What's even cooler? David Lynch is gonna make a movie about him.  According to Lynch though, it's not going to be a traditional documentary or a typical narrative. And it definitely isn't going to be a typical David Lynch movie. This looks like it's gonna be an awesome film.

In fact, David Lynch has been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique twice a day, for 20 minutes each time, for 32 years.

Check out the article below to find out more about this movie. Can't wait till it comes out!

David Lynch to make documentary on meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

From GordonAndTheWhale.com

David Lynch is making a movie about meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is best known as the Beatles’ spiritual guide during their visit to India in the late 1960s. The filmmaker known for films such as ERASERHEAD, LOST HIGHWAY, BLUE VELVET, and MULHOLLAND DRIVE will be traveling to India this December to start filming.

The movie won’t be a narrative, but it won’t be a traditional documentary either. “It won’t be a so-called David Lynch film, really; it will be about Maharishi and the knowledge he brought out,” Lynch told New York Magazine. “It’ll have to go in the documentary department, I think. I don’t think it’ll be a ‘talking heads’ kind of thing, but we’re going to do a lot of interviews with people. We’ll interview — I hope — in India, a 97-year-old man who was with Maharishi from the beginning and get stories of times that weren’t so well recorded.”

The Beatles attended Maharishi’s meditation classes and made references to him in songs like “Sexy Sadie” and “Jealous Guy.” John Lennon wrote the song “Sexy Sadie” about the guru’s alleged sexual advances on actress Mia Farrow. The Beatles later renounced these accusations, saying the incident had been a misunderstanding. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died in February of 2008.

Click here to continue reading >>

What's even cooler is that during this study, there were 2 groups. One group was instructed to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes only and the other group went through health and life style education. And at the end of 9 years, the meditation group had a profound reduction in heart disease, far higher than the other group that only went through health/life style education.

These kind of studies are BIG. Instead of reaching for a bottle of pills, doctors might now recommend meditation as a preventative means for high risk patients. The full details are below in the article from the BBC.

It just goes to show how much meditation can affect a person's body, mind, and spirit. Drop a comment below and let me know if you've ever experienced a shift in health from meditation. Would love to hear your stories.

Meditation 'eases heart disease'

Heart disease patients who practise Transcendental Meditation have reduced death rates, US researchers have said.

At a meeting of the American Heart Association they said they had randomly assigned 201 African Americans to meditate or to make lifestyle changes.

After nine years, the meditation group had a 47% reduction in deaths, heart attacks and strokes.

The research was carried out by the Medical College in Wisconsin with the Maharishi University in Iowa.

It was funded by a £2.3m grant from the National Institute of Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

'Significant benefits'

The African American men and women had an average age of 59 years and a narrowing of the arteries in their hearts.

The meditation group were asked to practise for 20 minutes twice a day.

The lifestyle change group received education classes in traditional risk factors, including dietary modification and exercise.

Over 9 years, there were 20 events (heart attacks, strokes or death) in the meditation group and 31 in the health education group.

Dr Robert Schneider, lead author and director of the Centre for Natural Medicine and Prevention at the Maharishi University in Iowa said:

"At the end of the 9 years, 80% of the meditation group were still practising at least once a day.

"But there was very little change in the health education group.

"Their lifestyle was much the same in terms of diet and exercise - it's a very difficult thing to make those changes."

As well as the reductions in death, heart attacks and strokes in the meditating group, their average blood pressure was significantly lower (5mm Hg), and there was a significant reduction in psychological stress in some participants.

Dr Schneider said other studies had shown the benefits of Transcendental Meditation on blood pressure and stress, irrespective of ethnicity.

"This is the first controlled clinical trial to show that long-term practise of this particular stress reduction programme reduces the incidence of clinical cardiovascular events, that is heart attacks, strokes and mortality," he said.

Dr Schneider said that the effect of Transcendental Meditation in the trial was like adding a class of newly discovered drugs for the prevention of heart disease.

Click here to continue reading >>

A story about transformation, personal growth, and spirituality can be hard to write. But what's even harder? Compressing that entire story into a 3-line, 17 syllable (well, 17 moras if you wanna get technical) haiku.

If you forgot what a haiku is, it's a 3 line poem. The first and last line contain 5 syllables, while the middle line contains 7. So 5-7-5.

