BLOG.NEWWAYMEDITATION.COM

Avoiding the Plateau

New Way Meditation — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:36:48 GMT

I have found that to maintain consistency in a healthy lifestyle depends upon a never ending quest for interesting ways to change up your routines. If we don’t actively seek out new and exciting ways to get physical activity, or fun new foods and preparations, we get bored. If we find that we are getting bored with things we may fall back into counter productive patterns. If we stay engaged in the pursuit of healthy options that appeal to us we end up making changes before we get bored. This also helps us to maintain a greater variety both food and physical activity, helping to keep your body from falling into a rut and causing a plateau.

Try out new foods don’t be afraid to pick a new recipe every week just to see what new flavors you might like.

Maybe once a month you try out a new class at your gym or studio, or check out that place you always wondered about that offers a free trial class.

The most important thing is to not let your self stagnate. Be adventurous try new things and never forget to always make it fun!

Warmest Regards,

Ken Aubuchon

http://www.kenswisdomcookies.com

Maintaining your vision.

New Way Meditation — Tue, 31 May 2011 14:31:06 GMT

As we head into the summer months it’s easy to forget the vision and commitment you have put in sense the beginning of the year. A lot of us go through a cycle of getting into shape for the warm weather and start to lose sight of our vision of a healthy self. We find it easier to let our regular work out routines drop with the “I’m more active in the summer” mantra.

Being more active is a good thing but it does not take the place of a well-planed workout schedule. Then factor in the increase of BBQ’s picnic’s and vacations, that all tend to lead to excesses. We can find our self’s falling out of our good habits and back into the bad ones by mid summer. Now once again the same yearly cycle is running amuck on our lives.

This year lets break those cycles! Let’s make the commitment to our selves to live more consciously, make better choices, and continue a workout program for the entire year.

Push your self over the hump and make the lasting changes for life!

Warmest Regards,

Ken Aubuchon

http://www.kenswisdomcookies.com

Break it down to what it is.

New Way Meditation — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:28:00 GMT

There seems to be a common thread that runs through all of us that fights a weight problem, and that’s an all or nothing mentality toward our health. I use health and not weight because we like to separate the two but they are so interconnected that it really is not possible. Healthy eating and activity habits promote overall health. We fail to remember that it took a long time to get to the place you are at, and it’s going to be a gradual process to get to where you want yourself to be. To expect otherwise just isn’t logical.

We need to break it down with out the emotional baggage, the psychological baggage, and the socioeconomic baggage to see if our choices are logical and truly make sense and you will need to ignore the justifications of you inner child.

Warmest Regards,

Ken Aubuchon

http://www.kenswisdomcookies.com

Dropping the hard line.

New Way Meditation — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:08:00 GMT

We as a society seem to want to ride a hard line on weather something is good or evil. Whether its refined sugar or white flour, we see them demonized in the eyes of the health conscious media. Not to mention researchers belaboring us from the bully pulpit in order to get attention.

Now do not take this as an endorsement to eating foods void in nutritional value. I am saying a small indulgence once in a while can help to keep you on track.

I would like you to look at the big picture. The weight problem is not the availability of nutrient deficient food it’s the inability to observe how it makes us feel to consume them.

These things are not harmful in small servings on occasion. It is when we become obsessed with nutrient deficient foods and eat it regularly it becomes a problem.

I am saying that if we actually get in touch with our bodies and feel the sensations we are experiencing after consuming more than comfortable amount of these foods. You will begin to make healthier choices purely because you want to feel better.

I encourage you to find balance in your dieting. Leave yourself open to the possibility that if you get in touch with what your body is really feeling you will make the choices to feed it well.

Warmest Regards,

Ken Aubuchon

http://www.kenswisdomcookies.com

Finding your way

New Way Meditation — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:41:00 GMT

If you are anything like me as you have gone through you diet life, you haven’t found something that sticks with you. I tried over and over to find a diet and exercise program that would stick with me and I would never look back. But that magic formula never seemed to come together.

