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Happy Mind: Meditations from the Ancient World to Modernity — Alternative Health
Happy Mind: Meditations from the Ancient World to Modernity

Ancient meditation techniques from wisdom teachers who are lost in the mists of time are made available to you in accessible, bite-sized or longer guided meditations. Each episode is largely inspired by the original teachings of Taoist, Buddhist and Hindu masters like Lao Tzu, Buddha and “Krishna”, Christian masters like Mary Magdalene, Jesus and Teresa of Avila, Greek masters like Plotinus, Plato and Pythagoras, Islamic masters like Rumi, Ibn Arabi, Attar, and Hafez, and pre-historic masters from Polynesia, Australia and the Americas. From Buddhism to Taoism, from Astrology to Platonism, from Medieval Alchemists to Central Asian poets of yore, (and more), this podcast provides an easy way to access the simple meditation and happy life practices developed by the wisest masters to have graced this planet. Zebediah Rice guides you in an easy and free way to learn to meditate, become more mindful, energetic, happy, peaceful, and mentally sharp. Just sit back, relax, and let me do the work for you.

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Latest Episodes:

Acceptance & Your Inner Garden (18 min) Dec 12, 2017

Show notes

Acceptance is an extraordinary technique that anyone can employ to brighten their day. Indeed, the great masters make the extraordinary claim that perfecting these practices of letting go and acceptance will free us from all suffering. Even if that is beyond what most of us are hoping or looking for, anyone can cultivate this habit of acceptance in order to feel a little better right now and a lot better with practice. Learning to let go is like cleaning the window that leads to your true self, to your inner garden and allowing its light to shine through and brighten every dimension of your life right now.

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Acceptance - Intro Series (15 min) Dec 05, 2017

Show notes

Our true nature is by definition peaceful and loving and joyful. So whenever we experience anything other than wonderful feelings like this, our task is to seek out all the barriers within ourselves that prevent our true nature from emerging in our experience. But how? One of the best ways humans have come up with is called Acceptance. So we are going to practice that today.

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Gratitude - Intro Series (14 min) Nov 27, 2017

Show notes

Feeling gratitude is like a drug. Except it is free and the only side effect is that you feel awesome. So the best advice is to get drunk on it as much as possible. But just saying “I’m grateful” or “Aren’t I lucky” doesn’t really do it. Your mind and your emotional state can be like a little puppy. They have to be coaxed into this feeling of gratitude. There has to be a regular practice to create the mental habit of gratitude. So let’s practice together now.

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Stillness And Impermanence - Intro Series (12 min) Nov 19, 2017

Show notes

The physical world you perceive with your senses and through your imagination is constantly changing. Yet you are unchanging, complete, connected and free. Meditation is a method of practicing the separation of your conscious awareness from all the things that change and returning to this place of limitlessness and peace and abundance and joy. If you can stop identifying with your mind and just be still, the truth can shine through. A great Sufi master once described our true nature as being like the light formed by holding a ruby up to the dawn sun. You can practice meditation in a way to remember your true nature, to recall this fusion of your flavor with the light of perfection and truth. Listen to this meditation and be guided through this ancient practice.

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What To Do With Your Body - Intro Series (22 min) Nov 13, 2017

Show notes

Ever wonder what to do with your body when you meditate? How to hold it? What position is best? What to do if you experience an itch or pain or discomfort of any kind? In this guided introduction to meditation, you’ll learn the answers to these questions. You’ll be walked through the four rules to follow on how to sit in a meditation practice. And, if you do become distracted or experience pain and discomfort during a meditation practice, this guided meditation explains what to do in two simple steps.

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Mindfulness Introduction - Intro Series (14 min) Nov 06, 2017

Show notes

In mindfulness meditation the idea is to be a witness to each sensation, to pay bare attention to it, just as it is. You do this practice because it is now well-established that “being in the now” is a recipe for health and happiness. But trying to “be in the now” generally ends up meaning you spend a lot of time NOT being in the now. That’s because as you settle in to the mindfulness practice, what’s called your “Default Mode Network” of brain activity kicks in; in other words, your mind will wander. That’s what your brain does when it is idle. That’s why it is called the “Default” mode, it is what your brain defaults to doing when your aren’t involved in doing anything else. In this meditation you will be introduced to these ideas and have a chance to practice mindfulness and take the next step in your journey to happier, healthier you.

