Stress Relief the 8 Minute Meditation
Stress Reduction
Way
8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction is designed to address the creation of stories around stress, so as to restore you—and your body--to a state of clarity and equilibrium. The dozen plus 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reducers are created to help you make that perception shift in two steps:
- First, you calm down your body.
- Second, you quiet your mind.
When you change your perception of a stressful event, you change the way your body responds to it. What you are doing, perhaps for the first time, is taking control over your stress level.
So how can you do in the fastest, most effective way? By becoming increasingly proficient with the 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction 4 Step. You'll learn a lot more about this in On The Spot, Part II of the 8 Minute Meditation Stress Program. And you'll begin to practice it whenever possible.
But for now, here's a brief overview of how it works:
The 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction 4 Step.
This simple 4 step sequence that can be used to skillfully deal with any stressful event you encounter, big or small. It can be done anytime and anywhere. The 4 steps are:
- Recognize the stress event.
- Allow what is happening.
- Choose an 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reducer.
- Do it.
On its face, the 4 Step might not seem like anything special. But once you begin to use it, I think you'll change that opinion. That's because underlying the 4 Step sequence is something extraordinarily powerful: the ability to go beyond thinking.
While other stress reduction programs are built on the idea that suppression of stressful thoughts will lower stress levels, 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction approaches things from just the opposite direction. Thought suppression might work, temporarily and to a certain degree, but it can't hold a candle to what happens when, instead of suppressing thoughts, you surpass them. That is what the 4 Step is all about.
Developing skill, regularity, and proficiency with 8 Minute Meditation results, not by changing your perception—but surpassing it. In my experience, this approach is much more effective in the long run than mere coping mechanisms that will fail as soon as you lose your suppression battle.
Sound like magic?
It's not. It's simply harnessing
what I call "The Power Of What Is." And you begin to do this right
from the start of 8 Minute
Meditation Stress Reduction.
8 Minutes: Golden Time
My original 8 Minute Meditation program was simple as pie: users were given 8 different meditation techniques. And they practiced one of them for 8 minutes a day over an 8 week period. At the conclusion of the program, those that stuck with it came away with a strong meditation practice that they could deepen and would last their lifetime.
Why did I choose 8 minutes? Because its time between 2 TV commercials. I figured that if we've been programmed since childhood to focus in 8 minute chunks, why not "repurpose" this for benefit.
Prior to the publication of 8 Minute Meditation, TIME magazine decided to do a cover story on meditation. 8 Minute Meditation was featured in that story, where it was called "the most American form of meditation yet."
8 Minute Meditation: A Track Record for Transformation
8 Minute Meditation has of this writing sold over 79,000 copies and perennially tops the Amazon charts for Meditation, Alternative Health, Stress, and even Quick Workouts. My audio Guided Meditation CD is also a big seller online and as a digital download from iTunes.
As of today, sales figures for of my three meditation books, The Best Guide to Meditation, The Promise, and 8 Minute Meditation exceed 96,000 copies. My books and programs have been featured on TV and in mainstream magazines like TIME, OUTSIDE, COSMO, and SHAPE.
I like knowing that I've provided thousands of people just like you with simple techniques that transform their lives. And I want you to have them too.
Meditation is Scientifically Proven to Reduce Stress
Numerous studies by prestigious and credible institutions, like Harvard Medical School, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCAM) corroborate what practitioners of meditation have known all along: meditation is one of the most effective stress-reduction tools ever created. In fact, meditation has been found to be as, if not more effective, than medication in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.
It's not necessary to bring up those hundreds of studies. But just in case you're not convinced, here's a short list of just some credible results published in prestigious medical journals.
- Meditation can make you happier and boost your immune system, Psychosomatic Medicine, 2003.
- Meditation can reduce cholesterol levels, Journal of Human Stress, 1979.
- Meditation can help reverse heart disease, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1998.
- Meditation increases longevity, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1989
- Meditation can help relieve chronic pain and reduce medication reliance, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 1985
- Meditation can be as effective a mood raiser as chocolate, Physiology and Behavior, 1977.
- Meditation Lowers Blood Pressure, Lancet, 1973.
The list grows each year. There are many more ongoing studies and clinical trials. If you want to learn more, make an online visit to The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
My Journey Through Stress.
I came to meditation for practical, not spiritual reasons.
Just because I created 8 Minute Meditation and 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction, doesn't mean I was always some happy-go-lucky stress-free dude. Quite the contrary: not only have I experienced the most stressful feelings and thoughts you have—in spades!
In fact, and here is a great irony, my life before I discovered meditation was so stressful for me that the only way I could calm down was to become an expert on stress!
If you had told me, a stressed-out, law school student and native New Yorker, that I would someday create one of the most effective, popular, and best-selling stress reduction programs in history, I would have laughed out loud. Unfortunately, laughter wasn't in my repertoire back in those days. All I can remember was being under the incredible stress and anxiety that had come upon, and was rampant among the student body.
A Stressed Out One L.
There is a saying among law students: First year, scared to death. Second year, worked to death. Third year, bored to death. Well, I had just "One L"—year one. And the operative word was terrified.
As a high-performing student and athlete all my life, I thought I could deal with any kind of stress. But nothing prepared me for "One L," year one of law school. Maybe it was the incredible work load of cases to read, or understanding new legal concepts. Whatever the reasons, it created The Perfect Anxiety Storm. And I just could not cope with the stress. I was a 135 pound bundle of nerves; and if you added on the weight of those law books I had to schlep around, it was 144!