So drop a comment with your own haiku about personal growth, transformation, spirituality, or life!

Here's one to get you going. If Dylan Thomas had written zombie haikus, this would probably be it:

Zombie Haiku by Dylan Thomas (from Zombiehaiku.com)
Do not go gentle
into that zombie plagued night.
And take the shotgun.

Can't wait to hear your haikus! And no, they don't have to be zombie related

Check out this article below as the author deals with this new wave of anti-positivity.

In my opinion, I think there's a huge difference between wishful thinking and positive thinking and people sometimes mix up the two.

But what're your opinions? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the whole concept of positive thinking and it's impact on humanity as a whole. Drop a comment and pitch in your 2 cents.

Could You Just Get Over Your Negativity About Positive Focus?

By Russell Bishop from the Huffington Post

What is it about those Huff Post readers who seem to get all negative about the suggestion that having a positive focus just might help? I mean, really.

The demographics tell us that our readers are highly educated, and presumably intelligent, and yet I keep getting the most cynical replies from people who seem to keep missing the point.

(If you are just now joining this conversation, you might want to click on these links to some recent articles that will help set the context. This one asks you to consider what you want out of life, really. And this one asks are you doomed by your circumstances? And this one looks at the growing prevalence of people blaming society for the ills of the world.

So let's tackle this head on.

What's the Problem With Positive Thinking?

I certainly understand what the problem would be if the only recommendations were some kind of denial form of thinking. "Geez, isn't racism great? How about that loss of life? Don't you just love the recession?''

Who on earth could possibly believe that the point of these articles is even remotely related to this kind of ridiculous sentiment, and yet read some examples of what some readers have sent:

From an editor (yes, an editor!) of a significant western newspaper:

"You bring up many valuable points about the different ways we sabotage ourselves from getting what we want, but please know that, amidst the biggest economic collapse in 80 years, rising unemployment and two wars further sapping our resources, that NO ONE, not even the most puerile person, is going to believe that all they need to do to make a better world for themselves is to change their minds. Furthermore, this kind of subtext to your main theme in making one's life better is insulting and unnecessary. These problems are real and they affect people's lives daily.

If my goal in life is to live in a world without racism, for example, don't pretend the phenomenon doesn't exist in deeply embedded social and historical contexts. If your goal is to disguise these contexts, you should also know that we are onto you and yours. And in that case, good day and good luck on the ol' snake oil circuit."

And another wrote to say:

"We have been ruined as a nation by "the power of positive thinking". Your answers are simplistic and really don't apply to everyday living. People need to have a source of income in order to be able to have a roof over their heads and food on their tables. I don't think you address this very well at all."

Can you believe this? Are you kidding me? Ruined by positive thinking? Creating a positive focus and taking positive action is somehow "simplistic?" Pretend that racism doesn't exist?

Click to continue reading >>

Gay Hendricks and Kathlyn Hendricks

It’s the lesson most of us struggle to learn throughout our own lives.

Maybe it’s the lesson of life and love. It’s certainly been the major issue people have talked to us about in our thirty years as therapists and relationship coaches. Even if the person brought in a problem of depression or marital misery, this issue was hovering in the background. The depression never lifted and the marriage never harmonized until the person learned this mega-lesson. It’s is if a secret—perhaps the deepest secret—is withheld from us until we can open our hearts for the few seconds or minutes it takes to reveal the secret to ourselves.

Here is the deepest secret:

The major barrier to a loving relationship is an unloved part of you.
That’s right: An aspect of ourselves that we have never loved and accepted keeps us from forming and keeping genuine love with others.

Here’s why:

If you don’t love yourself, you’ll always be looking for someone else to do it for you. It never works, because people who don’t love themselves attract people who don’t love themselves. Then they try to get the other person to love them unconditionally when they’re not even doing it for themselves.

When you love yourself deeply and unconditionally for everything you are and aren’t, you attract people who love and accept themselves. If you feel fundamentally unlovable deep down inside, you’ll attract a lover who feels the same way.

When we don’t love some part of ourselves, we run around in desperation trying to get someone else to love us. Our hope is that if they give us enough love our unlovable part will go away. It never does. Only a moment of loving ourselves unconditionally will do that particular job.

Most of us spend our lives running from that unlovable part of us. When we finally confront it, we will usually discover it’s a fear. It’s usually a particular fear, and there are a very small number of them.

