7 Everyday Ways to Uplift Your Mood

7 Everyday Ways to Uplift Your Mood
By JOE WILNER


Every day we run into hassles and stressors that can start to build up and bring us down. Maybe you don’t have enough time, you have too many responsibilities, or you’re worried about some upcoming obligation.

Whatever hassles you’re experiencing it’s important to learn to deal with them, though at the same time, it’s also important to fill our day with positive and uplifting experiences.

Uplifting experiences help us build positive emotions and become more resilient when times get rough. Having the good with the bad is crucial in order to cope with the stress of everyday life.

These don’t have to be anything extreme or out of the ordinary. Positive uplifting experiences are all around us.

Here are some simple everyday experiences that can help give you an emotional boost.

Relating well with family and friends – Whether its friends or family, having healthy and positive relationships is very valuable to our emotional health. When we have shared connections with friends and family each day we will find more amusement, joy and affection in our life.

Feeling healthy – We may not have perfect health or always get the amount of exercise we desire, but as long as we do things here and there to help us be healthy it offers us a chance to feel good about ourselves. Setting healthy goals is a wonderful way to start feeling content with your health.

Getting enough sleep – You may feel like you have so much to do you have to stay up late and wake up early – though this is ultimately counterproductive. When we don’t get enough sleep it drains our energy, lessens our creative juices, and steals our emotional well-being. To increase your energy level and have a more cheerful attitude get ample sleep.

Eating out at restaurants – Sometimes eating out isn’t the most economical thing to do, but it certainly offers a chance to have a fun and enjoyable experience. It can save us time from cooking and lets us just relax. Many restaurants also offer a warm and stirring environment that can boost our mood.

Completing a task – The feeling that comes with doing a job well done and accomplishing our goals is paramount to increasing self-esteem and confidence. When we trust and believe in ourselves we will be more likely to set and achieve successful goals. When we are able to manage time and meet our responsibilities life is immensely easier to handle.

Visiting, phoning, or writing someone – Is there someone you haven’t talked with in a while that you want to connect with? It’s never been easier to reach out to old friends and acquaintances we want to connect with. With social media we can contact someone and make plans to unite and visit. We can share how we feel and offer kindness.

Staying home and relaxing – Simply staying home, relaxing, and putting your feet up may be just what you need to remain positive and in high spirits. Making sure to unwind and enjoy our down time can be a wonderful solution to stress and turmoil.

These are just a few ideas that we can focus on in order to provide us with more opportunities for positivity.

How many of these are part of your life? What could you add to your daily routine to help improve your mood and decrease stress?

Source: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/positive-psychology/2011/07/7-everyday-ways-to-uplift-your-mood/

Heart of a Buddha

Dignity and quiet joy

in all that we do

are the expression of

perfect concentration

and

perfect wisdom.

Friday Gathering

Meditation Class

Awakening

Excerpt from "Freedom from Buddha Nature"

Written by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

The Buddha thus based all his teaching on freedom of choice. As he said, if

everything were predetermined by the past, there would be no point in teaching

a path to Awakening. The number of people who would reach Awakening

would already have been set a long time ago, and they would have no need for a

path or a teacher. Those preordained to awaken would get there inevitably as a

result of a long-past action or an essential nature already built into the mind.

Those preordained not to awaken wouldn’t stand a chance.

But these things are not preordained. No one is doomed never to awaken, but—

until you’ve had your first sight of the deathless at stream-entry—neither is

Awakening assured. It’s contingent on intentional actions chosen in each present

moment. And even after stream-entry, you’re constantly faced with choices that will

speed up final Awakening or slow it down. Nibbana, of course, is independent and

unconditioned; but the act of awakening to nibbana depends on a path of practice

that has to be willed. It happens only if you choose to give rise to its causes. This, as 2

the Buddha noted, involves determining to do four things: not to neglect

discernment, to preserve truth, to develop relinquishment, and to train for peace.

Here's the link for the complete essay :)

http://dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/CrossIndexed/Uncollected/MiscEssays/Freedom%20from%20Buddha%20Nature.pdf

The Benefits of Meditation

The Benefits of Meditation
by DR. SANDRA OLIC on AUGUST 7, 2011



One very powerful practice that can increase the quality your life substantially is meditation. Meditation used to be thought of as something only Buddhist monks and new age hippie folks did. Fortunately, it has now become more mainstream and accepted in scientific and medical communities, for good reason. Solid research over the years has shown it to not only improve physical, mental and psychological well-being, but it has now been proven to literally change the structure of your brain.

Here are a just few benefits:

• Studies have shown meditation can increase the grey matter in the hippocampus of the brain, which is associated with memory and learning. Stress and aging actually decrease the functioning of the neurons in this part of the brain. See, your brain shrinks as you stress and age unless you do something about it, and meditation is just the antidote (exercise prevents this from happening too).

