Let’s look at how to use Taoism color meditation in our daily modern lives.  

Imagine the office or factory manager who demands that his employees regularly work around the clock. The manager gives the employees poor wages, no breaks, ignores their feedback, and only pays attention to them when there’s a problem. 

What would the employees do in a scenario like this? 

What would you do if your employer was like this? 

I think most of us would imagine the employees going on strike, eventually getting burned out, walking off the job, or just dropping dead altogether. Unfortunately, the way this factory manager treats his employees is how many people treat their internal organs.  

When was the last time we invested in our relationship with our spleen? Or had a daily check-in and conversation with our physical and emotional heart?

Do we hear people talk about their gallbladder, other than when there is a serious problem? The Taoists believe that listening to the feedback of our organs helps us modify our lifestyle in order to modify our death style. 

Taoism & Color Meditation for Anxiety 

Forming a relationship and having routine check-ins with our organs is exactly what The Inner Smile Meditation is designed to do. By having a relationship with our organs, we know what makes them happy, sad, function well, and what stifles the many unconscious processes they do on our behalf every minute.  

Further, according to the Taoist view of the body, each organ is associated with an element, a color, virtues, and aspects of nature (not to mention planets, times of day, phases of the moon, stars and constellations, tastes, smells, gemstones, etc. etc.) Strengthening these aspects inside of us strengthens our connection to these aspects of the natural world outside of us. 

By interacting with your organs and keeping the color and positive virtue in mind while expressing gratitude for what the organs do, we are speaking the language of that organ and it can more clearly hear us. It is not necessary to learn and memorize every characteristic of the Taoist five element theory. 

Easy 5-Step Tao Color Meditation 

For the practice of The Tao Inner Smile and experiencing more peace inside the body, it can be helpful to learn a color and one positive virtue for each organ. 

Many of these are intuitive, based on are cultural language and norms.  

For instance the color for the heart is red and the positive virtue is love. In the meditation of the inner smile, one thinks about love and visualizes a pleasing color of red, while expressing gratitude to the heart for pumping blood around the body. 

When we energetically and meditatively bathe the heart in love or the other organs in their associated colors and virtues, it creates the field around the organs that is copied and passed on to the next generation of cells as the cells divide.  

Then, exponentially we are quickly reprogramming our organs every time we practice the inner smile. The table below provides the bare basics of the organs’ characteristics, such as their colors and positive virtues, from Classical Chinese Medicine: 

1. Heart: Red, Love 
2. Lungs: White, Strength 
3. Liver: Green, Kindness 
4. Spleen: Yellow, Trust 
5. Kidneys: Blue, Creativity 

Creating a life-long Inner Smile with Taoist Philosophy 

The Inner Smile color meditation is about acceptance. It is about noticing and acknowledging ‘what is’ and saying ‘thank you.’ It is not about judging ourselves, berating our organs for not being better, or regretting the time we spent ignoring and taking for granted our most important vital functions.  

We already know how to put ourselves down. One end result of this Taoist system, or any spiritual path, is an acceptance of creation and finding oneself at peace with the universe and all that it contains.  

A feeling of connectedness with all of the manifest and nonmanifest world is an experience that sages throughout time have explained explicitly or implicitly. Where better to begin this process than in one’s own body?  

And of course, if we can’t experience peace in our body, what hope do we have or feeling connected to all of creation? I believe this Taoist system allows the practitioner to build this feeling from the ground up, so the interrelated feeling with creation is hard-wired into the very being of the practitioner.  

There are stories of instant enlightenment, but I believe the method of slowly building spiritual virtue in the body is akin to investing for retirement, versus hoping to hit the lottery. 

5-step color meditation to achieve the Taoist ‘Inner Smile’ 

*For each of five organs, repeat this sequence:  

1. Hold your hands over each organ releasing associated negative emotions or memories 
2. Exhale the “sound” of each organ three times 
3. Tapoteall over the organ while holding the breath out  
4. Raise the arms up on a strong inhalation and lower them in front of you with the sound of the organ eg. “Sssss”  
5. Hold your hands over the organ while visualizing the “color”, restoring positive qualities, and a gentle smile into the organ. 

1) The Lungs – WHITE 
Release sadness, depression, and grief 
The sound is SSS (tongue behind teeth)
Restore courage, strength and the right action  

2) Kidneys – BLUE 
Release fear and anxiety
The sound is Choo (as when blowing out a candle: lips form an ‘o’)
Restore calm, stillness and gentleness 

3) Liver – GREEN 
Release anger, jealousy and frustration
The sound is SHHH
Restore forgiveness, acceptance and kindness 

4) Heart – RED 
Release hastiness, cruelty and arrogance
The sound is HAW (mouth is wide open)
Restore gratitude, patience, joy, love and sincerity 

5) Spleen – YELLOW 
Release doubt, worry and negative speak about self and others
The sound is WHOO (from the throat, guttural)
Restore trust, fairness and openness 

Directions (step-1) : Place your hands on your lungs while standing or sitting at the edge of your seat. Begin to rock from side to side and allow your gaze to follow the same side-to-side movement with your eyes closed.

Imagine your eyes are like giant erasers sweeping across your lungs erasing any grief, sadness or depression. Once that feels complete take a deep breath in and create the sound (SSS) as you exhale out three times.

After your 3rd exhalation hold the breath out and stretch open your chest as you tap your lungs until you can’t hold your breath any longer. Raise your hands above your head as you suck the breath back in.

And then press your palms down in front of you while breathing out the SSSS sound. On your next inhale float your hands back to the lungs and visualize the lungs filling up with white light. Continue to fill your lungs with courage, strength, and right action. Finally, a gentle smile into your lungs. 

Conclusion 

In closing, at a minimum, one can simply put one’s hands over the heart and say thank you. This draws the energy of gratitude to the heart. Then, if you want to visualize red, feel love, and even look at the anatomical picture of the heart and other organs, it’ll only serve to strengthen the meditative experience, and thus the overall well-being. 

From The Alchemist’s Tao Te Ching: 
Transforming Your Lead into Gold
by Andrew McCart 

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Taoism may be regarded as both philosophy or religion in its essence. At its core is understanding the energy of the world. The way of the Tao is “going with the flow” in accordance with the Tao (or Dao). The flow is a cosmic force that both binds all things and the universe and also lets them go.  

Taoism exerted a great influence during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and the emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712-756 CE) decreed it a state religion, mandating that people keep Taoist writings in their home. Taoism declined with the Tang Dynasty and was replaced by  Confucianism  and  Buddhism.  

Today the way of the Tao is still practiced throughout China and other countries today.  

In this article we’ll explore the ancient art of Taoism including: 

• Benefits of Taoist meditation for anxiety 
• 5 Steps of harnessing your inner Tao 
• Balancing the Yin and Yang 

Benefits of Taoist Meditation for Anxiety

You may be surprised to hear the rise of an ancient philosophy of Taoism. Parallel to many meditation and mindfulness practices, the way of the Tao is rooted in Chinese philosophy and aligning the body to the earth and broader universe.

“Huang Di asked: ‘I’ve heard of people in ancient times, spoken of as the immortals, who knew the secrets of the universe and held the world in the palm of their hands. They extracted essence from nature and practiced Chi Kung and various stretching and breathing exercises, and visualizations, to integrate body, mind and spirit. They remained undisturbed and thus attained extraordinary levels of accomplishment. Can you tell me about them?’”

-The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine

Image: The inner alchemist is shown meditating in a chair, with the external alchemist fanning the fires of transformation

Taoist Inner Alchemy is the big payoff for the hard work of learning and practicing exercises of meditation, chi kung, and strengthening the body. The way I understand and teach inner alchemy is that it’s a process of absorbing a variety of energies from nature and blending those energies with our own.

The result is to grow closer to the pattern of nature itself. Nature has its ups and downs, its cycles, its violent upheavals, and quiet periods of seeming nothingness. However, in spite of these fluctuations, the Taoist philosophy is that nature is in balance overall.

As an example, of blending and absorbing different energies, Taoist astrology states that each of us has an individual disposition based on the time and place that we were born. The planets push and pull on us in different ways at different times of our lives. We have free will choices when faced with opportunities and threats from these fates, but ultimately, we must play the card we are dealt. Taoist inner alchemy helps you practically use these principles for meditation practice.

By inviting energy from the planets and seasons into our bodies and meditation processes, it adds to our weakness and softens our strengths to move us toward balance. Similarly, inviting the energies from the range of solar system and zodiac constellations into the body, mixing them with our individual essence, and storing that energy in our organs and bones gives us opportunities to heal with the Tao flow of nature.

