Happy Mind: Meditations from the Ancient World to Modernity

In the lands of Eastern Iran, sometime in the second millennium BCE, a great spiritual master named Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) awakened to the true nature of reality and uncovered the meaning of life itself. The wisdom he gained from his illumination resonate with us even today, thousands of years after he penned the famous "Gathas" tome. While this meditation is not at all religious, it is Zarathustra's wisdom that undergirds and inspires this 45 minute guided meditation. The imagery and fundamental truths expounded in the Gathas are set here in the context of a personalized journey that allows you to experience and identify with your higher self, your true, beautiful self. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Walking the lands of Eastern Iranian plateau sometime in the second millennium BCE, ancient Iran's Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) was one of humanity's greatest mystics and spiritual masters. The wisdom he gained from his awakening resonate with us even today, thousands of years after he penned the famous "Gathas" tome. While this meditation is not at all religious, it is Zarathustra's wisdom that undergirds and inspires this 30 minute guided meditation. The imagery and fundamental truths expounded in the Gathas are set here in the context of a personalized journey that allows you to experience and identify with your higher self, your true, beautiful self. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Gathas, traditionally attributed to ancient Iran's Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself, is one of humanity's greatest literary and mystical monuments. Its author is on a mission to share the truth about reality and human's true nature and in the verses, preserved since the second millennium BCE, he sets down this profound wisdom from ancient Persia. While this meditation is not at all religious, it is Zarathustra's wisdom that undergirds and inspires this 20 minute guided meditation. The imagery and fundamental truths expounded in the Gathas are set here in the context of a personalized journey that allows you to experience and identify with your higher self, your true self. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ancient Iran's Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) was one of humanity's greatest mystics and spiritual masters. Walking the lands of Eastern Iranian plateau sometime in the second millennium BCE, he experienced a profound awakening and shared his insights which even today, thousands of years after his death, are practiced by nearly two hundred thousands Zoroastrians around the world. While this meditation is not at all religious, it is Zarathustra's wisdom that undergirds and inspires this 10 minute guided meditation. The imagery and fundamental truths expounded in the Gathas are set here in the context of a personalized journey that allows you to experience and identify with your higher self, your true self. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This 60 minute guided meditation will help you to break the pattern of negative emotions that impact your life. We are focused here on situations where your emotional response, from the perspective of someone outside the situation looking in, wasn’t a fit with what was going on. An event where you reacted to the situation in a way that now you aren’t proud of or would like to have behaved differently. It is designed for situations in life where it seems like your emotions are out of hand and you feel out of control of what you are doing or how you are feeling. Maybe you yelled at your spouse or got angry at work or you are eating too much or drinking more than you should. Maybe you keep waking up in the night or can’t go to sleep in the first place because you are anxious about something going on in your life. Or perhaps you just feel sad and lonely all the time and there is no good reason for it. Maybe you feel that way right now. If so, that’s ok, we can use that.This technique starts from the premise that your life experience can change and that the change begins inside your own mind. If you can change what is happening on the inside, almost as by a miracle, you will witness the outside start to change around you. The idea is that if you are feeling any negative emotions, there is a bug in your software, a set of connections in your mind that are wired incorrectly. Your subconscious or emotional self, is confused and doesn’t understand something. So we are going to be doing a series of exercises in this guided meditation that will help your emotional self disconnect some incorrectly made associations. In a way, we could think of these negative feelings as our subconscious mind’s way of asking us for our help. If the feelings are bad enough, maybe we’ll pay attention and slow down enough to listen to what the problem is so that we can release it and our higher self can take command. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The premise behind this 45 minute guided meditation is the fact that your life experience can change and that the change begins inside your own mind. If you can change what is happening on the inside, almost as by a miracle, you will witness the outside start to change around you. The idea is that if you are feeling any negative emotions, there is a bug in your software, a set of connections in your mind that are wired incorrectly. Your subconscious or emotional self, is confused and doesn’t understand something. So we are going to be doing a series of exercises in this guided meditation that will help your emotional self disconnect some incorrectly made associations. In a way, we could think of these negative feelings as our subconscious mind’s way of asking us for our help. If the feelings are bad enough, maybe we’ll pay attention and slow down enough to listen to what the problem is so that we can release it and our higher self can take command. