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All posts tagged News
Meditation and Music Program Friday, May 30th, Ridgefield Park, NJ
Posted by Come Meditate on May 26, 2014
https://comemeditate.com/2014/05/26/meditation-and-music-program-friday-may-30th-ridgefield-park-nj/
Meet us at Woodbury Earth Day, Saturday, April 26th
You will find us under this banner
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Woodbury Middle School Grounds, 67 Washington Avenue, Woodbury, Connecticut
http://www.woodburyearthday.org/
Posted by Come Meditate on April 24, 2014
https://comemeditate.com/2014/04/24/meet-us-at-woodbury-earth-day-saturday-april-26th/
A Musical Meditation Program – Saturday, May 12th, White Plains
Come meditate with us and get the experience! You will surely enjoy it.
Refreshments will be served afterwards.
Refreshments will be served afterwards.
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SATURDAY, MAY 12th
4pm
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YWCA OF WHITE PLAINS & CENTRAL WESTCHESTER
515 North Street
White Plains, NY 10605
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program will be in the dance studio on the lower level – enter the building (and lower level) from the back parking lot
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for directions: www.ywcawhiteplains.com
Posted by Come Meditate on May 7, 2012
https://comemeditate.com/2012/05/07/a-musical-meditation-program-saturday-may-12th-white-plains/
Physician learned the benefits of relaxation
By Laurie Bailey /
Eighteen years ago, Anjana Vijayvargiya, a self-described driven physician, couldn’t control her own headaches or her neck, back and shoulder pain.
Then she listened to her mother.
“She suggested meditation, since medication wasn’t working,” Dr. Vijayvargiya said.
It helped, and she’s been devoted to meditation ever since. Dr. Vijayvargiya, a pathologist at UPMC St. Margaret, recently shared her expertise during a recent class at Oakmont Carnegie Library.
Practiced for thousands of years, meditation was once recognized as a means for understanding the spiritual and mystical sides of life. Today it’s frequently used to reduce stress and create a tranquil mind.
“I was a workaholic with a type A personality. I used to be quite arrogant,” she admitted about the time before she started meditating.
Living and working in India, she was skeptical at first. But once she finally tried it, she said she felt completely relaxed.
“When I finished, it felt as though I had slept, but I wasn’t sleeping. I was extremely peaceful — a peace like I’ve never felt before,” she said.
Now living in Indiana Township with her husband, Ajay Kumar, and their 16-year-old daughter, Amogha, she said her headaches are less frequent. And more noticeable to her family and associates, her attitude toward those around her has changed dramatically.
“I actually see the best in everyone. I appreciate almost everyone. Earlier, I used to demand respect out of fear. Now, I am respectful of others,” she said, adding that it took her about six years to notice the changes in her personality, but others noticed it long before.
According to the Mayo Clinic, there is an increasing amount of scientific research supporting the health benefits of meditation and that some researchers believe it’s too early yet to draw conclusions about the possible benefits of meditation.
Speaking from her own experience, Dr. Vijayvargiya has witnessed examples of improved health conditions when patients included meditation in their regimen of care, especially for those with high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. It can also ease the anxiety and other effects associated with chemotherapy, she added.
“Meditation can do wonders … but the person has to regularly meditate at least once every day for five to 10 minutes,” she said.
It can also help with drug, alcohol and tobacco addiction, she explained.
“A person becomes addicted for a variety of reasons. This meditation slowly (or swiftly) works on the root cause of the addiction and the meditators do not feel the urge to take the harmful substances. I do know people who gave up their addictions without going to rehab or counseling. They are sober for the past 20-35 years,” she said.
Although she said there are possibly hundreds of types of meditation, Dr. Vijayvargiya is a proponent of the Sahaja method of meditation. Sahaja means “born with you,” “simple,” and “spontaneous,” she said. The method was founded in 1970 by Indian spiritual leader Nirmala Devi.
“Meditation is a cleansing process, just like brushing our teeth and taking a shower. The latter two cleanse our physical body and the meditation cleanses our subtle system,” she said.
The subtle system is a network of energy centers within the body, she said.
Dr. Vijayvargiya said her teenage daughter now regularly meditates.
“She actually can see how much it is helping her. It makes it easier for her to handle a lot at once,” she said.
The doctor even taught a class in meditation at Fox Chapel Area High School and was amazed at how it helped even the more fidgety students relax.
“Even the students totally uninterested in the beginning of the lecture were convinced it worked,” she said.
She teaches regularly through Fox Chapel’s adult education program and at the Boyd Community Center in Fox Chapel.
The biggest challenge, she said, is that people are doubtful based on their own stigma about meditation from what they see on television.
But once they try it?
She said: “People love it, it’s really relaxing. They also realize they will calm their hearts and the chattering in their brain.”
