101 Ways to Meditate:
Discover Your True Self
is a primer to illuminate the landscapes within and beyond. Easily
explained and specific, 101 Ways
to Meditate,
supplies a wide selection of processing, imagery, release, and
inspirational meditations to make meditative practice life-affirming,
insightful and fun. A 31-day journal is also included. Whether to
explore metaphysical questions, experience higher awareness, or come to
terms with the mystery within, meditation serves. About
the author:Award-winning
author, Linda
A. Lavid holds a Master's degree in
Social Work and is a certified hypnotherapist with a practice in
healing
imagery.
The
little book, 101 Ways to Meditate, makes easy and
accessible a simple art, which popular opinion and practitioner conceit
often renders complex, esoteric, and/or "flaky"--the art of meditation.
Linda Lavid offers more than a hundred approaches to a simple practice
that ought to be employed universally, due to its benefits to health,
intelligence, creativity, and emotional balance. Meditation is often
rejected by prospective practitioners, because they become turned off
by the spiritual packaging in which meditation lessons are often
garbed. The practices taught in this book are attached to no spiritual
tradition, and make no promises regarding ethereal results. They are
simple and easy to follow. "Just do it and see what happens" is the
message of the book.
In
keeping with this message, Lavid offers instruction on 101 various
forms of mindfulness practices. The broad variety keeps the practice
fresh, where interest might otherwise wane before good habits are
ingrained. Lavid also supports building a sound practice regimen by
including a 31 day journal in the second half of the book. This is an
important benefit for several reasons. For one thing, it speaks to the
problem of building and sticking with a meditation regimen, which
becomes especially challenging, just when it is most needed--when life
grows busy and stressful. If one is going to fall away from
practice, it is likely to occur over the first month. Thus, journaling
one's daily pattern of meditation activity over the first month of
practice helps to reinforce new daily behaviors and overcome the
inertia that carries us back to our rat-race lives and away from the
centering and grounding that helps us to cope with the stresses.
Another key benefit of journaling our meditation progress is that
journaling serves one of the most important objectives in meditation,
known since ancient times--it helps you to "know thyself." Closing each
meditation session with a journaling exercise allows the practitioner
to chart her development along the path to meditative skill, and to
recognize what methods work best within her life schedule and at what
time(s) of day or night.
This
little primer on meditation is well worth the low price. Its many
suggested forms of mindfulness practice will keep the activity fresh
and exciting, while good habits are being developed. By the time the
month's journal is completed, the practitioner will be in such good
habits and noting such observable benefits that returning to daily
practice in any of its forms will not be a chore.
This book is a useful addition to the practitioner's library. It would
also serve well as a primer for use in teaching meditation to novices.
Would-be buddhas, this is the guide you’ve been waiting for.
Meditation is the foundation of enlightenment, but even those
of us who aren’t particularly interested in that can recognize and
appreciate the benefits of a steady meditation practice – improved
emotional and physical health, increased calm, and a keener ability to
accept and deal with the little irritations we encounter every day. If
only it weren’t such an esoteric endeavor…
Oh, wait. It isn’t. Linda Lavid makes it perfectly clear in 101
Ways to Meditate that any ol’
mortal being is perfectly capable of engaging in a productive form of
mediation. Lavid is a self-professed skeptic, a left-brainer who
prefers “studies and statistics with results that indicate a success
rate beyond randomness.” It wasn’t until she personally experienced the
un-quantifiable benefits of hypnosis that she realized the
effectiveness of woo-woo therapy. A science-and-math personality isn’t
easily foiled, however, so even after becoming a certified
hypnotherapist, Lavid kept on searching for a logic-based approach to
an ancient healing technique. Luckily her subconscious mind finally won
the war, and Lavid got it: simplify the process.
That’s exactly what she’s done in 101
Ways to Meditate – simplified
the process so that anyone can take part. Instead of tossing out scary
terms like no-mind and transcendent
attention, Lavid puts it in language we can all understand.
Mediation is “relaxing the body, quieting the mind, and having a focus…
There is no right or wrong way to meditate.”
