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The Three Vital Breaths Meditation

The Three Vital Breaths Meditation

The Three Vital Breaths are a cornerstone of Taoist and Qigong meditation practice. I like to teach this breath-based practice to new meditation students because it helps to restore natural breathing, not to be confused with normal breathing You also may encounter variations of this practice in yogic traditions. Essentially it retrains your torso’s respiratory muscles to expand and contract with greater fluidity. Such optimal muscle relaxation and coordination induces a more complete inhalation and exhalation, the crux of meditative…

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A diverse group of people, old and young, men and women, are viewed from behind while taking a yoga class
The Most Effective Medical Treatment Ever Devised

The Most Effective Medical Treatment Ever Devised

Look far and wide and you won’t find more effective medicines for preventing and treating disease than physical activity and exercise. Some people watch the Super Bowl each year just to see the entertaining commercials. I never watch the game live, because I can’t stand what those “creative” commercials are selling. First in line are the fast food giants, selling the saltiest, greasiest, fat-loaded industrial-processed substitutes for real food on the planet. Next come the factory-made salt-fat snack bombs, containing…

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The Role of Meditation in Weight Loss

The Role of Meditation in Weight Loss

Meditation can play a vital role in weight loss and improve an overweight or obese person’s ability to achieve weight-reduction goals. Recent studies indicate that approximately 70% of the U.S. population is either overweight or obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 25.0 kg/m2), with 40% classified as obese (BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2).1 What we are witnessing is an unprecedented public health epidemic. Sad to say, only a small percentage of these people will ever achieve sustainable weight loss, somewhere between…

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Is the Water You Drink as Pure as You Think?

Is the Water You Drink as Pure as You Think?

Few things are more important to your health and wellbeing than the purity of the water you eat and drink. After all, the human body is 60% water on average, with most of it located inside cells. Every cell in your body runs on water, even hair and bone cells. Water provides the medium for the transport of nutrients and other molecules within the cell. Without water, cells can’t conduct their vital functions, and life wouldn’t be possible. Basically, your…

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The Healing Arc of the Coaching Process

The Healing Arc of the Coaching Process

People who are thinking about hiring a professional coach and who have never experienced coaching naturally have questions about the process. What will happen? Will I be judged? Analyzed? Is coaching like therapy? Can it really help me? Of course, it’s hard to predict exactly how it will go, since every person has different needs, values, goals, and challenges. Even so, there seem to be some general steps that occur in the coaching process—and they are nothing new under the…

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An Introduction to Breath-Based Meditation Practice

An Introduction to Breath-Based Meditation Practice

Breath-based meditation is foundational in many meditation systems including ones from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, and various yogic schools. The reason the breath makes such a good meditation object is that it’s ever-present, immediate, vital, and links the unconscious and conscious mind. In other words, you can breathe automatically without even thinking about it; and yet, you can also consciously control your breath whenever you choose to. Breath-based meditation is also handy because you can perform it in different…

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