Step 1: The 5 Natural Energies of Taoism 

Today you may refer to inner alchemy as meditation or mindfulness. You’d be surprised to know that Taoism describes its meditation practice in a step-by-step fashion.   

Internal Alchemy can buffer us from an “onslaught” of a particular type of energy that might challenge us.   

Inner Alchemy Map from Taoist Master Mantak Chia

To understand the map of Taoist alchemy, it is helpful to explain the sequence of practice.  At any level, it works with balancing yin and yang and harmonizing the five elements.   

The five Taoist elements are:  

1. Energy inside the body   
2. Energy of planet Earth.   
3. Energies at the level of the solar system 
4. Energy of the stars of our galaxy 
5. Energy of spirit and matter  

Finally merging with the Tao itself.  It is worth thinking of this process as climbing a sacred mountain or building a great cathedral.  It is done from the ground up and without skipping steps. 

For example: for those not born with a lot of the fire element, such as the planet Mars, we can slowly invite the energy of Mars into our body and energy field.  Additionally, we can invite the balancing energies into our process and they can help support us when that fiery, planetary energy knocks on our door. 

Step 2: How Taoism Guides the ‘Inner Smile’ and Harmony  

At the first level of inner alchemy, Taoism teaches the Fusion of the Five Elements.  The five elements inside the body correspond to the vital organs that were outlined in the explanation of the Inner Smile and the Six Healing Sounds.   

Fusion of the Five Elements

Fusion 1:

• Unites various aspects of our psychology and personality into balance and then merges them in the center.  The first part of the Fusion 1 practice encourages the energy to flow in a pattern called the Creation Cycle, where each element feeds the one that comes after it in the cycle.   

• Merging the various aspects of the personality into the center of the lower abdomen, at the level of the navel.  Before this practice, it is common for different aspects of our personality to want to go in different directions.  For instance, our heart or fire aspects may want to chase fame and excitement.   

This can sharply contrast with our kidneys or water aspects that want to settle into a groove and rest at home.  By practicing the Fusion 1 practice, our elements blend together, and we do not have the inner struggle we once had.   

Fusion 2 and 3:  

• Opening of the deep channels of our body, known as the Eight Extraordinary Channels.  When these are open and flowing like great rivers, the balanced energy of the Inner Smile and the Fusion 1 practice can nourish deeper aspects of our being. 

Step 3: How to Balance the Yin and Yang Energy and Tao Self-Healing 

Image: Taoism Alchemy of the 5 elements and how they balance Yin and Yang Energy.

In the next level of alchemy, that of Water and Fire, the Primal Fire and Primal Water or Inner Male (Yang) and Inner Female (Yin) are blended together in the lower abdomen.   

The imagery here is like that of a metal pot of boiling water above a fire, sitting on the earth.   

In this image, all five elements are involved. You can think of it in this sequence: 

1. Wood feeds 
2. Fire  
3. Metal holds 
4. Water 
5. All rest on the earth.   

This visualization meditation is the next level of the Fusion practice and the meditation is more dynamic.  The process creates a healing steam that can flow or be guided through the channels of the body to rejuvenate organs, glands, bones, and vessels. 

From the deep psyche of the physical body in Water and Fire Alchemy, the alchemist moves to the outer environment of the Earth.   

The five elements here become represented in different ways.   

• The alchemist breathes in the wood element by relating to forests and all things that grow. He resonates with the fire of lava and the passions of humans and animals, and the sun. 
• The planet Earth itself embodies the earth element at this level.  
• The metal element is represented by clouds, metals inside the earth, and the descending energy of waterfalls.  
• The water element is embodied by rivers, lakes, the oceans, and the deep memory of the collective chi field.  In Sun-Moon-Earth alchemy, yin and yang are symbolized by the sun and moon, and the impact of their cycles on the earth and its inhabitants. The imagery of the boiling pot of water becomes the sun and the moon joining in a loving embrace with the earth holding the center for their beautiful dance.  

The meditation moves from the navel and lower abdomen to the three-dimensional space of the solar plexus.  The Creation Cycle meditation from the Fusion 1 practice can still be done inside the physical body, but it can include the energies of the seasons transforming from one to the next in an endless cycle.   

Step 4: Tao Solar System Astronomy, and Alchemy of the Planets

As Tao meditation advances, from the Earth’s perspective, the alchemist then steps up to the relationship of yin/yang and the five elements at the level of the Solar System.  

From the Solar System’s perspective, the five elements are the inner planets, the ones that can be seen with the naked eye.   

As I understand it, Yin and Yang are the fire of the Inner Earth and the water of Polaris, the Pole Star.   

• Wood element is represented by the expansive planet Jupiter. 
• Fire element is embodied by the red planet, Mars.  
• The earth element is seen as the balanced planet Saturn, with its beautiful belt channel rings.  
• The metal element is represented by Venus, with the qualities of the goddess of beauty. 
• The water element shows its qualities through Mercury, as it dances through the sky, flowing forward and backward.   

The seat of this alchemy in the body is the heart, as the heart has the radiant qualities of the outer sun, but also the magnetic qualities of the inner sun. 

Step 5: Achieving Higher Consciousness with Tao Zodiac Alchemy 

From the heart and the center of the Solar System, the next stop for the alchemical process is the upper tan tien.  This is the three-dimensional space behind the third eye or pineal gland, and in the macrocosm, at the center of the galaxy.   

This level of alchemy is known as Star Alchemy, and blends the star quadrants of the north, south, east, and west with the center.  Psychologically, this process alludes to the functioning of time and timelessness.   

The stars move so slowly, compared to humans, that they are on an entirely different cycle of existence.  Similarly, the Big Dipper moves around the stationary North Star, marking out the seasons like a cosmic watch dial.   

The yang or fire element at this level is Polaris, the Pole Star.  The yin or water element is the star Vega, which is said to be the Earth’s once and future Pole Star. Vega takes turns with Polaris on cycles that are tens of thousands of years.  This level of the alchemical process also includes the “Sealing of the Five Senses,” where one energetically turns the sense organs inward to reverse the usual loss of energy.  This encourages the adept to look, listen, smell, taste, and feel the internal process of the body.  

Seeing the alchemical process outside helps to see it inside

Conclusion 

Taoism, and its practice of meditative alchemy, a practitioner learns a practice called The Congress of Heaven and Earth.  At this level, there is less to say and more to feel.  It is a merging of spirit and matter; feeling the energy of creation inside the body.  The merging of alchemy moves back to the heart and the center of the being.

When Heaven is experienced on Earth and Heaven knows the excitement, passion, and variety of life on Earth; the joy of merging polarities is experienced by everyone aware of the process. 

The end, or perhaps the beginning, of this spiritual path is the Union of Man and Tao.  The teachers on this path say that it can’t be taught; that is needs to be experienced from the Tao itself. 

I believe it is a returning to our original nature; therefore, we are all capable of it and once knew how to be it naturally.  It seems that the process is a stripping away of what is not us.  This can happen at the moment of death, but the adept hopes to experience it before then and enjoy the accompanying level of enlightenment.

-Adapted from The Alchemist’s Tao Te Ching: Transforming Your Lead into Gold, by Andrew McCart 

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The Yuga cycles mirror the Greek Great Year described by Plato. Today astronomers understand this period known as the precession of the equinoxes.

Precession is a 25 920 year cycle that measures the slow rotation of the background stars relative to rising sun on the vernal equinox. Originally described in the Vedas, the oldest known written texts on planet earth, the Yuga cycles describe this slow rotation of the zodiac constellations.  

Each period describe ascending and descending periods of life on earth.

Today it’s most widely believed that we are in the Kali Yuga, but some Hindu scholars discuss whether this is true or not. 

In this article we’ll get to know the foundations of the Yuga Cycles.

The Yugas and Long-Count Calendar

To understand the Yuga cycles, we must see that them as a measure of time.  

Yogic astronomy divides the orbit of the Earth around the Sun into 27 segments, called  nakshatras.  

• Each nakshatra is further divided into four equal sectors called padas or steps. Multiply 4 by 27 and it equals 108.  

• These 108 units mark the 108 steps that the Earth takes through space.  

• Each nakshatra equals one half of the moon cycle around the Earth. The cycles within the human body respond and correspond to that. 

The nakshatras describe in detail the motion of the earth, sun and moon.  

The Yuga cycles are a way to divide the motion of the earth, sun, and other astronomical figures. 

It’s based on the notion that the sun has a third motion as it revolves around its partner star somewhere in the cosmos.  