I couldn't sleep, eat or function. I chain-smoked Marlboros, drank Big Gulp! size containers of coffee to stay awake, and woke at 2:30 AM almost every night with an anxiety attack. Two months into the semester I seriously considered chucking the whole thing and dropping out.
I was desperate, and seeking a "magic bullet", decided that medication might be the answer. I went to my physician who prescribed a tranquilizer. This did have calming effects. However, I began to notice after a week that my magic bullet was shooting me in the foot: I was losing focus and concentration and found myself nodding out, sometimes even during a lecture. That was the end of my medical experiment.
Now what? I was still stressed out! How could I deal with it? And then, one October day, I stumbled across a small sign on the student bulletin board that would, although I didn't know it then, lower my stress—and alter my life.
It was hand printed on a piece of construction paper. A little sign that read: Learn To Meditate, along with some brief copy that said meditation was proven to calm the mind and help memory retention. At this point, I was pretty desperate. If someone had put up a sign announcing Chicken Soup for Stress Relief, I would have signed up for the cooking class.
So at the appropriate time, I entered an almost empty classroom. An alumni of the law school soon appeared. She seemed very calm as she talked about a meditation. By the end of her talk, I decided to give meditation a try.
Fortunately, I lucked out and discovered the most powerful stress reduction tool ever created. From the start, meditation on a daily basis elevated me to a brand-new place of peace and calm. In a couple of weeks, I was thinking clearly and functioning at a higher level of productivity than I had my entire life—all reflected in an increasingly higher grade point average. But even more, I found myself enjoying a newfound feeling of peace and calm that just made life easier, richer, and more fun.
I began to meditate and over a month, watched my stress level drop dramatically after meditation. Within a few weeks, my stress level had dropped significantly and I found myself able to concentrate more effectively, efficiently, and productively as never before. I continued to meditate daily throughout my second and third year of law school.
I graduated law school, passed the New York State Bar exam on my first try, and got a highly sought after job as an attorney for the largest ad agency in the world. I continued to meditate through my successful legal career as an attorney for three Fortune 500 companies, including Paramount Pictures. These were very high-pressure corporate environments, and they afforded a golden opportunity to test the stress reduction power of meditation under "actual battle conditions."
And it worked incredibly well. So much so that fellow attorneys and executive asked me to teach them meditation! Which I was more than willing to do.
In 1985 I moved to Los Angeles and became acquainted with another school of meditation, called Vipassana, or Insight Meditation. Over the past decade it's become more popularly known as Mindfulness Meditation. This form of meditation really resonated for me. I found it simple, non-sectarian, and "user-friendly." I've practiced it ever since.
I create "the most American form of meditation yet."
In 1997, on invitation from a national publisher, I wrote my first meditation book, The Best Guide To Meditation (St. Martin's Press). At 352 pages, and with over 60 meditation techniques it was quite a piece. The book was popular and successful, published in 4 languages and has sold more than 35,000 copies in America alone.
In 2003, I saw the need for a new book, a simple yet real meditation program that anyone could do anytime. A program that fit into everyone's hectic time constraints, but still delivered the real deal—a full fledged meditation practice.
And that is exactly what I did.
8 Minute Meditation: Quiet Your Mind. Change Your Life was published by Penguin in 2004 and has become one of the most popular and bestselling meditation books and teaching programs ever. Thousands of people around the world have bought and practice meditation the 8 Minute Way.
Oh, yes, and along the way to 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction, I wrote my third book, The Promise (St. Martin's Press, 2009).
Not a week goes by where I don't receive questions and thanks via emails from 8 Minute Meditators from Athens, Greece, to Athens, Georgia. 8 Minute Meditation almost always tops the Amazon bestseller charts in Alternative Medicine and Stress categories, and has received five-star Amazon rating from dozens of fellow reviewers like you.
In addition to buyer and user testimonials, 8 Minute Meditation is endorsed by well-known meditation teachers such as Susan Piver and Shinzen Young, as well as healthcare professionals and doctors at such prestigious institutions as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and UCLA medical school.
The 8 Minute Meditation book, guided CD and download has been purchased by over 79,000 people just like you and featured on TV and in mainstream magazines like TIME, OUTSIDE, COSMO, and SHAPE. TIME goes so far as to call it "The most American form of meditation yet." But just as exciting are the hundreds of testimonials and thank you notes from thousands of 8 Minute Meditation users.
As you can see, 8 Minute Meditation has been a resounding success, empowering thousands of people just like you to transform their lives into more peaceful and happier ones. And the great news is that you can now enjoy the amazing and powerful benefits of 8 Minute Meditation in an all-new program that specifically targets stress: 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction.
Starting today, you can to begin to lower
your
stress—for your lifetime.
As you can see, it's been a long journey for me to the creation of the 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction program. What you are reading right now is the result of over 35 years of my personal journey through stress, despair, and all the other emotions we go through as human beings.
My severe stress challenge made it necessary for me to become a stress expert. And I want you to bypass the challenges I encountered. I created 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction for me, for you, and for everyone who lives in today's stressful world. I am confident that my all-new 8 Minute Meditation Stress Reduction Program will give you the same benefits and results that thousands of people just like you already enjoy: better energy, more peace, and improved well-being.
In fact, I'm so confident that 8 Minute Meditation Stress
Reduction will work for you that I offer it with a complete refund
guarantee: If you don't like the
program for any reason whatsoever, contact me within 60
days. I'll refund every penny you paid. No gimmicks. No questions
asked.
