Meditation
Finding Balance During the Pandemic Pandamonium
Last week I found myself lost mid-sentence several times. I noticed my breathing was shallow. I have committed to meditating 20 minutes each morning and it has been helping to relieve the my stress and fears about the future. Even as recently as yesterday, I felt too agitated to do sitting meditation and did walking meditation instead. As a long time meditator, I’ve been surprised by my own lack of balance.
Isaac Galton Experiments With Meditation
In high school I was often bored and lonely, but I kept myself motivated with the hope that life after graduation would be better. I longed for an environment where I could be intellectually challenged and find a strong supportive community. When I got to college, I...
Vippassana Breath Meditation
This is one of many ways to practice meditation. This is particularly effective in quietening the mind and grounding the body.Once you have assumed a comfortable sitting position, take the first few moments to sweep through the body with the intention to relax. Soften...
Meditation Basics: The Art Of Natural Sitting
The iconic "Meditation Posture" seen in many publications is often misleading as a guide to real-life sitting for meditation. In advertising photographs the head is thrown back with neck jutting forward. The spine is sometimes shown as rigid. This position...
Which Meditation Cushion Is For You? How To Choose A Meditation Cushion Or Bench
A meditation cushion or bench puts you in a relaxed but alert position where breathing, circulation, and life energy (a.k.a chi, prana, shakti or kundalini) flow optimally. We recommend three basic positions: 1--Sukhasana (a.k.a Easy Pose and...
Movement Therapy
Don’t You Have a Chair? Four Sitting Alternatives Explored
When I was in highschool I got rid of the furniture in my bedroom and starting sitting and sleeping on the floor. I was exploring ways of arranging my space and using my body that felt more grounded and natural. Even now, I’m reluctant to sit on furniture. People say “there’s a couch”, as if they feel sorry for me,
Is Your Life Aligning Your Body? Simple Lifestyle Changes That Make You Feel and Look Great
By Patrick Clark When I go to the acupuncture clinic and lay on the table my therapist says, "Oh yeah, you don't like pillows..." and moves the pillow out of the way. That pillow makes me uncomfortable. I am the only patient who doesn't want it. I'm also the only...
Turn Your Office Into A Health Spa: 10 Easy Steps
Let’s face it—most of the time the office is the last place we would like to be. We associate the office with things like: ‘stifling’, ‘stuffy’, ‘confining’, ‘cramped’, ‘stuck’. Most suicides happen on Monday morning. We like to ‘escape’ from the office. Just like the...
Laptop Ergonomics: How To Get Out Of Your Slump
The advent of the laptop computer has revolutionized the table-and-desk-sit-down office work station. With the laptop, people are free to lie on the floor or bed, lean back on a couch in the hotel lobby or against a tree, or even stand up. No sooner did an opportunity...
Reading In Bed: Finding the Ultimate Position
If you've had a big day and you need some time to unwind and read a book or watch a movie--chances are it's not going to be sitting at a desk or table. Who doesn't love to cuddle with an interesting book and cup of tea on the bed or couch? And chances are you haven't...
Chair-Free Lifestyle: A New Approach To Fitness And Health
Note: This article is most useful for people who have some experience with natural sitting. If you want to learn how to get started, see The Art of Natural Sitting. Most modern furniture puts us in unhealthy positions which contribute to poor health and back pain. The...
What’s Wrong With The Chair?
Back pain is epidemic in America. It costs us over $4 billion each year and, aside from the common cold, keeps more people away from work than any other single cause. Diverse evidence from many cultures shows that sitting has been associated with numerous problems:...
Sleep Therapy
Six Ways to Improve Your Sleep and Meditation
Winter is a great time to get some extra beauty sleep. With the longer nights and cold temperatures, our bodies are designed to slow down and regenerate. Sleep and meditation compliment each other. Meditation helps us slow down so we can relax and experience deeper sleep, and sleep helps our meditation by optimizing our ability to focus and thus reach that magical silent peace of deep alpha and theta brain waves.
Sweet Dreams On A Hard Surface: The Ergonomics Of Sleep
I spent 30 years wondering what to sleep on for optimal sleep and health. When I finally realized through personal experimentation and research that the best mattress is no mattress, I could never look at the world the same. We are asleep when it comes to...
Optimize Circadian Rhythms For The Sleep Of Your Dreams
One characteristic shared by practically all the 'modern' or 'neolithic' diseases like obesity, diabetes, hypo thyroidism, sleep apnea, etc.-- is poor quality sleep. Whether this is causative or indicative has been a question. The reality is more complex. The cause...
Eleven Ways To Get Rid Of Dust Mites Without Chemicals
Dust mites are microscopic insects, found living in soft furnishings throughout the home, which feed on dead skin cells. In fact, an incredible one million dust mites can happily feed on the amount of skin shed daily by an average adult! While these tiny home invaders...
What’s Keeping You Awake At Night: Chemical Toxins In Bedding Explained
We have the illusion that clothes and bedding made from synthetic fibers are safe, but the materials are in fact full of invisible chemicals the clothing/furniture industry prefers we don't think about. A hundred years ago, bedding and clothing was made of natural...
Reading In Bed: Finding the Ultimate Position
If you've had a big day and you need some time to unwind and read a book or watch a movie--chances are it's not going to be sitting at a desk or table. Who doesn't love to cuddle with an interesting book and cup of tea on the bed or couch? And chances are you haven't...
Pillow Therapy: How To Turn Sleep Into Yoga
It's sort of a standing joke - sometimes people cheer when it's time for the last part of the yoga workout - Shavasana - that is, laying down to relax, breath and let the mind release. There usually is no pillow and very little padding. This is a chance to feel the...
Sleeping On A Firm Or Hard Surface Benefits And Techniques
Sleeping On A Firm Or Hard Surface: Benefits and Techniques For Sweet Dreams on a Hard Surface Part One Click Here. I believe the reason mattresses have become ubiquitus is mainly due to these reasons: 1--The perceived comfort is an adaptive response. The body becomes...
Small Space Living
Eight Steps to a Clutter Free Life
Lessons from a Tiny House Guru By Patrick Clark People often ask me how I got myself to fit into a 184 square foot tiny house (8’ x 23’). The answer is, by changing my paradigm about how I think about space, stuff and redefining what quality of life means to me. It...
No Space To Waste: Floor Sleeping As A Small Space Design Solution
The bed's primary purpose is to serve an ESSENTIAL BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION which will influence our failure or success and our health and well being and how long we live and our quality of life.Many people take the bed for granted, seeing it mostly as an object....
The Lean Green Dwelling: Ten Solutions for Downscaling
To most of us, a small dwelling normally brings up negative images such as: compromise, cramped, ghetto, low income, anti-social, and utilitarian. Isn’t this the land of the free, where bigger is better? The current offerings on the market for space-saving furniture...
The Paradox Of Small – Simplicity And Minimalism In The Bedroom
When I was in highschool I was inspired by Henry David Thoreau who lived in a 10'x10' cabin as an experiment in self awareness and personal independence from herd mentality. Ever since, I had the ideal that living in a small space would be beautiful and simple. A...
How We Learned To Live In And Love A Tiny House
Twenty years ago I set out to build a house. I wanted a house that was a sanctuary, soothing, and interactive, that reflected serenity, open space, simplicity, and looked somehow more vernacular than modern. But vernacular to what? Perhaps vernacular to any culture...