Archive for October, 2008

All three parts of my meditation series are now online over at PickTheBrain.com. The articles are called “How Meditation Improves Your Health”.

Meditation Article Part One

• How mainstream society (and in particular the medical community) has accepted the evidence that meditation is effective in assisting healing.
• The dark side of our connectivity culture – stress.

Meditation Article Part Two

• How your body reacts to stress
• Why you are probably more stressed than you need to be
• Why stress is bad for our bodies

Meditation Article Part Three

• What is the Relaxation Response
• How to achieve Biological Balance (and why it’s good for you)
• The many benefits of meditation

Also don’t forget to go check out my new eBook “Psychedelic Meditation: How to Get an Awesome Cosmic High Without Drugs” and learn how you can not only enjoy the health benefits of meditation but also the recreational possibilities of meditation too!

Peace out dudes. Have, like, a totally tubular weekend…

Seamus Anthony

Imagine … you are sitting in your room, enjoying the kind of brilliant, cosmic high that other people pay good money for – but it costs you nothing, you can turn it off at any time, and not only is it harmless – it actually strengthens and improves your health!

Sound like bullshit?

Well it’s not; it’s truth, and you can make it a part of your reality today!

Confession: I Am a Complete Tripper

I get ridiculously high on a regular basis – like, I am talking “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” here – except with two major differences:

1. No paranoia or other negative side-effects
2. I don’t actually take any kind of drug or substance to induce my highs

So how can you get right-out-there high without taking drugs?

Introducing … Psychedelic Meditation

Like some weird kind of hippy scientist, I have spent the last ten years refining a system of meditation designed – amongst other benefits – to induce a wonderful, clear, clean and blissful Cosmic High. Here’s how it happened …

By Seamus Anthony

I am a big fan of spot meditations, which are quick meditations done “on the spot” that can take anywhere from an instant to a couple of minutes. Here’s a longer one that I sometimes do in the morning when I get up.

First thing I do is put the kettle on, then while I wait for it to boil I do a quick, relaxing meditation.

I have an old stainless steel kettle that we heat up on the gas stove-top which takes a minimum of five minutes depending on how full it is. You could do an electric kettle meditation but that would be a true ‘spot meditation’ as they boil pretty quickly.

My kettle meditation technique isn’t complicated – just sitting up straight, focussing on the breath and enjoying the morning peace and quiet. Obviously I live somewhere that is peaceful and quiet in the mornings, I guess if you don’t then you’ll have to meditate on the noise – which can be ok also (but more challenging in my opinion).

By Seamus Anthony

Here is a slightly exaggerated list of the reasons why my music career kind of stalled …

1) Either by fluke or an initial burst of hard work, achieve a minor level of proficiency and/or success and then decide you have made it already, that the world owes you continued growth, success and adulation, and that you don’t need to try anymore.

2) Foster and fertilise your ego until it becomes so inflated that you can’t see around it anymore.

3) Believe your own hype.

4) Get stuck into drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes until you are both psychologically and physiologically addicted to both. Allow the unchecked consumption of these vices to eat up all of your cash, and destroy your health and your grip on reality. Eat badly and allow your fitness levels to plunge, and your body image to go to pot.

5) Don’t listen to other musicians and learn from them. Don’t listen to many different kinds of music. Don’t constantly read and research, ask questions, pay attention to what the Pros do, or invest any time whatsoever into learning new skills. And NEVER practice. Fail completely to plan your career in advance, and be very careful to utterly neglect to utilize any strategy or common sense whatsoever as you go about your business. MOST IMPORTANTLY – ALWAYS REFUSE POINT BLANK TO GET INVOLVED IN ANYTHING THAT EVEN VAGUELY RESEMBLES HARD WORK.

I sure as hell am. Didn’t stop me getting on one though…

I have a new two-part tale of high horseback adventure up over at LivingNow.com.au

How To Conquer Your Fear of Abandonment (and Horses) Part One

and Part Two is here … but it would be just plain contrary of you to start there

Hope you enjoy!

Seamus

By Seamus Anthony

Did you know you can practice meditation in pretty much any situation?

