Calm Meditation

One of the first to offer downloadable guided meditation sessions for iPod, CALM Meditation capitalises on its extensive product line by offering its products via download.

Sydney, Australia (IPRWIRE) Wed. Oct. 29th, 2008 — Sydney, Australia (IPRWIRE) Mon. Aug. 4th, 2008 — CALM Meditation (www.calmmeditation.com) markets an extensive line of books, CDs, DVDs and seminars designed to help people in the art and science of daily meditation as taught by founding director, Sandy MacGregor.

Sandy proved the power of meditation to himself commencing in 1981. He is a Civil Engineer, a retired Army Colonel and was awarded bravery medals in Vietnam’s Cu Chi Tunnels where he commanded the Original Tunnel Rats. He learnt daily meditation from his son who had already used it to help his asthma and to save his own leg from amputation. Sandy applied it to weight and released 49 pounds (22 kgms) and to controlling blood pressure. He even found inner strength after the tragic murder of his three daughters using these same techniques.

In the past, CALM Meditation’s customers relied on either attending a live event not practical for many, especially since most of the company’s workshops and seminars take place in Australia or ordering materials on CD or DVD and waiting for them to ship.

Sandy’s company noticed that many other businesses had begun to offer download versions of their products as an additional way to reach their customers. It was an easy leap to make to take some of their existing daily meditation study materials and reformat them for personal computers, iPods and other audio devices. The wait for that daily meditation CD or DVD is now over.

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What is Guided Meditation? It is meditation which incorporates the use of guided imagery and visualization. Sports psychologists sometimes refer to it as ‘mental rehearsal’. This is precisely what many sports people use to achieve gold medals. They are building neural pathways inside their deeper mind which actually help them to achieve.

Look at what Michael Phelps achieved in the Beijing Olympics – 8 gold medals in swimming for USA! The greatest Olympian ever! Besides all the training, the strict diets and all the usual preparation required for any professional athlete he had a ‘preparation secret’.  Yes it was putting the techniques espoused by the book The Secret to work using Guided Meditation.

In Phelps’ own words he wrote in his 2004 autobiography ‘Beneath the Surface’: “There are times in my sleep when I literally dream my race from start to finish. Other nights … I visualize to the point that I know exactly what I want to do: dive, glide, stroke, flip, reach the wall, hit the split time to the hundredth, then swim back again for as many times as I need to finish the race.”

Phelps was ‘guiding himself’ whereas CALM has pre-prepared meditations which guide you to achieve much of what you want in life.

Guided meditation offers a very gentle way for beginning meditators to ease into the practice of meditation. Guided meditation seamlessly leads the meditator into an experience of ever deeper states of relaxation and into Theta brainwave state in which the mind is alert and the body is completely relaxed.  

Sandy MacGregor, founder of CALM Meditation, has taught thousands of people how to meditate properly through his guided meditation books, CDs and DVDs. Guided meditation has far-reaching benefits to health, tranquillity, relationships with others, manifesting goals, losing weight and many other areas of life that people often struggle with.

Sandy has been teaching his techniques since 1989. He has personally used the practice of guided meditation found in his books and CDs to drop 49 pounds (22 kgs) of excess weight. Guided meditation helped his son save his own leg from amputation and handle asthma. Sandy also used it to transmute hatred, anger and revenge into acceptance, love and forgiveness while coping with the murder of his three children.

CALM utilizes the most advanced, scientific and up-to-date techniques available in easy-to-follow books, CDs, DVDs and direct downloads to your computer.

Specific meditation sessions have been designed for dealing with particular issues such as health concerns, relationship challenges and other issues and challenges that life presents. The ability to fine tune each guided meditation to your individual requirements is what makes this such a useful and practical process.

Some people do like to create their own personalized meditation sessions by recording their own voices and choice of background music. Music with a tempo of 60 beats a minutes has been scientifically shown to be most beneficial for the purpose of guided meditation.  Music at 60 beats a minute, tends to make the human heart get in time with the music, which of course is the relaxed state and in turn helps to deepen the meditation experience and enhance its effectiveness.