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The training method we will be using in this 30 minute guided meditation is for anyone that is ready to let go of unwanted feelings or emotional responses that don’t fit the situation. It starts from the premise that your life experience can change and that the change begins inside your own mind. If you can change what is happening on the inside, almost as by a miracle, you will witness the outside start to change around you. The idea is that if you are feeling any negative emotions, there is a bug in your software, a set of connections in your mind that are wired incorrectly. Your subconscious or emotional self, is confused and doesn’t understand something. So we are going to be doing a series of exercises in this guided meditation that will help your emotional self disconnect some incorrectly made associations. In a way, we could think of these negative feelings as our subconscious mind’s way of asking us for our help. If the feelings are bad enough, maybe we’ll pay attention and slow down enough to listen to what the problem is so that we can release it and our higher self can take command.Before we get started, you are going to need a specific situation to work with. We are going to be working with this one memory for the whole session so make sure you have a specific, very recent or very vivid incident in mind. Unless the incident is pressing on your mind or has just happened, generally speaking it is best to do this exercise when you are fresh and alert. So if the incident isn’t fresh in your mind and it is late and you are feeling sleepy or you have just had a big meal or a couple of drinks, now may not be the time for this technique. A nap might be better therapy in that case!You will need to think of a time when you were feeling overly worried relative to what was happening in your life or a memory of when you got angry or you were hurt by someone; where you felt unhappy, fearful, anxious, lonely, betrayed, trapped or overwhelmed by disappointment or hopelessness or shame.If your life really was in danger, then that is something different. We are focused here on situations where your emotional response, from the perspective of someone outside the situation looking in, wasn’t a fit with what was going on. An event where you reacted to the situation in a way that now you aren’t proud of or would like to have behaved differently. It is designed for situations in life where it seems like your emotions are out of hand and you feel out of control of what you are doing or how you are feeling. Maybe you yelled at your spouse or got angry at work or you are eating too much or drinking more than you should. Maybe you keep waking up in the night or can’t go to sleep in the first place because you are anxious about something going on in your life. Or perhaps you just feel sad and lonely all the time and there is no good reason for it. Maybe you feel that way right now. If so, that’s ok, we can use that. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This 20 minute guided meditation / mind training exercise starts from the premise that your life experience can change and that the change begins inside your own mind. If you can change what is happening on the inside, almost as by a miracle, you will witness the outside start to change around you. The idea is that if you are feeling any negative emotions, there is a bug in your software, a set of connections in your mind that are wired incorrectly. So can listen to this guided training meditation to be taken through a series of exercises that are designed to help your subconscious mind disconnect some incorrect associations. A word of caution: these meditations can bring up some very strong past emotions. Please proceed with care and seek professional help if you do have serious traumas to deal with. For the companion podcast covering the theory behind why these meditations work, check out the Serena Happy Life podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The purpose of this 10 minute guided meditation is to break the pattern of negative emotions that afflict you. We are focused here on situations where your emotional response, from the perspective of someone outside the situation looking in, wasn’t a fit with what was going on. An event where you reacted to the situation in a way that now you aren’t proud of or would like to have behaved differently. It is designed for situations in life where it seems like your emotions are out of hand and you feel out of control of what you are doing or how you are feeling. Maybe you yelled at your spouse or got angry at work or you are eating too much or drinking more than you should. Maybe you keep waking up in the night or can’t go to sleep in the first place because you are anxious about something going on in your life. Or perhaps you just feel sad and lonely all the time and there is no good reason for it. Maybe you feel that way right now. If so, that’s ok, we can use that.This technique starts from the premise that your life experience can change and that the change begins inside your own mind. If you can change what is happening on the inside, almost as by a miracle, you will witness the outside start to change around you. The idea is that if you are feeling any negative emotions, there is a bug in your software, a set of connections in your mind that are wired incorrectly. Your subconscious or emotional self, is confused and doesn’t understand something. So we are going to be doing a series of exercises in this guided meditation that will help your emotional self disconnect some incorrectly made associations. In a way, we could think of these negative feelings as our subconscious mind’s way of asking us for our help. If the feelings are bad enough, maybe we’ll pay attention and slow down enough to listen to what the problem is so that we can release it and our higher self can take command. