Kavanat Halev Jewish Mindfulness

29/10/2024

It is this Thursday! Take a deep breath and join in.

14/10/2024

THE CHALLENGES OF BREATHWORK PRACTICE
When I teach men the practice of mindfulness and breathwork, I encourage them to make it a daily practice. Even if it is only five minutes a day, the effort is worth it and one can see the immediate benefits of inner calm and increased ability to focus and be present. But the objections I often hear are: “I don’t have the time”, or “The practice is boring” or “I am no good at mindfulness. My mind is all over the place”.
My answer to the first objection is that we make time for what is important to us. If reading the daily news is important to us, we will make time for it. If calling a friend is important to us, we will make time for it. So, it is not so much a matter of having the time, it is making the time. When my children were young and it was hard to find a quiet time to meditate, I woke up a half hour earlier when the house was still quiet and did my practice then.
The second objection is the boredom or restlessness that can accompany mindfulness practice. Objectively speaking we are not doing anything when we practice mindfulness or breathwork. We are not creating anything, we are not learning anything, and we are not being entertained. So, it can feel really boring to sit with oneself without an agenda or goal. Our bias is that only doing is valuable, being is not. But if you can change your attitude and recognize the value in “Being” then you will be more willing to sit thru the boredom and restlessness until you come to the place of inner peace.
The third objection is that “my mind is all over the place” and “I can’t stay focused”. There is an assumption that it should be easy to concentrate on one thing, for example the breath. But if we change our assumption to be that the nature of the mind is to think and to think constantly, then we won’t be surprised by our busy mind. And we won’t be disappointed that we can’t stay focused for more than a few seconds before our thoughts take us far away. The truth is that the practice of mindfulness is “noticing” when our mind wanders and then “bringing it back” to being mindful of the object of our practice, whether it is the breath or an image or a sound. Every time we bring our attention back to the here and now, our attention “muscle” gets stronger.
Commitment to the practice and persistence even when it is challenging will bring the gift of presence and connection to our deeper selves. Like many things in life, the reward is in proportion to the effort involved in achieving it. Daily practice brings the rewards of inner calm and deep connection to ourselves and others. There is never an end to our practice but there is a progression towards deeper and deeper awareness that this moment is the only time we can be in and the place where we are is the only place we can live.

13/10/2024

THE PLUS AND MINUS OF BREATHING
Ours is a world of duality. Almost everything you see has a two-sided nature. There is light and there is dark. There is summer and there is winter. Trees blossom and grow in the spring and their leaves fall and they go dormant in the autumn. The list goes on: male and female, right side - left side, up - down, inside - outside. In electricity, there is positive polarity and negative polarity.
In breathwork we also see duality: the inhale and the exhale. During the inhale, we take air into our lungs, convert the oxygen from a gas into a liquid, and then send it via the blood vessels to the heart where it is pumped to every cell in the body. It is literally a life-giving life process. During the exhale, the waste material from the blood in the form of carbon dioxide is converted from a liquid to a gas and then breathed out of the body. This action happens every time we breathe. It is one of the wonders of human biology.
We can use the act of breathing as a metaphor for our spiritual work. In our daily life, we want to take the positive into our body and mind: Healthy food and constructive speech thru our mouth, inspiring images thru our eyes, words of wisdom and inspiring music thru our ears. In our mind we can consciously choose positive thoughts when we think about people, places and things. This positive outlook will affect us both emotionally and energetically so that we feel the vitality of love, compassion, courage, and forgiveness in ourselves and in our relations with others.
At the same time, we can let go of everything that doesn’t serve us: unhealthy junk food, and hateful speech from our mouth, lustful or violent images thru our eyes, and violent music and critical words from our ears. And we can release negative attitudes and thoughts from our mind. This release of the negative brings relaxation and peace to our spirit.
Breathing is a constant activity. We breathe whether we are sitting, standing, walking, running or even sleeping. If we want to progress on our spiritual path, we must bring awareness and vigilance to the positive and negative influences in our life and then make the choice to take in the positive and let go of the negative. This will serve to move us forward on the path of personal growth and inner peace.

