New CD / download, now available in English as well as Danish, Norwegian, Dutch
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→ Review, Danish Natl. Radio
→ Info and listening samples
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Instructions
and specially designed music. . Mindfulness meditation, physical
exercise and playful happy bouncing - in three different
20-minute versions: basic, uptempo, downtempo.
Use
these exercises as support for other kinds of meditation, as exercise
on a rainy day, or simply as a fun and pleasant experience in itself.
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This set of soundtacks (on CD or downloads) contains three movement
meditations with clear, easy-to-follow instructions in English, and
dynamic music. This material was deveoped in the "Delta" lifestyle
program, a research project at Copenhagen University
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"Three
Dancing meditations" : background
Bouncing around happily on your living room floor, swinging arms
and legs – seen from the outside this may not resemble the classical
buddha image of calm sublime meditation. However, the core of the delta
dancing meditation is the basic form of awareness training captured by
Jon Kabat-Zinn in his classic definition: Mindfulness means paying
attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally. This is exactly what you will find in the delta
dancing meditation. Like other meditations, it is paradoxically easy
and difficult at the same time. Easy because no effort of changing the
moment is needed, difficult because we are so used to a constant focus
on effort and accomplishment.
Today, mindfulness is widely
practiced in the West. A growing body of research has shown it to be an
effective self-help measure for stress, pain, depression. Our own
research team has developed the delta program, a mindfulness-based
group intervention for overweight citizens, to support healthy
lifestyle changes - with promising results.
A new approach
As
an interesting new development of our time, the body tends to
play a central role in meditation practice – usually in a passive and
observing mode. Some teachers and schools have carried this trend
forward into dynamic body meditations. We have gone along with this
innovative movement, combined it with clear systematic mindfulness
instructions, designed music to support it, and shaped it into
20-minutes sessions for our delta lifestyle groups. As the delta
dancing meditations turned out attractive and useful for many others,
they now have a life of their own with this CD.
Ways of using this CD
If
you already have a practice of mindfulness-style meditation, this CD
can work well as supportive inspiration and variation.
Mindfulness teachers can use it as additional teaching
material.
Anyone can use this CD for exercise and refreshing experiences. Along
with this you will have a taste of genuine mindfulness meditation the
effects it can have on general well-being.
This CD is not
sufficient to establish the solid, regular practice necessary for the
full benefits of mindfulness. We suggest personal teaching
and
feedback that comes from retreats and courses like the eight week basic
MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction) course and other trainings or
retreats.
Acknowledgements
Classical, deep and innovative work in several great schools and
traditions of meditation has been deep sources of contemplative,
practical and philosophical inspiration, in particular Jon
Kabat-Zinn, Gabrielle Roth, Fransisco Varela, Erik Pema Kunsang (and
through him the enormous Vajrayana Buddhist tradition) and most of all
Michael Barnett (and through him, the Osho tradition). The band
“Surrender Cowboys”
contributed magic bits of sound, chords and solos here and there:
Kenneth Plon, Henrik Svenningsen, Christian Uhrskov, Max Bering. The
research team at Center for Research in Existence and Society helped
test the first pilot models and fine-tune its integration in our
mindfulness-based Delta program: Per Brændgaard, Eve Lorenzen and Søren
la Cour. The participants in the Delta Lifestyle groups provided
essential energy and fresh experiences. Heidi Mack rendered the
instructions in beautiful Canadian English, much better than the
original Danish. Russell Haack saw the potentials of taking delta
dancing beyond the delta groups.
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