Connections

FAQ MEDITATION FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION MEDITATION FAQ

A lot of people talk about learning to meditate. But what really are the benefits of meditation?

ANSWER * it decreases respiratory rate * It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate *it increases exercise tolerance in heart patients

it leads to a deeper level of relaxation
it is good for people with high blood pressure as it brings the BP to normal
it reduces anxiety attacks by changing the chemistry of the blood
it decreases muscle tension and any pain due to tension and headaches
it builds self-confidence
it increases serotonin production which influences mood and behaviour. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, obesity, insomnia and headaches
it helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis
it reduces pre-menstrual syndrome
it helps with post-operative healing
it enhances the immune system. Research has revealed that mediation increases the activity of natural killer-cells which kill bacteria and cancer cells
it also reduces the activities of viruses and emotional distress
meditation can help resolve emotional fears and conflicts
meditation puts mothers in tune with their babies

GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF THE PRESENT!

Do you live in the past, churning over past regrets and triumphs? Do you live in the future, worrying about what might happen? Would you like to learn how to live in the only place where we can really be effective, that is, the present?

Would you like to call on a way of centring your sense of self, putting your problems in perspective, literally a breath of fresh air? And all without cigarettes, alcohol, drugs or financial commitments? Meditation can give you the support you need to deal with insomnia, to regain concentration, to place yourself and your needs back at the core of your life In the here and now. We only use a tiny percentage of our minds. But meditation gives us access to swathes of our unconscious and imagination. So we can learn to use our energy to the most efficient extent. You can learn to switch on, to turn off, to love yourself and to love others.

Meditation is not just a few minutes’ relaxation and relief from stress, useful though that is. It is the implementation of a controlled awareness called mindfulness. Do you find yourself at the end of the day wondering where the time went and trying to remember what you were doing and where you went? Instead, you can approach common, everyday events with ‘mindfulness’, the feeling that you are currently aware in the present moment. Learn to be more constructively aware of your thoughts and feelings and respond with compassion to daily experiences. No matter what your spiritual tradition is, there is practical help available which will help you find your own way to true enjoyment of the times you value most, however it is spent. Live at home in the present – every minute of it.

Meditation can + enhance inner strength, intuition, emotional equilibrium + allow inspiring glances of cosmic reality +help reduce chronic and debilitating disease and mental health problems

Irrespective of your personal or religious beliefs, meditation will help you explore your spiritual potential and bring simplicity, focus and vitality into your life.

‘Interconnection Compact Disc’ – Linda Appleby

‘Many people…look for happiness in places where happiness cannot be found…“I feel that the essence of spiritual practice is your attitude towards others” said the Dalai Lama’.

You can order this collection of teach-yourself meditation practices, poetry and reflections.There are spaces for you to join in with the Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation and the Metta Bhavana, or Loving-Kindness, Meditation. Copies cost £9.95 / $15.00 from 19 Derwent Close Cambridge UK CB1 9JT.

EMForster wrote in ‘Howard’s End’ if we could ‘only connect’. The assumption here is right. If only we could get out from under our hard shell, we would find that we are all connected. We would be able to experience genuine relationships.

Only Connect

You can be connected to Mother Earth
Be cleansed and purify the planet
You can pour your goodness into the cosmos
And receive her healing spirit
You can save the world
You meditations will become a breeze
Your love will power the sun
Your happiness will fall as rain
Gaia will recover her cycle of goodness
And humankind will live in harmony again
Can you spare some love for a Goddess?
Can you let your thoughts become smiles?
Will you invest some care in the kingdom of compassion?
Tell her you are grateful
Find your inner child – I can make your prayers come true
You can heal yourself too
Just think of me and you can connect
Send your loving kindness
Someone, somewhere will find happiness – Bring gifts, offer flowers

We accept these ideas as coming from our imaginative side. Spirituality expresses wishes and dreams, longings and fancies.. But what if this is actually how our experience works? Here is the science of the spirit. The whole of reality is the expression of our collective unconscious, its objects and our sentiments about them.

The world is a dream. Let’s unravel its symbols.

