The art of meditation is nothing new but even now it keeps opening its incredible secrets in front of shocked conventional 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 forefathers breathed in unpolluted air, enjoyed pure 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 insane lives! We consume bad water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our mouths with fast food, breathe in polluted air and perceive constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous stress and strain, it is absolutely intolerable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry twenty-four hours a day, 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 realize the fact that our body requires some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head needs some rest, too. Unfortunately, the majority of personalities realize the fact when they fall seriously ill. Don’t become one of them! Think ahead and turn to entirely safe and highly effective practice known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it occur to you that personalities who meditate on a regular basis are happier, healthier and live longer than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather usual now, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique concentrating practice where the most important task is to suspend the normal stream of thoughts occupying the mind. There are all kinds and sorts of meditation. Maybe you will be shocked to find out 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 alternative medicine that unlike mainstream medicine it never forgets that people have more than a mere sick body. Meditation views humans as unique creatures having an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers realize that you cannot be healthy and content with your life if your head is filled with spite, anger and misery. The surprising fact is that more and more traditional doctors recommend their patients meditation as a way of managing a number of health disorders. 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;
- relax after everyday disastrous day of life.
Meditation is a inherent activity for every person, that is why it is up to you to decide where you will practice meditation. Some patients choose to master meditation at home. It is very simple with all the instructional books and audio CDs available. Others prefer 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. Concentrate 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 consciousness should be free of any judgments and reactions.
2. Concentrate on your body - keep your attention on the feelings 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 major task is to keep your mind 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 rather old. All contemporary meditative approaches are the result of years and years of work and mental experiments of persons 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 apply 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 type of meditation in the world. Buddhists use the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for seing reality as it is. Buddha followers think that our usual state of mind 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 stunning truth is that despite its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been undeservedly ignored by the representatives of usual medicine and only during the past three decades the medical science concentrated on the studies of clinical effects of meditation on health. The 1960s started with stunning 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 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 means 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 research 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 low 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 doctor R. Keith Wallace studying 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 ruled by the Fire energy of the heart. When you cannot keep your emotions, this fire energy flares upwards and destroys your life energy and clouds your mind. But you can manage 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 believe 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 body your mind becomes calmer, cooler and more controllable, while your sexual energy becomes really enjoyable!
Meditation is probably one of the safest activities imaginable. It is good for patients of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in people 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 problem, please, ask your mental health professional before starting the practice of meditation.
One more vital 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 immediately - in needs some time to work! If you cannot stand queuing up in the waiting room of your practitioner to get your prescription, find a trusted online drugstore online where you can order drugs no prescription needed legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your best guide.
Tags: Buddhist meditation, mantra, mediation, prescription drugs without a prescription, reliable drugstore, Taoist meditation, Transcendental Meditation