YourZen in Carlsbad, CA!

Last Friday I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Carlsbad, CA!  Wow, if this isn’t a great place for me to practice meditation, I don’t know what is!

Poolside at our apartments.

Carlsbad is a beachfront town located about 25 minutes north of San Diego, CA.  Some of the surrounding towns are Encinitas (home of one of the most beautiful meditation gardens I’ve ever seen at the Self Realization Fellowship and Hermitage), Oceanside (the longest wooden pier on the West coast is here), La Jolla, Del Mar and Solana Beach.

Just north of Oceanside is the famous Camp Pendleton, a huge military training camp.  Everyone in Oceanside who looks between 18 and 25 and has short hair, I told my son, are more than likely a soldier.  They are everywhere.  Kids who may one day see battle, and who are training to kill.  On one hand I feel that all war is wrong, and on the other hand I understand and even support the soldiers for putting their lives on the line to protect their country.

Carlsbad itself is full of beauty.  Just yesterday I was running on the beach and I saw two dolphins!  Here’s what I posted on Facebook.

Yes, I ran alongside Dolphins!  Very cool.

Today I’m going to go around and take some pictures.  There is Zen everywhere here and I intend to capture it and show you in a photo.  Haha!  Of course, those that know Zen can see the humor in that statement, but I intend to take some pictures for you anyway!  ;  )

Stress relief at work

I was looking at videos my former meditation Master, Daniel Johnson, SBN, had put up on Youtube and I came across this excellent video he put up on stress relief at work.

No matter if you think you’re stressed or not, I’m sure you’ll agree that some stress goes home with you, and that it’s sometimes hard to really separate from it.

At the other end of the spectrum, I know what it feels like to be sooooo stressed out that you feel like you’re going crazy!  (Maybe that’s why I have my own business these days…)

So take a look at this video, and listen to what my former Master has to say.  Leave feedback in the comments section below.  (Also, see if you can spot me in the video!  It’s when I was about 10 years younger and first starting out as a fitness trainer!)

Related Articles

• Stressed Out About a Problem? Shift Your Focus. (webmd.com)

Take the Meditation challenge!

Image via Wikipedia

At the end of this post, I’ve included a meditation challenge to help get you started, but first, here’s a video of me talking about Zen, how it’s helped me, and how to start a basic meditation practice at your home.

When starting a home practice, find a place in your home that you can dedicate to the activity of meditating and try to keep it in one place.  Moving to different locations over the years, I’ve used corners of rooms, closets, and even a tent out on our patio as meditation spaces.

All you really need is a low table, a neutral candle holder (I like the small brass candle holders.  You can get them at a second hand store or the dollar store), a 10 or 12 inch white candle, and a book of matches.

Nothing else is really necessary, but some things you can add are:

• a shoji screen
• incense (I like Pine incense)
• a small cup filled with sand to place burnt matches and hold incense
• a zafu or pillow to sit on
• some people like to place a statue of Jesus, or the Budha, or their favorite Hindu deity, but that’s completely up to you.  I like to keep things as neutral as possible, and you may or may not want to do the same.
• plants
• a small water fountain
• a meditation timer

Things you shouldn’t include are:

• Distracting items
• Anything in the room that brings you away from a feeling of self-nurishment and purity
• Crystal balls, voodoo stuff, or anything of that nature

Now that you have a place to meditate, and your basics, you need to find a schedule.  A good schedule is to meditate in during the quiet times of the day.  Once in the morning, once in the afternoon, once in the late evening before bed.  You may only have time for one or two periods of the day to meditate, so choose a time that suits you.

When you first start, try 5-10 minutes, using your breath as a point of focus.  Breath in, follow your breath with your awareness and concentration, all the way down into your stomach (I’ll do a post on correct breathing later).  Then hold for a pause and exhale as you follow your breath back out.  Repeat.  When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to your breathing.

A good way to time your meditation without using a timer is to meditate until the incense is burned all the way down, which is about 20 minutes or so.  Eventually, you’ll work up to 30 minutes of meditation or more, but in the beginning consistency is more important than length of time.

THE MEDITATION CHALLENGE: Start with 5 minutes.  The next day do 6 minutes.  After that, do 7 minutes.  Then do 8 minutes, and keep building minute-by-minute until you’ve reached 30 minutes.  I challenge you to go for it!

