Meditation is a group of mental training techniques. You can use meditation to improve mental health and capacities, for spiritual development, to improve your motivation for your goals and also to help improve the physical health. Some of these techniques are very simple, so you can learn them from a book or an article; others require guidance by a qualified meditation teacher.
WHAT IS MEDITATION
Most techniques called meditation include these components:
1. You sit or lie in a relaxed position with closed eyes.
2. You breathe regularly. You breathe in deep enough to get enough oxygen. When you breathe out, you relax your muscles so that your lungs are well emptied, but without straining.
3. You stop thinking about everyday problems and matters.
4. You concentrate your thoughts upon some sound, some word you repeat, some image, some abstract concept or some feeling. Your whole attention should be pointed at the object you have chosen to concentrate upon.
5. If some foreign thoughts creep in, you just stop this foreign thought, and go back to the object of meditation.
The different meditation techniques differ according to the degree of concentration, and how foreign thoughts are handled. By some techniques, the objective is to concentrate so intensely that no foreign thoughts occur at all.
In other techniques, the concentration is more relaxed so that foreign thoughts easily pop up. When these foreign thoughts are discovered, one stops these and goes back to the pure meditation in a relaxed manner. Thoughts coming up, will often be about things you have forgotten or suppressed, and allow you to rediscover hidden memory material. This rediscovery will have a psychotherapeutic effect.
THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION
Meditation has the following effects:
1. Meditation will reduce stress and give you rest and recreation.
2. You learn to relax.
3. You learn to concentrate better on problem solving.
4. Meditation often has a good effect upon the blood pressure.
5. Meditation has beneficial effects upon inner body processes, like circulation, respiration and digestion.
6. Regular meditation will have a psychotherapeutically effect.
7. Regular meditation will facilitate the immune system.
8. Meditation is usually pleasant.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HYPNOSIS AND MEDITATION
Hypnosis may have some of the same relaxing and psychotherapeutic effects as meditation. However, when you meditate you are in control yourself; by hypnosis you let some other person or some mechanical device control you. Also hypnosis will not have a training effect upon the ability to concentrate.
A SIMPLE FORM OF MEDITATION
Here is a simple form of meditation. By this meditation technique, you should concentrate in an easy manner. This will allow foreign thoughts to pop up. These are handled one by one as they appear. You proceed as follows:
1. Sit in a good chair in a comfortable position.
2. Close your eyes and relax all your muscles as well as you can.
3. Stop thinking about anything, or at least try not to think about anything.
4. Breath out, relaxing all the muscles in your breathing apparatus.
5. Repeat the following in 10 - 20 minutes:
-- Breath in so deep that you feel you get enough oxygen.
-- Breath out, relaxing your chest and diaphragm completely.
-- Every time you breathe out, think the word "one" or another simple word inside yourself. You should think the word in a prolonged manner, and so that you hear it inside you, but you should try to avoid using your mouth or voice.
6. If foreign thoughts come in, just stop these thoughts in a relaxed manner, and keep on concentrating upon the breathing and the word you repeat.
As you proceed through this meditation, you should feel steadily more relaxed in your mind and body, feel that you breathe steadily more effectively, and that the blood circulation throughout your body gets more efficient. You may also feel an increasing mental pleasure throughout the meditation.
THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION UPON DISEASES
As any kind of training, meditation may be exaggerated so that you get tired and worn out. Therefore you should not meditate so long or so concentrated that you feel tired or mentally emptied.
Meditation may sometimes give problems for people suffering from mental diseases, epilepsy, serious heart problems or neurological diseases. On the other hand, meditation may be of help in the treatment of these and other conditions.
People suffering from such conditions should check out what effects the different kinds of meditation have on their own kind of health problems, before beginning to practise meditation, and be cautious if they choose to begin to meditate. It may be wise to learn meditation from an experienced teacher, psychologist or health worker that use meditation as a treatment module for the actual disease.
Showing posts with label Keep Healthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keep Healthy. Show all posts
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Effects and Benefits of Meditation
There are many health benefits of meditation. Simply by meditating on a regular basis you can improve your physical and mental health.
