Hailing from Buddhist meditative tradition, Mindfulness practices not only teach ways of developing calm and concentration, but ways of investigating what happens in the mind and heart.

We have to learn to concentrate, which means bringing your mental focus away from the thousand and one distractions of the day and settling your mind gracefully on one topic, one subject or one idea.

Sarah Lion heart explains the benefits of meditation

Using meditation By to change your life anderson, RYT, SMC Georgianna

Carole Lyons on ditching the Valium and learning to feel without fear

The Path of Yoga culminates with the development of a mind that comes to realize directly the true nature of being.As such it is meditation and the cultivation of the mind that lies at the heart of the path.Yet even at the early stages as we open up our body to free up its energy, it is the quality of our mind that engages in our practice that determines the outcome of our efforts.

I meditate for about 20 minutes before I go to bed every day.Occasionally,maybe 3 or 4 times out of ten, I will be just relaxing and trying to empty my mind of thoughts.Then I become aware that I have not been breathing. I don’t really have a sense of time on how long it’s been since I took a breath, but I always end up gasping for air.This just blows the whole meditation session right out of whack. From that point on I can’t focus my mind worth beans. What can I do to correct this? Breathless

Andrew Shugyo Daijo Bonnici, Ph.D. is a Humanistic Psychologist and a Zen Meditation Master. He is also the founding director of the International Institute for Applied Meditation Psychology. His private practice, established in 1978, is now on the Big Island of Hawaii. You can view his teaching, training and counseling websites at Zen Doctor.Com and Amp institute.Org.