Today binary star systems are known to be far more common than single star systems.  

What are the 4 Yuga Cycles?

The Yugas are a cycle that spans over a period of roughly 25,920 years and is associated with the precession of the equinoxes, or the ‘Great Year’. 

It is broken up into four eras known as “Yugas”. They each correspond to a period in relation to humanity’s level of perception of the non-material or spiritual universe.  

Image: The Yuga Cycles are broken into Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali Yugas.

Each of the four Yugas is assigned to specific amounts of time throughout the cycle. These are generally have the ratio of 4:3:2:1, with the smallest denomination of this ratio roughly 1296 years. 

Today the lengths of each period is disputed, above is the most widely accepted version. However, we will explore the different interpretations in future articles.  

As the entire cycle is roughly 25,920 years long, the Kali Yuga, or Iron Age, lasts for 2,592 years. The Satya Yuga or Golden Age has a longer length of 10,368 years.  

When estimating these times we must take into account the elliptical orbit the sun makes with its supposed binary twin.  

As it approaches its twin and encounters a greater gravitational pull, the sun behaves similar to a car approaching a sharp corner on a road.  

Its velocity decreases as it makes a close orbit around its twin, before it is slingshot back out into space once more. 

As it approaches, there would be such a gravitational pull on our sun that we would stay in that area of the universe for longer than we would be away from it.  

Our sun would be drawn with such gravity towards its twin before being slung back out into space once more. 

What are the 4 ‘Yugas’?

1. Satya Yuga
2. Treta Yuga
3. Dwapara Yuga
4. Kali Yuga

 1) Satya Yuga or the Golden Age 

The Golden Age marks the time of humanity’s purest era, where truth and love is valued over all else and balance reigns on the planet. It is believed that spiritual senses are at their peak too, with mankind’s ability to perceive the non-material at an all time high. 

As humanity is currently in the depths of the Kali Yuga, we are the lowest point of the descending cycle, about to begin the long journey back up. It won’t be for roughly another 12,000 years, or half-cycle, that we will return to the top of the Satya Yuga or Golden Age. 

2) Treta Yuga or the Silver Age

As we enter the third quarter of the Yuga cycle, humanity is thought to be able to comprehend the subtle energies at play throughout the universe. Things that seem unimaginable in modern times start to become perceived.

These include sensing natural electromagnetics and other subtle energies like electricity in the air, as well as refined awareness of seemingly paranormal phenomenon like synesthesia and telepathy. 

3) Dwapara Yuga or Bronze Age

The second quarter of the cycle is linked to mental virtue. It is believed that, during this period, we will begin to comprehend spiritual ideas and begin adopting them worldwide.  

4) Kali Yoga

The Kali Yuga  is the fourth and present age of the world cycle of Yugas, or “ages.” It’s also the end of the four ages that comprise a cycle and is often referred to as the dark age. In Hindu belief, the Kali Yuga leads to destruction of the world and then the creation of a new cycle of the four yugas. 

 It is filled with war and conflict. Spiritually, civilization degenerates throughout the yuga, as people drift farther and farther from the Divine. At the end of the Kali Yuga, Hindus believe that Lord Shiva will come in the form of Lord Kalki to punish and cleanse the world, which will have devolved to the point of being incapable of enlightenment. The resulting transformation and re-creation of the universe is the start of a new cycle of yugas. 

Which Yuga are we currently in?

In his 1894 book The Holy Science, Yukteswar Giri explains the link between the Yuga cycles and human behavior. Kali Yuga, or the Iron Age, is where we currently reside.  

Being the first quarter, it is the lowest point in the cycle, and we are only just beginning the ascending stage. It is at this time that humanity can barely perceive anything outside gross materialism. In other words, it can’t get much worse than this! 

The number of years the Yuga Cycle and Great Year takes to complete varies quite dramatically depending on which source you consult, but the most common number of 25,920 years has been adopted not only by modern researchers, but also by much of the ancient world.

This number was so important in fact, that many ancient cultures understood this phenomenon and based their systems of measurement on factors of the length of the Great Year, and included these precessional numbers in many ancient structures found all over the world. 

From sites like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, all the way to the great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt,  multiples of these numbers in some form appear again and again, highlighting the importance they held over civilizations from a bygone era. 

Although it may appear to be an ancient idea, we still incorporate these numbers into modern day life. 60 second minutes, 60-minute hours, as well as 24-hour days, are all factors of the widely accepted Yuga Cycle length of 25,920. 

While they are the same length, the Yuga Cycle is slightly different to the precession of the equinoxes or great year in that it measures eras of time in relation to humanity’s perception of the universe. As the cycle flows, there are ascending and descending periods of time that are thought to tie to mankind’s spiritual awareness.  

Throughout the cycle, it is understood that the human race goes through times of greater connection with the spiritual world, as well as periods of time based on materialism and non-spirituality. As a result of this, there are certain stages of the Yuga Cycle that are thought to have physical effects on planet earth. 

It is written by many ancient sources that this phenomenon is not something of science fiction, but the astronomical cycle of sun’s grand wider with its binary twin.  

How Does the Yuga Cycle Work?

Imagine the heavens as a grand clock with certain constellations relating to numbers on that clock’s face. Throughout the Yuga Cycle, these constellations move throughout the sky, and depending on where they appear, they help us calculate the current point within the cycle.  

The constellations are each represented by a sign of the zodiac, and depending on which sign is visible on sunrise on the autumnal equinox determines where we sit within the Great Year. As there are 12 signs of the zodiac, so too are there 12 months of the Great Year. 

Because the cycle itself is so long, the slow movements of stars are barely perceptible to us. In fact, it takes roughly a human lifetime–72 years–for a star to move just one degree through the sky. Remember, it isn’t until a full 360 degrees has been completed that a Great Year or Yuga Cycle restarts. 

To get an idea of perspective, you can try to measure this yourself. Next time there is a full moon and you are able to see it on a clear night, imagine it as being half a degree of the entire Yuga Cycle. Double its diameter and you are envisioning a full degree of the Cycle. 

To understand this slow motion of the heavens would have required extreme patience and information acquired over thousands and thousands of years. 

What Causes the Yuga Cycles?

As planet Earth moves throughout the cosmos, the Yuga Cycle continually ticks like a master clock. But what causes this slow spin? 

While the background of stars is constantly moving as time goes by, there is one star that appears not to move at all; Sirius. What is interesting about the Sirius star is the fact that it appears to be the sibling star to our sun.  

 That is, it seems logical that our sun is in a binary relationship with it, causing it to appear still against a moving background of stars. 

 This idea might seem strange for us, but it was completely accepted by many ancient cultures from around the world. It has long been discussed by ancient cultures that the sun is not a lone ranger in the cosmos, but instead paired with a binary partner. This is most apparent in Hindu cosmology, with many references to this idea. 

Conclusion

It is still a mystery as to how the Ancients came to understand the Yuga Cycles. For such a long period of time, a comprehensive picture would have needed insanely long observations passed down over many generations.  

Just the sheer amount of time the Yuga Cycles span is hard to comprehend. For the entire cycle to be observed by a culture, it would require 360 lots of 72 years. If we say 72 years is more or less the lifespan of just one individual, that is a whole lot of lifetimes to spend observing the skies.  

How do you think the ancients came to understand the Yuga cycles? 

Further Reading:

The Holy Science by Yukteswar Giri 

Seeking the Primordial by Laird Scranton 

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What they were aware of, though, were two other concepts that describe evolution.

These are:

1. Descent with modification
2. Common descent.

The first is an observable fact. Children look different from their parents and siblings. Despite being descendants of their parents, children are modified versions of them.

The common descent theory suggests that living beings on Earth all share a common ancestor. Descent with modification over numerous years has resulted in all the species variety we see. But, it’s also a theory we can’t observe. Over the years, scientists have described a model common descent. However, at the time, researchers could not fathom how random genetic changes could guide descent with modification to create species variety from a single ancestor.

Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection changed all of that. He suggested that while random variations may have been wrought by nature, nature had also helped select organisms that were most likely to survive. Over time, organisms that do well, flourish, as do their offspring. Eventually, enough of the offspring with useful characteristics survive and alter the species as a whole.

Darwin’s belief in natural selection being an essential step for evolution has been proven, to some degree. Researchers have observed it in the lab and outside, making natural selection an observable fact. Common descent is a bit harder to prove.

How was Natural Selection Discovered? 

