The art of meditation is not new but even now it keeps opening its charming secrets in front of shocked traditional practitioners!
Believe it or not, but we leave in the mad world where everything is not like it was a just a couple of centuries ago. Our ancestors breathed in 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 dead water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our bellies with harmful food, breathe in polluted air and hear constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous stress and strain, it is absolutely insufferable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry on a twenty-four hour basis, we are overworked and stressed in our family lives, we don’t have enough rest and sleep to do extra work and make our carriers. We never give a thought to the fact that our body requires some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head needs some rest, too. Unfortunately, the majority of personalities realize this simple truth when they fall seriously ill. Don’t join them! Think ahead and turn to totally safe and highly effective healing system known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it occur to you that humans who meditate on a regular basis are more content with their lives, healthier and enjoy longer life expectancy than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather usual now, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique concentrating practice where the major task is to suspend the normal stream of thoughts filling the mind. There are all kinds and sorts of meditation. Maybe you will be surprised to read that a prayer is also a pure meditation as it is. In addition to this kind of focusing natural for all believers there are Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness meditation, Zen meditation, Buddhist meditation and Taoist meditation.
Meditation is the realm of complementary medicine that unlike official medicine it does no fail to forget that men and women have more than a mere aching body. Meditation perceives persons 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 brain is filled with hate, anger and hopelessness. The interesting fact is that more and more usual doctors recommend their patients meditation as a way of managing many health disorders. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of men and women with angina including their exercise performance;
- let personalities with asthma breathe easier;
- forget about insomnia;
- relax after everyday disastrous day of life.
Meditation is a natural activity for every human being, that is why it is up to you to make up your mind where you will practice meditation. Some men and women choose 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. Concentrate on your breath - keep your attention on the sensation of the stream of air going 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 sensations in your body: pain, warmth, discomfort, tension etc.
3. Concentrate 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 distracting thoughts.
It is wrong to believe that you should always sit during meditation. It is possible to lie down, to stand or even to walk. 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 rather old. All up-to-date meditative techniques are the result of years and years of work and mental experiments of patients around the world. The healing power of mediation has been known and applied 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 apply 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 sort 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 believe 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 in full measure.
The sad fact is that despite its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been unfairly ignored by the representatives of conventional medicine and only during the past thirty years the medical science focused on the studies of clinical effects of meditation on health. The 1960s started with stunning medical reports of yogis and meditation masters from the mysterious East who could show 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 launched! The squeamish scientific world was shaken when refined scientific instrumentation proved that unbelievable things are possible! Now doctors specializing in stress-related disorders had a unique way of treatment without ruinous side effects typical for drug treatments - it was the art of meditation! It proved 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 altering the brain’s function in the short term. The medical facts demonstrated that regular practice of meditation has a miraculous long-term positive effect! So, Transcendental Meditation in particular guarantees you a healthy state of relaxation including low heart and perspiration rates, decreased 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 practitioner R. Keith Wallace studying Transcendental Meditation revealed 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!
In contrast to Transcendental Meditation, Taoists think that our emotions are ruled by the Fire energy of the heart. When you cannot control your emotions, this fire energy flares upwards and destroys your life energy and clouds 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 consider 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. By means of 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 obviously one of the safest activities possible. It is wonderful for patients of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in individuals with bad psychiatric problems, there have been a few reports in which regular meditation has worsened the state of their mental health. If you have a psychiatric issue, please, ask your mental health practitioner 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 queuing up in the waiting room of your MD to get your prescription, find a reliable web drugstore online where you can order pills no rx necessary legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your trusted guide.