Laurie Bailey, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.
First Published 2012-04-12 08:59:36
Posted by Come Meditate on April 14, 2012
https://comemeditate.com/2012/04/14/physician-learned-the-benefits-of-relaxation/
Manchester, ReminderNews – An Article About the Sahaja Meditation Classes
Dear All,
here is a beautiful article about our Sahaja Meditation Class in Manchester. I hope you enjoy it.
Yours, Angi
remindernews.com
http://www.remindernews.com/article/2012/02/17/sahaja-yoga-is-catching-on-in-manchester
Sahaja Yoga is catching on in Manchester 
By Kyle Kernan – Staff Writer
Manchester – posted Fri., Feb. 17, 2012
Up the stairs at the Whiton Memorial Branch Library, 100 North Main St., in Manchester, on Tuesdays at 7 p.m., a transcendental experience awaits you through Sahaja Yoga. Tony O’Rourke, of New Haven, teaches the Sahaja meditation technique. The calm-mannered O’Rourke learned Sahaja Yoga while studying abroad in Russia in 1990, and has been practicing and teaching it ever since.
“It has had a profound effect on my psyche, I feel more calm and it has brought joy to my everyday life. I want other people to know about this and get exposed,” said Mike Kastellorizios, who is a graduate student at UConn in pharmaceuticals and has been practicing the yoga discipline for seven years.
The goal of the Sahaja is to shape one to be a moral, united, integrated and balanced person, according to Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, who created the Sahaja Yoga technique in India in 1970. Devi died about a year ago, but her technique and philosophy is catching on.
O’Rourke instructs his guests every Tuesday on how to awaken and raise their chakras, or energy levels. Chakra means “wheel” in Sanskrit. Chakras are located throughout the body and denote different aspects of our being. For example, the Mooladhara (moo-la-dhara) Chakra is located on the lower center of one’s abdomen, the outside ring of one’s palm and at one’s knees.
According to the philosophy, when this chakra is awakened, it becomes a magnetic force within the human body and is the foundation of our channels. The awakening process of all channels balances one’s entire system and enlightens the pure qualities of the chakras within us. This awakening process is the Kundalini, or self realization, according to the Sahaja Yoga website at http://www.sahajayoga.org/.
Sahaja meditation is meant to be a collective process, as everyone’s energies feed off each other, says O’Rourke.
“No matter what you’re looking for, you will find something here,” said Alin Tomoroga, owner of Propaganda Tattoo Studio on Main Street in Manchester. Tomoroga regularly attends the Tuesday sessions and has been practicing Sahaja Yoga for four years.
O’Rourke leads the awakening process through a series of affirmations which are directed to each energy center. These affirmations are meant for the person to push away their sense of self and be in a state of thoughtless awareness. In this state, a person can recognize the energy within them. These affirmations include, “I forgive myself,” “I am not this mind,” “I am not this body,” and “I am not these emotions.” The main energy circuit of a person runs from their heads down to their lower abdomen, said O’Rourke. If an energy center is warm or in pain, then one can focus the attention on clearing the negative energy out.
The difficult part of the Sahaja meditation process is learning to be in the state of thoughtless awareness that is needed to be in tune with one’s chakras.
“It is not simple and it takes a while to master, but you really need to desire it [the state of thoughtless awareness] from your heart,” said Tomoroga.
O’Rourke makes it easier for new guests to feel their own energies by conducting an energy clearing workshop. As a person sits idly in a chair without thought, O’Rourke has someone else raise their energy.
“Through this technique, it makes you aware of the vibrations and energies of others. You begin to
understand how these different energy centers are linked to our personalities, and it gives you a better idea on how to relate to others,” said Angi O’Rourke, Tony’s wife.
Angi said she has experienced people with hot or tense energies, and this tells her that these people are
angry or in trouble.
“There is so much we do not understand about ourselves. Sahaja Yoga helps me see how unique we are
and the beauty that is in every human being. When I identify that someone’s energy might be negative, I can
focus on that person’s energy, and in minutes they seem to calm down,” said Angi O’Rourke.
Sahaja Yoga is practiced and sponsored by the Vishwa Nirmala Dharma, a non-profit foundation in more
than 90 countries worldwide, and it is catching on across Connecticut.
Devi believed that spirituality is something one should not pay for, thus O’Rourke makes the Sahaja Yoga sessions free to the public. “This technique helps us to better know ourselves. On a subtle level we are all just energy,” said Tomoroga.
To learn more, visit http://www.sahajayoga.org/default.asp, or visit the next Sahaja meditation session at the Whiton Memorial Branch Library on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.
Posted by Come Meditate on February 20, 2012
https://comemeditate.com/2012/02/20/manchester-remindernews-an-article-about-the-sahaja-meditation-classes/
Sahaja Yoga Meditation App
