By Michaiel Bovenes

Unlike the brain, your mind has no boundaries and can be scattered all over the place. There are many easy ways to relax your mind. All intense exercise, jogging, meditation or mental games like chess or billiards will help to focus your mind. However, most people do not have time to jog five miles or shoot a game of pool when they most need to focus. Also, these activities dont necessarily lead to relaxation. Here are some simple and easy methods to help you both relax and focus your mind in minutes.

To succeed at focusing your mind, it is important to understand that your mind is not your brain. Your brain is the physical apparatus that tunes in and expresses your mind. For instance, your brain can identify a joke, but its your mind that has a sense of humor and makes you laugh. Your brain can identify opportunities, but it is your mind that chooses them or not. Like a computer, your brain doesnt have the power of choice, your mind does. Your brain is similar to a television set. It is a receiver of the airwaves that carry information (thought). Your mind produces the airwaves (information-thoughts) of your consciousness, your personality, and your spirit. It is your brains function to receive and interpret those messages and express them.

Your mind is pure consciousness. It is ageless, non tangible consciousness that contains energy which includes your beliefs, attitudes, thoughts and feelings (emotion), imagination, creativity, memories, hopes and dreams. Your brain is the receiver of your mind. Its purpose is to organize, plan and express your minds information. Knowing how to relax and focus the energy of your mind can help you discover yourself and help you to make trustworthy decisions to live a peaceful life.

Your Imagination is the star pupil of the mind. Your imagination is incredibly powerful. It has the basis of your body mind connection. What you hold and see in your mind affects your body function, chemistry and autonomic systems.

Body Mind Connection Test:

Read the next paragraph slowly and let your mind create the experience in your imagination.

With you eyes open, think about a lemon. Imagine that this lemon is large, with a waxy yellow-pitted skin. It is shiny and beautiful. Now imagine that a knife is cutting the lemon in half, as the blade breaks the skin a spritz of lemon juice squirts out and the juice runs down the blade of the knife. You can smell the lemon juice. Now imagine you are taking half of that lemon and squeezing the juice into your mouth. The bitter lemon juice is swirling over your tongue and and swallow it.

Now, did anything occur in your mouth as your read and imagined that lemon?

Did you find your mouth watering more than normal?

Most people do. Your mind stores the memory of lemon juice and your past experiences. Simply by imagining the lemon you altered the moisture in your mouth. The saliva glands are regulated by the autonomic nervous system. This system controls your heart rate, blood pressure, immune function, digestive, respiratory, circulatory systems and much more.

The secret of hypnosis is using the power of your mind (imagination) to communicate directly to your body, creating change. This is commonly known as your body-mind connection. Everyone has it, but most do not consciously use it to benefit their lives.

Now think about how easy that was for you to do. Imagine if you closed your eyes and really focused on that exercise, how much more effective it could be. My guided meditations all use imagery to help you communicate to your subconscious mind and generate positive influence and change over your mind and body. It works, all you need to do is close your eyes, and let the meditation guide you through the process.

I have formulated five powerful techniques to pick or choose from.

Try any of them or if you are really scattered then do all five I have listed below.

Five Relaxation Techniques to Focus Your Mind

Technique One: Breathe Slowly.

Begin by inhaling a deep breath through your nose and as you slowly exhale through your mouth, mentally repeat the word relax, in your mind. Repeat 3-4 times. You can say the word, relax out loud at first, but then practice silently repeating the word, like a mantra. Next focus your awareness on what has captured your attention. What are you thinking or worrying about? Is your mind in the past or the future? Are you thinking about someone in particular? Explore what has captured your attention and then repeat the breathing exercise above to release it with your breath.

Tip: You can visualize that as you exhale, you are breathing out the thoughts and feelings from your mind through your mouth, like bubbles floating off into the distance.

Technique Two: Write.

This exercise will help you gain clarity and perspective. Find some paper and write down your thoughts. This will help you slow down your thinking and release whats on your mind. As you write, remind yourself I have these thoughts I am not my thoughts; I have these feelings I am not my feelings. Let the words flow out of you and write them down without editing or being concerned with grammar or spelling.

To clear your consciousness fast express in writing what is on your mind. Then take these papers and destroy them. Tear them up and throw them away, flush then down the toilet or burn them. You want to destroy the writing with gusto and intensity. Mentally tell yourself, I am letting go of these thoughts and feelings. I am freeing my mind. This technique is great for insomnia, on restless nights, like I described above.

Tip: An important fact, you can not write as fast as you think, so when you write down your thoughts you will slow down your thinking automatically. This is one of the benefits of journaling and why it is considered a meditative experience. It slows your mind down and focuses your attention quickly.

Technique Three: Hum.

Take a few moments and hum the lyrics of a favorite song. Concentrate on remembering the lyrics and feel the vibration of humming in your throat, face and chest. This will benefit you two ways: 1. Concentration and remembering the song will focus your mind. 2. The vibration of humming will ground you into the sensation of your physical body. It is great technique and you can do this anywhere at anytime. After just a few minutes, you will feel a difference.