That just frustrated me how could all these experts and endless parade of infomercials for diets, workouts, incredible promises from everywhere and I find that the weight would come back.

Well I’m going to share with the one thing that I have found to work. I eat healthy foods in moderation and allow myself some indulgence once or twice a week. I have also found healthy activity that I enjoy doing, and when I get bored I find something new. As long as I can keep working with foods and activities that I enjoy I continue to do them.

Both verity and enjoyment are very important to maintaining a program. Stay happy, stay interested, and staying motivated becomes much easier.

Remember to find the things that will work for you, it may take some time for you to get your system down. But your lasting results will be worth you efforts.

Warmest Regards,

Ken Aubuchon

http://www.kenswisdomcookies.com

ken@newwaymeditation.com

Finding Balance

New Way Meditation — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:10:00 GMT

The way we are living today is making it quite difficult to create balance in our lives. With the obligations work, and family pulling us in every direction, we rarely find time for ourselves.

Far to often we find we are consuming food with out conscious thought of quality let alone nutritional value. If we are to change our behavior in order to live more consciously and make choices that allow us the balance in our lives. We are going to have to take back some time for our selves and make an effort to be true to you r path of balance.

I would like you to consider the prospect of taking even 1 hour a day to focus on you and your wellness. Weather that’s going to the gym or club to work out, or the studio for yoga. going for walk. Finding time in your life to be yourself and take care of your self is an important part of your wellness. You will be better for your self, your family, and most likely less stressed.

Please take some time for yourself every day to try to find some balance.

If you find you need a hand I am always available to coach you through the tough spots.

Warmest regards,

Ken Aubuchon

http://www.kenswisdomcookies.com

ken@newwaymeditation.com

Building Awareness

New Way Meditation — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:45:00 GMT

How often do we really pay attention to what our bodies are feeling?

We have grown distant from our bodies spending all our time in our heads. We run our monologues look for outside reasons that effect our choices, and often neglect the true feelings of our bodies. This is why I stress the reconnection of body and mind. Learn to spend time actually feeling what your body is feeling.

I have found it a lot harder to over eat or neglect exercise when I am paying attention to what my body is saying.

If we work at building our awareness through meditation techniques, breathing exercises, yoga, and being conscious of our choices. The body and mind connection builds and our choices reflect the true desires of our bodies. Our choices are all we have control over so if we make them count we are far more likely to feel good about them. The better the choices we make today the better we feel about ourselves tomorrow. Making it easier to believe in our ability to make the choices that fit best with our individual bodies and what they require us to give them.

Best Wishes,

Ken Aubuchon

Diets are only a temporary solution.

New Way Meditation — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:55:00 GMT

The reason we tend to gain weight back eventually after a dieting. Could be that these are only temporary changes made to create a quick fix.

I feel that if you make lifestyle changes that you enjoy you create lasting change.

I have found that if you work to develop your body and mind connection you learn to listen what you body truly craves, and are less likely to fall back into old patterns.

I work with clients using basic meditation techniques to strengthen the connection of body and mind and find it particularly well suited for clients in the contemplation and preparation stages of the Trans Theoretical model of change.

Using this method you find your way through what your habits and triggers may be. You organically move into action phase creating your own goals and visions by becoming more attuned to what your body is asking you for, rather than following a prescribed diet that will be abandoned when the numerical goal has been met.

The approach to your health and wellness should yours. Discover the path rings true to you and embrace it as your own. Don’t be afraid to try different things you may find a food or physical activity you love that you didn’t know existed.

Most importantly make it fun, then you will want to keep doing the good things.

Feel free to contact me with any questions and comments.

Best Wishes

Ken Aubuchon

Starting where you are at

New Way Meditation — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT

When it comes to your health and wellness and the need to make changes. Before we start a diet or jump into an exercise program. We should take some time to figure out we are at psychologically. What we should be working on?

In the Trans Theoretical model of change there are five stages we could be working from.

