The art of meditation is nothing new but even now it keeps revealing its amazing secrets in front of stunned official 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 crazy lives! We consume dirty water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our stomachs with junk 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 24/7, 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 needs some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head requires some rest, too. Unfortunately, the bulk of men and women realize this simple truth when they fall seriously ill. Don’t join them! Think ahead and try totally safe and highly effective practice known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it come to your mind that persons who meditate on a regular basis are happier, healthier and enjoy longer life expectancy than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather hackneyed these days, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique focusing practice where the main 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 stunned to read 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 complementary medicine that unlike conventional medicine it never forgets that persons have more than a mere ailing body. Meditation perceives personalities as unique creatures with an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers realize that you cannot be healthy and happy with your life if your head is filled with hatred, anger and disappointment. The amazing fact is that more and more usual doctors recommend their patients meditation as a way of managing certain diseases. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of people with angina including their exercise performance;
- let persons with asthma breathe freely;
- forget about insomnia;
- restore after everyday disastrous day of life.
Meditation is a native activity for every person, that is why it is up to you to decide where you will practice meditation. Some personalities prefer 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 prompts for you how to meditate.
1. Focus on your breath - keep your attention on the feeling 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 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 major task is to keep your mind 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 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 not new. All modern meditative approaches are the result of years and years of work and mental experiments of patients around the world. The healing power of mediation has been known and applied 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 apply 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 type of meditation in the world. Buddhists apply the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for seing reality as it is. Buddha followers think that our usual 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 entirely.
The stunning truth is that despite its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been unfairly 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 perform 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 exist! 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 greatest 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 facts demonstrated that regular practice of meditation produces a miraculous long-term positive effect! So, Transcendental Meditation in particular guarantees you a healthy state of relaxation including low heart and perspiration rates, decreased 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 practitioner R. Keith Wallace studying Transcendental Meditation revealed that during meditation the body gets 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 comprehension of the world is broader!
Unlike Transcendental Meditation, Taoists think that our emotions are governed 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 through this mental alchemy in the organism your mind becomes calmer, cooler and more controllable, while your sexual energy becomes really enjoyable!
Meditation is definitely one of the safest activities imaginable. It is great for personalities 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 issue, please, see your mental health doctor 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 fact is meditation cannot give you stable relief at once - in needs some time to work! If you cannot bear standing in line in the waiting room of your physician to get your prescription, find a trusted online pharmacy online where you can purchase prescription medications without a rx 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