It sounds too easy to be true. So what’s the catch? Can anyone gain the health and physical benefits of meditation?
Quite simply, meditating on a regular basis helps you to quiet your mind. You’ll know when you reach this quiet spot as everything takes on a calmness that isn’t necessarily there in your day to day life.
You can use your meditation sessions to concentrate on one particular part of your body. When you concentrate your mind, you will start to feel the health benefits of meditation work their way through into whichever part of your body you are concentrating on. Amazing as it may sound, simply concentrating on one part of your body will increase the flow of blood (and therefore oxygen and other vital nutrients) to that body part.
Meditation is a process of emptying out accumulated clutter of the mind by quieting and stilling the flow of thought. The Hindu yogis of India developed it more than two thousand years ago. They succeeded in mapping the auric or subtle body, and divided it into seven centers known as the chakras. The auric body is the energy field associated with the physical body that is not ordinarily visible and the energy itself is known as the “aura.” There are various meditations designed to make meditators aware of their auric body to cleanse it of all negativity and enable complete well-being. There are various benefits attached to meditation, ranging from the ordinary to the miraculous. The benefits of meditation can be availed of by anyone who decides to practice this art.
Breathing exercises are great and can be done almost anywhere. Simply take a deep breath in and then slowly exhale out. The key is to only think about your breathing and not let external thoughts enter your mind. This can be tough at first as it is easy to get distracted but if you do find other thoughts entering your mind then simply return your mental focus on your breathing. The idea is to quiet the mind and reach that peaceful state of a silent mind that offers many benefits including stress reduction.
There are many types of meditation practices you can choose from and it can get quite complex. Chakra mediation is a popular meditative practice. Our health is founded upon a relationship between body, mind and spirit – and the wellness of each part – and the physical body itself is only one component in the overall equation of well-being. This principle of holistics recognises that a stress free and happy mind and a blossoming spiritual life are major factors in our physical health. Just as stress and negative emotions silently erode our life force, so too the practice of meditation releases a new and positive life force – borne of inspiration, happiness, peace – into every part of our existence, creating the optimum conditions for vitality and health.
Other useful forms of meditation include zen meditation and guided meditation. People that suffer from stress can benefit greatly from meditation as it can be very effective at reducing stress as well as helping you to develop greater mental clarity and focus. Consider meditation as a daily part of your life to help you live healthier and longer.
It sounds too easy to be true. So what’s the catch? Can anyone gain the health and physical benefits of meditation?
Quite simply, meditating on a regular basis helps you to quiet your mind. You’ll know when you reach this quiet spot as everything takes on a calmness that isn’t necessarily there in your day to day life.
You can use your meditation sessions to concentrate on one particular part of your body. When you concentrate your mind, you will start to feel the health benefits of meditation work their way through into whichever part of your body you are concentrating on. Amazing as it may sound, simply concentrating on one part of your body will increase the flow of blood (and therefore oxygen and other vital nutrients) to that body part.
Meditation is a process of emptying out accumulated clutter of the mind by quieting and stilling the flow of thought. The Hindu yogis of India developed it more than two thousand years ago. They succeeded in mapping the auric or subtle body, and divided it into seven centers known as the chakras. The auric body is the energy field associated with the physical body that is not ordinarily visible and the energy itself is known as the “aura.” There are various meditations designed to make meditators aware of their auric body to cleanse it of all negativity and enable complete well-being. There are various benefits attached to meditation, ranging from the ordinary to the miraculous. The benefits of meditation can be availed of by anyone who decides to practice this art.
Breathing exercises are great and can be done almost anywhere. Simply take a deep breath in and then slowly exhale out. The key is to only think about your breathing and not let external thoughts enter your mind. This can be tough at first as it is easy to get distracted but if you do find other thoughts entering your mind then simply return your mental focus on your breathing. The idea is to quiet the mind and reach that peaceful state of a silent mind that offers many benefits including stress reduction.
