Dear Meditator,

Join us on Tuesday mornings for FREE meditation sessions in the St Kilda Botanic Gardens. The weather has been sensational, with 30 to 40 people coming along for each session so far. Sessions run until November 24.

Develop your meditation skills from November 9 on one of our rare Intermediate Meditation Courses, and

Sit back and let the sounds of some of Melbourne's finest musicians soothe you at Music For Meditation, Sunday November 8 at Federation Square. If you've already got your tickets, feel free to bring along a friend for free. And if you're yet to decide, the same offer applies. (Just reply to this email with your name, along with the name of your friend — after you've bought your ticket online through www.meditationevents.com.au)

I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Feel free to email comments, questions or suggestions to: matt@melbournemeditationcentre.com.au

In This Issue...

• Spot Meditation
• Meditation Tip
• Course Schedule
• Events - Meditation in the Gardens. Music for Meditation
• Meditation & Brain Science — Can Meditation Really Improve Your Health?

Spot Meditation — Relax your Eyes

Do you ever think of relaxing your eyes? Are they at all tired, sore or strained right now?

Take a moment to let your eyelids gently close, and let yourself focus on the sreen-saver like colours, shapes and swirls you'll probably see on the back of your eyelids.

Notice, also, any areas of darkness and gradually, let this darkness expand, soothing the nervous system as it does. Notice how 60 seconds of 'eyelid movies' can relax you significantly.

How and where do you meditate when you've only got a minute? Send your own spot meditations to matt@melbournemeditationcentre.com.au

The best suggestion each month will be published here.

Bubbles of Thought

If you meditate with some regularity there will come a time when thoughts cease to disturb you at all, at least during meditation. You'll find that many of your meditations are characterised by a pleasing mental quiet and that the thoughts that pop in and out of awareness do not disturb you at all.

However, it may be that you're not quite there yet, and that there are times when your thoughts might seem insistent, overwhelming, annoying or frustrating.What do you do when your own thinking disrupts the peace and calm you crave?

One simple strategy that many meditators find useful is to imagine each passing thought or feeling as a bubble. You could give each bubble an appropriate label like ‘work’, ‘home’ or ‘bills’ and allow them to merge into one big bubble labelled ‘my thoughts’. Alternatively, label the through process itself. For example, 'planning', 'rehearsing', 'fantasising', 'analysing', 'rehashing for the umpeenth time!' or 'on the treadmill'.

Visualise the bubbles (with their labels attached) in your mind. With any luck, they'll start to float away (as bubbles do) and you'll be able to see these preoccupations as temporary bubble-like phenomenon, prone to drift away and unexpectedly pop.

Course Schedule

Our final term of meditation courses for 2009 commences this month. You can register online for any of the following.

Term 6, November/December 2009

Meditation Events

How to Meditate Workshop

Sunday, December 6: 2.00 - 5.00pm, Elwood.

This workshop is a condensed form of the Basic Meditation Course. Designed as an introduction to meditation it will help you get started with a range of simple techniques. The workshop is particularly suitable if you can't come to regular classes, if the next term is too far away, or if you just want to get a taste of what meditation is before committing to a full course.

Meditation in the Gardens

Start your day with a relaxed and clear mind. Join me on Tuesday mornings from 7.00 - 7.45am at the Rose Garden Rotunda in the St Kilda Botanic Gardens for a series of free guided meditations, presented by the City of Port Phillip. There's limited seating available so arrive early or bring a yoga mat, rug or cushion to sit on. Sessions run on October 20, & 27 and November 3, 10, 17 & 24. More information...

Music for Meditation

Music for Meditation Concert
BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square
7pm, Sunday November 8
$30 advance / $40 on the door

Spend the Sunday twilight hours with some of Melbourne's finest performers of contemplative and intuitive music on November 8. Sit back, relax and enjoy healing and harmonious sounds and meditations from master percussionist David Jones, shakuhachi player Anne Norman, harpist Peter Roberts and harmonic overtone singer Dean Frenkel.

Organised by Melbourne-based Meditation Events, promoters of meditation-related events including conferences, concerts, master classes, corporate training and retreats, Music For Meditation is your chance to rest, rejuvenate and find find balance, harmony and inspiration through the magic of music. More information...

Simply Silence

Get your regular dose of relaxation and calm at one of our Simply Silence sessions in Northcote or Elwood. It's a great way to discover and explore meditation in a friendly group environment.

Elwood Schedule

• November 9 Cilla Brady
• November 23 - Sarah Fletcher
• December 14 - Peter Cohen (The Awakening Tree)
• December 28 - Matt Young (Melbourne Meditation Centre)

Northcote Schedule

• November 5 - Paul Majewski with Elise McColl
• November 19 - Rita Cattivera
• December 3 - TBA
• December 17 - Paul Majewski with Garth Stone

Meditation, Positive Emotions and Brain Science

What do the most rigorous scientific studies on the effects of meditation really conclude? Does meditation really change your brain? Can it make you a happier and healthier person? Read this interview with Richard Davidson to find out more. Full article.

DANIEL REDWOOD: You've done research with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, who founded the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. What did you find?

RICHARD DAVIDSON, PHD: That was a study that was done with employees of a high-tech company here in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a study where we randomly assigned individuals to a meditation group or a wait-list control group. We were primarily interested in some of the biological effects of meditation. What we found is a change in brain activity over the course of eight weeks of training. The change was a shift in the pattern of prefrontal activation toward a pattern which we had previously identified as being more indicative of positive emotions.

DANIEL REDWOOD: So activation occurs in some parts of the brain with positive emotions and in other parts of the brain with negative emotions.

RICHARD DAVIDSON, PHD: Yes, and what we saw was a shift toward the positive in the meditators. The second thing we did was to administer an influenza vaccine to the participants and we looked at antibody titers mounted in response to the vaccine. We specifically predicted that there should be an enhancement of the immune response to the vaccine if certain changes were brought about by meditation. In fact, we found that the meditation group showed significantly greater antibody response to the meditation intervention when compared to the control group.

DANIEL REDWOOD: And this would reflect a strengthening of the immune system.

RICHARD DAVIDSON, PHD: That's correct.

Know someone who could chill out?

Do you have friends who are perpetually stressed or anxious, have trouble sleeping or could just do with learning how to relax? Do them a favour and forward this email to them. (Or if this is you, subscribe here.)