The five stages of change are:

1. Precontemplation (Not Ready For Change)

2. Contemplation (Thinking About Change)

3. Preparation (Preparing for Action)

4. Action (Taking Action)

5. Maintenance (Maintaining a Good Behavior)

What stage you are has a direct affect on the things you should be working on and your overall success. If you work through the stages, building on your goals and successes. You are more likely to create lasting change and less chance of falling back into old patterns.

November 20 2010 Having a big day!

New Way Meditation — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:40:00 GMT

Starting Saturday, November 20, 2010

Classes at Body and Mind Fitness

239 E Nine Mile Road, Ferndale, MI 48220 (1 Block East of Woodward).

Saturdays

8:00am - 8:45am

Sunrise Yoga, $10.00 a class.

Gentle Yoga and peace full meditation to start your weekend relaxed and de-stressed. Yoga poses approved for all levels.

8:45am – 9:25am

Mind and Body Weight Loss group sessions. $10.00 a session.

As a group we will openly discuss the highlights and strategies of the week and how too integrate as well as build on those as we plan for our next week.

The group will discuss different topics that affect us emotionally, psychologically, and physiologically in order to develop a plan that will help us deal with these issues.

There will be a question and answer portion in each class.

The group will then do some guided meditation.

To sign up for classes or for more information.

www.newwaymeditation.com

ken@newwaymeditation.com

248-990-3912

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Grand Opening and Open House

10:00am – 4:00pm

Full Circle Wellness

Where Traditional Psychotherapy Meets Holistic Wellness

5600 West Maple Rd. Bldg.A-110

West Bloomfield, MI 48322

Come out meet the practitioners I will be discussing meditation as a solution to distracted eating at 1:00pm. I will be available to answer questions, and take registrations for individual and group sessions. Wellness Coaching, gentle yoga, and meditation.

No Hard Edges

New Way Meditation — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:07:00 GMT

This is a article is from www.dailyom.com
to good not to share

No Hard Edges
Creating Space In The Body

When our minds are cluttered with too many thoughts and information, our bodies respond by trying to take action.

Our minds and bodies are interconnected, and the condition of one affects the condition of the other. This is why meditation is such a powerful tool for healing the body, as powerful as physical therapies. When our minds are cluttered with thoughts, information, and plans, our bodies respond by trying to take action. When the body has a clear directive from the mind, it knows what to do, but a cluttered, unfocused mind creates a confused, tense body. Our muscles tighten up, our breath shortens, and we find ourselves feeling constricted without necessarily knowing why.

When we sit down to meditate, we let our bodies know that it is okay to be still and rest. This is a clear directive from the mind, and the body knows exactly how to respond. Thus, at the very beginning, we have created a sense of clarity for the body and the mind. As we move deeper into meditation, the state of our mind reveals itself, and we have the opportunity to consciously decide to settle it. A meditation teacher pointed out that if you put a cow in a small pen, she acts up and pushes against the boundaries, whereas if you provide her with a large, open space, she will peacefully graze in one spot. In the same way, our thoughts settle down peacefully if we provide them with enough space, and our bodies follow suit.

When we settle down to examine and experience our consciousness, we discover that there are no hard, definable edges. It is a vast, open space in which our thoughts can come and go without making waves, as long as we let them by neither attaching to them nor repressing them. As we see our thoughts come and go, we begin to breathe deeper and more easily, finding that our body is more open to the breath as it relaxes along with the mind. In this way, the space we recognize through meditation creates space in our bodies, allowing for a feeling of lightness and rightness with the world.

pay what you can for wellness coaching!

New Way Meditation — Mon, 31 May 2010 13:02:00 GMT

Hello again,

I am just about finished with my Wellness Coach Certification, and the amount of information the WellCoaches staff has poured into my head since March tenth is nothing short of amazing.
I feel than I am now ready to give as much as I can by offering for as long as I can afford to do it. Pay what you can afford pricing for Wellness Coaching and Personal Training! Why am I offering this? I was born, and have lived all of the almost 45 years of my life in the Metro Detroit area. I know the pain of this economy as well as anyone.
While I don't have all that much to give I would like give people an affordable well balanced approach to there weight loss and fitness options. I know I'm not changing the world but if I can help even one person feel better for the rest of there life, I have done way more than if I didn't try.