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Your power to heal yourself is extraordinary. For example, much suffering comes from unconscious holding on to painful personal histories. One method is to simply let go of that holding. After some harm has been done or wrong committed, traditional Hawaiian practices teach that each person unconsciously participates in a holding on to a sort of shadow cable ("aka"). Until the aka cord was consciously severed ('oki) or untied ("kala"), discord or neuroses would manifest in the person's body or life. Unless and until the spiritual, almost karmic, cable connecting the "sinner" and the "sinned" is untied and released, pain, neuroses, general unpleasantness and even ill health will persist in one’s life, often appearing in unexpected and difficult ways. The imbalance can manifest in sickness, mental anguish, relationship problems, energy deficiencies and many other ways. So take the time now to cut that cable for good with this 60 minute version of the Kala Guided Meditation. (This is called a Kala meditation or also sometimes an ‘oki meditation. ‘Oki means to cut or sever in Hawaiian.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After some harm has been done or wrong committed, traditional Hawaiian practices teach that each person unconsciously participates in a holding on to a sort of shadow cable ("aka"). Until the aka cord was consciously severed ('oki) or untied ("kala"), discord or neuroses would manifest in the person's body or life. Unless and until the spiritual, almost karmic, cable connecting the "sinner" and the "sinned" is untied and released, pain, neuroses, general unpleasantness and even ill health will persist in one’s life, often appearing in unexpected and difficult ways. The imbalance can manifest in sickness, mental anguish, relationship problems, energy deficiencies and many other ways. So take the time now to cut that cable for good with this 45 minute version of the Kala Guided Meditation. (This is called a Kala meditation or also sometimes an ‘oki meditation. ‘Oki means to cut or sever in Hawaiian.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ritual practice has provided a means of releasing suffering and ending emotional or physical distress for millenia. Hawaiian traditions preserve soe of these ancient practices and the Kala Meditation is a very powerful one that has been handed down to us through the memories of Hawaiian elders. Kala means to release or untie in Hawaiian. Traditional Hawaiian cultures believed that when one person wronged another the two were bound by a shadow (or "aka") cord until the cord was consciously severed or untied. After some harm has been done or wrong committed, each person unconsciously participates in this holding on to each side of the cable. Unless and until the spiritual, almost karmic, cable connecting the "sinner" and the "sinned" is untied and released, pain, neuroses, general unpleasantness and even ill health will persist in one’s life, often appearing in unexpected and difficult ways. The imbalance can manifest in sickness, mental anguish, relationship problems, energy deficiencies and many other ways. So take the time now to cut that cable for good with this 30 minute version of the Kala Guided Meditation. (This is also sometimes called an ‘oki meditation. ‘Oki means to cut or sever in Hawaiian.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kala means to release or untie in Hawaiian. Traditional Hawaiian cultures believed that when one person wronged another the two were bound by a figurative or shadow (or "aka") cord until the cord was consciously severed or untied. After some harm has been done or wrong committed, each person unconsciously participates in this holding on to each side of the cable. Unless and until the spiritual, almost karmic, cable connecting the "sinner" and the "sinned" is untied and released, pain, neuroses, general unpleasantness and even ill health will persist in one’s life, often appearing in unexpected and difficult ways. The imbalance can manifest in sickness, mental anguish, relationship problems, energy deficiencies and many other ways. So take the time now to cut that cable for good with this 20 minute version of the Kala Guided Meditation. (This is also sometimes called an ‘oki meditation. ‘Oki means to cut or sever in Hawaiian.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Traditional Hawaiian cultures believed that when one person wronged another the two were bound by a figurative or shadow (or "aka") cord. Until the cord was consciously severed ('oki) or untied ("kala") discord or neuroses would manifest. After some harm has been done or wrong committed, each person unconsciously participates in this holding on to each side of the cable. Unless and until the spiritual, almost karmic, cable connecting the "sinner" and the "sinned" is untied and released, pain, neuroses, general unpleasantness and even ill health will persist in one’s life, often appearing in unexpected and difficult ways. The imbalance can manifest in sickness, mental anguish, relationship problems, energy deficiencies and many other ways. So take the time now to cut that cable for good with this 10 minute version of the Kala Guided Meditation. (This is also sometimes called an ‘oki meditation. ‘Oki means to cut or sever in Hawaiian.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We can use the breath as our guide to our higher chakras. In our lives, each of us is born and then we grow up, and then we age and our bodies return to dust. We expand and then contract. In the same way, our bodies expand with life giving air as we breathe in and contract as we breathe out. The day dawns and then night falls. Duality represents the fundamental underlying truth of physical reality and the lower chakras. Light and dark, heaven and earth, fire and water, in breath and out breath. But the truth is that there is only one, not two. The breath can guide us to this truth if we let it. This 60 minute meditation on love and emptiness does just that. (NOTE: This is a recording from a group session so the audio isn't perfect). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.