In 1859, Darwin laid the foundation for the field of evolution when he put forward his theory of natural selection. His travels to South America and Europe aboard the H.M.S. Beagle had brought the variety of the natural world into his line of vision.  

He theorized that differences in needs and responses to one’s environment led to certain traits being favored over others. This ability to adapt to one’s surroundings made one more or less likely to survive. Naturally, during reproduction, organisms with those traits outperformed those without. Gradually, such organisms flourished and evolved.  

How Does Natural Selection Work?  

According to Darwin, the adaptation of organisms to their environs happened through natural selection. This process arises from a random accumulation of favorable genes. The fittest individuals were those who possessed the genes needed to survive their environment.  

The theory of natural selection was the crux of Darwin’s proclamations during the 19th century. Simply put, genes that increase an organism’s chances of survival are more likely to appear in a population. Eventually, genes that reduce fitness are ruled out.  

A well-known example is that of the evolution of dark moths in England. Prior to the industrial revolution, a light grey moth, which was easily camouflaged between the lichen growing on trees was the most common variety in the country. But after the industrialization of the nation, pollution turned the barks of trees black, making darker moths more likely to survive scavenging birds. 

Over time, natural selection made black moths a more common feature in cities as opposed to the rural areas that still bear witness to the lighter variants. Thus, environmental constraints had weeded out the “weaker” moths. “Fitter” moths that could withstand predation eventually overtook the natural population. 

Natural selection vs artificial selection 

While natural selection occurs well, naturally, artificial selection requires a helping hand—most often from man. The domestication of the dogs we have as pets and the crops we like to eat are a direct result of man’s interference in evolution. Humans have selectively bred many species useful to them by choosing to breed only those with traits we valued.  

 Horses have been bred for speed, cows for milk production, and dogs for size, cuteness or ferocity. Artificial selection has not interfered with nature in multiple ways. For example, the wild mustard of yore is the ancestor of not only the cabbage of today but also that of brussel sprouts, kale, cauliflower, and kohlrabi.  

3 Requirements for Natural Selection 

For natural selection to occur, certain requirements need to be met: 

1. Organisms within a species can differ from one to the other. These variations can include color, size, markings, etc. But other traits, say the number of chambers in a human’s heart, will remain constant within the species.  
2. Certain traits are heritable and passed from parent to offspring.  
3. Populations tend to overproduce but are kept in check by disease, famine, or other limitations. Individuals within a species must compete for resources.  

Variations that help organisms adapt to their environs are retained and herited. Thus, over time, populations evolve through natural selection. Only those individuals who can adapt to their environment pass on suitable traits to their progeny and survive.  

Natural selection in humans 

The mechanisms of natural selection are well observed, however explaining human origins gets more complex. Historically, it was thought modern humans evolved to beat out other species. Researchers long suspected that one reason humans may have vanquished Neanderthals is because we were more adaptable. However Neanderthal DNA in modern human genes show that’s not exactly the case.  

Humans have colonized the far corners of the world. These varying environments have left their mark on the human genome in the form of adaptations. Till date, close to 3000 regions associated with natural selection being identified in the human genome. These include changes in the genes that help people digest milk or acclimate to high altitudes. 

One example of natural selection in humans is the skin tone gradient seen across the world. To begin with, humans were likely pale under thick fur. As we lost most of our body hair—likely to keep us cool in hot Africa—we grew darker-skinned.  

 Today we can explain these changes via epigenetics. A genes ability to shift its expression with environmental changes. It adds a level of complexity to ‘random’ mutations.  

Melanin, the pigment in our skin kept us protected from the sun’s UV rays. Dark skin in the tropics help prevent the breakdown of folate, an important vitamin. As humans spread out of Africa, lighter skin evolved in regions of the world where sunlight is not as harsh. Light skin in the temperate zone helps in vitamin D storage.  

 Another example is human tolerance of lactose, the sugar in milk. When domestication had not made milk easily accessible to humans, lactose intolerance was widespread. Now, large scale dairy farming has almost led to the disappearance of this trait. 

Conclusion  

Natural selection in evolution is an observed phenomena. However, new advances in biological diversity and genetics, show there are still many things to learn to explain the evolution of a complex species like the human race.   

Today you can still detect the vestige of these legacies in our genome.  

When we consider evolution an explanation for all life on earth, it must be acknowleged that part of the theory is still being uncovered by scientists.  

Further reading:  

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-selection/ 

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Science-William-K-Purves/dp/0716798565  

https://www.amazon.com/iGenetics-Molecular-Approach-Peter-Russell/dp/0321569768  

https://www.amazon.com/Biology-8th-Neil-Campbell/dp/0805368442  

https://academic.oup.com/nar/article/47/D1/D1080/5134333  

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2019/01/28/human-skin-color-explained-vitamind-folate/#.XGLipTMza00 

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Most people today have heard of the Out of Africa theory for human evolution. It was back in the 19th century, when Charles Darwin suggested that our human ancestors may have evolved in Africa. It was based on the fossil records uncovered at the time. In the next century, two theories were floated to explain paleo-anthropological records.   

The other, is called the multi-regional hypothesis. It proposes that long ago, after exiting Africa, multiple homo species settled throughout the world. Modern humans then evolved from these ancestors across different locations worldwide.  

According to the multi-regional hypothesis, the ancestor, Homo erectus, seeded Homo sapiens populations all over the world. Proponents explain the rise of modern human DNA from a continuous exchange of genetic material occurred over a span of hundreds of thousands of years.   

The Out of Africa theory describes a much simpler and recent evolution of modern humans, moving from Africa to Eurasia and then globally.  

To this day Out of Africa, is widely accepted theory among scientists.  

However the alternate has a growing body of evidence to show that modern humans could have been outside Africa at an earlier than established date. 

How was the Out of Africa Theory Established? 

Out of Africa was only established in the 90’s during a debate as to the age of modern humans.  

The development of genetic analysis tools in the 1980s helped scientists grow attracted to the out of Africa hypothesis. Matches between the DNA of living modern humans and fossil remains verified that H. sapiens evolved several hundred thousand years ago on African soil. 

The theory explains that while numerous human-like species walked the planet, only one arose into modern man. 

New evidence continues to swing the pendulum of knowledge about human origin between these two theories.

When did Humans Leave Africa? 

Image: An overview of the Out of Africa Theory Map Source

Today it’s still far more accepted that humans are a relatively young species.  

Out of Africa theory says the first modern man first evolved in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Further, the single and original H. sapiens was believed to have travelled out of Africa around 70 000 years ago. 

It’s believed that several branches of modern humans, beginning around 270 000 years ago, and certainly 130 000 years ago came out of Northern Africa. These waves were either died out or retreated, before the last and final wave travelled across the globe.  

Successful modern humans were said to have replaced ancient humans (like the Neanderthals) without mating with them. In recent years, new discoveries have challenged multiple aspects of this theory.  

Recently, researchers presented their discovery of H. sapiens fossils from Morocco. Called Jebel Irhoud, the bones were dated back to around 315,000 years ago.  

The finding of the bones of a modern humans in Africa at such an early date pushes our origin story back by more than 100,000 years.  

Other studies have also suggested that an early migration out of Africa may have occurred around 120,000 years ago.  

To make things even more interesting, in recent years, Neanderthal DNA evidence suggests modern and archaic humans may have interbred.

How and when did humans migrate out of Africa? 

A problem confounding scientists is when and how many types of humans resulted in our modern form.   

Scientists are of the opinion that humans may have taken a few different routes on their move out of Africa. Recent evidence also suggests that there may have been more than one exodus. These waves of migration out of the continent likely happened at different time points. 

One route taken by the early humans was likely across the Bab-al-Mandab Strait that runs between Yemen from Djibouti. From there, they quickly moved along coastal India, reaching Southeast Asia and Australia around 50,000 years ago.  

Another group moved into the Middle East and southern Central Asia a little after 50,000 years ago. Then, the modern humans moved across Europe and the northern reaches of Asia.  

Who were the First Humans in Africa? 

Previously, the oldest H. sapiens fossils were thought to be from the Omo Kibish and Herto sites in  Ethiopia that are dated to around 195,000 and 160,000 years ago, respectively.  

The recently discovered specimens, Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) and Florisbad (South Africa), were dated to about 315,000 and 259,000 years ago, respectively. These “new” remains imply modern man evolved much earlier than anticipated. 

Outside Africa, the oldest known H. sapiens fossils were at two sites in Israel, Skhul and Qafzeh, and had been dated to only between 90,000 and 120,000 years old. But a recent finding of a jaw bone in Misliya cave, Israel, has pushed the date of modern man’s first migration back much further.  