Creative Accelerated Learning Methods (CALM) as taught by Sandy MacGregor uses the visualization of color to take the meditator deeply into Theta meditation. The colors of the spectrum are used, starting with red and then orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, violet and finally the clear colorless white light. The science behind this is that each color on being visualized, vibrates according to its wave length within the body. The wave length decreases as the colors progress, so the vibrations in the body are becoming finer. The body feels the vibration and it is this progression of fineness coming into the body (the colors) that takes you to the meditation state.

Guided meditation is best done on a regular basis for short periods of twenty minutes or so per session. Regularity is important to establish the habit. Most people begin to notice a difference in both the quality of their meditation sessions and in the results usually after a very short period of time.

Guided meditation utilizes visualization of images by using the senses – see, feel, smell, taste, hear and most important of all imagination and self talk. Everybody can visualize to create and suggest positive images! Using the mind in this way can be very powerful and yet simple to learn.  Besides the many applications already mentioned, guided meditation is a safe and economical way of achieving relaxation, serenity and handling stress. 

Meditation has long been a component of human practice, going back perhaps as far as 5,000 years or more. Recent advances in the scientific measurement of brain activity have validated many of the ancient claims regarding the benefits of meditation. Physicians, trainers and many others have long recognized the usefulness of meditation in promoting health, a positive mindset and an attitude of calm. The art and science of meditation is currently in a period of renaissance, with new meditation techniques being developed to further enhance the practical benefits.

Sandy MacGregor, founder of CALM Meditation, has taught thousands of people meditation techniques through his books, CDs and DVDs.  Using successful  meditation techniques has far-reaching benefits to health, tranquillity, relationships with others, manifesting goals, losing weight and many other areas of life that people often struggle with.

Sandy has been teaching his meditation techniques since 1989. He has personally used the practices from his books and CDs to drop 49 pounds (22 kgs) of excess weight. Using these meditation techniques his son helped to save his own leg from amputation and handle asthma. Sandy also used it to transmute hatred, anger and revenge into acceptance, love and forgiveness while coping with the murder of his three children.

CALM utilizes the most advanced, scientific and up-to-date techniques available in easy-to-follow books, CDs, DVDs and direct downloads to your computer.

It is a misconception to think that to meditate perfectly one has to sit in specific, often almost impossible, postures and positions or hold your hands in a special way.  It is far more simple than that – in fact there are no rules. Equally it is a misconception to think that you must ‘drop the mind’ or ‘think nothing’. Indeed how could Sandy’s son saved his leg from amputation or Sandy lose 49 lbs or change hatred, anger and revenge to acceptance, love and forgiveness by thinking ‘nothing’. You can’t! You definitely can think something using CALM’s meditation techniques.

There are other meditation techniques, some involving having to clear the mind, specific auditory elements like chanting, intoning a mantra or even singing. Some other techniques use visual cues like mandalas, colours, shapes or light forms. Learning to regulate the breath and quieten and relax the body are essential components of almost all forms of meditation.  The meditation techniques CALM uses incorporate guided imagery and visualization  with relaxing background music.

Meditation techniques involving Active Meditation are excellent for dealing with:

·         Pain management and physical healing

·         Developing inner peace and spiritual harmony

·         Letting go of anger

·         Managing sleep issues

·         Eliminating depression

·         Effectively dealing with negative emotions like worry, fear or resentment

·         Enhancing creativity and inventiveness

·         Losing excess weight

·         Establishing self worth and confidence

·         Controlling unhealthy habits like smoking

We have four different brainwave states.

The Beta state is our day-to-day waking state of consciousness. This is the state where we are multi-tasking (e.g., driving a car, listening to the radio, thinking about work) and the state in which we take on stress. We can think of up to 9 things at a time in the Beta brainwave state

The Alpha state is the relaxed focused state; we think of only one thing at a time in this state and we release stress in this state. It is the same state as day dreaming or staring or when you’re working with a hobby and time just flies by.

The Theta brainwave state is the meditation state in which your mind is extremely acute and you may or may not have awareness of your body. The dream state is the same; however in the dream state you do not have conscious control. Theta is the state where you can use your conscious mind to direct and establish new neural pathways in your memory. It generally takes about four to seven minutes to get to Theta state.

