Meditation is not magic, neither is it a religion. It will not allow you to break the laws of physics and levitate or visit astral realms. Meditation is simply a process of focused objective attention, a mental exercise, nothing more. While it is often lumped together with mysticism or appropriated by New Age believers alongside their chakras, crystals, and auras, meditation is a straight forward, secular practice that can improve your health and quality of life. Among the potential benefits of meditation are relief from stress, anxiety, and depression, lowered blood pressure, reduction in cholesterol levels, effective pain management, improved sleeping patterns, increased energy, and enhanced creativity and intuition.
Meditation can be easy to practise. It can take only a minute of your time or as long as you like. It can be done standing at a bus-stop or while preparing a meal. Meditation means focusing and being in the present, not in the past or future, and all it takes is some deep breathing, momentary relaxation, and focusing of the mind. With practise, it gets easier, and after a while, becomes an integral part of your life. Then you are on the way to improved health, well-being and an enhanced quality of life.
Far from being a fringe pastime, meditation is being used by a large cross section of society. The United States Marines have introduced a program called Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (or "M-Fit"), which trains soldiers in mindfulness and meditation in order to improve mental performance and emotional health during combat situations.
"Mindful Leadership" is an initiative at General Mills that mixes sitting meditation, yoga and mindfulness practices to settle and focus the mind. Google, Target and Aetna all have similar programs. Surprisingly, Aetna discovered that an hour a week of this type of practice decreased stress levels in employees by a third, slashing healthcare costs per employee by around $2,000 per year.
Meditation teaches people with anxiety how to handle distressing thoughts and emotions. Most people either push away unpleasant thoughts or obsess over them both of which give anxiety more power. The goal of meditation is not to get rid of thoughts or emotions. The goal is to become more aware of your thoughts and emotions and learn how to move through them without getting stuck.
A growing number of doctors believe that meditation can help to alleviate many physical, mental and emotional disorders. Meditation is being recommended alongside exercise and a healthy diet as a way of contributing to the prevention and treatment of many health problems, particularly those brought about by stress. Stress is a major contributing factor in digestive disorders and problems relating to the heart, blood pressure, circulatory and respiratory systems, in fact just about every part of the body.
It is also very effective for panic attacks. Therefore learning to manage panic attacks using meditation would be both a mental and physical advantage to anyone going through regular attacks.
It is a means of taking a short therapeutic break away from the daily rush and from which we return feeling refreshed, energised, calm and re-acquainted with our self. We also return with a fresh perspective on life and our challenges and problems. Somehow they all seem less problematical or demanding, because during meditation, our mind ceases its chatter and allows us to find our true essence and true nature. During meditation, our true self takes over, puts things into perspective and guides us towards a different perception of life. Sometimes our challenges disappear when we perceive them differently.
So, if you're struggling with concentration and focus, it's thought that meditation is one simple way to train yourself to get better at it. All it really takes is the ability to intentionally not think about anything for a little while.
If you find it difficult to focus and thoughts keep coming, do not worry. Meditation is a practice, not a prescription. It takes time to quiet the mind and success is not achieved so easily. There is no quick fix for stress relief. Just, relax, breathe and stick with it.
Although practised in all the world's major religions, but it is neither a religion nor a mysterious practice. Meditation is a very down-to-earth practice, bringing about a profound state of relaxation, inner harmony and increased awareness.
A growing number of doctors believe that meditation, along with its good breathing and relaxation techniques, can help to alleviate many physical, mental and emotional disorders. Meditation is being recommended alongside exercise and a healthy diet as a way of contributing to the prevention and treatment of many health problems, particularly those brought about by stress. Stress is a major contributing factor in digestive disorders and problems relating to the heart, blood pressure, circulatory and respiratory systems, in fact just about every part of the body, and stress is on the increase nowadays
No comments:
Post a Comment