According to the researchers, early humans may have wandered out of Africa more than 50,000 years ago than previously thought. The fossil, which includes a part of the upper jaw and teeth, was dated to between 177,000 and 194,000 years ago.  

The scientists made an anatomical comparison between the fossilized jawbone and those of other human species. It was found to most similar to that of H. sapiens. There are some scientists that say more evidence may be needed. All in all, these results suggest modern man may have been present outside of Africa more than 50,000 years earlier than previously believed.  

These and other fossils  suggest that H. sapiens may have evolved at multiple places in Africa. This development goes against the previously-held theory that humans arose at a particular place in Africa.  

Indeed, modern humans may have arisen at multiple spots. 

Why did early humans migrate Out of Africa? 

While researchers aren’t quite clear on why humans may have been driven to move, they suspect climatic changes. The dramatic cold possibly made life quite uncomfortable for early humans.  

Changes in the African continent’s climate may have forced modern humans to seek greener grass elsewhere. 

Out of Africa Theory vs Multi-Regional Theory  

In 1927, near Beijing Davidson Black uncovered the remains of a human-like ancestor that would rock the world of anthropologists. Originally a single tooth, excavations would reveal several skullcaps and mandibles, facial and limb bones of 40 skeletons. The dating of the fossils revealed a time span of between 7700 to 230 000 years ago.  

Franz Weidenreich, a German anthropologist used the findings to help develop the multi-regional approach to understanding human evolution. His study of Peking Man—a H. erectus fossil found in China—led him to conclude that similarities between past and present human species in the region must have arisen from evolutionary continuity.  

The Java Man—a H. erectus fossil from Indonesia—left Milford Wolpoff, an American palaeoanthropologist, similarly convinced. He went on to coin the term “multi-regional hypothesis” in the 1980s.  However, recent dating of later H. erectus in Indonesia imply they only lived until about 50,000 years ago when modern humans from Africa may have come.  

On the other hand, China showcases examples of skulls from 100,000 years ago that seem to fall halfway between H. erectus and H. sapiens. 

Conclusion 

New fossils and discoveries are constantly rewriting the history of modern humans’ movements outside of Africa. Only recently scientists have found evidence that modern humans may have evolved more than 300,000 years ago.  

This pushes back old estimates by over a hundred thousand years. Newly found remains also suggest that the first wave of migration may have occurred earlier than 50,000 years than we initially believed.  

Multi-regional evolution could see a renewal in popularity as new pieces of the puzzle are added in. At the very least, changes to the Out of Africa theory is now occuring.  

Our understanding of the reasons behind the move out of the continent will only deepen as our clarity on the timelines grows. This will only happen as more and more fossils are dug up around the world. 

Human evolution, is evolving.  

Further reading:  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/2chapter2.shtml 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/controversial-fossil-hints-homo-sapiens-blazed-a-trail-out-of-africa-earlier-than-thought/ 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4844272/ 
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6374/389 
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/human-finger-bone-points-early-exodus-out-africa?r3f_986=https://www.google.com/ 
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/ 
https://psmag.com/news/why-and-when-did-early-humans-leave-africa 
 

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Why were so many built? How did the ancients manage such precision and design? Who were the architects responsible for these now famous monuments? 

Here’s a list of 15 famous monuments that will blow your mind. Although many are so old they are but fingerprints of their original state, they still are powerful enough to draw our attention and spark our imagination from deep inside. 

1. Kailasa Temple, India 

Image: The Kailasa Temple is a famous monument located in India.

The Kailasa Temple was carved out of a single piece of rock, making it the largest monolithic structure in the world. If this doesn’t sound impressive enough, the ancient builders are thought to have constructed it vertically, from the top down. It would be like trying to carve an ice sculpture from above!  

Estimations vary depending on who you ask, but on average it is thought over 200,000 tonnes of basalt rock was removed as the temple was made.  

The famous monument doesn’t stand alone–it is part of a complex of carved cave structures. In total, there are 34 individual temples and monasteries, which are known as the ‘Ellora Caves’. However, it is the sheer size and the intricate and stunning carvings that adorn the Kailasa temple, which make it the most famous monument in the complex.

2. Rock Ship of Masuda, Japan 

Image: The famous monument of Masuda, Japan.

Weighing in at an estimated 800 tonnes and carved out of solid granite, the Rock Ship of Masuda is as enigmatic as they come.  

This famous monument, located in Asuka, Japan, bears the striking resemblance to a spaceship of some kind. It was discovered atop a steep hill in an area of Japan known for its many rock mounds and carvings. The Rock Ship, which is the largest of the mounds, is 36 feet long and around 15 feet high. Carving this ship would have been a tough enough task for whoever was responsible, yet they made their jobs even more difficult by carving two square openings from the top to the bottom of the monument. 

It is still unknown who carved the ship or why, however this famous monument continues to draw interest from travellers all over the world. 

3. Baalbek, Lebanon 

Image: The temple of Jupiter, Baalbeek, Lebanon. Source

Welcome to Baalbek–home to the largest cut piece of stone ever achieved by human hand. 

The carved stone is thought to weigh 1650 tonnes, and still sits unmoved in a nearby quarry. Although this weight is huge, it is not the most mysterious part of the famous monument. 

For Baalbek, there are still many questions surrounding its origin. Although it is generally accepted the Romans built part of it, there are many who believe otherwise. Backing this idea up is the fact that the Romans never left any documentation on who commissioned its original structure. There are Roman built areas of Baalbek, but the original giant stone blocks seem beyond the capabilities of even the once mighty Roman Empire.  

It has long caused confusion as to why such unnecessarily large blocks were used at all at Baalbek. It seems impractical and unnecessary to our civilization to build with such ridiculously large blocks of stone. 

Regardless of who built it, when it was first constructed, and why, it is a truly remarkable famous monument–one that is a puzzling as it is beautiful. 

4. Giant Leshan Buddha, China 

Image: The famous rock-cut buddha statue in Leshan, China Source

Etched out of a mountainside and standing over 230 feet tall is the largest carved Buddha on the planet. This famous monument, located near the city of Leshan, China, took over 90 years to construct and is now a UNESCO world heritage site. 

The Giant Buddha was well worth the effort for the three generations of craftsmen who built it. After it’s completion, it was thought the monument would help calm the fierce waters that ran below its stone feet. This was both symbolic and literal, as passing vessels soon had a calmer path through the river due to the many stones that fell and became submerged during the Buddha’s construction. 

5. Star Door, Peru

Image: The Star-door Peru Source

A carved doorway leading nowhere, with nothing but legends left to explain it. This is the mysterious ‘Star Door’, located high in the rugged mountains of Hayu Marca in Southern Peru. 

There is so much mystery here. Countless stories exist of the door with many native tribes having names like ‘gateway to the land of the gods’ and ‘the city of the gods’. It seems that stories are all that are left to us, with no one sure of when, why and by whom the door was carved. 

In local traditions it is said that there have been many throughout history who have disappeared after approaching the door, never to be seen again. There have also been many strange reports from visitors claiming to have heard music and chanting coming from the solid rock behind the famous monument. Not only this–many have claimed to have seen a strange light phenomenon and objects above and around the star door. 

Its purpose may never fully be understood, however this strange monolith still attracts thousands of tourists each year, all of which are drawn in by its mystery. 

6. Machu Picchu, Peru 

Image: The hidden mountain-top temple of Machu Picchu, Peru. Source

We’ve all heard of Machu Picchu–the city build on top of a mountain. This ancient wonder still attracts millions of visitors each year, making it the most famous monument in all of Peru. 

For reasons still unknown, the city was built in an extremely isolated and remote region of South America. How the ancients constructed it without the wheel, modern technology, or even mortar is an engineering anomaly. There is still a functioning canal system found all over Machu Picchu, which has long baffled archaeologists. Canals, fountains, springs and intricate drainage holes are some of the features of the famous monument’s water works. 

One of the biggest questions surrounding Machu Picchu is why it was purposely abandoned. There have been no signs of warfare or natural disasters found around the city, raising the notion that that inhabitants left the site by choice sometime in deep antiquity. 

7. Göbekli Tepe, Turkey 

Image: Gobekli Tepe temple in Turkey Source

The site that shouldn’t exist – Göbekli Tepe  is by far the most important archaeological discovery in the history of the planet. 

Found in the dry lands of Turkey, this now famous monument has changed everything we thought we knew about modern civilization. 