Now that the pressure is off, we can proceed with any of the
101 techniques Lavid provides. There are processing meditations
promoting our ability to receive information from the subconscious and
unconscious minds; imagery meditations for two-way communication with
the subconscious; release meditations for unlocking emotional issues;
and inspirational meditations for connecting with our higher selves.
Within each of these categories are specific methods for bringing us
closer to a particular focus. A grounding exercise, for example, uses
imagery to help us draw healing energy through our bodies, and a
stress-reduction exercise uses the release technique to help shed
stressors and build a psychic shield.
This little volume is packed with just the basics, including a
31-day journal equipped with inspirational quotes that serves as
spirited and indefatigable cheerleaders. Lavid’s keep it
simple approach is effective and encouraging for anyone who
has wondered about meditation but been put off by technical and
spiritual tomes. Quick, simple and stripped of pretension, this
life-enhancing practice is made easy and practical through 101
Ways to Meditate.
Reader
Reviews... Outstanding!
The author has provided readers with an outstanding user friendly
resource that proves good things really can come in small packages. I
was astounded thaton the first 74 pages there are indeed 101 different
ways to meditate which makes it far easier for a person to find one
that is comfortable for them. The second half of the book is a 31 day
journal with the prompts for the reader to record progress. -Noni, USA This book packs alot into a small book. I
do believe meditations can help you in alot of areas of your life. This
books tells you how to meditate before surgery, how to use meditation
as a healing process, how to get rid of anger or jealousy or alot of
other emotions or enhance the good emotions. Either way it's a great
book to own if you are thinking about meditation or already do it. - Barb, Bellefonte, PA Linda
Lavid, supplies a variety of processing, imagery, release, and
inspirational meditations. There is even a journal included to help
explore whatever questions or needs the meditation was meant to
inspire. It would be helpful to someone with no prior knowledge or
experience with meditative practices.
Lavid's ideas and instructions are easy to follow and
it's clear that she is knowledgable and experienced.-Jaime,
Duluth, GA
I found
this to be a small book with a lot of punch. The author really does
provide the 101 ways to meditate! She writes in a very conversational
tone that makes it easy to understand and easy to follow. The last part
of the book is a meditation journal with helpful quotations and space
to write thoughts or doodle pictures. The author appears to be quite
knowledgeable on the subject and this makes for a book that is a great
resource for those interested in meditation styles and techniques.
-Julie,
Madera, CA I
really enjoyed this. I find meditation important to finding balance and
calm in my life. Linda Lavid truly did give you step by step, vivid
explanations and visual imagery to assist you in your meditative
journey. This small book is well written and easy to follow. Author is
knowledgeable on the subject, resourceful, and helpful. There were 74
pages of writing. The rest of it was inspirational quotes and pages to
"doodle" and journal on. - Sam, USA I really liked the introduction which
explained the author's skeptical nature, which I could relate to. I
think it really helped put a personal touch on the book and helped me
to think that if Linda shared some of the same thoughts but could find
joy in meditation, then I could, too! The meditation block hints were
helpful - I tend to not take time because I'm not always sure I would
be doing it correctly (as if there's a right and wrong way!)
This book is a great reminder that no matter how you meditate out of
the many ways, it is a great way to gather your thoughts and relax from
the problems of daily life. And that meditation does not have to be
time consuming to the point where you feel like you HAVE to do it
everyday. I've only been able to try a few of them, but I'm excited to
keep reading and find the ones that really work for me. I'll have to
pass this along to my mom, as well. - Katie, Illinois This was a good primer on
different ways you can meditate depending on what kind of revelations
you would like to have coming out of the meditation. For those who have
never meditated before, there is an introduction to meditation and then
she goes into the 101 ways to meditate, including ones for healing
specific diseases which I found fascinating. It was a quick read and
the meditation journal at the end is a great addition.
- Wendy, Connecticut
I
really enjoyed this book a lot. For a short book, it sure gave me
everything I needed as a beginner in the world of meditation. I not
only learned about meditation but also about myself. The author's tone
is especially pleasing and easy to understand making this not only a
guidebook, but a handbook for meditation. - Lori, USA