If you lead a busy life and find it hard to make time to meditate, then you might like to try meditating while you get some “mindless” chores done. I do it when I am washing the dishes. Here’s how …

Turning Mindless Chores into Mindful Chores

We usually think of housework as being pretty mindless work. That’s why some people like it, they find it relaxing, and why others (like me) hate it. I dislike it because I would much rather be somehow engaging the grey matter a bit more (by doing something creative).

Why do I feel the desire to be doing something more creative? Because I have an idea in my head that this is more worthwhile – but the truth is no action is more or less worthwhile in life – they are just what they are no more no less.

I know this in theory – but nevertheless I have always tended to get frustrated and irritable when doing household chores. That’s why (as my wonderful, long-suffering partner will attest) I avoid them like the plague.

It happens to all of us doesn’t it?

You finally get the time to sit down to read a good book, write a new blog post or meditate when Mr Jones next door decides it’s time to mow the lawn, then go around the edges with his edge-trimmer, then use the leaf-blower to blow the clippings into the gutter – even though he did it all just last week.

Great.

Ju-u-ust perfect.

In this scenario you have two options.

No wait, three, but physical violence is against the law so we’ll focus on the other two:

1) Get Mad and Burn Up Inside.

2) Get Mad, Then Find A Way To Quickly Diffuse That Anger

We’ll get into these in a moment but first…

What Are The Lawnmowers In Your Life?

Lawnmowers are just my pet hate – but the things that get you all riled up inside might be different. Maybe the way your partner talks to you when they’re in a bad mood, or the way your boss treats you or just the irritating habits of the guy who sits across the desk from you at work.

By Seamus Anthony

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you start out with a really punchy list of awesome things that are going to get done and then it all goes pear-shaped?

Well, I am in the middle one right now and it’s been a darn good litmus tester for all the Zen waffle I spout, let me tell you…

Entrepreneurial Action Stations – Go! Go! Go!

The week started out looking like it was going to be a corker, I had two articles coming out, one about The Way of Retreat over at the Change Blog and another about meditation over at Pick The Brain. Next in line was the release of a new e-book here at Rebel Zen, not the Curly’s Law one featured up top right (you should grab that now if you haven’t already), but one on Meditation (with a twist).

Then we (as in Steve, my business partner and I) were planning to finally launch PeoplePages for our client LivingNow. Only Steve has been struggling through great swathes of jungle-like code (or whatever that impenetrable babbling is behind the scenes here at the Internet-show) which incidentally is why he hasn’t written for this blog for a while.

By Séamus Anthony

Ever wondered how some people manage to get up before the sun to meditate and exercise? Well, let me categorically confirm that I’m no expert, but recent* experiments have shown that three elements are integral: persistence, patience and good humour. Without these you might as well stick with the sleep in!

The Frozen Buddha

With strains of classical music the clock radio burst to life. What was my first thought? – “I must be insane”.

I have this year resolved not to wimp out during the frosty months but to rise despite the cold – which frankly, I despise – and do my meditation, chi gung, and exercise routine at dawn.

First thing.

In the face of my every screaming instinct.

Shivering, I stumbled out of the bedroom at 5:11am (to avoid beginning my day with an earful of bad news, I never set the alarm to go off on the hour). I then proceeded to have rather a funny time of it. Apparently, this was my day to have my persistence, patience and good humour well and truly tested.

Well back on board after the weekend and just spent a few minutes reading some cool stuff before retiring for the day. As the hail pelts down on my little bungalow in the mountains, here’s five posts that I reckon are worth your time:

8 Great Anti-Hacks to Fundamentally Change Your Life

This is some Rebel Zen in action right here. An anti-productivity rant from Clay Collins of Project Liberation and The Growing Life that advises us to “be flaky and denounce the cult of permanence”.

Sound advice that, denouncing the delusion of immortality that is, which leads me to my next recommendation for the day:

Death and Happiness – a Paradigm Shift for the West

This is a powerful article that reminds us all not to forget that at any time now we may die. I’ll let Steve Jobs sum up my opinion on this matter:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”