Here are just a few facts about the site that will blow your mind 

• It was built over 11000 years ago 
• Its construction predates Stonehenge, writing and the invention of the wheel by at least 6000 years 
• It is so old it predates the invention of the tools that are supposed to have built it 
• It is believed that agriculture was invented there 
• The pillars that make up the site are huge, with some standing over 5 meters tall and weighing over 10 tonnes! 
• It was purposely buried and remained so for over 9000 years 
• It appears just after the North American ice sheet melted–an extremely turbulent time in Earth’s pre-history 

8. Easter Island 

Image: The Moai Statues of Easter Island. Source

Over 1000 miles of open sea separates Easter Island from its closest neighboring landmass–making the structures on it some of the most isolated on earth.  

It is still unknown who exactly is responsible, but at some point over 800 years ago the inhabitants of the island began to carve and erect huge standing stone figures known as ‘Moai’. The statues–over 900 in total–have long captured the imagination of people from all over the world. Each statue stands an average 13 feet tall and weighs around 14 tonnes, with the largest weighing an incredible 70 tonnes. 

Many have assumed people from the Americas originally inhabited Easter Island, yet a recent DNA test carried out by archaeologists at the University of Bristol concluded there was no evidence for this. Instead, the researchers found that it was more likely that Polynesians or peoples from Australasia had made their way to the tiny island and decided to construct the stunning figures. 

These results only deepen the mystery surrounding the island and the famous monuments left behind. It is still up for debate how the figures were moved, as well as how the materials were excavated from the volcanic crater where the rock was initially quarried. 

9. Sascayuaman, Peru 

Image: Sascayuaman, Peru Source

The complex of Sascayuaman–a series of megalithic stone walls carved and joined so perfectly that even today you can’t fit a blade of grass in between–bears some of the most impressive architecture on the planet.  

The huge carved stones, some of which weighing in at 70 tonnes, have been cut and placed together like puzzle pieces. These stones don’t make up your average wall; they are mismatched and sloped yet somehow all manage to fit together perfectly and without mortar. Undertaking the task of constructing the walls would drive any sane stonemason mad. 

The incredible 12-sided stone is one of the most popular parts of this famous monument, with no one being able to explain how this was possibly achieved. The walls of Sascayuaman aren’t built straight or even curved, but instead they zigzag along the earth, making them unique in their style. 

10. Moray, Peru 

Image: Moray, Peru Source

While Machu Picchu sits in the spotlight for Peru’s most famous monument, Moray quietly rests with just as much mystery surrounding it. 

Built high in the Andes Mountains near Cusco, the site sits far from any nearby temples or megalithic structures, it is completely isolated. 

While many argue the ancient ruins of Moray were simply an agricultural experiment, there has been much doubt cast on this theory in recent times. Many have concluded that the Incas–known for their advanced knowledge of farming and water systems–would have designed the site to be far more practical for farming than it currently is. 

The ancient site, built with a series of concentric circular depressions, has an appearance that resembles a speaker carved into the earth.  

This has led some to question the famous monuments acoustic properties, which could help solve the unanswered questions regarding Moray’s purpose. Some researchers have documented extremely loud reverberations when certain frequencies are sung, claiming the nearby mountains come to life with sound and resonance.

11. The Sphinx, Egypt 

Image: The Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt. Source

Few texts, symbols, writing or inscriptions have ever been found documenting who originally built the Sphinx, making its origin completely unknown. This has raised many theories over the years as it is the largest Sphinx found anywhere on Earth. 

Carved from a single piece of limestone, the famous monument in Egypt is over 70 meters long and 20 meters high. Its gaze stares eastward, which has made many believe it is in fact an equatorial marker, or a monument that marks important moments during the equinox.  

This idea has led many to conclude it was built to signify the constellation Leo–which would mean the great Sphinx was built around 10500 BC–many thousands of years older than its conventional date. This idea is known as the Sphinx Water Erosion Hypothesis and is based on the fact the enclosure surrounding the Sphinx has clearly been eroded by huge amounts of flowing water–the scale of which has not been seen in Egypt since at least 10000 BC. 

12. Lalibela, Ethiopia 

Image: Lalibela Churches, Ethiopia Source

11 individual churches make up the Ethiopian site of Lalibela, all of which are monoliths carved deep into the bedrock.  

The largest of these, Bet Medhane Alemis the biggest rock-hewn hewn church on earth–with an area of over 33 by 23 meters and standing over 11 metres tall. Each church was carved from the top down, which would be an incredible feat even by today’s standards. 

One of the most fascinating aspects of the famous monuments at Lalibela is their uncanny resemblance to the Biblical Ark of the Covenant. Because of the similarities in the churches appearance as well as the Ethiopian’s claim to still hold the fabled treasure, there are many who believe this may be true. 

By some estimates as much as 40000 people were involved in carving out the churches. Adding further mystery to the site is the fact that no earth or rubble has ever been found in the surrounding area.  

Who knows how these incredible famous monuments were built nearly 1000 years ago. 

13. Hagar Qim, Malta 

Image: Megalithic temples of Hagar Qim, Malta. Source

You wouldn’t know it, but Malta is full of ancient megalithic structures. The most intriguing of these is the site of Hagar Qim, which is thought to have been built between 3500 BC and 2900 BC. 

This standing-stone complex comprises of giant standing stone blocks, some of which weigh over 20 tonnes and stand over 20 feet tall.  

The most mysterious part of this famous monument is the fact that no advanced civilization was ever thought to have lived on the small archipelago. The sophistication and skill required to construct such a temple is one that seemingly appears out of nowhere. 

Not only is it the size and precision of the stone blocks, it is also the advanced astronomy of the site that has historians scratching their heads. Alignments to the summer solstice sunrise and sunset are evident at the ancient site, showing that someone on the small archipelago was correctly tracking the stars over 5000 years ago. 

14. Goseck Circle, Germany 

Image: Goseck Circle, Germany Source

As this famous monument is precisely orientated to the rising and setting sun on the winter solstice, it is one of the oldest solar observatories on the planet. Constructed nearly 7000 years ago from earth, gravel, stone, and timber, Goseck Circle bears striking resemblance to its UK counterpart ‘Stonehenge,’ yet was built far earlier.  

Could this ancient site have been erected by the same civilization? 

No one knows for sure who is responsible for Europe’s most intriguing ancient site, yet the unknown culture’s heritage spans deep into prehistory and maybe even beyond.  

The earthworks and circular trenches found within Goseck Circle are eerily similar to many sites found across the UK. It is quite the thought trying to image who the culture was who built it, and for what purpose it was intended. 

15. Newgrange, Ireland

Image: Newgrange, Ireland Source

Newgrange is without doubt the most famous monument ever found in Ireland. It was made so well in fact–using a mixture of earth, clay, stone, and wood–that it still remains completely waterproof to this day.  

Not only is this site extremely large and extremely old, it was made with absolute precision and the utmost care. The site was built in such a way that on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, a single beam of light flows through the underground chamber and illuminates a thin 60-foot passageway leading to a central chamber.  

This stunning piece of architecture has long caused debate among scholars. How the ancients were able to create such a precise monument so long ago is still not known, and may never be. 

The site is one of many examples of henges, stone circles, standing stones, and peculiar megaliths that litter the landscapes of Ireland; which was once home to an advanced civilization lost to history. 

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One bad night’s sleep can accumulate amyloid plaques in the brain. These are associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  

Today scientists are revealing the benefits of guided meditation to assist healthy sleep patterns.  

One of the biggest challenges of applying mindfulness is to know which technique works for you.  

In this article we’ll outline a simple guided meditation for better sleep and how to start today.   

The Importance of Healthy Sleep 

While we know how important it is, we tend to undervalue sleep. Today you may often cut our well-deserved resting time(often in the pursuit of productivity). We barely get enough of it, and you may always have poor quality sleep. Research is now showing us that it’s not medically possible to make up for lost sleep. 

Today poor sleep is related to medical conditions such as:  

• High blood pressure 
• Stroke 
• Heart attack 
• Obesity and weight gain 
• Depression 
• Anxiety 
• Alzheimer’s disease 
• Dementia 
• Auto-immune conditions 
• Gut and digestive diseases 

Thus, it’s important that we ensure we get enough high quality sleep every night. The ideal number of hours of sleep for a typical adult is anywhere from 6 to 8. Depending on your own body, you’ll need to make sure you’re getting an ideal amount.  

While there are many methods available to enhance the quality of your sleep, one tried and tested method is through meditation.  

And while the idea of just staying still in silence may not immediately register with you as an effective way to get more sleeping hours, researchers have found that meditation can actually help in improving sleep quality, particularly in older adults.  