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Mastering Your Mind - Intro Series(12 min) Oct 23, 2017

Show notes

The greatest wisdom teachers to have lived — Buddha, Jesus, Krishna and so on — tell us that life is meant to be great, that suffering can end, that heaven on earth is possible for each of us. Yet it almost never feels that way. Why is that? The answer is that we have forgotten who we are. We think we are our emotions, our thoughts, our body, and the activity that the body engages in. Yet we are none of those things. So meditation is really about retraining our brain to be familiar with this truth, re-claiming command of our selves. Today we'll practice this remembering, this retaking of control.

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Meditation: What Is It & Why It's So Hard - Intro Series (10 min) Oct 16, 2017

Show notes

Never tried meditation before? Or you have but your mind won't settle down so you don't see the point? Or maybe you meditate regularly but don't seem to get much out of it. Listen to this short introductory guided meditation session to learn by doing it. Learn about the practice for the first time or enhance your understanding if you already are familiar with meditation. The latest discoveries from neuroscience are showing that these ancient masters were definitely on to something!

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Moving Awareness To Happy & Uplifted (22 Min) Oct 11, 2017

Show notes

Everyone knows that feeling of being empty and sad inside. Some people feel that on Friday afternoon with the weekend stretching out in front of them and no plans on the calendar. Other people feel that on Sunday night after a weekend with friends or family. Or if you travel a lot, you might feel it when the jet lag has caught up with you and you seem to feel bad for no reason at all. Often if there is a lot of activity or movement or change, there is a chemical shift that occurs in the brain and body to compensate for that and to prepare for something bad that our lower self believes must lie ahead. There is a loss of where you have been or what you have been doing so underlying that hollowed out feeling there likely will be anxiety or fear. But that doesn’t mean those feelings are going to be permanent or that they are an accurate representation of what is happening in the world around you. When these feelings arise you have three choices. You could give up and wallow in it and suffer through it as you wait for it to pass. Obviously this isn’t the best strategy but ying follows yang and whenever one feeling is present, its opposite is nearby, waiting for its turn. So eventually this strategy will work. You could also bring energy and activity into your life and DO things. This is better than doing nothing but it avoids releasing the feelings and dooms you to repeating the pattern so that you will end up running to stay ahead of your imaginary demons your whole life. That isn’t such a good strategy either. Fortunately, there is a better way: you can turn and face the demons, release them and align yourself with perfection. That is what we do in this meditation. And to do that, we are going to employ three foundational principles of the nature of mind: First, 1) The content of your awareness is not you. Second, 2) You can move your awareness. And third, 3) You can hold your awareness where you choose. Recognizing and employing these three principles requires practice, lots of practice. So in addition to helping you feel better today, think of this guided meditation as training for your mind to get better at feeling great more often. Feeling great, having a sense of purpose and an underlying joy in life on a sustained basis doesn’t just happen. We have to practice developing those neural states. Let’s do that now together. If you enjoy these practical guided meditations, you may like to listen to the Serena Podcast (https://goo.gl/Dxu4eo) which provides the theory behind these practices and where we are headed by doing them.

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Releasing Muscle Tension (Mid & Upper Back - Short Version - 12 min) Oct 03, 2017

Show notes

Our Mid- and Upper backs hold the weight of the world, our world at least. And this weight can bring chronic or periodic pain. Fortunately we can use our bodies and minds to release this pain, to heal ourselves. We just need to know the code. Listen to this or the longer version to help you learn that code.If you enjoy these practical guided meditations, you may like to listen to the Serena Podcast (goo.gl/Dxu4eo) which provides the theory behind these practices and where we are headed by doing them. Obviously, if are having a serious traumatic episode and are suffering from whiplash or very real back pain, please seek the help of a professional.

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