Modern Psychology adoptions of practices from traditions of Buddhism, Vedic teachings and more.

MINDFULNESS BASED COGNITIVE THERAPY (MBCT)

• Designed for groups, also used in individual therapy
• Emphasis on daily practice of mindfulness exercises taught in session
• The process of attending to present-moment experience in a non- judgmental way
• The ability to pay attention and notice experiences in the present
• The ability to refrain from judging experiences
• The ability to accept positive and negative experiences without avoidance or
  reactivity 

SELF ACCEPTANCE – MEDITATION ON LETTING GO

1. During meditation exercises, emphasize acceptance of experiences.

“Mind will frequently wander, this is completely normal and to be expected”
“There is nothing to change, no particular state to be achieved”
“Allowing your experience to be how it is, right now”
“Welcoming all of your experiences like a friend”

2. Mindfulness of breathing

Awareness on quality of breathing (fast/slow, deep/shallow)
Abdominal breathing (inflating/deflating like a balloon)

3. Practicing full body awareness of tension/discomfort

Breathing “into” tension and letting go on exhale

SELF ACCEPTANCE – BALL METAPHOR

What if what you’re doing with these thoughts, memories, and feelings is like fighting with a ball in a pool? You don’t like these things. You don’t want them, and you want them out of your life. So you try to push the ball under the water and out of your consciousness.However, the ball keeps popping back up to the surface, so you have to keep pushing it down or holding it under the water. Struggling with the ball in this way keeps it close to you, and it’s tiring and futile. If you were to let go of the ball, it would pop up and float on the surface near you, and you probably wouldn’t like it. But if you let it float there for a while without grabbing it, it could eventually drift away to the other side of the pool. And even if it didn’t, at least you’d be able to use your arms and enjoy your swim, rather than spending your time fighting.

Every day is a new day. This day will never come again. So how can we live fully, completely, and totally in harmony with this moment, with this day? Dinacharya is a ancient vedic art of unfolding the inner balance of the body, mind and consciousness and inner balance of
observer, observation and the thing to be observed.

Dr. Vasant Lad

Dinacharya

How to Make Your Daily Routine Work for You 

One of the very first things that you are taught as a student of Ayurveda is dinacharya —or a daily routine. It’s an integral component to maintaining stability within your life, while also helping you to live according to the rhythms of nature. A strong routine can help your body stay healthy and work at its fullest potential.

Why Daily Routine Is Important

There are so many articles nowadays talking about the importance of morning and evening routines, and how both of these help to create successful and productive days. It’s easy to view this from a very mechanical and goal-oriented perspective—the more efficiently we can accomplish our day-to-day tasks, the more we can tackle and achieve in life. But we never think about how this ambitious mentality actually affects our beings as a whole. 

When we create consistent daily routines, with overall well-being as our goal, this supports our bodies in truly being great instruments to carry us through life—not just for the sake of the to-do lists that are constantly floating through our brains, but to serve our deepest dharma, dreams, and desires.

Strong routines allow our body to know exactly what’s going to happen and when. This consistent rhythm creates an inner resilience and stability that supports us in being better able to manage stress or whatever unexpected situations life may throw at us.

Creating Your Daily Routine

Even when you know the benefits of a daily routine and feel ready to dive in, it can be hard to decide exactly what your routine should consist of. Ayurveda has a beautiful list of simple daily rituals to start with—things like brushing your teeth, oil pulling, tongue cleaning, and showering. 

One thing I always try to emphasize with my clients and friends is to find the things that work for you. Is it important to brush your teeth and shower every day? Yes, you absolutely should! Good hygiene is necessary for a healthy body. But you will only feel compelled to stick to a daily routine if it’s something that calls to you, something that you believe is worth maintaining, and that you feel drawn to do because you can really feel the benefits it offers to your body and mind. 

Here are a few tricks to help you get started and actually stick to a routine, even when life feels crazy. 

• Be realistic with how much time you can dedicate. This is really important, as it will help you figure out how to create a daily routine that doesn’t feel stressful or overwhelming. If you can’t seem to find ANY time, you may want to take a look at “wasted” minutes. How much time do you scroll on the internet or watch TV? Can you go from thirty minutes on Facebook to ten? You’ve just won twenty minutes to devote completely to yourself!You may also want to think about getting up a little earlier.  Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to wake up three hours early, but maybe just thirty minutes, in order to begin your day with tending to your own self-care. 
• Take a look at Ayurveda’s traditional dinacharya. Pick out the things that you know you do anyways. This is your base. Do you brush your teeth every day? Check. Do you shower every day? Check. You already have a strong springboard to jump from. 
• What do you want to add? Look again at what Ayurveda recommends in a dinacharya. Is there anything that intrigues you but just haven’t taken the leap to try? Now is the time! Pick one or two things that call to you or pique your curiosity. Intrigue can create excitement and a natural desire to follow through—a recipe for success!  
• Fine-tune your daily routine for your weeks and weekends.Personally, since I definitely have more time on the weekends, I love to do a deeply nourishing thirty-minute abhyanga (or self-massage with oil) as opposed to a quick seven-minute one during the week. This can look like whatever you would like. Get creative!
• Lastly, know that maintaining a daily routine does require a bit of discipline. It’s not easy to get up thirty minutes earlier. Do it anyways. It’s not easy to go for that thirty-minute run. Do it anyways. Remember that your daily routine is about so much more than the actual task itself. Over time it becomes a place of deep nourishment and support, helping us to achieve our wildest dreams and goals.