Science Behind Guided Meditation for Sleep 

One study examined examined the impact of mindfulness and guided meditation on middle-aged and older adults for better sleep.

• What it looked at: 49 participants from the middle-aged and late-adult age groups who had trouble sleeping. They were divided into two groups: one that was enrolled in a course on sleep education that taught them effective sleeping techniques, and one that was tasked to participate in a “mindfulness awareness program” that employed, among other techniques, meditation to help them focus on the thoughts, emotions, and memories in their heads instead of all the distractions around them.  

• Results: regular two-hour meetings over the course of a few weeks, the group that meditated exhibited lower levels of depression, insomnia, and fatigue compared to those who were in the sleep education class. 

How to start meditating today  

What makes it challenging to apply sleep meditation techniques is changing your sleeping routine.  

Many people confusion to the first-time practitioner who only wants to perform the right techniques to improve the quality of his or her sleep. 

The best way to find out which meditation technique best suits you is to try them yourself.    

Fortunately, guided meditation for sleep is a good way to know if your practice is working or not.  

Simply put, this type of meditation hinges on the instructions given to you by your guide: from the basic procedures to breathing exercises to what you need to visualize for a more effective meditation.

Your guide also makes sure that you’re following the right form, and that you’re concentrating on meditating and not letting yourself get distracted by other thoughts. 

Changing your Sleep Routine to Meditate 

It’s one thing to make plans to meditate; to realize that you might need to devote a bit more time and focus towards getting the necessary number of hours of sleep per night. With everyone’s busy lifestyle these days, however, actually sticking to a meditation routine becomes an entirely different (and more complicated) story. 

More often than not, we end up setting aside meditation and other health-boosting physical activities in favor of getting more work done. The biggest challenge, then, is to manually adjust your schedule so that you’ll have enough time to incorporate meditation into it. With sufficient repetition and practice, you’ll find that meditation can become part of your daily activities seamlessly. 

Now, with regards to what time you should be meditating, it all depends on your schedule and your circadian rhythm — the 24-hour cycle your body follows for all its physical, mental, and behavioral changes.  

The circadian rhythm is a product of your body’s biological clock. Basically, this determines your chronotype, or the type of person you are, based on what time your body tells you to fall asleep. Night owls (the people who stay up at night) produce more melatonin (the hormone commonly associated with drowsiness and sleep) in the morning than in the evening. Meanwhile, the rest of the world goes to sleep upon nightfall because of heightened melatonin production during the night. 

Fortunately, being either an early bird or a night owl isn’t a permanent thing. With consistent training and guidance, it’s actually possible for you to improve your sleep cycle over the course of your regular meditations. (The operative word here, of course, is “regular.”) 

Ideally, guided meditation for sleep is done right after all the activities for the day are done and right before you climb into bed. This is regardless of whether you’re an early bird or a night owl. Either way, you’ll be all relaxed and calm by the time you’re done, which should make falling asleep a breeze for you. 

The question is: Where and how does one find a guide for sleep meditation? 

4 Guided Meditation Techniques for Sleep 

Now you’re ready to get started. Here are some simple guided meditation techniques that many people practice. 

Read each and pick the one that feels like it would work best with you. If it doesn’t, save the article and come back to try another one.  

1. Guided Meditation with Breathing Exercises: By controlling the pace of your breathing, you can actually train your body to know when it’s time to fall asleep. Breathe deeply into each part of your body. Picture that part of your body blowing up like a balloon.  

• Start controlled breathing. Count your breaths — 1 as you inhale, 2 as you exhale, 3 as you inhale, and so on, until you reach 10.  
• Breathe into your feet. Blowing them up like a balloon: Repeat x 10
• Breathe into your knees: Repeat x10
• Breathe into your loins: Repeat x 10
• Breathe into your belly: Repeat x 10
• Breathe into your ribs, expanding them outwards. Repeat x 10
• Breathe into your chest. Repeat x 10
• Expand your entire body. Repeat x 10

2. Body Awareness Guided Meditation: learn to be attuned with the different parts of your body, actively “switch off” one or all of them at will, starting from your toes upwards. 

• Switch of your toes 
• Switch off your feet 
• Switch off your knees 
• Switch off your loins 
• Switch off your stomach 
• Switch off your lungs 
• Switch off your heart 
• Switch off your voice 
• Switch off your brain  

3. Visualising Guided Meditation: You can also “hypnotize” yourself by visualizing scenarios that can help you fall asleep. 

Picture yourself sitting on a boat that is resting atop of a big whale. The whale is sleeping, and breathing deeply and slowing. Feel the watery and slow under the boat and the tide of the boat slowing breathing in and out. Thin 

4. Guided counting meditation: You’ve seen this technique in pop culture, often involving sheep leaping over a fence. You can achieve something similar by counting slowly from 100 to 1, and then 1 to 100, and then back again until you fall asleep. Counting an event like a sheep is a good way to distract the mind.  

5. Guided reflective meditation: Many mindfulness techniques aim at clearing events from the day from your head. Here’s a reflective technique to stop over analysing your day.

• Set a time 20 minutes before bed to think about your day, sit quietly, breathing deeply.  
•  Retrace your steps from the moment you woke up to the moment you got ready for sleep 
• Spending up to 25 seconds on each event.  
• Don’t think too much, simply acknowledge that these events happened 
• When you’re finished, put the events into a box in your mind. Throw the box away and feel ready to start a new day. 

In each of these guided meditations, repeat until you fall asleep.

How to find a Guided Meditation for Better Sleep 

To develop your meditation practice, there are lots of guided meditation options available online.  

If you don’t have access to a meditation class next to you, you can easily find meditation resources online.  

1. For starters, research yoga studios near your area, or guided meditation instructors you can hire to help you out. Joining yoga classes is especially effective if you really don’t know where to begin and don’t want to invest in a personal guide. The web also offers tons of meditation websites with free guides and videos that you can use.  
2. If you’re into listening to podcasts and other online music streaming services, you can easily find guided meditation resources there to suit your needs. Podcasts are particularly helpful, as listening to instructions is understandably more conducive to meditation than watching a video. Alternatively, you can listen one of the countless guided meditation recordings you can find on your streaming music service of choice. 
3. Lastly, you can download an app on your smartphone to help you meditate. Interestingly, science supports this course of action. According to the results of a 2018 study in Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, smartphone apps can provide benefits for one’s mental well-being. However, as one might expect, the most popular apps aren’t necessarily the best or most effective ones. It’s still generally on a case by case basis; you might have to shop around for apps to see which ones are the best for you. 

Some Helpful Tips on Getting the Most Out of Guided Meditation 

Here are some quick pointers to ensure that you’re maximizing the effects of your guided meditation. 

• Don’t be distracted by your electronic devices. This may seem like a no-brainer at this point, but it bears repeating. Unless you’re using your device to listen to or watch a meditation guide, put it away. At the very least, put it on Silent or Airplane mode so that you won’t get distracted by outside calls or messages for the duration of the time you’ll be meditating. 

• Find a comfortable spot to meditate. All the advanced meditative techniques in the world certainly won’t help you if you’re too busy filling your mind with thoughts of how itchy, irritated, or unpleasant you feel because you’re uncomfortable with your chosen meditation area. 

• Make sure that you’re breathing in and breathing out properly. Practice these if you must. 

• Manage your expectations. Meditation isn’t an instant cure-all; you need consistency and patience to be able to do it for an extended period of time before it shows any significant effects of what you’re doing. 

• Having the right mood music playing in the background also helps put your mind and body at greater ease. Alternatively, you can put on a set of headphones and enjoy all the music in solitude, blocking out any disturbances the rest of the world can throw at you. 

• Meditation can become initially uncomfortable, due to the fact that you’re not really used to just staying put and rendering your mind essentially empty during those fleeting moments. The key is to remember not to get lost in your own thoughts, and instead maintain presence of mind to sense the changes going on in your immediate surroundings.   

• Don’t be inconsistent. Once you’ve made a promise to yourself that you will set aside a certain number of hours per day for your meditation, stick to it. You’ll see clear results — and sleep much more soundly — sooner than you think. 

Conclusion 

Guided meditation can do wonders for your sleep cycle. It’s all a matter of finding the right technique to suit your needs, the time to actually meditate, and the willpower to do it consistently and regularly until you notice the changes in your circadian rhythm.  

Do you have trouble getting enough sleep or falling asleep at night?