Much Love,

Coach Ken

PFT Certification

New Way Meditation — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:26:00 GMT

I find my self working on getting my certification for personal fitness trainer. I believe that it will help me work more closely with my clients to understand more in depth the physiology and Kinesiology and apply it to the gentle yoga we provide. This is truly exciting I will be able to help on much greater level once I have completed the course and integrate the knowledge.

The Benifits of Work place meditation and yoga

New Way Meditation — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:10:00 GMT

I found this on line to day and wanted to share,

ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs -- updated daily
Science News
Share Blog Cite
Print Email Bookmark
Workplace Yoga And Meditation Can Lower Feelings Of Stress

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2009) — Twenty minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga combined with six weekly group sessions can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent and improve sleep quality in sedentary office employees, a pilot study suggests.

The study offered participants a modified version of what is known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a program established in 1979 to help hospital patients in Massachusetts assist in their own healing that is now in wide use around the world.

In this context, mindfulness refers in part to one’s heightened awareness of an external stressor as the first step toward relaxing in a way that can minimize the effects of that stress on the body.

While the traditional MBSR program practice takes up an hour per day for eight weeks supplemented by lengthy weekly sessions and a full-day retreat, the modified version developed at Ohio State University for this study was designed for office-based workers wearing professional attire.

The results of the pilot study are published in a recent issue of the journal Health Education & Behavior.

Participants attended one-hour weekly group meetings during lunch and practiced 20 minutes of meditation and yoga per day at their desks. After six weeks, program participants reported that they were more aware of external stressors, they felt less stressed by life events, and they fell asleep more easily than did a control group that did not experience the intervention.

“Because chronic stress is associated with chronic disease, I am focusing on how to reduce stress before it has a chance to contribute to disease,” said Maryanna Klatt, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of clinical allied medicine at Ohio State.

“My interest is to see whether or not we can get people to reduce their health care utilization because they’re less stressed. I want to deliver something low cost at the work site, something practical that can be sustained, that can help reduce health care costs,” Klatt said.

Klatt and colleagues are building on these preliminary findings and continuing to study the broader impact of the intervention in various populations, such as cancer survivors, intensive-care nurses and inner-city schoolchildren. In addition to gathering self-reported data from research participants, the scientists plan to collect biological samples to determine whether the intervention can lead to lower levels of stress hormones.

For the pilot study, the researchers recruited 48 adult office workers with body mass index scores lower than 30 who exercised less than 30 minutes on most days of the week. Half were randomized to the intervention and half were wait-listed to receive the intervention later. Forty-two people completed the study.

Those who received the intervention participated in weekly one-hour group sessions during which breathing, relaxation and gentle yoga movement were designed to coax participants toward a meditative state. Participants also discussed work-related stress. As part of the pursuit of mindfulness, they were coached to contemplate a specific topic in each session that explored their response to a specific type of stress over the past week.

“It doesn’t matter what the stress is, but how you change the way you perceive the stress,” Klatt noted. “I like to describe mindfulness as changing the way you see what’s already there. It’s a tool that teaches people to become aware of their options. If they can’t change the external events in their life, they can instead change the way they view the stress, which can make a difference in how they experience their day-to-day life.”

The weekly sessions were supplemented by 20 minutes each day of movement and meditation guided by verbal cues and music provided on compact discs that Klatt designed and recorded. The entire intervention lasted six weeks.

The study analyzed participants’ responses to the intervention using data from established research questionnaires that measured perceived stress, or the degree to which situations in life are considered stressful; a number of components of sleep quality; and what is called mindful attention awareness, which refers to how often a person is paying attention to and is aware of what is occurring in the present.

All participants completed the questionnaires before and after the intervention. Twenty-two adults completed the intervention. Their pre- and post-test results were compared to those reported by the 20 control participants.

Mindful attention awareness increased significantly and perceived stress decreased significantly among the intervention group when compared to the control group’s responses. Overall sleep quality increased in both groups, but three of seven components of sleep were more affected in the intervention group.

