The art of meditation is not new but even now it keeps opening its amazing secrets in front of shocked usual 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 previous generations inhaled unpolluted air, enjoyed clear 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 dead water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our bellies with fast food, inhale polluted air and live in constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous tension, it is absolutely insufferable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry round the clock, 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 needs some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head aches for some rest, too. Unfortunately, the majority of men and women realize this simple truth when they fall seriously ill. Don’t join them! Think ahead and try absolutely safe and highly effective practice known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it occur to you that patients who meditate on a regular basis are more optimistic, healthier and enjoy longer life expectancy than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather natural now, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique concentrating practice where the essential task is to slow down the normal whirl of thoughts occupying the mind. There are all kinds and types of meditation. Maybe you will be surprised to learn 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 official medicine it does no fail to forget that personalities have more than a mere aching body. Meditation views people as unique creatures possessing an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers know for sure that you cannot be healthy and pleased with your life if your head is full of hatred, anger and disappointment. The amazing fact is that more and more official doctors prescribe their patients meditation as a way of managing numerous health troubles. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of persons with angina including their exercise performance;
- let people with asthma breathe freely;
- get rid of insomnia;
- restore after everyday stressful 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 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 numerous options. There are several approaches to meditation. Here are some prompts 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 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. Concentrate 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 mind free of any distracting thoughts.
It is wrong to believe that you should always sit during meditation. It is possible 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 present-day meditative techniques are the product of years and years of work and mental experiments of patients 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! To tell you the truth, 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 use the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for perceiving reality as it is. Buddha followers guess that our usual 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 conventional medicine and only during the past thirty years the medical science concentrated 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 started! The pompous 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 greatest surprise was still to come! After some time of scientific investigation of meditation this activity turned out to be perfect not solely for altering 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 healthy state of relaxation including decreased heart and perspiration rates, decreased pulse rate, low 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 practitioner R. Keith Wallace studying Transcendental Meditation found out that during meditation the body receives the most profound rest imaginable. 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!
Unlike Transcendental Meditation, Taoists believe that our emotions are governed by the Fire energy of the heart. When you cannot control your emotions, this fire energy flares upwards and devours your life energy and clouds 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 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 definitely one of the safest activities possible. It is useful for people 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 disease, please, see your mental health practitioner before starting the practice of meditation.
One more necessary point - if you take drugs on a regular basis never stop taking them before you have completed the course. The point 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 MD to get your prescription, find a reliable online pharmacy online where you can order meds no rx required 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