Don’t forget to leave a comment below.  I’d love to hear about your experiences and progress!

Related Articles

• Meditation upon arising | Wildmind Buddhist Meditation (wildmind.org)
• Beginners Guide for Breathing Meditation Techniques (brighthub.com)

YourZen is Your Zen

Aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm….

Aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm….

Aaaaa…uh…oh…hi there!  You caught me meditating.  How are you?

What is YourZen, you say?

Oh, well that’s simple.  YourZen is a style of Zen I’ve developed and currently practice that makes it easy to incorporate meditation, Zen and mindfulness into your lifestyle.

I created this blog for anyone who’d like to learn or discuss the topics of Zen and meditation, and I hope it will become a resource for people who want to incorporate Zen into their life, while still maintaining their unique individuality.  In other words, you don’t need to take a vow of celibacy, shave your head, and become a monk to get great benefit from this type of training, and I’m here to show you, because I’m living proof!

I don’t claim to be perfect (far from it), and I’m not a Zen Master (I wouldn’t want that heavy a responsibility), but I am a student on a path, just like you!

So look around the site, tell your friends about it, and happy meditating!  Feel free to tell me how you incorporate your Zen practice into your life in the comments section below!

-Forrest Folen

Author of www.YourZenPractice.com

 

My 7 year old girl took this photo of me with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone

 

 

Meditation in a nutshell

If I were to give you the cliff notes version of meditation, or even yet, a very brief description of meditation on, let’s say…I dunno, writing it out on a sticky note.  This is what that would look like:

At least, that’s my definition.  The most important definition is the definition given by you.

Meditation by itself is actually very simple.  You focus on something, like your breath, or a candle flame, then you keep bringing your focus back every time your mind starts to wander.

After you’ve been practicing for awhile.  It could be days, weeks, or months (kinda depends on the person) you get past the “mental noise” going on inside the head and you get to that true “here and now” space.  What happens when you reach that space…well I guess you’re going to have to start practicing and see for yourself!  (Yes, that’s a challenge!  Please write in your meditation observations in the comments section below…)

So even though meditation is very simple, it’s the process of discovery people go through that is complicated and needs guidance.  It’s great if you have access to a meditation Master, or even a group of meditation practitioners to sit in with.

I’m not training with my first Master any more, but I believe he does online classes at www.SelfMastery.com.  And if you live in the Bay Area, you could probably track him down for private or semi-private lessons.  (In my opinion, he is the best around.  No one brings people through the process of meditation and life change like he can.  At least no one I’ve met thus far…I highly recommend him.)

If you’ve never meditated before, I have news for you…you have!

Everyone meditates at certain times.  Haven’t you ever looked up at a full moon and felt “emersed” and “expansive” as you look to the amazing starry sky?

Have you ever played a game of basketball and been so “in the zone” that you couldn’t miss a shot?

Have you ever visited the beach and been entirely “taken in” by the wondrous ocean or a beautiful sunset?

Everyone meditates!  If you didn’t, you simply wouldn’t be alive.  However, meditation as a way of living or as a regular practice is different in that it is a regimen.  Kinda like an exercise routine, you build up the muscles to become better, faster, stronger.  Only with meditation you build your mental focus and capacity for clarity to become sharper, more focused, more aware, and more “connected” with yourself and the world around you.

Amazing stuff, eh?

Well, that’s my definition of meditation in a nutshell.  Happy Zen to you!

P.S. – What’s your definition of meditation?  Leave it in the comment box below!

Related Article

• What has meditation done for you? (ask.metafilter.com)

One point of focus and the wandering mind

Cover via Amazon

So, you’ve decided to start a meditation practice.

You may have found yourself a book or CD on how to meditate (I admittedly own the book, “Meditation for Dummies“, so I surely don’t scoff at anyone looking for printed or audio information on how to meditate, or learn anything else for that matter.)

Well, first off, congratulations on embarking on, in my opinion, the most fruitful adventure and journey this life has to offer…besides puberty, that is…

But really, meditation is the most direct way to gain control over one’s life, increase mental clarity and focus, and generally become more “connected” with everything you do.  I give a lot of respect to anyone looking to take up the practice.

