, for most of us, the brain naturally takes a break between activities. We finish a task and the brainwaves settle down into a pattern of inactivity. In other words, our brain shifts into neutral for a few seconds before we go on to the next task.

But that doesn’t always happen, and it doesn’t happen for everyone.

The really great news is that you can simply do this for yourself. In other words, you can simply take a 30- to 60-second break and get a huge boost in productivity.

Your brain can never really be “off” at any time. But there are many parts to the brain. Your autonomic systems keep your heart beating and your lungs working. Don’t touch that part.

Other operations, such as conscious and unconscious “work” are another story. We can consciously choose to stop thinking about one thing and begin thinking about another thing. So taking a break with our conscious mind is very easy. It can be as simple as staring at picture, or closing our eyes for a few seconds.

At the same time, the unconscious mind continues working away. Giving it a break takes a little more effort — but not much. A 3-5 minute break in which we pray, meditate, or just do a breathing exercise, can be extremely refreshing.

I’ve had people argue that they don’t have time to exercise, relax, or spend 30 minutes a day in quiet time. Okay. I don’t agree with that.

But when I tell you that a series of 30-second breaks every hour will give you a major boost in brain power, isn’t that worth checking out?

Try it. What have you got to gain?

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If you are interested in getting started with a little “intro level” meditation, I’ve got a great resource for you.  Check out Yoga Nidra Meditation CD: Extreme Relaxation of Conscious Deep Sleep by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati. You can find it on Amazon.

Yoga Nidra is not “yoga” as we tend to think of it. The only thing you do with your physical body is lie on the floor and remain motionless. Meanwhile, your mind is focused on a tour of your body. As with most meditations, the goal is to focus your mind on essentially nothing. You remain awake, but not consciously using your mind to do work.

We spend so much time letting our mind focus on work and troubles and problems, that our poor brains never get to rest. This is particularly true of people who experience chronic pain. Recent research shows that brains of people with chronic pain do not get a chance to “rest” between periods of activity. This contributes to fatigue and restlessness at the same time.

The practice of Yoga Nidra is intended to help you achieve a restful state while remaining completely awake. It is very relaxing and many find it energizing.

This CD is particularly good for beginning meditation for two reasons. First, you are guided the entire time. When you haven’t meditated much, you mind tends to wander. The constant narration of this CD keeps your mind from wandering back to work, troubles, etc.

Second, the CD just jumps into the meditation. There’s no discussions about religious philosophy or new age light sprouting from your aura. It just gets down the project at hand: relaxing and meditating. That other stuff gets old about the second time you listen to an audio program.

I believe that, if you’re going to use a guided meditation CD, the CD should not contain philosophical discussions that people don’t want to listen to every time they do their meditation.

Overall, this is an excellent CD for beginners. It’s also good for experienced meditators because it adds a nice variety.

Hey, for $15 you can’t go wrong.

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I don’t get to exercise much these days. With my rheumatoid arthritis, I can’t jog because it’s too jogging. And elliptical trainers will just speed up the eventual knee replacements. I can’t lift weights because I can’t grip the bar.

But I can walk!

Therefore, I bought a pedometer so I could keep track of my walking. Here’s what I discovered.

1) I’m pretty lazy.

I live a pretty sedentary “office” life. It’s one step to the file cabinet from my work area. It’s maybe five steps to the printer. Eight to the conference table. Twenty to the break room. Thirty to the bathroom.

I walk to the car. I walk to someone’s desk.

But mostly I don’t walk much at all.

2) I walk about 2500-3000 steps on a normal day.

3) For me, 3000 steps is about a mile.

4) When I go for a 1/2 hour walk, I walk about 3,000 steps. About one mile.

That almost exactly doubles my exercise for the day.

The good news is, when I go for my regular morning walk, I get that extra mile in all at once.

So, given that I can’t do much else, it’s a very important walk.

You might think that this little bit of exercise is useless, but more and more, research shows that almost any level of exercise is beneficial. Even fifteen minutes.

Excercise improves circulation, and it’s good for the heart, the skin, the brain, and general flexibility.

Move it or lose it.

Last year, several research reports were leasted on small amounts of exercise. The news is pretty simple: It’s all good.

So you can’t run a marathon: You can still walk for half an hour, or an hour. The more the merrier.

You can buy a pedometer for about $10 – $20. Give it a try!

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