The art of meditation is not new but even now it keeps revealing its charming secrets in front of stunned conventional practitioners!
Believe it or not, but we leave in the insane world where everything is not like it was a just a couple of centuries ago. Our previous generations breathed in fresh air, enjoyed clear water and produced natural food. What do we have today? Having the same physiology as it was 4 or 5 generations ago modern humans lead desperate lives! We consume bad water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our stomachs with fast food, inhale polluted air and hear constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous tension, it is absolutely intolerable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry 24/7, 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 give a thought to the fact that our body needs some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head needs some rest, too. Unfortunately, the bulk of personalities realize the fact when they fall seriously ill. Don’t become one of them! Think ahead and turn to totally safe and highly effective healing system known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it occur to you that people who meditate daily are more optimistic, 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 focusing practice where the vital task is to slow down the normal whirl of thoughts filling the mind. There are all kinds and sorts of meditation. Maybe you will be stunned to find out 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 official medicine it never forgets that persons have more than a mere ailing 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 spite, anger and disappointment. The intriguing fact is that more and more conventional doctors recommend their patients meditation as a way of managing definite diseases. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of persons with angina including their exercise performance;
- let persons with asthma breathe freely;
- forget about insomnia;
- relax after everyday stressful day of life.
Meditation is a native activity for every person, that is why it is up to you to decide where you will practice meditation. Some men and women prefer to master meditation at home. It is very simple with all the instructional books and audio CDs available. Others choose 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 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 mind 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. Focus on any word or phrase you like - keeping your attention on a word or phrase is called a “mantra”. Its main task is to keep your head free of any dangerous thoughts.
It is wrong to think that you should always sit during meditation. It is possible 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 up-to-date 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 type 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 think that our usual consciousness is very narrow - it is both limited and limiting. Meditation broadens human horizons and makes it possible to reveal our conscious and unconscious possibilities profoundly.
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 shocking 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 deeply shocked when refined scientific instrumentation proved that impossible things are possible! 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 proved to be a valuable tool for stress reduction, and what is more, humans 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 investigation 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 low heart and perspiration rates, low pulse rate, decreased concentration of cortisol in your blood (it is a major stress hormone) and increased activity of the part of your brain responsible for rest and relaxation! Famous practitioner R. Keith Wallace investigating Transcendental Meditation found out that during meditation the body gets the most profound rest possible. 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 dissipating 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 probably one of the safest activities possible. It is useful for personalities of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in persons 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, see your mental health doctor before starting the practice of meditation.
One more necessary point - if you take meds on a regular basis never stop taking them before you have completed the course. The fact is meditation cannot give you stable relief immediately - in requires some time to work! If you cannot bear queuing up in the waiting room of your physician to get your prescription, find a trusted web pharmacy online where you can buy prescription meds without prescription legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your best guide.