There are many types of meditation practices you can choose from and it can get quite complex. Chakra mediation is a popular meditative practice. Our health is founded upon a relationship between body, mind and spirit – and the wellness of each part – and the physical body itself is only one component in the overall equation of well-being. This principle of holistics recognises that a stress free and happy mind and a blossoming spiritual life are major factors in our physical health. Just as stress and negative emotions silently erode our life force, so too the practice of meditation releases a new and positive life force – borne of inspiration, happiness, peace – into every part of our existence, creating the optimum conditions for vitality and health.
Other useful forms of meditation include zen meditation and guided meditation. People that suffer from stress can benefit greatly from meditation as it can be very effective at reducing stress as well as helping you to develop greater mental clarity and focus. Consider meditation as a daily part of your life to help you live healthier and longer.
Meditation to put an end to your problems
Nowadays, there is a huge list of problems in everyone’s life such as marital problems, financial problems, lack of job satisfaction, health problems and inflation to name a few. Sometimes dealing with all these problems at the same time becomes very difficult for an ordinary person. For, after all we are human beings only and we have our limitations in dealing with these problems single handedly. When we are down we reach to god by visiting a temple and praying to god to give us strength to deal with these problems in a better way. We do so because of two reasons, number one we visit temple because we think that god abodes in temple, number two, we pray because we are suffering.
This is not acceptable because if you are religious you should pray regularly to stay connected to god. If you will pray to god only when you are suffering from problems in your life it is nothing but meeting your selfishness. You are seeking blessing of god because you have adversities in your life. It means that it is not important for you to stay connected to god at other times when you are free from problems in your life. This is not done as far as reaching closer to god is concerned, in other words, your act is just not enough and shameful to some extent. The bets way to reach closer to is by becoming a spiritual person.
In contemporary hectic life, we tend to get very tired at the end of the day both physically and mentally. It is very important to relax mind and body for the benefit of your health. But due to numerous issues revolving in our mind at all the times we find it difficult to relax our mind by sleeping. To overcome this problem and to relax your mind one should learn meditation. Apart from relaxing your mind meditation enables you to experience spirituality. Osho, defined a number of active meditation techniques which are easy to learn and helps you improve your awareness and concentration.
The idea is to search for god within you as god resides inside every living being. Thus, your search for god should begin from you only. God is represented by your soul which is unique for every individual. So, to reach closer to god you are required to discover your soul which however is another difficult task for you. If you can manage to build a close connection with your souls all the problems which are disturbing your life will go away automatically. This is because the only way to reach out to your soul is by cleaning your mind of unwanted thoughts which are root cause of your problems.
And there is no other way to get rid of your thoughts than meditation which is aimed at improving your concentration and silencing your mind. When you are learning meditation through traditional techniques you are suppose to focus on your breath. When you exhale you will feel warm air leaving your body and when you will inhale you will fell the cold air entering your body through your nostrils and throat. There are people who find it difficult to learn meditation through breathing exercise for these people there exist other techniques such as tai chi and modern meditation technique known as active meditation introduced by famous spiritual leader Rajneesh Osho.
This is not acceptable because if you are religious you should pray regularly to stay connected to god. If you will pray to god only when you are suffering from problems in your life it is nothing but meeting your selfishness. You are seeking blessing of god because you have adversities in your life. It means that it is not important for you to stay connected to god at other times when you are free from problems in your life. This is not done as far as reaching closer to god is concerned, in other words, your act is just not enough and shameful to some extent. The bets way to reach closer to is by becoming a spiritual person.
In contemporary hectic life, we tend to get very tired at the end of the day both physically and mentally. It is very important to relax mind and body for the benefit of your health. But due to numerous issues revolving in our mind at all the times we find it difficult to relax our mind by sleeping. To overcome this problem and to relax your mind one should learn meditation. Apart from relaxing your mind meditation enables you to experience spirituality. Osho, defined a number of active meditation techniques which are easy to learn and helps you improve your awareness and concentration.
