What City?

Laying on the couch for a bit of a rest yesterday after ALL the walking around NYC to find the noise of the city surrounding me. A subway was thundering along below me. People were chattering and roaring by my windows. The sanitation truck was swooshing down the street and around the corner. Upstairs neighbors were stomping up and down my ceiling.

Not much rest was to be had under such conditions, so I reached for my phone and changed the conditions. I opened YouTube to reveal my "watch later" files where I found my sense of peace, my take me away from it all, my Tibetan Meditation music.

A harp is strummed slowly into a mellow melody over a consistent harmonic overtone of singing bowls. In the distance, a soft and steady waterfall is flowing into the rhythm of a slow and easy river drifting along. Occasional twittering of distant birds and a faint happy cricket. My breathing went from slightly frustrated sighs to very slow deep and totally relaxed jaw breathing as I drifted peacefully into slumber.

What city?

Having the Time of My Life

A little while back I decided to take a vow each day to offer the best of myself today. Part of that process involves spending time each day setting the tone for the day by dedicating at least 15 minutes of focused energy on creating the day that I desire. I have been focusing on the positive things I see in my life and around me and I have noticed more and more like minded people are appearing in my life. More and more cooperation is flowing into my life and it seems that everything is always working out for me.

I am loving my life. I am not only content with where I am, I am quite pleased with where I am and not only eager for more, but feel a peaceful and anxious anticipation to see how the next big piece of this grand puzzle gently floats into place like a feather in the breeze.

No Half Assed Meditation Here.

Throughout my life I have sort of been a half-assed meditator, meaning I would meditate when I was stressed, angry or upset. I have had some amazing paradigm shifts in my life as a result of mediation in those times of distress. I can remember shifting beyond caring about what a bully in my life thought and then reveling with delight to myself when that particular person made another attempt to bully me. What a sense of relief to move past such a consuming feeling of being small and inconsequential. I felt as if I grew 6 feet that day.

In other times of extreme pain, I've meditated to get beyond it and it worked. I'm not saying the meditation took away the pain completely, but it certainly did take the edge off. Ultimately, though, meditation did take away the pain because the clarity I gained from being so focused, opened my mind to the idea that I had choices. I could choose different doctors with different philosophies and receive more intuitive care. The intuitive care lead to resolution, so I would be completely remiss to not credit the mediation at all. Don't you think?

Anyway the point is if meditation could assist me in such times of pain or mistreatment, why was I not utilizing this amazing tool when things were going well? Doesn't it make sense if things are shitty and you want them to be better, meditate? Well, why not meditate when things are going well to create opportunity for something amazing?

Well guess what!!! Things were going well and Keri said she wanted to start meditating 15 minutes a day and I said, Hell yes! Me too. As a result the most amazing things are happening in my life. My car accident that lead me to believe that my little silver bullet was going to be totaled has been restored and returned to me. I am feeling tremendous love and adoration for my wife, not that I wasn't before, it's just going so well, I thought I'd mention it. :) I am feeling a sense of fulfillment in my job as a manager at the dental office that I am truly enjoying my work. My blog is growing and reaching more people, which is leading to my dreams coming true.

I am surrounded by random amazing strangers who really aren't strange at all. Like the Orgonite gifter I wrote about in my Happy Father's Day post and Jonna the amazing shoe sharer from my, It's just the way I see it post. Then there's the amazing dude named Ed that delivers a dose of true connection every time he frequents my office to keep our textiles fresh. We mustn't forget David from the Shimmering Pools of Butter post.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Isaac. He came by today to repair our garage door. The spring broke, so the opener would not work and he fixed it. Thank you Isaac for the door and the true connection.

I simply can not even tell you all of the big and small amazing things that have been coming up in my life. They are too numerous to mention them all, but let's just say that I have come to believe that meditation is a life changer. It's kinda like this, when you begin meditation and clear your mind of the static and clutter, it creates space for divine wisdom. Guidance. Intuition.

I am grateful for my knowing.

It's the Apozitude Challenge!!!

According to my news feed on Facebook a fairly good number of folks have accepted and participated in the Ice-bucket challenge to raise awareness for ALS, also known as, Lou Gehrig's disease and I can not deny that it has been successful. Honestly, I didn't know what ALS was the first time I saw an Ice-bucket challenge video posted to FB, so in that regard I have to agree that it has been undeniably successful. I also agree that raising awareness is a big part of what Apozitude is ALL about. The passion behind Apozitude is awareness. It is my passionate intention as the author of Apozitude to raise the awareness in the individual. An awareness that you as an individual have absolute control over your life.

