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Carmen Calatayud, LPC: Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2012 7:44 PM
As promised, my free guided meditations are now available. Visit the Free Meditations page of this website to learn more, or go directly to http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/CarmenCalatayud to download one, two or all three guided meditations in mp3 format. You can listen to brief samples of each one before you download.
Please feel free to share these meditations with your friends or anyone who would benefit. May these meditations bring you many tranquil moments.
Wishing you peace, Carmen |
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Carmen Calatayud, LPC: Posted on Friday, January 20, 2012 3:49 PM
Yes, that's right, I've decided to offer my recorded meditations and guided imagery for free on this website. In the work I do with clients and groups, I find that sharing the many benefits of meditation with others continues to be a great joy.
My hope is that everyone who wants to learn to meditate and reap the benefits of a calm mind and body can do so no matter where they live, and no matter what their income. Even though the recordings were only $2.99, I don't want anything to stand in the way of you having these meditations.
As soon as I can download the mp3 files to my website (it's a little trickier than I thought so I'm getting some help with this), they will be available to you for FREE.
Breathe. Cherish each moment. Live in the present, as this time will never return. Be here now with the ones you love.
With kindness, Carmen |
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Carmen Calatayud, LPC: Posted on Monday, August 29, 2011 10:17 PM
Mindfulness has found its way into psychotherapy during the last 25 years, and based on research is now used to treat anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. Mindfulness meditation is an ancient practice in Eastern cultures and many teachers, practitioners and mental health clinicians have created ways to make it understandable for our Western culture.
According to Ronald Siegel, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist and writer who teaches mindfulness to psychotherapists, one way to define mindfulness is awareness of present experience with acceptance. When we stop being aware, we have to practice bringing ourselves back to the present moment and accept it as it is.
When most of us experience anxiety, depression, or any kind of pain, our natural tendency is to turn away from the uncomfortable feelings. Although it seems like a paradox, it isn't the feelings that are the problem. It's the fleeing from the feelings that causes the problem. We teach ourselves that escaping from pain helps us avoid it, but the opposite is true. The uncomfortable feelings continue to build up without any release over time, and put us at risk for anxiety or depression.
Instead of avoiding uncomfortable feelings, we can choose to stay with the experience and practice tolerating them. We can breathe through them. What we then learn is that everything changes, including feelings, and they do pass. We can tolerate them and move through them.
What the practice of mindfulness meditation does, in lieu of getting rid of our anxious or depressed feelings, is increase our capacity to bear the experience. As Siegel says, mindfulness gives us the flexibility to be with whatever arises. In addition to the documented beneficial brain changes we gain from mindfulness meditation, we really can practice being more at peace with whatever we encounter in our lives. We can practice being more at peace with ourselves.
With kindness, Carmen |
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