What do you imagine when you picture the best version of yourself? Your daily routine should help you to get there. Spend some time asking yourself, “What kind of person do I want to be? Where can I improve? What is most important to me?” It’s not about criticizing yourself or wallowing in the things that you haven’t yet accomplished, but rather about connecting to your own unique purpose. 

For me, having a consistent daily routine boosts my ability to handle stress, increases my ability to ebb and flow with life, and simply makes me HAPPIER! It is a way to keep the bigger picture in mind even when I am surrounded by chaos. We all know that life is crazy, and busy, and wild. But you don’t have to be. Embrace your routine!

www,banyanbotanicals.com

The mind is only one but due to its association with many sense organs, it appears as many.
Oneness and minuteness are the qualities of mind.

Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana, Foundational text of AYURVEDA Medicine

Witnessing Awareness – Dr. Vastant Lad on MIND

The mind is the only sense organ that has the capacity to see itself. The ears cannot hear themselves. The eyes cannot see themselves, unless there is a mirror. The tongue cannot taste itself. Nevertheless, the mind can see itself. It has double-arrowed attention. The mind can look outside and, at the same time, it can look inside. In the kingdom of the senses, the mind is king. Mind has the capacity to choose and is a powerful instrument of experience. Right from this moment, bring discipline and watch the mind. Watching the mind means looking at your thoughts as they are, looking at your feelings and emotions as they are, without identifying them as “this is my fear, this is my thought.” Without identification, justification, evaluation and notification, you can see a clear-cut gap between two thoughts, a space between two memories, a distance between two emotions. In that space, there is a door. Enter into that door. 

Thought is like a lingering cloud in the sky of consciousness. You are not the cloud; you are only watching the cloud. In between two clouds, there is a vast space. Remember that no cloud can stay in the sky. In the same way, no thought can stay in the consciousness. Just sit quietly or lie on the floor and watch the total movement of thinking. Let the mind thinkwhat it wants. It may think about good things or bad things. It does not matter; do not judge. Just observe the thinking. When you go on observing your thinking in this way, within one week you will see that thinking becomes slower. You can clearly see a space between two thoughts. If you enter that space, you will forget your body and your problems and you will be in a dynamic space. Take care not to name it.

The vast, incredible, immeasurable space is your true nature. Your true nature is endless and boundless existence. Live in the present, in the state beyond time and aging, which can be reached through sensitive awareness. You can remain in that vast space 24 hours a day.

External sounds— the cry of a child, the barking of a dog, or a musical sound— all come into the ear and dissolve. You become the center of the whole universe, the whole existence, the whole presence.

To maintain such a state is pure love. When you are in the state of love, it is joy and bliss, which is your true nature. The molecules of bliss start flowing into your body. All disease is wiped out. You can achieve radical transformation of your brain cells simply by watching the movement of your mind at every moment.

Mano vaha srotas is profound, because it has its root in the universe and its fruit in the heart of every human being. Your heart, the fruit, and the universe, the root, merge together. Then you flower. The flowering of bliss and love takes place when the fruit and the root merge together.

“Before practicing meditation, we see that mountains are mountains.
When we start to practice, we see that mountains are no longer mountains.
After practicing a while, we see that mountains are again mountains.
Now the mountains are very free. Our mind is still with the mountains,
but it is no longer bound to anything.”
—Thich Nhat Hahn: —

Nothing can truly affect our true nature and it is thoughts that create the illusion that
fear has such unpleasant powers.

Rupert Spira

Meditation on Fear and Anxiety

Fear and anxiety are common obstacles that can hinder a meditation practice. However, by acknowledging and addressing these emotions, individuals can cultivate greater awareness, clarity, and peace of mind. Here are key insights from the psychology of fear and anxiety meditation:

• Fear as a natural response: Fear is a natural human response to perceived threats, whether real or imagined. In meditation, fear can arise as a result of confronting uncomfortable emotions, thoughts, or physical sensations.
• Anxiety as a learned response: Anxiety disorders are often rooted in learned patterns of thinking and behaving. Meditation can help individuals recognize and challenge these patterns, promoting a more balanced and adaptive response to stress.
• Mindfulness as a key component: Mindfulness meditation, in particular, has been shown to reduce anxiety by increasing awareness of the present moment and decreasing rumination on worrisome thoughts.
• Body-focused techniques: Guided meditations that focus on the body, such as progressive muscle relaxation or breathwork, can help individuals short-circuit the fear response and cultivate a sense of calm and grounding.
• Embracing fear: Rather than trying to suppress or avoid fear, some meditation approaches encourage individuals to embrace and explore their fear, fostering a greater sense of acceptance and compassion.
• Faith and uncertainty: Meditation can involve an act of faith, trusting that the practice will lead to greater insight and peace, even in the face of uncertainty and fear.

Practical Meditation Techniques for Fear and Anxiety

1. Body-focused meditation: Use progressive muscle relaxation, breathwork, or qigong to cultivate a sense of calm and grounding.
2. Mindfulness meditation: Focus on the present moment, observing thoughts and emotions without judgment.
3. Guided meditations: Listen to guided meditations specifically designed to address fear and anxiety, such as those that use visualization, imagery, or body-focused techniques.
4. Embracing fear meditation: Explore and acknowledge fear, rather than trying to suppress or avoid it.
5. Short-circuiting the fear response: Use techniques like deep breathing or physical relaxation to interrupt the fear response and promote a sense of calm.

Helpful to Remember

• Meditation is a practice, not a cure-all. So patience and a gentle attitude of mind with oneself as we explore these techniques is a very helpful reminder.
• Please consider seeking guidance from qualified meditation teachers or therapists if the  struggle with persistent fear or anxiety persists