The fears that keep us from loving:

One of them is fear of abandonment. You can probably see why that fear could play havoc in your relationships. It certainly did in our early relationships, before we became aware that this fear was driving a lot of our troublesome behavior. When you’re afraid of being left alone, you’ll either keep people distant so it won’t hurt so bad if they leave you, or you’ll cling to them dependently so they can’t leave without dragging you with them.

Another big fear is the dread of being smothered by the other person. When you’re in the grip of this fear, you’re worried that your individuality and freedom will be lost if you surrender to full union with the other person. So, you stay at arm’s length, just as a person who’s afraid of drowning might stand a yard or so away from the water’s edge.

Making that fear disappear:

The good thing to know about fear is that it’s simply a pulsating quiver of racy-queasy sensations in your stomach area. Fear, said the legendary psychiatrist Fritz Perls, is merely excitement without the breath. Breathe into the fear and watch what happens: The butterflies will flutter out of hiding and fly away.

When you love that fear directly, you can actually feel the fear disappear. In the space where the fear used to be, you now feel a big open space into which a wonderful new relationship can enter. That’s what happened to us, and that’s what we’ve seen happen to a lot of people when they mustered the courage to love themselves and all their fears.

The Grip of Fear Holds You In Check

It’s impossible to enjoy good relationships until we give that scary place in ourselves a split-second of love. The reason: The fear causes us to push people away when they get too close. That’s because our fear gets stirred up when we let them in close. To keep the fear under control, we keep people at a distance. We push down the very aspects of ourselves that most need to come to the surface and be loved. Then, having already judged ourselves unlovable, we strain to get others to love us. Trying to get other people to love us when we don’t think ourselves lovable is like a dog chasing its own tail. The more they try to love us, the faster we run from it.

Fortunately you can solve that problem

There are many people out there who are in the same situation with similar circumstances. Reach out, meet new people, and find like-minded people who share your values. Click below and check out this exciting community of conscious singles. Love, share, and grow together.

To join our community of conscious singles, find a partner who shares your values, AND grab a free love meditation, click here >>

(Membership is completely free, and when you join you’ll receive a FREE MP3 to help attract more love into your life!)

Well, fear not. I stumbled upon this article that'll give you the tips and tricks that'll get you through any day. Even if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

There's some pretty neat stuff here, but I'd love to hear what you have to say about doing work when you don't feel like it.

Drop a comment below and give us your secret tips.

How To Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up

From Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Like most people, some mornings I wake up and feel less than enthusiastic about working. Sometimes, this feeling doesn’t stem from laziness or apathy, it’s a stronger power, a sense of futility and helplessness.

I know a lot of people look to my story of success as a source of inspiration and that is one of the greatest benefits I enjoy as a blogger, but – and I’m not afraid to admit it – I don’t always feel energized to pursue business and sometimes in my darkest moments, I even consider throwing in the towel.

This feeling is not so common for me now as I have lifestyle flexibility, a more stable income and a better mindset about work, but earlier on, it definitely was a problem. I want to explain how I overcome these moments (and still do the same thing now on occasion) to stay on track and how you can even have a productive day when you are not really feeling the mojo on the inside.

I expect you have felt similar feelings of despair or a lack of motivation at different stages of your business development, especially if you are yet to establish an income stream online that is sufficient for you to live off, or if you are right at the beginning and you have not seen one cent of return for the work you have put in.

Inspired or Dejected

Depending on your world view and personality style, when you hear of the success of others you may either feel inspired or dejected, and while it’s obviously more fruitful to look at other people achieving what you desire as motivation, as a fallible human, jealousy, depression and anger may be your initial responses.

Your mind is your greatest asset for success in business, but it can be just as strong a force of hindrance, sabotaging your efforts, destroying your work ethic and leaving you with no option but to return to the soul destroying job you promised yourself that you would never go back to.

How To Work When You Don’t Feel Like It

One of the characteristics I believe is at the heart of my success and the success of most entrepreneurs, is an ability to keep working in the face of failure and an ability to force yourself to be productive when you don’t feel like it.

Click here to read the rest >>

Feel free to drop a comment below and share your thoughts on book love. Just complete the sentence, "You know you're in love with a book when..."