We can join together in connected meditation and find spiritual healing You can do this on your own, in spiritual conjunction with all beings, or I am encouraging you to form groups in which you can support each other and powerfully support the planet. I will teach more about connected meditation, which is based on the incredibly potent Buddhist ‘mindfulness of breathing’ in a newsletter – see newsletter page. I want you to celebrate the powers of the mind because they are ‘reality’. The cosmos will rearrange to reflect the beauty you find within. This is like the ancient principle of Kriyasakti, described by HPBlavatsky…You think about something in such a way that it has real implications. Or you might think of it like prayer. You can connect with the source of the life force and send it reeling into new forces for creativity. It is like an investment in the abundance of the earth.

We are all inter-connected and we are all interdependent. There is no-one on earth who is superfluous or too superior to join in. If we invest in the spirit the rewards will be obvious. By tapping into the spiritual forces which unite us with the earth, with nature and with each other we will be creating the harmonious world which is coming into birth with the new age.

Developments in the experience of being connected

23 Jun 2009

Healing:
‘What was crucial about meeting Andrew was that he was the first person I could help by distance; not just in another room, but when we got home, a hundred miles away from one another. I could sense the areas of tension and difficulty and infuse them with warmth until the tension dissipated and growth became possible. I knew how much he wanted to be helped – he had been through a traumatic divorce and had worries for his child.’

At the Centre of Things:
The morning following meeting Andrew another good-looking blue and white striped shirted journalist was released from being held hostage in Beirut. Andrew and I had talked openly. We had ‘released’ each other from social custom and conventional experience. I began to see a parallel between what was happening to me on a micro scale and what was happening to the world on a macro level….’

Connect to the Elements:
When I first realised that I was connected to the elements I could hardly believe my own powers. It started with the sun peeking out, encouragingly (Go on! It’s good!) through my window and also over the lovely village of Clovelly in Devon when I was holiday with the children…’

From ‘Three Articles on Spiritual Experience’ by Linda Appleby. ** now appearing in www.voyagerspirit.com under ‘articles’

If you would like copies of these books and articles, please contact me.

Clinical Example

23 Jun 2009

Re Miss G, suffering form Parkinson’s Disease:
‘She was able to progress through paranoid-schizoid functioning to the feelings of loss and mourning characteristic of the depressive position, possibly, in the long term to reparation and perhaps the restoration of function.This through utilising myself as the container. I remained in telephone contact with Miss G. throughout this period, providing the ‘connection’ she needed to progress into depressive and restorative functions.’

The Relation Between the Paranoid-Schizoid and the Depressive Positions’. Linda Appleby

Miss G. is now walking unaided and shopping regularly.

Melanie Klein: From The Need for an Enemy to the Need for Each Other

14 Jun 2009

Melanie Klein was a psychoanalyst who followed in the tradition of Sigmund Freud. She came up with some radical theories about the nature of psychotic illnesses, depression and neurosis. She was on the verge of understanding how dysfunctional experience could be cured for ever.

Think of a tiny baby. It is too undeveloped to conceptualise its carer as a three-dimensional person and splits its experiences in early life into being attributable either to a very good Mummy or its opposite, a very bad Mummy. Only later comes the idea that she is all one person, good, bad and indifferent. It takes all your life to take this in. But it is worth it, because you will rid yourself of all sorts of misconceptions and illnesses.

Klein predicted that in 60 years neurosis would be wiped out. That was about 60 years ago.

If we understood the transition from psychotic functioning to healthy ways we would have the key to the cure for ‘madness’.

Wilfred Bion worked on the notion that we move from the early stages to later development by undergoing the experience of ‘containment’. No-one has been able to describe what this really is. It is something to do a mutual relationship with a mother-figure. I wondered whether the need was for someone who can feed us who we imagine we can feed. I put forward the suggestion that this experience might be that of ‘connection’. The final piece of the puzzle was that I found that I could make connections psychically. We could heal the world.

Containment and Connection

14 Jun 2009

A paper on the transition from psychotic to normal states. It puts forward the hypothesis that there is a transitional mechanism which connects us with our earliest experiences.

You can order a copy from me. Refer to the contact page for my email address.