If you are reading this and you are doubting your ability to have control over your life then it is I, Angel Zaumdio, that challenges you to the Apozitude challenge. I came up with this idea as I was soaking myself in a hot bath of eucalyptus and spearmint epsom salt. I had just watched a documentary entitled Stress: Portrait of a Killer on Netflix. Amazing research and documentary by Robert Sapolsky. A must see in my book.

Anyway, after watching this documentary about how stress is a killer, I decided this was the perfect time to take the epsom salt soak I had been planning. I stepped into the hot salty water and turned on my well-being meditation. I laid there in the water breathing in and breathing out as the meditation guided me to allow alignment and releasing resistance. I could feel the stress dissolving from my body and the cells of my body returning to their natural state of balance. Once I was guided to listen to the music and let it guide me to a deeper realm of relaxation, I decided to sink deeper into the water as well.

I sunk down to the point where my ears were under water and I could hear the beating of my heart echoing through the water and in the muffled distance I could also still hear the music of my meditation. I decided I would test the theory that deep intentional breathing could help relieve stress. As I listened to the rhythm of my heart, I deliberately slowed my breathing even more and I could actually hear the pace of my heart begin to slow. All of a sudden the Ice-bucket challenge popped into my mind. I thought what a drastically different effect that water would have on me than the current water I was relaxing in and that is when it occurred to me that I could create a challenge of my own for my readers.

So, how long did it take you or someone you know to get the water and ice bucket together? Add to that the time it took to find someone to record the Ice-Bucket challenge video. Now add the amount of time it took to record the video and change out of the soaking wet clothes. Plus the amount of time it took to post it to FB. How much time do you think all of that took? Let's just guess for the sake of this blog that it took just about 15 minutes. It was probably more, but let's just say 15 - 20 minutes. Just one more thing though ,... take into consideration how this made you feel. How you felt when you watched your friends video and then heard your name in the list of people they challenged. How accepting the challenge made you feel. How being recorded made you feel. How that ice water made you feel. Think about all those things.

Now! Think about the Apozitude Challenge. Oh yeah, I haven't challenged you yet. Ok, I challenge YOU to take less than the amount of time it took you or your friend to do all that stuff for the Ice-bucket thingy and dedicate 15 minutes to yourself. No distractions, simply undivided attention for 15 minutes to your breathing. I challenge you to put yourself first for 15 minutes and prove to yourself that you can have a deliberate affect on your level of stress by slowing down long enough to reduce your heart rate and focus on a sense of peace. Really focus on how that sense of peace feels in your body and know that anytime you want to you can deliberately reconnect to that sense of peace even if for just a moment here and there throughout your day.

You are an amazing person. Take time and spend it with yourself and bless the world with the best of yourself. The payback is wonderful.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="480"] I kinda look intense, but I was really relaxed. :)[/caption]

Free and Easy

It seems I often find the most amazing things in life are the most simple things in life. I am so in love with my life. I can gaze for extended amounts of time at the contrast between the big beautiful blue sky and any number of things, the greens of a grassy hill, sunlight on the leaves, the vibrant reds and deep purples of the leaves in the trees, the skyward reaching dark silhouettes of the hundred year old pine trees around my neighborhood against the evening sky, the blue of the sky and the white puffy clouds.

A loving touch from my wife as we laugh at all the silly things we laugh about, noda mean? Listening to the laughter of friends joyously conversing with each other. I love the nonsensical laughter of young children. I love the sound and feel of the rhythm of Waffles' breath in my ear when I am hugging him and rapping him on the side of his ribs. I love watching clouds transform from one shape to another.

Why am I telling you all these things I love? Because like I said before these are very simple things and yet the most amazing things in my life. The few things I've mentioned here are just a fraction of the things that capture my attention. I love watching a smile reach across someone's face when I tell them how much I appreciate them or the smile of a stranger when I compliment their smile.

These are mindful choices and I choose to focus upon these things because they are the things that provide the richness of my life. Simple, easy pleasures. It's a form of meditation and a way to bring alive the specialness of this very minute in time. I love to observe the truly beautiful moments in life. A baby learning to hold his head up. A mom learning to empower her young children. My wife lovingly peering at our sweet little Waffles Bear. A co-worker feeling peace, security and happiness. Tears of joy rolling down my counselors face as she tells me that she believes I no longer need her assistance. The sound of relief on the other end of the phone when someone new realizes they won't be judged for their lack of dental care. Creating resolution and a sense of peace in the lives of others. Being at a free and easy point of my life and the desire to share this way of life with you.

