Meditation Workshop Toronto Beaches
Learn How To Meditate And Bring More Peace To Daily Life. Saturday October 15, 2016
11:15 am to 12:45 at Kingston Rd. United Church
Cost: $20 per person advance or $25 at the door
Pay at the door or
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- Learn some basic meditation techniques you can start using in your life right away!
- Learn the true purpose of meditation. Without this understanding your progress will be severely hampered.
- Find the techniques that work best for you and your busy lifestyle!
- Reduce stress and sabotaging patterns right now
- Only a few minutes a day along with a serious intention to “make your life a work of art” is all you need
- Take your mind on a different route than usual. Explore. Have fun!
Why Meditate?
You’ve heard all about the benefits of meditation. I’ll go ahead and list just a few. Maybe there are a couple you didn’t know about — and the rest will reinforce your intention to begin.
- Reduced stress
- Improve sleep patterns
- Less reactive to others
- Lower and/or stabilize blood pressure
- Improved digestion and circulation
- Improved creativity
- More general happiness and peace
- Improved health
- Recent studies even suggest that meditation increases gray matter and lengthens telomeres which helps to retard the effects of ageing in the brain.
Improved Brain Function
Meditation Increases Gray Matter, Lengthens Telomeres Which Slows Ageing In The Brain: The human brain starts to decrease in volume and weight as we age, but research suggests that experienced meditators have healthier brains than non-meditators as they get older. They have more gray matter and while the older aged meditators do have some volume loss, it was not nearly as much as the older aged non-meditators.
It also helps lengthen our telomeres. These are protective caps at the ends of our chromosomes. They are longest when we are young and shorten as we get older. Shorter telomeres have been shown to be associated with stress and higher risk for diseases including cancer.
Research shows that meditators have much higher telomerase activity than non meditators.
There is a LOT more research showing benefits to the brain from meditation. You can look it up yourself.
The main thing is you will feel better. Less stressed, better able to cope with day to day issues.
This leads to less drama — which is an investment that grows and increases exponentially over time.
The wonderful thing about meditation is that it is completely portable and self contained. In other words, once you learn how to do it (and everybody already has the knack for it!) you’ve got it for life.
Research also shows that even several daily “meditation blasts” of just anywhere from 5 seconds up to a minute have positive results.
Are There Any Spiritual Benefits To Meditation?
An unequivocal yes! In my experience, most definitely. And based on how many spiritual teachers and religions recommend meditation as a practice, again it’s a yes.
The great thing is it doesn’t matter what your religious or cultural background is. It’s not about beliefs. It’s about going beyond conditioned beliefs. Even if you’re a “hardboiled materialist” meditation can help you bring more peace, love and creativity to your world.
At the very least, regular meditation will give you greater peace of mind and more inner freedom. And isn’t that what all “spiritual” paths are about?
And with regular practice, you may even experience the truth of who you are beyond your name and story. Cool beans!
How Do You Meditate?
There are as many meditation techniques as there are flavours of ice cream!
But at the end of the day meditation has one goal. To get your brain waves into alpha or theta states.
Our brain waves can be measured. Most adults in our society are operating in what is called beta. This is critical thinking and analytical thinking. But it is also survival mode. Hence, the stress.
We enter what is called delta when we are in deep sleep. We normally go down the scale from beta to alpha to theta and finally delta.
People who suffer from insomnia have trouble stepping down the brain wave scales.
They are “addicted” to the cues from the external world that keep them in beta. They literally cannot stop thinking!
Perhaps you can remember a time when you felt super creative. In the flow. Maybe you were in nature with a beautiful golden shimmering sunset. Or driving somewhere beautiful soaking up the scenery with no time deadlines tick tocking in the background.
Perhaps you were absorbed in a favorite hobby or artistic pursuit and you felt “in the zone.”
In these cases you were possibly experiencing alpha brain wave states.
Meditation is actually something that we humans are designed to do naturally. However, do to our social conditioning (conforming/rebelling) and all the programmed beliefs we have, formal meditation is a powerful tool for helping us with breaking through limiting beliefs — and accessing a greater sense of ease with what is going on around us.
What You Will Learn In This Meditation Workshop
In this workshop you will learn some basic meditation techniques to help you get started at home.
It’s really difficult to learn how to meditate from a book. It’s not impossible, but it’s similar to learning a musical instrument.
Some people are naturally talented and can pick it up without a live teacher. If you’re in the Toronto Beaches area, and are interested in
learning how to meditate, you’ll want to come to the workshop!
One of the simplest of all — and the most powerful — is to learn to meditate on the breath.
There are many traditions on the planet from yoga to buddhism that use this technique.
Again, it doesn’t matter what your spiritual beliefs are or are not.
We’ll learn the basic technique of focusing on our breath and observing our thoughts.
This helps us to begin to realize our thoughts are not who we are. Simply by observing thoughts come and go.
Usually, in beta, we unconsciously identify with our thoughts. And since our thoughts are connected with our emotions, we are slaves to our very powerful minds.
Ideally, our minds are designed to be our tool for functioning with our bodies in the physical world.
We’ll also cover a few other medition techniques such as chanting and guided meditations.
The whole point of meditation is to be able to bring that awareness into your daily life and challenges.
There’s no point of meditating if your buttons are still getting pushed all the time.
Guided Meditation CD Included!
When beginning meditation, due to the nature of our restless minds, many people give up when left to their own devices.
It has been found that guided meditations are extremely effective for this reason.
As a matter of fact, many therapists now use guided meditations to help their clients with various issues ranging from depression to insomnia.
A guided meditation is simply a voice giving you cues and a stream of images to focus on. The narrator’s voice is accompanied by relaxing meditation music designed to help your brain find alpha or even theta brain wave states more easily.
This is where deep learning and healing can occur!
I have created an original and professionally recorded guided meditation for you. I recorded it in my own recording studio.
Anyone who attends this workshop will receive a link to download it and begin using it at home immediately!
note: If you are a real “technophobe” and do not feel comfortable with downloading an mp3, please let me know. I can provide you with a hardcopy (CD) for a minimal fee.
What To Expect
- Dress in comfortable clothing
- Water will be provided
- You may want to bring a light snack for afterwards
- The workshop is 90 minutes long
- Don’t worry! We will be using chairs to sit. If you prefer to sit on the floor or lie down, that’s ok too.
About The Instructor
Dave Yeager (pronounced like Jaeger) is an experienced meditator and self empowerment expert. He was introduced to meditation and eastern philosophy in 1980 at 17, but began a more formal and grounded practice in 1997.
After an intense spiritual awakening in 1997, Dave took to his healing and spiritual path quietly — but with commitment and gusto.
He’s recently been dragged kicking and screaming by the Universe into this role of researching, reporting and teaching about Life — and being human.
He’s also a musician and lives with his incredible wife and their cat in Canada.