The art of meditation is not new but even these days it keeps opening its charming mysteries in front of shocked traditional practitioners!
You can think of 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 inhaled fresh air, enjoyed clean 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 insane lives! We consume unclean water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our bellies with harmful food, inhale awful air and hear 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 stressed 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 majority of persons realize this simple truth when they fall seriously ill. Don’t join them! Think ahead and turn to absolutely safe and highly effective healing system known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it occur to you that individuals who meditate on a regular basis are happier, healthier and live longer than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather hackneyed today, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique focusing practice where the most important 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 hear that a prayer is also a pure meditation as it is. In addition to this kind of focusing familiar 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 traditional medicine it does no fail to forget that patients have more than a mere aching body. Meditation views humans as unique creatures with an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers understand that you cannot be healthy and happy with your life if your brain is filled with hatred, anger and disappointment. The stunning fact is that more and more conventional doctors recommend their patients meditation as a way of managing certain health troubles. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of patients with angina including their exercise performance;
- let persons with asthma breathe freely;
- forget about insomnia;
- restore after everyday disastrous day of life.
Meditation is a native activity for every human, that is why it is up to you to decide where you will practice meditation. Some personalities choose 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 numerous options. There are several approaches to meditation. Here are some prompts 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 mind should be free of any judgments and reactions.
2. Concentrate on your body - keep your attention on the feelings 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 general task is to keep your mind free of any harmful thoughts.
It is wrong to think that you should always sit during meditation. It is normal 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 not new. All modern meditative approaches are the product of years and years of work and mental experiments of personalities 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! Actually, 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 apply the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for perceiving reality as it is. Buddha followers guess that our ordinary state of mind is very narrow - it is both limited and limiting. Meditation broadens human horizons and makes it possible to reveal our conscious and unconscious possibilities completely.
The stunning truth is that in spite of its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been wrongly ignored by the representatives of mainstream medicine and only during the past three decades the medical science focused on the studies of clinical effects of meditation on health. The 1960s started with amazing medical reports of yogis and meditation masters from the mysterious East who could perform 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 ironical scientific world was shaken when refined scientific instrumentation proved that impossible 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 proved to be a valuable means for stress reduction, and what is more, men and women and physicians enjoyed both the process of healing meditation and the health benefits available with regular trainings!
But the biggest 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 decreased heart and perspiration rates, low pulse rate, low 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 found out that during meditation the body gains 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 ruled 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. By means of this right circulation of two energies and through 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 possible. It is wonderful for men and women of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in persons 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 case, please, ask your mental health practitioner before starting the practice of meditation.
One more important point - if you take medications 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 bear standing in line in the waiting room of your physician to get your prescription, find a trusted internet drugstore online where you can purchase pills without a prescription legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your best guide.