The art of meditation is nothing new but even today it keeps revealing its incredible mysteries in front of shocked official practitioners!
You can think of 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 clean 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 crazy lives! We consume dead water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our stomachs with harmful food, inhale polluted air and live in 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 requires some rest, too. Unfortunately, the main part of humans realize the fact 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 come to your mind that patients who meditate on a regular basis are more optimistic, healthier and live longer than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather usual today, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique focusing practice where the main 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 find out that a prayer is also a pure meditation as it is. In addition to this kind of concentration familiar 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 mainstream medicine it never forgets that personalities have more than a mere ailing body. Meditation perceives patients as unique creatures possessing 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 full of spite, anger and hopelessness. The stunning fact is that more and more usual doctors prescribe their patients meditation as a way of managing many health troubles. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of people with angina including their exercise performance;
- let patients with asthma breathe freely;
- get rid of insomnia;
- restore 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 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 many 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 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 main task is to keep your head free of any dangerous thoughts.
It is wrong to believe 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 rather old. All contemporary meditative approaches are the product of years and years of work and mental experiments of humans around the world. The healing power of mediation has been known and practiced 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.
It is doubtless that 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 apply the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for understanding reality as it is. Buddha followers guess that our ordinary consciousness 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 in spite of its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been undeservedly ignored by the representatives of official 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 shocking 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 launched! The squeamish scientific world was shaken when refined scientific instrumentation proved that unbelievable things can happen! 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 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 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 data demonstrated that regular practice of meditation has a miraculous long-term positive effect! So, Transcendental Meditation in particular guarantees you a blissful 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 increased activity of the part of your brain responsible for rest and relaxation! Famous doctor R. Keith Wallace researching Transcendental Meditation revealed 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 comprehension of the world is broader!
In contrast to Transcendental Meditation, Taoists consider that our emotions are governed by the Fire energy of the heart. When you cannot keep 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 well balanced. 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 organism your mind becomes calmer, cooler and more controllable, while your sexual energy becomes really enjoyable!
Meditation is obviously one of the safest activities imaginable. It is wonderful for persons of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in men and women with bad psychiatric diseases, there have been a few reports in which regular meditation has worsened the state of their mental health. If you have a psychiatric disease, please, talk to your mental health practitioner before starting the practice of meditation.
One more important point - if you take pills on a regular basis never stop taking them before you have completed the course. The truth is meditation cannot give you stable relief at once - in requires some time to work! If you cannot stand queuing up in the waiting room of your physician to get your prescription, find a reliable web pharmacy online where you can get prescription medications no rx required legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your trusted guide.