Me…I fell into it.  Seemingly by accident, but perhaps by design.  I started my meditation practice when I was 21 (I’m 33 now), and the only reason I started it was because it was part of our martial arts training, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to increase my mental and physical reflexes so I could kick some ass!  It worked…but the real benefits of learning to meditate where so much more than I would ever imagine at the time when I first started.

Me and James Kovacs using our Zen reflexes to kick each other's asses!

But enough about me.  I wanted to use this post as a chance to discuss with you how, when you meditate, you essentially use a point of focus as an anchor for your concentration, and how inevitably, your mind will wander.

I wanted to give you some insight on this “wandering mind” stuff, because if you’re not careful, it could really throw a wrench into a new students meditation practice.  It could even make things so frustrating, you might kick your zafu to the curb and say, “I Quit!  This meditation stuff isn’t for me!”  Which, of course, is ridiculous.  Meditation is for everybody!

The Point of Focus

A candle makes for a great, neutral point of focus.

Like I mentioned, your point of focus in meditation is your anchor.  It’s something you hold your focus on when you meditate, and you keep returning to every time you notice your mind starting to wander.

Examples of some points of focus include:

• A candle flame
• Chanting (or sound)
• Your “third eye” or “crown”
• Your own thoughts
• Movement, as in Tai-Chi or Chi Gong (Qi-Gong) practice
• A marble
• A point in the body
• Something in nature (the sun, moon, a tree, a point in a lake)

There are many different places to put your focus during a meditation.  They key is to keep it there!  That’s the tough part.  Old Zen Masters are known to use analogy to discuss the wandering mind.

One analogy is the restless baby.  If you put a baby down, he’ll go crawling away.  When he does, you simply pick him up and put him down in front of you again.  He’ll go crawling away again.  You pick him up and bring him back, gently.  Again, he crawls away.  Again, you pick him up and put him back down in front of you.

This happens over and over again, until finally, the baby stays put.

This is one analogy of how the mind works.  It keeps wandering, and each time it does, you gently bring it back to it’s point of focus, whatever that may be for the meditation you are doing.

I remember the first time I sat down to meditate.  It was with a group of about 5 or 6 people, and I tried to focus on my third eye (it’s simply the space between your eyes, about 1 inch inside your head).  I was able to hold it for a short while, but then I would go into these laughing spurts.  And it sucked, because it was that type of laugh where you want to completely crack up, but your holding it back with all your might, so you turn all red and bite your lip to refrain from jolting everyone else’s seemingly serene meditation experience.

One time, I just couldn’t help but think about this time one of my co-workers (I worked at a grocery store in San Mateo at the time) got a small shock from one of the lights while stocking the freezer.  (I know that shouldn’t be funny…but it was!)  Oh-man, try holding back that kind of laughter in a circle of meditators.  Not easy!

My wandering mind, I soon discovered, would go all over the place.  I thought about what I ate for breakfast, I thought things like, “what the heck am I doing here?”, I thought about where I was going after work that night, I thought about smoking a cigarette (yes, I smoked at that time in my life…).

And every thought seemed to have a string of thoughts attached to it.  I would go off on a tangent and ten or fifteen minutes of random thinking would go by sometimes before I thought “oh yeah, I’m supposed to be meditating right now…” and I would then gently bring my focus back to whatever I was focusing on at the time.

So, here you can see that someone could easily get a little frustrated with this “wandering mind” when you’re supposed to be in this total Zen state.  But that’s where people go wrong with meditation!

You see, the wandering mind part is inevitable.  It’s actually a good thing!  It means you’re a regular, intelligent and thinking human being, just like the rest of us!

So that’s what I wanted to share with you in this blog post.  It really is OK to have the wandering mind, and as my Master would always say, “It’s part of the process.”

Good meditating to you!

Related Articles

• You Can Always Deep-Breathe (psychologytoday.com)
• Meditate for Maximum Relaxation (howto.wired.com)

What is YourZen?

Hello, and welcome to the YourZenPractice.com blog!

This site is for you if you are practicing, or want to practice meditation and Zen in a way that is completely unique to you.  Hence the name, YourZenPractice!