08/10/2024

Would you like to go deep into your soul and find out who you really are? Would you like to grow closer to your Creator and feel His Presence in your life.? Contact me for a free coaching session .

16/09/2024

If your child or someone you know is suffering from ADHD and the medication is not working or the negative side effects outweigh the benefits, I invite you to consider mindfulness practice. It is simple to learn and is proven to be as effective as medication.

11/09/2024

https://youtu.be/QLX6UwYL-j0

As Jews, we desire to grow closer to G-d, our fellow men, and the Torah. Through this process, you can dive into your inner world using the power of your im...

11/09/2024

27/08/2024

CULTIVATING JOY
For those of us on the path of healing and personal/spiritual growth, so much of our time is spent focusing on what is wrong in our lives. It may be a job that we hate, a difficult spouse or abusive parents. Then we turn the focus inwards on our own character defects: where we were we selfish, self-centered, judgmental, or mean? Why do we feel so depressed, angry, or anxious? Much of talk therapy is focused on the “problem” and digging into the past to see where it came from. Childhood trauma is a major cause. ADHD is another. We can easily fall into the trap of worshiping the wound instead of moving beyond it. We hold onto our pain because it has become part of our identity.
It is important to acknowledge our pain and tell the story of its origin. There is no spiritual bypass that denies that abuse has happened. But instead of fighting with the darkness, let’s try bringing in more light. Inner peace and spontaneous joy are part of our birthright. No one is born traumatized.
How do we tap into our innate bliss?
Our breath is the key. When we breathe in, we are literally breathing in life. By deepening the breath, we bring in more life, more joy and more happiness. When we breath out, we let go of what no longer serves us. As we let go of carbon dioxide, we can also let go of the stories we tell ourselves about how we were abused and how our inner child was wounded. We can choose today to see the good in ourselves and in others. Instead of judgment, we can choose compassion. Instead of self-pity, we can choose gratitude. Instead of anger, we can choose forgiveness.
Another tool that I have found helpful is accompanying deep breathing with music. Music has been called the quill of the soul and when used wisely, can assist us in accessing our spiritual self and tapping into our inner joy. Breathwork music is a new genre that utilizes music as a part of a healing modality.
This process is not an intellectual exercise. It is a shift in our energy and our breath is the vehicle for that shift. By conscious deep breathing, we take responsibility for our mental health, and spiritual growth. By doing so we uncover the “healthy self” that lies buried underneath the trauma and become a beacon of light in the world.

07/07/2024

FIVE BENEFITS OF MEDITATION FOR STUDENTS
1. Increased Focus
Although it is not understood why, studies have shown that meditation increases the ability to focus for longer sustained periods. This benefits students in many ways, including being able to pay attention in class longer, thus improving the chances of material retention. In addition, meditating students have a higher success rate in taking quizzes and exams.
2. Improved Memory
A study in the Harvard Gazette reports that after an 8-week meditation study in which participants meditated for 27 minutes each day, MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Images) showed an increase in grey matter in the hippocampus region of the brain that is responsible for learning and memory. An enhanced memory allows students to retain more information, which of course, lends itself to better test scores. A good memory means an increased ability to juggle many different ideas and thoughts at once.
3. Reduced Anxiety and Stress
According to an article from the National Institute of Mental Health, stress can cause digestive issues, headaches, insomnia, depression, and anger, among other symptoms. Under chronic stress, people may suffer from more viral infections like the flu. Tragedies, traumatic events, and even minor failures can cause an onset of stress that seems never-ending. This is especially true in teenagers and college or yeshiva students, who go through emotional rollercoasters due to hormonal changes.
4. Reduced Fatigue
A Wake Forest University School of Medicine study showed that brief meditation sessions (within 4 days) reduced fatigue and increased attention. Meditation can help reduce the fatigue felt by the significant life event of going away to school and being bombarded with incredible workloads.
5. Immunity Boost
Unfortunately, with the lifestyles that many students have, illness is difficult to avoid. Exercise, a healthy diet, and a regular sleeping schedule are all important to sustain a healthy way of life. Additionally, research from the National Library of Health shows that even a short-term meditation training program can provide significant measurable changes in participants' immune systems.