The idea is to search for god within you as god resides inside every living being. Thus, your search for god should begin from you only. God is represented by your soul which is unique for every individual. So, to reach closer to god you are required to discover your soul which however is another difficult task for you. If you can manage to build a close connection with your souls all the problems which are disturbing your life will go away automatically. This is because the only way to reach out to your soul is by cleaning your mind of unwanted thoughts which are root cause of your problems.
And there is no other way to get rid of your thoughts than meditation which is aimed at improving your concentration and silencing your mind. When you are learning meditation through traditional techniques you are suppose to focus on your breath. When you exhale you will feel warm air leaving your body and when you will inhale you will fell the cold air entering your body through your nostrils and throat. There are people who find it difficult to learn meditation through breathing exercise for these people there exist other techniques such as tai chi and modern meditation technique known as active meditation introduced by famous spiritual leader Rajneesh Osho.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Yoga: A Beneficial Exercising Regimen
Yoga is an ancient proven tradition that exists for thousands of years and also one of the most ancient cultural heritages in India. The word yoga means, "to unite". But it does not only mean contemplation but also communion and yoking all powers of the body, mind and soul to God. It is a very ancient and efficient system of disciplines and controls designed to produce the integration of the body, mind and spirit. It also achieves higher states of awareness and self-realization by methodical efforts to attain perfection. Even at the workplace, yoga has become extremely popular in many companies, worldwide. Working eight hours a day, five to seven days a week is really stressing. And yoga can just be the answer to this. Yoga reduces stress. It improves flexibility and muscle tone, increases circulation, relieves chronic pain and alleviates anxiety-related disorders. Best of all, it cultivates physical awareness, refreshes your energy, and offers a little vacation from the everyday grind.
There are seven divisions of yoga. Hatha yoga is concerned primarily with the body and the asanas. Bhakti yoga focuses on the path of love and devotion. Mantra yoga has something to do with recitation and repetition of words and verses. Karma yoga is a service through action and work. Janan yoga is on the intellectual path. Raja yoga is a synthesis of Bhakti, Karma, and Janan. And Laya yoga is the secret path or known as the “Yoga of Dissolution”.
Yoga has many advantages over other methods of maintaining health, such as aerobics, athletics, gymnastics, games, and various other forms of exercise and is often described as the best form of health insurance for all from the age of seven to seventy seven or more because it has a lot to offer to everyone. The two main advantages of yoga are prevention of disorders and ailments and maintenance of health and fitness in daily life. Other advantages include supple joints, flexible muscles, relaxed and tension-free mind and efficiently working vital organs such as the heart, lungs, endocrine glands, liver, pancreas and good balance between various functions. When doing yoga, you will not need any costly equipment and materials, or playgrounds, gyms, etc. And you don’t have to worry when is the right time to do it because you can do yoga all throughout the year. It can also be practiced inside the house or in the open, just alone or if you want, in groups. The only thing you need is a thick carpet spread on the floor and covered with a clean sheet of cloth. Remember that yoga should only be practiced on empty stomach although you can do it at any time during the day.
Everyone can benefit from yoga. It will benefit you irrespective of whether you are young or old, lean or heavily built, highly educated or unlettered, rich or poor, from higher or lower middle class, busy, over busy, or retired or worker in the factory or in the field. However, this benefit may not be possible if one does not practice the correct technique of yoga or practice it irregularly. Yoga has a wide range of technique and this can fulfill needs in almost people especially those who really have the determination and the motivation to do the techniques in a regular basis. Yoga can fulfill this need irrespective of your work, or your lifestyle. This can help everyone play his or her roles more efficiently, more smoothly and more comfortably.
By: Michael Sanford
There are seven divisions of yoga. Hatha yoga is concerned primarily with the body and the asanas. Bhakti yoga focuses on the path of love and devotion. Mantra yoga has something to do with recitation and repetition of words and verses. Karma yoga is a service through action and work. Janan yoga is on the intellectual path. Raja yoga is a synthesis of Bhakti, Karma, and Janan. And Laya yoga is the secret path or known as the “Yoga of Dissolution”.