The Goal: The goal of YourZenPractice.com is to aid you in practicing meditation, awareness, mindfulness, Zen and conscious “here and now” living so that you can become more powerful, creative and centered in your life…or just “be” in your life.  What you do with that, “centered” and empowered state of living is entirely up to you.

YourZenPractice.com has no political or religious agenda, and our focus is entirely on empowering and guiding you with the many benefits this practice has to offer.  Why?  The Zen lifestyle was given as a gift to me.  The YourZenPractice.com blog is my way of giving back.

What problems does YourZen solve?

Inherent in life are problems, and YourZenPractice.com doesn’t attempt to solve them, at least not directly.  However, practitioners of meditation will find that their problems take on an entirely new perspective and have much less of a “grasp” on them.  Regular meditation practice naturally shifts problems into situations, where they can be dealt with, instead of worried about.

What are the benefits of regular meditation practice?

Regular practice has many benefits.  Here is a list of some of them:

• Mental clarity
• Increased focus and mental awareness
• Healthy mind and body
• Less stress and anxiety
• Calmer, more “centered” living
• Helps you deal with conflict situations more easily (inner and outer conflict)
• Increased physical and mental energy
• Heightened creativity for artists, musicians, etc.
• Reduces unwanted “mental noise” and incessant “mind chatter”
• Greatly reduces patterns of negative mental thoughts and emotions
• Empowers you by bringing you into the “here and now” of life
• Increases your intuition, memory and cognitive ability
• Greatly increases reaction speed and timing (perfect for athletes and martial artists)
• Promotes happy and healthy living
• Creates a life balance (physical, mental, emotional)
• Improves disposition, constitution and “presence”

Who Practices Meditation or Zen? We are all unique as people.  The YourZenPractice.com approach to meditation and Zen is that meditation practice can be used by anyone, regardless of race, sex or religion.

Why should I practice alongside YourZenPractice.com? People practice meditation, Zen, and mindfulness for many reasons.  It could be to gain more control over ones life, or to develop mental clarity or creativity.  Whatever the case, the information you find here at YourZenPractice.com can be adapted to your life to help create a fuller, richer experience and will show you tangible results in whatever you do in your life, including health, wealth, and relationships.

How did YourZenPractice.com gets it’s start? Hi, my name is Forrest Folen.  Let me give you a very brief background here.  If you want the real nitty-gritty, you can click here, Forrest’s story, to read about my struggles in life, and how I overcame them.

In terms of how I started with meditation and Zen, I first started training with a Taoist/Zen Master when I was in my early twenties in the year 1999.  My instructor, Sabumnim Johnson, a 5th Degree Taoist Master operated a martial arts school called the Shim Gong Do Academy (meaning, The Way to Inner Power), which is now the Self Mastery Foundation.

I was one of the students who came out of the academy, earning a Second Degree Black Belt in the process.  I became  an instructor of martial arts (Tae Kwon Do) and of the meditation arts.  I was a product of the system of self-development SBN Johnson created called the Self Mastery System.

Eventually, my path led away from the Self Mastery Foundation.  I became a busy dad (I have two great kids), and built a successful fitness business from the ground up (www.FitForLifeSolutions.com).  Like we all do, I faced some rough life challenges.  After 7 years of a very rocky marriage, I went through a divorce.  For two years I raised my 2 kids as a single dad.  Now I’m in a great new relationship with my new girlfriend, and between my business, blogging, hobbies, kids and my girlfriend, life is good and in balance.

How Is YourZenPractice different from other Zen or meditation practices?

YourZenPractice is different from other practices because it’s focus is on you as an individual.  Sometimes people associate Zen practice with monks with shaved heads sitting around in robes, conforming to the ways of the monastery.  YourZenPractice is removed from religion, dogma, and doctrine and has no monks and no monastery.  YourZenPractice wants you to break free of these associations and incorporate meditation and Zen practice into your life as you see fit.

Does YourZenPractice.com teach about karma, existence of psychic phenomena or the afterlife?

YourZenPractice leaves these types of conclusions up to the individual.  YourZenPractice.com does not attempt to teach a new theory of the world.  There are plenty of books, schools, people, and institutions that can do that.  YourZenPractice makes it entirely up to the individual to form a theory of the world and find their answer to life’s “bigger questions”.