On average, mindfulness increased by about 9.7 percent and perceived stress decreased by about 11 percent among the group that experienced the intervention. These participants also reported that it took them less time to fall asleep, they had fewer sleep disturbances and they experienced less daytime dysfunction than did members of the non-intervention group.

The researchers also took saliva samples to test for the presence of cortisol, a stress hormone, but found no significant changes in average daily levels of the hormone over time for participants in both groups. Klatt said the design of this part of the pilot study could have affected the result, and the sample collection technique will be changed in subsequent studies.

Klatt said mindfulness-based stress reduction, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, has been studied widely and determined to be useful in lowering symptoms ranging from depression and anxiety to chronic pain. But the time commitment required in the program makes it impractical for busy working professionals, and adding a stress-reduction class outside of work could add stress to these people, she said.

So Klatt set out to develop what she calls a “low dose” of the program that is suitable for the workplace and still offers stress-reduction benefits. She specifically scheduled weekly sessions during lunch to avoid interfering with work time or home time, and combined movement with verbal prompts and music that are cues for participants to relax.

“As I’ve been working on the program, I heard so many of the participants say they wish they had learned this earlier,” Klatt said.

Because the low-dose program remains a work-in-progress that is still under investigation, it is not available for public use, Klatt noted.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Health-funded General Clinical Research Center at Ohio State.

Co-authors of the study are Janet Buckworth of the College of Education and Human Ecology and William Malarkey of the College of Medicine, both at Ohio State.
Adapted from materials provided by Ohio State University.
Email or share this story:
| More
Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:
APA

MLA
Ohio State University (2009, August 5). Workplace Yoga And Meditation Can Lower Feelings Of Stress. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 7, 2009, from www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/08/090804114102.htm#

Yoga and the youth

New Way Meditation — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:18:00 GMT

This week I taught three yoga classes at a local dance school. The classes consisted of girls from 9 years old to I would guess 16 or 17.
I have had little experience teaching yoga and meditation to a group of this makeup and really had no idea what to expect, other than the way my 13 year old step son reacts to the suggestion. So I went in to this with little expectation. When I arrived for the first class the building was buzzing with kinetic energy. The majority of the group had just returned from a cross country trip for a national competition, so they all seemed a little frazzled.

The first group was 10 girls in the 9 to 12 year old range. We all got in the studio and they where all excited to be taking a yoga class, which was quite surprising to me. I asked them if they had ever taken yoga and the replies came back: "My mother shows me poses from the class she takes" or "I have tried it on the Wii Fit, which I do have at home and will play with it".

I'm thinking to myself at this point, it's not going to be very difficult to communicate this to these kids. So we began class with sun salutes and so on and I would field questions from the girls ranging from why the poses where named things like eagle when your wrapped up like a pretzel, or asking if I was married, how old was my son, and did I have any pets. All the while we where actually doing yoga. The girls would make sure they where getting the pose as best they could hold it and then they would comment and question. I would just keep things on track, and the routine that I had planned out flowed along although I had to throw the tree pose back in a couple of times just because all three groups seemed to love that pose. We continued on through the hour class in this manner and everyone had smiles on their faces, as they giggled trying to keep balanced in the poses. By the time we had gotten to the final minutes of the hour class and meditating while laying in the corpse pose, everyone was silently watching their breath with relatively clear minds.

We wrapped up the class as I thanked the girls for having me there. They were all thanking me for coming to teach the class and told me that they wanted to take regular yoga classes.

All three classes went pretty much the same way, and I found as long as it was fun they wanted to learn more. The questions never stopped. They all wanted more by the end of each class.

I am happy to see young people enjoying things that will help them be physically and mentally healthier at a young age, that they can carry with them for a lifetime.

The younger we can learn the skills to stay in balance, the easier it will be to deal with stressful situations in life, and stay focused enough to make the proper choices at the right time.

So on that note, love, peace, and happiness to all.

Thanks,

Ken

Welcome

New Way Meditation — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:38:14 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.