These are the riches of my life and the moments that fulfill me.

The gift of peace

I had a VERY cool experience the other day. There had been a bit of a stress in the morning at work, but we made it to lunch time and I intended to do a little meditation for myself and asked my friend and co-worker if she'd like to join me. She was totally open to it. So, I offered to do a guided meditation.

She sat with me and I opened myself up to divine guidance, as I have never led a guided meditation before. I had no idea what I was going to say, but I kinda thought how difficult could this be? I have listened to guided meditation many times before, so I gave it a whirl.

We sat on the floor legs crossed, facing each other and we began with focusing on breathing. I guided her to become aware of a place in her body that she could feel stress and asked her to take a deep breath. I instructed her to attach her breath to the stress she felt in her body and when she released that breath the stress was going to leave her body with the breath. I actually watched as she took a deep breath in and I watched her release that breath and observed her shoulders lower. I was observing the burden of stress melting away. It was really cool.

I have to admit it was not the best or smoothest meditation ever, but it was my very first time, so I have to give myself credit for trying and actually assisting my friend in achieving a sense of peace. Afterwards, she actually said, Ok, I think I'm ready for round two.

I would definitely do this again.

I have my receipt

I went on a walk this weekend with my puppy, Waffles. He's my 11 year old golden retriever puppy. He is a very and sweet mellow boy in most situations, until the prospect of food is introduced. This particular walk was a treatless walk, so he was pretty chill.

The thing I noticed on this walk is that I was pretty chill too, maybe because I meditated several times today and wrote a blog about meditation. I have listened to several hours of tibetan monks chanting, it is such a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the every day american life style. I love it!!!!

On our walk, as Waffles and I were waiting for the cross walk signal to change I kinda slipped into a mediative state for about 30 seconds. The reason I became aware of this stillness within me is because, as I was standing there not really thinking about anything and holding a distant stare, a bus came driving by and as the focus of my stare did not really change I became aware that I could see a reflection of myself in the windows of the bus as it drove by. Usually, I would have been focusing on the people inside the bus and reflecting on times that I rode the bus, but instead today I stood there and looked at myself. It was an interesting moment of reflection.

The cross walk signal changed and we crossed the street. I was still thinking about seeing an image of myself when I saw another image of myself. The headlights of a car coming towards me from behind cast a shadow of my body, shoulders up on an orange reflective street sign. I saw the shape of my head and the little curls of my hair that are getting long enough to be seen in a shadow. I wanted to try and recapture the moment. I paused and looked back. The car had already passed and a quick thought shot through my mind, Some moments are meant to be experienced and not captured, that is a Keri quote right there, so I let it go.

I continued on my way home and felt the wind blowing my hair. I thought to myself, wow my hair is long enough to blow around in the wind. I already knew this because I had experienced the frustration of it a few days ago as I walked from my car to my office, but today,... I enjoyed it.


Meditation today served as a receipt. I had my receipt for my frustrating experience and I exchanged it for an enjoyable one. Nice.

You deserve a moment of peace

When you practice well-being through meditation you learn how to create your own well being. You are the source of out pouring of love that is being sent out into the world. You have the power to take a deep breath or maybe two or three to create inner poise and calmly guide yourself to a place of peace and tranquility. You can meditate, even if only for a moment. You could have two or three single moments and build upon that to create a good foundation of peace. You have the power. You know how to do it. Start with one deep breath,… After that if you have time for two go ahead and take two.

If you don't know how to do it, start with this: Find a moment in which you can choose to press the pause button on your life. I did it the other day when I was getting ready to put on my shoes. I was sitting on the bottom step of our stairs in the entry way of our house. This is where I usually sit to put on my shoes and I thought I wish I had time to meditate this morning and that is when I heard the subtle little whisper say, Take a moment now.

So, I reached for my phone and I set a timer for two minutes. I closed my eyes and placed my trust in my handy device, without making any extra effort to breathe deeply, I sat there on that bottom step, eyes closed and placed my focus on my breath. My mind did drift a few times, wondering how much time had passed, but my inner calm reminded me that I was simply taking 2 minutes to create more peace within myself and the timer on my phone had never let me down before, so let all your thoughts melt away. These are your two minutes of purposely created peaceful bliss.

It is amazing to me how two minutes of peace feels. If you have never tried meditation, I strongly encourage you to try, not only just for the sense of peace it can immediately provide, but also for the myriad of other health benefits available. So, simple and all right there within your very own brain. The proverbial "they" were not kidding when they said the brain is a very powerful tool. Clink on this link and give it a try.