The Delta state is deep sleep. This state of brainwave activity does not involve thinking at all. Delta is reached by first going through Alpha, then Theta and finally into deep dreamless sleep.

We can all sleep (some just find it more difficult to get to sleep than others)  so this means we can all get to the Theta or meditation state. Effective meditation techniques involve bringing the mind into the Theta state easily, having conscious control and reaching a relaxed state of awareness.

Practice Meditation for Optimal Benefits

Daily meditation is one of the most powerful ways to create inner peace and contentment and help to achieve what we want in life. If done daily, meditation can refresh and invigorate, allowing you to calmly face any challenges that may come up, with tranquil optimism. Daily meditation is a great way to slough off the effects of fatigue, overwork, challenging relationships, health concerns and other stresses, and prepare you for each day with a sense of purpose. There are no age limits to practising meditation and the beneficial effects are cumulative.

Escape from the constant mind chatter and daily concerns that can prey on our minds and learn how to direct your thinking with meditation.

Daily meditation is very beneficial to health. During meditation the heart rate and blood pressure both lower and the strain on the heart is also reduced.

With the fast pace of life today our “nerves” are often on a constant state of alert and stimulation. Daily Meditation helps to recharge our batteries and make us more refreshed.

Meditation should be as much a part of our lives as eating, drinking and sleeping.

Sandy MacGregor, founder of CALM Meditation, has taught thousands of people how to meditate properly through his daily meditation books, CDs and DVDs. Daily meditation, when incorporated with Active Meditation (achieving with your mind), has far-reaching benefits to health, tranquillity, relationships with others, manifesting goals, losing weight and many other areas of life that people often struggle with.

Sandy has been teaching his techniques since 1989. He has personally used the practices from his daily meditation books and CDs to drop 49 pounds (22 kgs) of excess weight. Daily meditation helped his son save his own leg from amputation and handle asthma. Sandy also used it to transmute hatred, anger and revenge into acceptance, love and forgiveness while coping with the murder of his three children.

CALM utilizes the most advanced, scientific and up-to-date techniques available in easy-to-follow books, CDs, DVDs and direct downloads to your computer.

Initially it is important to establish a daily practice and then continue with this once it has become a habit. The amount of time required is minimal; usually a total of 20-30 minutes once or twice a day is enough to establish a healthy meditation practice for yourself. Your meditation area should be clean, quiet and clutter-free. Outside interruptions from family, roommates, and the neighborhood dogs should be kept to a minimum if possible. If it is not possible to escape from outside background noise, then with practice, it is possible to use the mind to “eliminate” extraneous sounds by saying to yourself ‘for every sound that I hear it helps me to go deeper and deeper into meditation’. Meditation is a state in which the mind is acute, but the body is relaxed.

Start gently and keep it simple.

Set aside a quiet area of a room, garage, garden or patio where you will be undisturbed. If you wish, supply your area with a comfortable chair (a simple pad will also do) a blanket or whatever else you like to help you relax and be comfortable. If you like to use candles, essential oils or incense that is fine, although not necessary for effective daily meditation. It is an individual choice. Just setting aside the time and making daily meditation a habit is what is important. Ideally and eventually it will become possible for you to meditate any time, anywhere.

If possible, dedicate a time once or twice a day for several days to establish the habit of daily meditation. You may comfortably sit or position yourself prone on the floor or a bed, but you should be aware that sitting may be preferable as you are less likely to fall asleep during the more relaxed stages of meditation. The goal is to reach the Theta brainwave state by progressing from Beta (normal waking awareness) to Alpha (relaxed awareness) to Theta itself (meditative awareness). However, don’t be too concerned with these technical indicators of your physiological and mental activity. Keep it simple. And keep it regular. The rest will follow naturally.

At this point, don’t worry about how long you meditate, but do establish the habit of meditation. The beneficial effects of meditation are cumulative, and short, regular daily sessions are better than longer sessions and skipping days.

In a very short time, you will begin to notice that you are calmer during the day, in general - able to handle stressful situations with ease and you will have begun to exhibit more creativity, joy and confidence in all that you do. Over time, a daily meditation practice will allow all these things and many more to come into your life, enriching it and creating the quality of life that we all seek for ourselves.