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Welcome to the Moments of Tranquillity Journal
featuring Ananga Sivyer's meditation and relaxation MP3s
Too stressed, anxious or busy to learn to meditate? Treat yourself to some Moments of Tranquillity. Simply download and sit back and listen as Ananga guides you through a variety of exercises and experiences for soothing your mind and relaxing your body.
Visit the new Audio Download Store to download
3 free meditation and relaxation mp3s
Music for Stress Management
Jun 15, 2008 Guest Article by Tracey Burchard
There are so many kinds of music - country western, classical, eastern, rap, pop, hip hop, rock and roll, soul...what kind of music are you listening to, and how is it affecting your level of stress?
Music moves us - listening to a sad song can make us feel melancholy, soft jazz piano can calm and soothe us, and rock can make us feel strong, excited, even free. Music has been proven to speed healing, is used in malls to put us in the mood to buy, in churches for inspiration and much more. So can you use music to influence your mood and lower your stress in your daily life? Absolutely.
First, consider your general mood. Are you normally stressed, happy, positive, sad, angry, fearful, even shy? Are there consistent times in your life that you would like to change your mood - maybe the drive home from work, or getting up in the morning, or maybe you stress at night, laying in bed, tossing and turning?
NEW RELEASE: Udana - flute music for relaxation
Jun 11, 2008 There's nothing quite like the sound of the flute to relax your mind and lighten your mood. From the Japanese shakuhachi, to India's bansuri, flute song has echoed around our planet for thousands of years evoking tranquillity and peace in all who would sit a while and listen. Introducing Udana: flute music for relaxation
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Music and the Brain
Jun 8, 2008 Article by Guest Author: Ashutosh Ghildiyal
It can be easily observed that music has an effect on the senses. Music effects the body and the brain in various ways.
There has been some scientific research in recent times to find out the relationship between music and intelligence. Even though it seems fairly obvious that music has an effect on the brain cells themselves and that listening some forms of music, especially western and Indian classical can increase intelligence, science, as always has been trying to seek a proof of this phenomenon.
Researchers believe that certain types of musical actually creates new neural pathways in the brain. That means that the brain can function in a different filed than that of memory alone. After listening to classical music, adults can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
Our NEW Self-Help Audio Shop is now open!
May 25, 2008 
The new self help audio store went live yesterday and so far the Alpha Brain Audio downloads are the best sellers with our Guided Meditations a close second. We have some exciting new additions planned, including an audio series on Beating Emotional Eating - details will be announced in our newsletter.
FREE 5 Finger Qigong Anxiety Relief MP3 & Video
May 16, 2008 It's a year now since we released Beautiful Calm, our first collection of MP3 downloads for relaxation and meditation, to celebrate it's success in helping hundreds of our guests relax and reduce stress and anxiety we made this little video. It features the full length relaxation experience with natural scenes fading in every few seconds to enhance the sense of slowing things down and taking a few moments for yourself. I hope you enjoy it.
5 Finger Qigong Anxiety Relief Video
This simple sitting qigong meditation is a mindfulness exercise that focuses on the breath along with basic hand postures, it's very effective for evoking calm and reducing anxiety.
Find out more about the full Beautiful Calm Collection here...Can 10 Million People Be Wrong About Meditation?
Feb 10, 2008 Guest Article by Ed Mcdonough
More than four years ago Time magazine reported over ten million Americans meditate and since then the number has constantly grown. Once thought of as a ritual performed by men who shaved their heads, wore long robes and lived in a mountain cave, this mind quieting, stress relieving natural self-healing practice is becoming so commonplace that corporations such as Deutsche Bank, Google and Hughes Aircraft recognize the intuitive powers of it and offer meditation classes to their employees.
In addition, the scientific community has stepped up to the plate and is offering factual data to support many of the proclaimed benefits of meditation. Studies on the effects meditation has on the brain and body have been going on for quite some time at institutions such as the Brain Imaging Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The Benefits of Meditation: Tips and Techniques
Feb 3, 2008 Guest Article by Galina Pembroke
Meditation is healthy, safe and affordable. In fact it’s free. The only expense you’ll have is a meditation mat, which isn’t especially necessary-at least from my experience. Meditation has been around for 5,000 years, and was originally a spiritual component of yoga. Through the years non-yogis adopted it, intuitively sensing and connecting the practice with greater peace of mind. Personally, I can’t say enough good things about meditation. Its use has rewarded me with less worry and much more energy. But I’ve never been one for anecdotal evidence. Let’s get to the science…
Transcendental Meditation
Recently, there’s an incredible amount of science tied into the benefits of meditation. The studies are endless and cover a variety of meditative practices. On Transcendental Meditation alone (mantra repetition) there are over 500 studies. Some are more noteworthy that others. A study in the Japanese Journal of Public Health found that through Transcendental Meditation, industrial workers sleep improved and their smoking decreased. Another study conducted at the MERU Research Institute, in Buckinghamshire, England found that the length of time practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program correlated with younger biological age and younger functional age.Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation, which asks us to focus on our breath to facilitate awareness of the present moment, is another widely studied meditation technique. After studying the effects of 8-weeks of mindfulness meditation on participants, a 2003 report in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine concluded: “A short program in mindfulness meditation produces demonstrable effects on brain and immune function.” Impressive, but fairly vague. To get a more committed response to the benefits of meditation we have to turn to Taiwan. In 2002 their journal Chang Gung Medicine reported that “training in MM may be a medically superior and cost-effective alternative to pain medication for the control of headaches with no underlying organic causes in highly motivated patients.”Meditation - It's Not What You Think!
Jan 20, 2008 Guest Article by Steven O'Sullivan
So, here's the short version of my experience in tapping into the Divine.
The first time I "attempted" to meditate was with a group of my peers and it was a 5 minute quiet meditation. I thought my head was going to catch on fire or maybe even explode! Five minutes might as well have been 5 hours. The "committee" inside my head would not shut up. My brain shouted "You will never be able to meditate!"
Thus began my quest for an easy way to quiet my mind and get into a meditative state.
I ran out and bought several books on meditation and some guided meditation CD's. My first great success was with one of these simple guided meditations. WOW! I actually "left my body" and connected to my higher power, it was so...well, POWERFUL.
I continued to experiment with various forms of meditation and sought out as many teachers as I could find. There were so many I can't cover them all here, but I'll tell you more in future articles. After some years I found several methods that worked well for me. Here are a few of them.
A free gift: Christmas relaxation mp3
Jan 19, 2008 
A Christmas Gift from me to you...
FREE GIFT Silent Night Christmas Hypnosis Relaxation MP3
click to download your hypnosis relaxation MP3 here
Thank you for reading Living by Design. Please be sure to keep in touch and subscribe to our newsletter, if you haven't done so already. We have some very exciting self-help audio products lined up for next year, and some new free mp3 relaxation pieces too. So subscribe now so you don't miss out!
With my best wishes to you for a peaceful Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year.
New from Street Science: Meditation Improves Attention
Dec 19, 2007 Recent research shows that regular meditation improves awareness and attention. Discover how a group of newbie meditators found their attention had improved in this video from 60 Second Science.
In a test where a series of random letters and numbers were flashed on a screen, most people initially miss the second number, but after learning a breath awareness meditation technique they spotted it just fine. Me? Yep I spotted it too.
Here's the video:
If you feel inclined to hone your focus and attention skills you can download a guided meditation exercises here that will help you...