Yoga has many advantages over other methods of maintaining health, such as aerobics, athletics, gymnastics, games, and various other forms of exercise and is often described as the best form of health insurance for all from the age of seven to seventy seven or more because it has a lot to offer to everyone. The two main advantages of yoga are prevention of disorders and ailments and maintenance of health and fitness in daily life. Other advantages include supple joints, flexible muscles, relaxed and tension-free mind and efficiently working vital organs such as the heart, lungs, endocrine glands, liver, pancreas and good balance between various functions. When doing yoga, you will not need any costly equipment and materials, or playgrounds, gyms, etc. And you don’t have to worry when is the right time to do it because you can do yoga all throughout the year. It can also be practiced inside the house or in the open, just alone or if you want, in groups. The only thing you need is a thick carpet spread on the floor and covered with a clean sheet of cloth. Remember that yoga should only be practiced on empty stomach although you can do it at any time during the day.
Everyone can benefit from yoga. It will benefit you irrespective of whether you are young or old, lean or heavily built, highly educated or unlettered, rich or poor, from higher or lower middle class, busy, over busy, or retired or worker in the factory or in the field. However, this benefit may not be possible if one does not practice the correct technique of yoga or practice it irregularly. Yoga has a wide range of technique and this can fulfill needs in almost people especially those who really have the determination and the motivation to do the techniques in a regular basis. Yoga can fulfill this need irrespective of your work, or your lifestyle. This can help everyone play his or her roles more efficiently, more smoothly and more comfortably.
By: Michael Sanford
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Laughter Is The Best Medicine
Author: Stewart Levison
Researchers show that if we can laugh for fifteen minutes each day that it helps our blood flow, which in turn helps our heart. I have heard this saying all off my life, and I am sure you have too, "laughter is the best medicine". Well, I guess it really is. Can you imagine going to the doctor's office and instead of a prescription you get a list of comedy videos or a couple of names of good joke books? Wouldn't that seem strange? Studies and researchers have discovered that laughter affects the body in many, many, good ways and we don't even realize it.
Have you ever thought that your blood pressure can be lowered, laughter reduces stress, and laughter even helps your immune system? Why do more people not use this very pleasant pain free "drug"? I think this will be my drug of choice from now on. We just need to get more people turned on to it. Would you agree? Don't think you can replace eating right and daily exercise with laughing for fifteen minutes a day. You still need to continue this, but next time it is raining or cold out-side and you can't get in you day of physical activity, just go to your local video rental store, or turn on the comedy channel on your TV and have yourself a really good belly laugh. The endothelium, the inner lining of a blood vessel has a great effect when it comes to regulating blood flow. The purpose of the endothelium is to regulate the thickening of the blood and secrete certain chemicals in response to wounds, infection, cuts, or irritations.
The endothelium is the first place doctors look when evaluating a condition of the hardening of the arteries. As a result of this study, could it be possible to tie laughter to the healthy functioning of the endothelium, and therefore to healthier blood vessels? Many members of the medical field are admitting that it is a distinct possibility. Laughter offsets the impact of mental stress which is harmful to the endothelium. A group of men and women, equally divided with an average age of 33 participated in a study to try and prove or disprove this theory. They were all non-smokers with relatively few other medical conditions, and had received average results for blood pressure checks, cholesterol checks, and glucose levels. The subjects were asked to watch two movies: one that produced laughter, and one that produced mental stress. The movies were shown 48 hours apart, and the subjects were monitored for blood flow changes such as blood pressure, blood flow levels, and vessel relaxation. What happened? The subjects' bodies behaved as though they had partaken in physical activity, without the usual pain of exercise. As you can see, researchers have gone to great lengths to check this out.
The results of the studies point to the laughter/health connection. Once again we can see where laughter plays a very important role in our health and happiness. Like I said earlier, laughing does not take the place of exercise but can be used as an exercise. Suppose you had a day when it was thundering, lightning and raining cats and dogs. It would be tempting to curl up on the sofa with a book or watch TV. Well that might not be so bad if you got the right book or the right TV program. You will need to spend a little time and find something that will be funny. It will be best if it can give you a large amount of belly laughs. If it is not raining today and you have the time, go ahead and plan for your rainy day by getting your movie and book ready.
