Beginner's Guide to Mindfulness Meditation with Ira Israel

"A Beginner's Guide to Mindfulness Meditation" with Ira Israel is a unique feature-length wellness DVD designed to teach beginners everything they need to know to practice meditation, cultivate peace of mind and reduce stress.

Ira Israel is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and has graduate degrees in Psychology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.

Ira Israel, a psychotherapist, offers 10 short meditation practices to help you relax, reduce stress, and cultivate peace of mind. This beginners/ intermediate level guide includes short 5-15 minute meditation practices, in beautiful, natural settings and public places.

Ira helps you “try on” 9 different anchors, or mindfulness meditation techniques, in 10 days. He encourages you to see which anchor fits and to wear it out into the world. This useful and easy-to-follow DVD helps you calm your mind. This is incredibly beneficial for busy, stressed-out people who feel crunched for time, or anyone who has a “monkey mind.” Most of us fit into this category, right?

The meditation techniques Ira encourages you to try on, as you would try jeans, are short and sweet, ranging from 5-14 minutes. Each daily meditation increases in duration by one minute, which helps you easily build up your meditation “stamina.” You don’t even have to practice each meditation for the whole time period. So this is a perfect chance to experiment with various simple meditation methods to see which works best for you. He explains that the brain is the hardware and the mind is the software. Meditation is your chance to re-boot.

In each practice, Ira instructs you to “create the frame” or sit cross-legged or in another comfortable position, with the hips higher than the knees, the shoulders over the hips, the spine straight and the hands on your knees. This position creates alignment and relaxation in the body and allows you to stay alert as you meditate. Some meditations can be practiced while lying down, but myself and others have found you tend to fall asleep in this position. As an experienced yogi and meditator I have found that as the cross-legged position becomes familiar, you will automatically begin to relax when you sit this way. If you are not accustomed to sitting this way, you might want support for your back in the beginning.

The 9 different anchors range from “pretending to meditate,” using visualizations to meditate, observing and labeling your thoughts, repeating mantras, and simple breathing exercises with focus words like acceptance and love.

During Day 10’s meditation, Ira instructs you to pick one of the 9 previous anchors, whichever resonated with you most, and to practice that one. This final practice allows you to review all that you learned and determine which practice you would like to use on a regular basis. The review this requires in your mind helps you make this practice your own.

I particularly enjoyed the meditation with the visualization of placing your thoughts on leaves and watching them float down a river. But you will have to find what resonates the most with you.
This certainly is a DVD I will return to for myself and for my clients and students.