"You Know You're in Book Love When ... "

By Steve Leveen from the Huffington Post

My Twitter pals recently surprised and delighted me when I posted this question: “You know you’re in book love when ... ” Here are some of the responses:

“you want to read aloud to whoever will listen!”–twitter.com/hchybinski

“…you recommend it to everyone even strangers.”–Sara Anderson @DIYSara

“…you stay up all night to finish in one sitting with no concern about how hard it will be to get through work the next day.”–Ridge Walker @ridgewalker

“…you read your friend's birthday present b4 he gets it.”–@rufalena

…you think the only thing better than going to sleep with a good book…is with a man who's just read one.”–Molly Block @mollyblock

Now I’d like to cast this book-love net wider, to readers of this Well-Read Life blog, and offer Levenger prizes for the most captivating completions to that sentence.

Book love defined

Just to make sure we're all on the same page, I describe book love as that feeling you get when you can’t wait to get back to your book. As I describe in my Little Guide, book love is a lot like romantic love. It’s a feeling, while you’re going about your workaday duties, of being beckoned by your book so the two of you can be together again. That’s a very good feeling.

You’ve been in book love before, or else you wouldn’t be reading this. But are you in book love at this very moment?

Be honest now—how frequently are you reading a book you can’t wait to get back to?

To continue reading click here >>

Sean is a good friend, so good in fact, we've hung out in four different countries in the last five months since we met.

We hung out with Richard Branson on his private island last May, in the British Virgin Islands.

We conducted a fun personal growth team retreat in Bali back in June, we spoke together at the Engage Today event in Calgary, Canada in September and in October we met up for a speakers and authors event at L.A.

So, like I said, Sean has been a good friend, UNTIL... two weeks ago.

You see, before that L.A. authors and speakers event, I happened to have traveled a lot, and so I couldn't prevent myself from falling asleep during an important speech.

Now, here's what happened next.

Sean that little devil filmed me falling asleep, and uploaded this video below to Facebook, until many people in my contact list saw the embarrassing moment.

After that, I swore I'd have my "revenge."

Now, a lot of people know Sean as a brilliant inspiring motivational speaker, a guy who inspires others to lead the best lives, bla bla bla. Eh, whatever.

What many people don't know is this: Sean Stephenson has his funny "dark side."

And given that his new TV show is launching this weekend, I want this to go out to as many people as possible.

Watch this scandalous video of Sean and discover this "dark side" I'm talking about.

Enjoy.

Oh, and btw, when Sean's television show launches, do NOT watch it.

BOYCOTT the TV show on the Bio Channel this Nov 15.

Read a book, bake lasagna, do anything except watching TV that day.

Sean is a disgrace to people in wheelchairs everywhere. Sean a best-selling author, inspiring speaker and stage legend?

Bah!

How about saboteur, playboy and 3-foot menace to society.

Ah, obviously, I'm kidding of course.

Sean is an amazing guy.

Do tune in to his new TV show which launches this Sunday. It's going to be fun and exciting.

Find out more about The 3-Foot Giant TV Show Launching this Sunday >>

But here's the best part. Your brain is hardwired to help you in every endeavor you choose. All you need to do is "activate" it.

For a long time now, people have known about the brain's ability to operate at different wavelengths and frequencies. But not everyone knows what each form of brainwave does. So here's a crash course on the key brainwaves and how they can help you speed up your personal growth, feel more relaxed, and live a happier life.

I've also got a FREE gift for you. It's a 15-minute audio that uses the latest in sound technology. It's only 15 minutes but I can assure you that it'll give you a clearer state of mind and bring you into deeper levels of relaxation.

...

How Your Brain Works

The electrical activity emanating from the brain creates frequencies called brainwaves.

Brainwave frequencies are measured in Hertz (Hz), meaning cycles per second. The more cycles per second, the greater the Hertz value.

There are four categories of brainwaves ranging from the most activity to the least activity. These are: BETA, ALPHA, THETA and DELTA.

Each image below depicts a one second snapshot of human brainwave activity, as detected by an electroencephalogram (EEG). As you'll notice, greater values indicate more brainwave activity within the one second time-frame.

Beta Brainwaves

BETA BRAINWAVES are characteristic of an engaged mind, which is highly alert and well focused.

Beta activity is quick-connect, fast activity and tends to dominate the normal waking state of consciousness when-attention is directed towards the outside world.

