ZenWare

$28.95
If you've ever wanted someone to teach you how to relax and meditate, you'll love this program for PCs. It presents guided exercises that train you so quickly that in almost no time at all you'll experience the benefits of these stress-reducing and mind-expanding techniques.

The relaxation and meditation techniques used in this program have been adapted from traditional methods developed over the centuries. Countless studies have proven that they are very effective at relieving stress. The software and manual should be viewed as an interactive teaching tool. The user interface has been kept rather plain to encourage you to focus within yourself, instead of the screen. It is a serious educational program. The author believes that the exercises taught are orders of magnitude more effective than any passive graphic or sound induced relaxation aid. Over time you will be able to do the exercises on your own, anywhere you choose. We recommend that you view the program as an interactive book on relaxation/meditation.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

ZenWare will run on IBM PC/XT, AT, and 100% compatible computers. All monitors and graphic cards are supported. Options that use color may be limited by your computer and monitor's display capabilities.

RELAXATION

The ZenWare main menu asks you to choose between a Relaxation or Meditation session. There are several differences between the two. It is important to be relaxed BEFORE doing a meditation session. You might find this strange. Why meditate if you are already relaxed? However, meditation is a deeper and more permanent form of stress management with much broader effects. Think of the relaxation exercises as mental stretching before you begin your mental jog. The difference is hard to explain in words, but you will definitely understand after you begin to use the program.

When you select the Relaxation option from the main menu, the following menu appears:


            Relaxation



        (1) - Progressive Relaxation

        (2) - Visualization

        (3) - QuickRelax

The Progressive Relaxation exercises will help you learn which muscles in your body react to stress the most. It will also teach you how to relax them. With progressive muscle relaxation, you tense and relax major muscle groups. It will help you to become more aware of your body's muscular response to stress, allowing you to have better control over it. You will begin to recognize the difference between being tense and relaxed. The overall muscle tension in your entire body will begin to approach a more healthier level, leading you to feel more relaxed and stress free on a daily basis.

TIME DISPLAY, ALARM SETTINGS

Almost all the ZenWare exercises give you the option of displaying elapsed session time. When displayed, the time indicator will be discretely placed in the lower right hand corner of the screen. You also have the option of setting a timer alarm. If you find the audio beep disturbing, disable the sound and you will only get a visual message.

VISUALIZATION

Think about a relaxing massage, a favorite place you used to visit as a child, a movie or book you liked, a trip to the beach. These images can produce almost instant relaxation. We are using the mind (the ultimate stress manager), to calm us by retrieving past feelings. The images serve as cues to help get us there. As far as the mind is concerned, it makes no difference if we actually experience something, or just think about. The sensory input it receives is the same!

Creative imagery and visualization has numerous benefits. It has become common knowledge that imagery is effective in treating stress related and physical illnesses (it often plays an important part in the treatment of a variety of diseases). It has also been shown to enhance memory. In addition to relieving stress, visualization has been used by many athletes to achieve peak performance in their particular sports. Whatever you want to do and accomplish (lose weight, stop smoking, achieve a goal, etc), by visualizing it the mind will believe it has already done it, and as a result, will try to modify your behavior and actions so you can do it again in real life (assuming it is something you really want).

When the visualization option is selected, ZenWare will display the following:


       (1) - Begin Guided Imagery

       (2) - How to Create a Personalized Journey

After you select a journey file location, a list of the imagery files will be shown to you. The next section explains how to create your own journey files or modify existing ones supplied by ZenWare.

Then center of your screen will have a single line of text across it. Read what is says and than try to visualize it as crisply as possible. You may want to close your eyes to help make the image more realistic. Try to use all five of your senses. See, feel, smell, touch, hear, and even taste the images! The more senses you can get involved, the more pronounced of an effect it will have on you. When you feel the image scene has been fully explored, go on the next visualization by clicking the right mouse/arrow button. You can go backwards to re- experience a previous scene by clicking left.