Who knows you may even want to use them when you return from your walk. Another little hint: if you have family or friends include them in your laughter exercise. It certainly won't hurt anybody and could possibly turn into a regular habit. We all know that physical exercise is a must if you are to enjoy good health. We also know that some of us do not particularly like exercise everyday. That's where laughter comes in as a big helper. Whether we have to exercise, by that I mean walk, jog, ride a bike or lift weights, we can make the time pass quicker with laughter included. Don't you feel better when you are down and out and can watch a good comedy show or a good funny movie, I know I always do. Try it you might like it.
Researchers show that if we can laugh for fifteen minutes each day that it helps our blood flow, which in turn helps our heart. I have heard this saying all off my life, and I am sure you have too, "laughter is the best medicine". Well, I guess it really is. Can you imagine going to the doctor's office and instead of a prescription you get a list of comedy videos or a couple of names of good joke books? Wouldn't that seem strange? Studies and researchers have discovered that laughter affects the body in many, many, good ways and we don't even realize it.
Have you ever thought that your blood pressure can be lowered, laughter reduces stress, and laughter even helps your immune system? Why do more people not use this very pleasant pain free "drug"? I think this will be my drug of choice from now on. We just need to get more people turned on to it. Would you agree? Don't think you can replace eating right and daily exercise with laughing for fifteen minutes a day. You still need to continue this, but next time it is raining or cold out-side and you can't get in you day of physical activity, just go to your local video rental store, or turn on the comedy channel on your TV and have yourself a really good belly laugh. The endothelium, the inner lining of a blood vessel has a great effect when it comes to regulating blood flow. The purpose of the endothelium is to regulate the thickening of the blood and secrete certain chemicals in response to wounds, infection, cuts, or irritations.
The endothelium is the first place doctors look when evaluating a condition of the hardening of the arteries. As a result of this study, could it be possible to tie laughter to the healthy functioning of the endothelium, and therefore to healthier blood vessels? Many members of the medical field are admitting that it is a distinct possibility. Laughter offsets the impact of mental stress which is harmful to the endothelium. A group of men and women, equally divided with an average age of 33 participated in a study to try and prove or disprove this theory. They were all non-smokers with relatively few other medical conditions, and had received average results for blood pressure checks, cholesterol checks, and glucose levels. The subjects were asked to watch two movies: one that produced laughter, and one that produced mental stress. The movies were shown 48 hours apart, and the subjects were monitored for blood flow changes such as blood pressure, blood flow levels, and vessel relaxation. What happened? The subjects' bodies behaved as though they had partaken in physical activity, without the usual pain of exercise. As you can see, researchers have gone to great lengths to check this out.
The results of the studies point to the laughter/health connection. Once again we can see where laughter plays a very important role in our health and happiness. Like I said earlier, laughing does not take the place of exercise but can be used as an exercise. Suppose you had a day when it was thundering, lightning and raining cats and dogs. It would be tempting to curl up on the sofa with a book or watch TV. Well that might not be so bad if you got the right book or the right TV program. You will need to spend a little time and find something that will be funny. It will be best if it can give you a large amount of belly laughs. If it is not raining today and you have the time, go ahead and plan for your rainy day by getting your movie and book ready.
Who knows you may even want to use them when you return from your walk. Another little hint: if you have family or friends include them in your laughter exercise. It certainly won't hurt anybody and could possibly turn into a regular habit. We all know that physical exercise is a must if you are to enjoy good health. We also know that some of us do not particularly like exercise everyday. That's where laughter comes in as a big helper. Whether we have to exercise, by that I mean walk, jog, ride a bike or lift weights, we can make the time pass quicker with laughter included. Don't you feel better when you are down and out and can watch a good comedy show or a good funny movie, I know I always do. Try it you might like it.
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