Have you ever had one of those months where your mind just won’t clear up? This happens to me in the spring when I need to increase my allergy medication. Claritin clear? Claritin wonky is more like it!

Anyway, this year it seems to be having a detrimental effect on my editorial skills. Typos and misspelled words are getting by me at an alarming rate.

So what do I do? I slow down. I take things off my to do list and try my best to be OK with accomplishing less.

Sometimes, you just need a break. And, if you won’t take on voluntarily, your mind, body or spirit will force the issue.

There are a number of different Buddhist meditation techniques that followers and many meditation enthusiasts practice. Despite their differences, the techniques are all generally based on developing two things — mindfulness and concentration, both of which are particularly beneficial to writers. Developing attentiveness to the movements of the body and to the ever changing states of mind, it is believed, allows you to identify with the real concept of self. Objectivity in this case can be a valuable aid to clear thinking. With objectivity comes concentration, the ability to focus the mind and keep in focused on a single point or object.

Many Buddhist schools employ different techniques in meditation. Some may focus on practices such as breathing meditation, while others focus on movements. The diversity of variation is great. Most Buddhist techniques are school specific. Only a few masters aim to combine and categorize the techniques from several Buddhist traditions.

One meditation technique is practiced by Western Order meditation master Kamalashila. This teacher identifies five basic methods as the traditional set for meditation. Each method can be used as an antidote to one of the five primary obstructions to Enlightenment — distraction, hatred, craving, conceit and ignorance.
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Angela Hoy of Writer’s Weekly wrote this amazing article that I think is so important for writers to read that I’m going to post it on all four of The Holistic Writer’s blogs.

Amazon.com Telling POD Publishers - Let BookSurge Print Your Books, or Else…

Organic food consumption has increased in popularity over the years and that increase continues to rise at a relatively steady pace. There is a good chance that you have seen an organic food aisle at one of your local grocery stores. In fact, you may have even driven past a farmers market where organic food was sold. Even WalMart has come out with a line of organic foods. Alas, if you are like many other Americans, there is a good chance that you kept right on walking or driving by. This is because many people don’t eat organic foods.

Why should you eat organic? Many claim that eating organic foods helps promote lifelong health and happiness. Some believe organic foods can help detoxify the body. And, organic foods are environmentally friendly. Let me talk about each point individually.
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Everyone experiences stress. Some people experience a lot of stress, but do not let it get to them. Then there are people that get too stressed out — everything gets to them.

A case in point: I’m a very anxious person. I can stress out easily. I’ve learned a few techniques (which I’ll share a little later) for dealing with this, but my body can still tell me I’m stressed when I’m not conciously aware of it.

Now, given that everyone experiences stress — it is a perfectly natural reaction to certain circumstances — what does this mean for you?
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