QuickRelax

Your body responds very quickly to a stressful situation. Often within seconds the fight-or-flight response kicks in. This response increases blood pressure, heart rate, rate of breathing, blood flow to the muscles, and metabolism. While it may be appropriate at times (you are being chased), most of time it just leads to internal stress.

The QuickRelax exercise is designed to combat this stress response by quickly relaxing your body. With practice you will be able to do the QuickRelax technique anywhere in just seconds. It is good to do at the first sign of stress you experience. When done at the start of a stressful situation, QuickRelax will keep you from getting stressed in the first place.

MEDITATION

Meditation trains your mind in a similar way physical exercise tones your muscles. Both are important for good health. Many people spend hours a week in a gym but never even consider taking a few minutes each day for their mind! While exercise can help relieve stress, the results are usually temporary. Meditation gives much more permanent (24 hours/day) results. After all, our bodies feel stress because of direct orders given by the mind.

Meditation is the art of mental self-control. It sometimes is masked with rituals and customs that make it seem rather mysterious; something off limits to most people. Things could not be further from the truth. ZenWare is designed to unravel this myth and get you quickly started on a program.

Why Meditate?

Regardless of age, your mind often behaves like a raging uncontrollable two-year-old child. It makes you eat food you don't want and then obsess about being overweight. Smoke when you know it is bad for you. Focus your attention at the the worst time possible on things you don't want to think about. The mind can makes you nervous when you want calmness. If allowed, it can order you around like a virtual slave.

Meditation can give you more control over your mind as you train it to work for you instead of against you. Words cannot do justice to explain the many benefits you will get. You simply must try it out. If you want scientific evidence to motivate you, go to any library and you will find hundreds of books and journal articles describing the physical and mental benefits meditation gives. Meditation has been practiced around the world for thousands of years. There must be a reason it has lasted so long. It works!

ZenWare offers you four types of meditation to choose from.

Breath Counting
Mantra
Flame Meditation
Contemplation

Breath Counting

The program is designed to teach you how to breathe diaphragmatically. This type of breathing promotes a natural, even breath movement that strengthens the nervous system and relaxes the body. It is a crucial part of the meditation process.

At the top of the screen will be your mala count. The mala count is designed to replace traditional meditation beads. It is ZenWare's high-tech version of a very traditional practice. Instead of counting beads on each breath, the mouse/shift key presses will be counted.

Mantra (Transcendental Meditation)

Mantra is probably the most commonly used and oldest form of meditation. It is often surrounded by mystique. A mantra is a repeated phrase used to induce a state of meditation. The program will generate a mantra best suited for you.

Flame Meditation

Flame meditation is an excellent exercise for those who tend to be visually oriented. ZenWare will coordinate everything for you. After some instruction, you will see a black screen with a white square in the center. Keep gazing at the square until told to stop (two minutes). Try not to think about the square, or what you are going make for diner. Just stare at the square until it disappears. Next, close your eyes. Within a few seconds, you will start to see the image of this square again. It will appear to be projected onto the inside of your eyelids. Keep watching this image for as long as you can. It will probably change color, shape, disappear and come back, and seem to move around. Nevertheless, you will still recognize it if you concentrate hard. Just focus on the image and nothing else. With some practice, you should be able to keep the image going for at least as long as the time spent watching it.

Contemplation

For most people contemplation is the hardest ZenWare exercise. It involves looking at something as if you have never seen it before while keeping your mind totally blank. It is designed to keep your mind totally clear.

ZenWare will ask you to select how many visual images you want generated. You also have the option of using manual control to exit the session. As with the other meditation exercises, a session timer and alarm can also be set. The ZenWare images are composed of random "star fields." They have been kept rather simple to discourage you from thinking, but complex enough to hold your interest.

The Next Step

ZenWare is a training program. It is designed to get you started with mediation and relaxation. Once you master these techniques, they can be done anywhere you choose.

Best of all, ZenWare is extremely inexpensive - $28.95 from MindGear.