The art of meditation is not new but even these days it keeps revealing its incredible mysteries in front of shocked 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 fresh air, enjoyed clear water and grew natural food. What do we have today? Having the same physiology as it was 4 or 5 generations ago modern humans lead mad lives! We consume dead water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our stomachs with junk food, breathe in smoky air and live in constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous stress and strain, it is absolutely unbearable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry on a twenty-four hour basis, 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 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 bulk of persons realize this simple truth when they fall seriously ill. Don’t become one of them! Think ahead and turn to totally safe and highly effective healing system known for centuries - meditation.
“Did it occur to you that people 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 today, but is it true or not?
What it meditation? It is a unique concentrating practice where the main task is to suspend the normal whirl of thoughts filling the mind. There are all kinds and types of meditation. Maybe you will be shocked to learn that a prayer is also a pure meditation as it is. In addition to this kind of focusing clear 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 never forgets that humans have more than a mere ailing body. Meditation views humans as unique creatures possessing an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers know for sure that you cannot be healthy and happy with your life if your brain is full of spite, anger and disappointment. The interesting fact is that more and more official doctors prescribe their patients meditation as a way of managing definite health issues. With meditation you can:
- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of people with angina including their exercise performance;
- let humans with asthma breathe freely;
- get rid of insomnia;
- restore after everyday stressful day of life.
Meditation is a natural activity for every human, that is why it is up to you to make up your mind where you will practice meditation. Some men and women 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 many 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. Focus 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 harmful thoughts.
It is wrong to believe 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 modern meditative techniques are the result of years and years of work and mental experiments of humans 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 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 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 in full measure.
The sad fact is that despite its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been wrongly ignored by the representatives of usual medicine and only during the past thirty years the medical science focused 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 show 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 squeamish scientific world was deeply shocked when refined scientific instrumentation proved that unbelievable things are possible! Now doctors 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 turned out to be a valuable tool for stress reduction, and what is more, persons 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 has 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 increased activity of the part of your brain responsible for rest and relaxation! Famous MD R. Keith Wallace researching Transcendental Meditation found out that during meditation the body gains 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!
As distinct from 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 devours your life energy and confuses 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 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 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 obviously one of the safest activities imaginable. It is useful for patients of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in men and women with bad psychiatric issues, 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, talk to your mental health doctor before starting the practice of meditation.
One more vital point - if you take medicines 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 bear standing in line in the waiting room of your MD to get your prescription, find a reliable pharmacy online where you can buy meds no rx required legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your trusted guide.
Tags: Buddhist meditation, mantra, mediation, prescription drugs without a prescription, reliable drugstore, Taoist meditation, Transcendental Meditation