Typically detected in the frontal lobes (where decisions are managed), Beta is usually seen on both sides of the brain in geometric distribution. It may be absent or reduced in areas of brain damage. It is generally regarded as a normal rhythm and tends to be the dominant rhythm in those who are alert, anxious or have their eyes open.

Beta brainwaves are engaged when the brain is aroused or processing activities, such as:

• involved conversations with others that command your full attention
• complex problem solving and assessment of situations
• public speaking, lectures or teaching information

Alpha Brainwaves

ALPHA BRAINWAVES are slower than beta and can represent a relaxed awareness in the mind.

This rhythm is seen when the brain sets itself to rest or reflect. Alpha rates are increased by closing the eyes and relaxing, yet are offset by opening one's eyes or any concentrated effort.

Alpha is usually best detected in the frontal regions of the head, on each side of the brain. Alpha is the major rhythm seen in normal relaxed adults and is typically regarded as the common relaxation mode beyond the age of 13.

Alpha brainwaves move towards deep relaxation, imagination and intuitive thinking, as they accompany:

• a relaxed mind after complex thinking into a mode of relaxation
• meditation and setting the mind's attention to itself, away from outside distractions
• recovery from stressful thoughts and emotional despair

Theta Brainwaves

THETA BRAINWAVES can indicate drowsiness, daydreaming, the first stage of sleep or 'indirect' imagination/thinking.

Theta activity is not often seen in awake adults (unless engaged in a meditative practice), but is perfectly normal in alert children up to 13 years and in most sleep.

A Theta state can be regarded as a gateway to hypnagogic states that lay between being awake and falling asleep. Often Theta entrainment can promote vivid flashes of mental imagery as one becomes receptive to brain/mind information beyond one’s typical conscious awareness. Theta has also been identified as a part of learning, memory and reductions in stress.

Theta brainwaves are often related to:

• accessing subconscious information that eludes the conscious mind
• hynagogic states like 'daydreaming'
• reductions in body rhythms, such as: heart rate and breathing

Delta Brainwaves

DELTA BRAINWAVES can reveal deep sleep or slow-wave 'background' thinking.

Much like bass sound, Delta tends to be the highest in amplitude and the slowest waves. Delta is often associated with deep sleep. Certain frequencies, in the delta range, have been shown to trigger the body's healing and growth mechanisms.

Interestingly, Delta is the dominant rhythm in infants up to one year, as well as stages 3 and 4 of dreamless sleep.

Delta brainwaves are often related to and indicate:

• the lowest brain frequencies, possibly indicating subconscious thoughts and information
• deep and refreshing sleep that allows the body and brain to rest and repair.
• extremely deep meditation and hyper-relaxed mind states

...

It is important to note that the brain does not operate on one frequency range at any given time.

All four rates occur at once, yet at varying amplitudes. A good analogy would be to relate each brainwave state to a sting on a violin. All four strings make notes, yet one or more strings can dominate the overall sound at a greater volume.

If you're interested in trying out a FREE 15-minute audio sample, click here >>

It sounds a little too easy, but the technology behind the audio isn't. After listening to this audio, you'll feel fresher and more relaxed.

We've been posting our articles up for so long and now it's time to show us what you've got! So here's the deal, we know you have articles you want us to publish and we're super psyched about reading them too. So send us your articles, we'll review it and if we do publish it, we'll give you a special surprise (and we do mean special - we're not just saying that!).

Here are some tips:

• Write about what you know. Or have experienced.
• Focus on one thing at a time. Try not to squeeze everything in one article.
• Keep it short. And interesting.
• Bullet points keep people reading.
• How-tos are very popular.

Here are some sample articles that did very well on FinerMinds:

• 5-steps on how to start every morning with energy that will carry on throughout the day
• Stop telling stories, start talking visions
• The 5 Benefits Of Fasting – For Your Mind, Soul, And Body
• The 5 levels of manifesting

What we're looking for:

• Articles on Personal Development and Spirituality.
• Manifesting - How manifesting worked for you. Your manifesting tips. Secrets of manifestations, etc.
• Meditations.
• Relationships.
• Self realizations.
• Original articles that haven't been published before

Where you can send us your article:

So you have all this week to send in your articles, we can't wait to read them! Just email them to me at hani [at] mindvalley [dot] com.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Love and light!