• If you are having trouble focusing, studies also show meditation can greatly increase cognition and attention as well. You may want to seriously consider meditation if ADHD is an issue for you at all. Research has shown as little as 20 minutes of meditation after only 4 days improved attention and cognition in subjects. You don’t need to meditate for hours every day. Just do it consistently.

• Regular meditation practice will also not only increase your resistance to stress, but it will decrease the anxiety and depression byproducts of chronic stress. Meditation has been shown to decrease the grey matter in the amygdala, the part of your brain associated with anxiety and stress.

• Meditating during the day will improve your sleep at night.

• You may also want to consider meditation for a longer life. Research has shown that the improved psychological well-being resulting from meditation practice can increase the enzyme telomerase. Telomeres are sequences of DNA at the end of our chromosomes. Every time a cell divides (our cells are constantly dividing), these telomeres get shorter until they eventually die. Telomerase is an enzyme that can rebuild and lengthen telomeres, potentially increasing our longevity. A regular meditation practice will also enhance immune function, leading to less colds and flu’s, as well as chronic illness. It also has been shown to lower blood pressure leading to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.

• If you are experiencing chronic pain at all, try meditation. It has been shown to sharply decrease the sensation of pain, more than placebos and painkilling drugs.

I would like to share with you how meditation helps me in my life….

I love what I do. I see patients, run a business, teach, write and read research articles on a daily basis, while trying to eat healthy, maintain some sort of social life, regular exercise, yoga and 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Like many of you, I have a lot on my plate and although I love what I do, I wouldn’t be able to do it if I didn’t hit the pause button on my brain everyday with meditation.

There are certainly some days my stress hormones creep up on me and compromise my mood, concentration and energy. That’s when I stop everything, close my office door, shut my eyes and focus on my breath for about 15-20 minutes. Then I open my eyes and see things a little differently than I did before. I also like to set aside some time for meditation when I get home from the office as a sort of mental reset before I do anything else.

Meditation has also been extremely useful for me when I am trying to find a solution or answer to something. I ask my question and then just close my eyes and focus on my breath. After a while the answers come. You could say it’s just my brain working better because it’s more relaxed. Some people would also say that when you meditate you are more in tune with your intuition and higher self. Whatever the reason, it works and can be quite profound. Try it next time you need some answers or inspiration.

If you have never meditated before, you may find it challenging to sit still at first, but that’s why it’s a practice. Stay with it. If you do it consistently, it gets easier and you will not only enjoy it, but you’ll eventually crave it. The thoughts will come and that’s ok. It isn’t about stopping your mind. It’s about watching your mind and your thoughts. When you have a thought, just acknowledge it, let it go and bring your attention back to your breath. In doing this you realize you are not your thoughts, but you are greater than your thoughts. Eventually the space between the thoughts becomes bigger and you find peace within those spaces. And with inner peace, you find health and happiness.

Wishing you much love, health and happiness,

Dr. Sandra Olic, NMD

Source: http://thedailylove.com/the-benefits-of-meditation/

Ayoniso-manasikara Sutta: Inappropriate Attention

I have heard that on one occasion a certain monk was dwelling among the Kosalans in a forest thicket. Now at that time, he spent the day's abiding thinking evil, unskillful thoughts: i.e., thoughts of sensuality, thoughts of ill will, thoughts of doing harm.

Then the devata inhabiting the forest thicket, feeling sympathy for the monk, desiring his benefit, desiring to bring him to his senses, approached him and addressed him with this verse:


From inappropriate attention
you're being chewed by your thoughts.
Relinquishing what's inappropriate,
contemplate
appropriately.

Keeping your mind on the Teacher,
the Dhamma, the Sangha, your virtues,
you will arrive at
joy,
rapture,
pleasure
without doubt.

Then, saturated
with joy,
you will put an end
to suffering & stress.
The monk, chastened by the devata, came to his senses.
-SN 12.19

(Translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

Blood Donation Drive Photography Competition

Dhamma Talk

Dhamma Talk

Have you been feeling stressed out? Is your university life too much to handle?Do you feel like you are having more PBLs than dates lately? Have you been thinking that your boyfriend is treating you like a Streptococcus sp? Please do join us. Learn to handle suffering, learn to lead a better University life.

Blood Donation and Organ Pledge

Blood Donation and Organ Pledge Drive

Share Blood, Spread Hope, Save Life. Show your love, care and kindness by donating blood and pledging to donate your organs.

Interesting health benefits of donating your blood:

(extracted from http://www.livestrong.com/article/96891-health-benefits-donating-blood/)

1. Lower body iron levels.

2. Reduce cancer risk.

3. Reduce heart attack risk.

4. Replenish blood.

You have nothing to lose but approximately a pint of blood. Join us, you can save lives even before starting your career as a health care professional.