Technique Four: Visualize.

Follow this simple guided meditation. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply three times and mentally (silently) say the word relax. Imagine a basketball size sphere of white light hovering about 12 inches above your head. Focus your mind to visualize it the best you can. Imagine that you see it and feel the warmth radiating down on the top of your head. Next, imagine this sphere slowly lowering and touching the crown of your head.

Take another deep breath and bring the sphere down around your head, like a helmet. Imagine if your head is filled with white light. If you were to open your eyes, the light would stream out from inside of you. Imagine that all the scattered thoughts are dissolving them. Focus on the light, feel its warmth and sense it filling your mind with peace and comfort. Breathe naturally for a few minutes. When you are ready, simply open your eyes and go back to your activities. This is great for a quick focus before an important meeting. You can do this in a parked car, your desk or in a bathroom stall.

Technique Five: Be Sensual.

Focus your attention on your five senses. This provides a mental boundary to contain your scattered mind. Being sensual simply means to be aware of your five senses. Smell the air, feel the temperature on your skin, listen to the sounds around you and to taste the food that you eat. Being sensual brings you into the present moment fast and effectively. You now have five easy ways to focus your mind and harness its power. Your mind will help you make more trustworthy decisions throughout your day and experience overall greater inner peace.

These techniques will offer fast and temporary relief of a scattered mind. For a more in-depth method that will help you heal more permanently a scattered mind and keep you centered, I recommend that you learn to meditate. If not from me, then from someone else you know and trust. I do not recommend books on meditation, because they can describe the process, but often it is difficult to follow through. Classes and weekend courses are great, but very time consuming and expensive.

About the Author: Michaiel Patrick Bovenes is a personal empowerment teacher, speaker and author. Since 1994, he’s published a popular series of guided meditations and teahes classes called, “Soul-utions”. Michaiel lives in San Francisco, CA and teaches throughout the USA. Receive Free Meditation MP3 Download at his website at:

RelaxationMeditations.com

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By Frank Johnson

Regardless of what time of year it is, it always seems like Christmas is just around the corner. Even in the middle of Summer when it’s 90 degrees outside and there isn’t a snow flake in sight, Christmas is only ‘a few months away’. And when you start counting the months and days till Christmas, you also start counting the months and days until you have to jump on a plane and fly home for the holidays.

This may sound strange but anyone who normally flies home for the holidays should actually start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas as soon as they can. Why? Because the sooner you book your flight, 1) the better your chances are of finding a cheap airplane ticket home for the holidays, 2) the more time you give yourself to compare airfare rates, and 3) the less likely you are to forget to book your flight in the first place.

Find the Hidden Airfare Deals

If you start your search for a cheap airplane ticket early in the year, the better your chances are of finding one. It’s true that not all airlines will have flights planned that far in advance, but some might and even offer early-bird rates. You can call the airlines directly to see if they have discounted rates for advanced booking; but if you really want to find a cheap airplane ticket, the place to go is the Internet.

The Internet, in many ways, has replaced the traditional travel agent. No longer do you need to find a travel agency in the phonebook, call them up, speak with an agent, and take their word that the cheap airplane ticket they find you is the cheapest in town. Now all you need to do is go online, search for ‘cheap airplane ticket’, and find hundreds of travel web sites offering hundreds of ways to save on your flight.

Give Yourself Time to Compare

Starting your search now for your ticket home for the holidays will not only help you find deals on advanced booking; it will also give you plenty of time to compare airfare rates. We often procrastinate until the very last minute to book our flight, which doesn’t give us time to comparison shop for a cheap airplane ticket. If you start your search early, you have time to shop around. Even if you don’t find early-bird deals on advanced bookings, you still have time to search the web for a cheap air ticket and compare rates for months until you find the best deal possible.

Book Your Flight Now so You Don’t Forget

We live in busy times. We multi-task like never before; emailing clients from our cars as we simultaneously fiddle with the radio, drink our coffee, and change lanes without a care in the world. However, as proficient as we have become in multi-tasking, some things still manage to slip through the cracks, like booking a ticket home for the holidays. We are so busy these days that if it isn’t happening tomorrow, we don’t think about it. That’s why so many of us don’t book holiday flights until the last minute. However, this activity often results in paying obscenely high prices for last minute airfare. So, if you want to avoid paying through the nose just to visit the family over Thanksgiving or Christmas, book your ticket as early as possible.

If you want to avoid paying a bundle for your flight home for the holidays, start your search for a flight as early as possible. You just might stumble upon the deal of a lifetime.

About the Author: cFares is the first choice thousands of knowledgeable travelers are using to save hundreds of dollars on low airfares. For a

cheap airplane ticket

home for the holidays, visit

cfares.com

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