The art of meditation is nothing new but even now it keeps revealing its amazing secrets in front of shocked usual practitioners!
Believe it or not, but we leave in the crazy world where everything is not like it was a just a couple of centuries ago. Our previous generations inhaled unpolluted air, enjoyed crystal water and grew natural food. What do we have today? Having the same physiology as it was 4 or 5 generations ago modern humans lead mad lives! We consume unclean water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our mouths with junk food, inhale awful air and perceive constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous tension, it is absolutely unbearable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry on a twenty-four hour basis, we are overworked and downtrodden in our family lives, we don’t have enough rest and sleep to do extra work and make our carriers. We never realize the fact that our body requires some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head requires some rest, too. Unfortunately, the main part of personalities realize this simple truth when they fall seriously ill. Don’t become one of them! Think ahead and turn to absolutely safe and highly effective practice known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it occur to you that persons who meditate daily are more content with their lives, healthier and live longer than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather common these days, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique concentrating practice where the essential task is to slow down the normal stream of thoughts occupying the mind. There are all kinds and types of meditation. Maybe you will be stunned to hear that a prayer is also a pure meditation as it is. In addition to this kind of focusing clear for all believers there are Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness meditation, Zen meditation, Buddhist meditation and Taoist meditation.
Meditation is the realm of alternative medicine that unlike traditional medicine it does no fail to forget that humans have more than a mere sick body. Meditation perceives men and women as unique creatures possessing an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers understand that you cannot be healthy and content with your life if your head is full of hatred, anger and misery. The amazing fact is that more and more traditional doctors recommend their patients meditation as a way of managing certain health problems. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of humans with angina including their exercise performance;
- let persons with asthma breathe freely;
- get rid of insomnia;
- relax after everyday disastrous day of life.
Meditation is a natural activity for every human, that is why it is up to you to decide where you will practice meditation. Some individuals prefer to master meditation at home. It is very simple with all the instructional books and audio CDs available. Others prefer to find a good teacher.
With all its simplicity meditation can offer you a number of options. There are several approaches to meditation. Here are some tips for you how to meditate.
1. Focus on your breath - keep your attention on the feeling of the stream of air passes in and out of your nostrils. This is so called “mindfulness meditation” - the meditator should learn to be “mindful”, i.e. aware of the present moment of time, but his or her consciousness should be free of any judgments and reactions.
2. Focus on your body - keep your attention on the feelings in your organism: pain, warmth, discomfort, tension etc.
3. Focus on any word or phrase you like - keeping your attention on a word or phrase is called a “mantra”. Its major task is to keep your mind free of any harmful thoughts.
It is wrong to believe that you should always sit during meditation. It is OK to lie down, to stand or even to have a strall. If for some reason sitting still is difficult for you, feel free to combine meditation with other practices such as yoga or tai chi - you will get double pleasure and positive effect!
The use of meditation for healing human body and soul is not new. All present-day meditative techniques are the product of years and years of work and mental experiments of people around the world. The healing power of mediation has been known and used for thousands of years. Its cornerstone is tradition and religion; its effect is health and inner harmony! To tell you the truth, all religious groups turn to meditation in one form or another.
No doubts of all the religions Buddhism is a “father of meditation” - it is the best known and the most practiced kind of meditation in the world. Buddhists use the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for understanding reality as it is. Buddha followers guess that our ordinary state of mind is very shallow - it is both limited and limiting. Meditation broadens human horizons and makes it possible to reveal our conscious and unconscious possibilities entirely.
The sad fact is that in spite of its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been undeservedly ignored by the representatives of usual medicine and only during the past three decades the medical science concentrated on the studies of clinical effects of meditation on health. The 1960s started with surprising medical reports of yogis and meditation masters from the mysterious East who could demonstrate extraordinary bodily control and could consciously stay in altered states of their minds - and this is where studies of self-regulation and voluntary control over the autonomic nervous system started! The pompous scientific world was shaken when refined scientific instrumentation proved that unbelievable things can happen! Now health care professionals specializing in stress-related disorders had a unique way of treatment without awful side effects typical for drug treatments - it was the art of meditation! It turned out to be a valuable means for stress reduction, and what is more, personalities and physicians enjoyed both the process of healing meditation and the health benefits available with regular trainings!
But the greatest surprise was still to come! After some time of scientific research of meditation this activity turned out to be perfect not solely for changing the brain’s function in the short term. The medical facts demonstrated that regular practice of meditation produces a miraculous long-term positive effect! So, Transcendental Meditation in particular guarantees you a healthy state of relaxation including decreased heart and perspiration rates, low pulse rate, decreased concentration of cortisol in your blood (it is a major stress hormone) and high activity of the part of your brain responsible for rest and relaxation! Famous doctor R. Keith Wallace studying Transcendental Meditation found out that during meditation the body gets the most profound rest imaginable. Paradoxically, your brain and mind become clear and more alert - your reactions are faster, your creativity and efficiency is greater and your view of the world is broader!
As distinct from Transcendental Meditation, Taoists believe that our emotions are governed by the Fire energy of the heart. When you cannot control your emotions, this fire energy flares upwards and devours your life energy and confuses your mind. But you can cope with that! Your willpower, on the contrary, is controlled by the Water energy located in your kidneys. If you do not control this energy, it flows down through your sexual organs, weakening your spirit and ruining your life. So, Taoists think that when you sit motionless doing nothing and thinking of nothing, i.e. when you are meditating your Fire and Water are in harmony. Water energy from the kidneys goes up to your head via the Central and Governing channels. At the same time Fire energy from the heart goes down into the Lower Elixir Field in the abdomen. Through this right circulation of two energies and by means of this mental alchemy in the body your mind becomes calmer, cooler and more controllable, while your sexual energy becomes really enjoyable!
Meditation is definitely one of the safest activities imaginable. It is good for men and women of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in humans with bad psychiatric cases, there have been a few reports in which regular meditation has worsened the state of their mental health. If you have a psychiatric case, please, ask your mental health professional before starting the practice of meditation.
One more important point - if you take medicines on a regular basis never stop taking them before you have completed the course. The fact is meditation cannot give you stable relief at once - in needs some time to work! If you cannot stand standing in line in the waiting room of your MD to get your prescription, find a reliable online drugstore online where you can get meds without a prescription legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your reliable guide.