Have you started looking for the guided meditation technique that will work for you?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Sources:

• https://www.mindful.org/a-body-scan-meditation-to-help-you-sleep/ 
• https://www.verywellmind.com/guided-meditation-getting-started-4174283 
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/mindfulness-meditation-helps-fight-insomnia-improves-sleep-201502187726 
• https://www.flipscience.ph/health/sleeping-in-weekends/ 
• https://www.headspace.com/meditation/sleep 

The post 4 Easy Ways to Use Guided Meditation for Better Sleep and Reduce Anxiety appeared first on .

As a result, the Aswan High Dam had to be built, which meant that somehow, two gigantic structures thousands of years old had to be moved. 

In this article we’ll explore insider traveller tips and lesser known history of the Abu Simbel Temple. 

Quick Facts on the Abu Simbel Temple: 

• Location: Aswan, Egypt on the banks of Lake Nasser 
• Original name: The temple of Ramesses-Meryamun 
• Construction: 13th century BC 
• Commissioned by: Pharaoh Ramses II 
• Purpose: Monument to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Kadesh 
• Dedicated to: Amun, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah, and the deified Ramses II 
• Size: Statues of Ramses II are about 20 meters high 
• Relocation: 1986  
• Distance from Aswan: 288 km 

How to get to the Abu Simbel Temple 

The distance between Aswan and Abu Simbel is 280 kilometers and Luxor lies 591km away.

• Daily flights: from Aswan to Abu Simbel.  
• Depart around 10:00 am and will be back around 2:00 pm  
• Cost: you about 250 US-Dollar per person. 
• By tourist bus: (this one has very good reviews) for a fraction of that price and roughly 7 hours on the bus driving through the Nubian desert 

The History of the Abu Simbel Temples 

Located at a site called Abu Simbel in Nubia, Upper Egypt, the eponymous rock temples were created in 1244 BCE, under the orders of pharaoh Ramesses II (1303-1213 B.C.). The two temples were part of the Nubian Monuments, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They were intended to represent Ramesses II’s victory at the Battle of Qadesh, and were built to honor both him and Nefertari, his queen. 

To better understand the significance of the temples — and the thought process that went behind their construction — one need simply to examine the profile of Ramesses II. As the pharaoh, he took an active role in expanding Egypt’s territory, eventually finding himself in combat with the Hittites in the Battle of Qadesh in Syria.  

Ramesses II was fond of showcasing his achievements. It was this desire to brag about his victory that led to the planning and eventual construction of the temples. (Interestingly, historians say that the Battle of Qadesh actually ended in a draw based on the depicted story — not quite the definitive victory Ramesses II was making it out to be.) 

As mentioned earlier, there were two temples on the site. One of them, the Great Temple, was larger than the other. The Great Temple was also called “The Temple of Ramesses-Meryamun” (“Ramesses, beloved by Amun”). This temple was built to measure 98 ft (30 m) in height and 115 ft (35 m) in length.  

Upon entering the temple, the first room you would see is an atrium with four pillars on each side. The pillars depict Ramesses II as the god Osiris, while the atrium itself features hieroglyphs that tell the story of the Battle of Qadesh. Positioned on the sides of the atrium are numerous storerooms. Deeper down into the temple, a second atrium can be found. This atrium features four decorated pillars, and depicts the pharaoh embracing his divinity. 

Meanwhile, the second temple on the Abu Simbel site is smaller than the Great Temple. Due to the size and the facade (two statues of Nefertari, plus four of Ramesses II), it is believed that this second temple was built for the queen. The Great Temple is said to be dedicated to Ra-Horakhty, while the Small Temple was built in honor of Hathor. 

It took approximately two decades to build the Abu Simbel temples. Construction on these two temples is believed to have started in 1244 BCE.  

While it may be impossible to determine the exact reasons why Ramesses II commissioned the temples to be built, experts generally agree that it could have been any or all of these four reasons. 

1. As stated earlier, Ramesses II wanted a lasting monument to his triumph at the Battle of Kadesh. The carved figures of bound captives near the base of the Great Temple supports this theory. 
2. Ramesses II wanted to display his power, as a means of making the Nubians fear him. Ramesses II wanted to spread Egypt’s religion across the regions, and to that end, he may have been thinking of using fear as his greatest weapon. 
3. Ramesses II may have had the small temple built to honor his wife. 
4. It may have all been just to satisfy Ramesses II’s ego — to honor himself for his accomplishments. 

Without a doubt, the most instantly recognizable aspects of this temple complex are the gigantic rock figures sitting right outside the entrance, each roughly 69 feet (21 m) in height. All of the statues depict Ramesses II in a seated position. 

The Powerful Astronomy of the Abu Simbel Temple

The temples weren’t just created for show, though. A closer look at some key details would reveal that there was more thought put into the construction of the temples than what’s immediately apparent. 

Here we explore the ancient astronomy of Egypt.

According to experts, the Great Temple was built and positioned in such a way that on two days of the year — February 22 and October 22 — the rays of the sun would hit and illuminate the back wall of the second atrium, which would in turn envelop the statues of Ramesses II, Amun-Ra, and Ra-Horakhty in warm sunlight. Interestingly (and appropriately enough), when this phenomenon happens, one statue that is also located at the back wall remains hidden from the sunlight: the statue of Ptah, the god of the Underworld. As the other statues bask in the sun’s rays, Ptah stays in the dark.  

The question is: Why February 22 and October 22? 

Interestingly, a single correct answer to this query has not yet been determined.  

The dates must have meant something, because it would be odd for them to act as distinct markers for no apparent reason. One popular theory is that the dates represent when Ramesses II was born and when he ascended to the throne. However, no evidence is available to confirm this bit of speculation. 

Another theory is that both dates represent the number of days before and after the solstice.  

Either way, tourists still flock to the temples today to watch and participate in this biannual event called the Sun Festival. To spectators, the event represents Ramesses II’s ascension to godhood, joining Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty.

For the rest of Aswan, however, both days are filled with feasting, singing, and dancing, as they celebrate the pharaoh’s accomplishments and the rich history and culture of ancient Egypt as well. 

Archaeological Findings on the Abu Simbel Temple Site 

Another question: Why did the temples have to be moved in the first place, again? And how did the movers manage to do it? 

When the temples ceased to see regular activity at some point prior to the 6th century BCE, they started getting covered in sand and ultimately forgotten. By the beginning of the 19th century, enough sand had accumulated to cover the statues up to their knees. 

However, things changed for the site in 1813 when a Swiss scholar named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt caught a glimpse of the Great Temple from afar, just as he was journeying down the Nile from Lake Nasser. When he looked harder, he realized that he was actually staring at a long-buried structure, with gargantuan statues almost fully covered in sand. With the aid of his friend, an Italian explorer named Giovanni Belzoni, Burckhardt began to dig through the sand in an attempt to access the entrance of the temple, to no avail. 

Four years later, Belzoni returned to the site with Egyptologist William John Bankes in tow. Together, they succeeded in uncovering the entrance to the Great Temple, even going as far as to enter the monument and retrieve small articles they found within the premises.  

However, a century after the temples were excavated, a new threat to their existence emerged: an impending flood due to the rising water levels of the Nile river.  

The temples were in danger of being flooded and wiped out by the Nile’s waters, and so drastic steps had to be undertaken. In this case, the experts made plans to move the temples themselves. Part of what made this necessary was the then-pending construction of the Aswan High Dam to remedy the Nile flooding situation. 

Thus, the temples were dismantled in the 1960s, moved piece by piece to a new location some distance away from the original site. The temples were cut up into chunks that weighed between 3 to 20 tons apiece. There, the temples were painstakingly reassembled; in fact, the team did such a great job that a reporter wrote: “[E]verything looks just as it did before; it is enough to make one doubt that the temples were moved at all.” 

All in all, the effort to save the Abu Simbel Temples required 3,000 workers, five years, and around USD 42 million (or USD 350 million, based on today’s inflation rates). 

One last thing about the temples: The site’s name may not have even been Abu Simbel in the first place. Some say that Abu Simbel was actually the name of Burckhardt’s young guide, who led him to the site after spotting traces of the buried temples in the sand. This led to Belzoni naming the site after the boy when he returned to excavate it in 1817. Whatever the original name of the site was is now unfortunately lost in the sands of time. 

Conclusion 

What do you think of the daring and innovative effort to move the entirety of two ancient temples to a different location?

Do you think the current location of the Abu Simbel Temple has a similar effect to it’s previous locality?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Further reading:

• https://www.ancient.eu/Abu_Simbel/  
• https://www.livescience.com/37360-abu-simbel.html 
• https://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/abu-simbel.html 

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