Benifits of Meditation

MEDITATION

What is Meditation?

Some regard meditation is the mental concentration on something, others consider that we meditate when we imagine something that gives us peace or satisfaction.

There are many things in life that are beyond our control. However, it is possible to take responsibility for our own states of mind and to change them for the better.

Meditation is a means of transforming the mind.

Meditation practices, techniques that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emotional positivity, and a calm seeing of the true nature of things. By engaging with a particular meditation practice you learn the patterns and habits of your mind, and the practice offers a means to cultivate new, more positive ways of being. With regular work and patience these nourishing, focused states of mind can deepen into profoundly peaceful and energized states of mind. Such experiences can have a transformative effect and can lead to a new understanding of life.

Over the years countless meditation practices have been developed. All of them be described as “mind training”, but they take many different approaches. The foundation of all of them, however, is the cultivation of a calm and positive state of mind.

“Through meditation we can learn

simple exercises to help us

understand and control our thinking.

We can learn to gain access to

powers of spirit that connect us to

realms of higher thinking and

knowledge. Most importantly, we

can learn the balance of mind and

spirit that is so necessary to make

life enjoyable and fruitful.”

-Randolph Winters-

Benefits Of Meditation

Physiological Benefits:

·       It lowers oxygen consumption.

·         It decreases respiratory rate.

·         It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.

·         Increases exercise tolerance.

·         Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.

·         Good for people with high blood pressure.

·         Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.

·         Decreases muscle tension.

·         Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.

·         Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.

·         Helps in post-operative healing.

·         Enhances the immune system.

·         Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress.

·         Enhances energy, strength and vigor.

·         Helps with weight loss.

·         Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage.

·         Higher skin resistance.

·         Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.

·         Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.

·         Decreases the aging process.

·         Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)

·         Prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases.

·         Makes you sweat less.

·         Cure headaches and migraines.

·         Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning.

·         Reduced Need for Medical Care.

·         Less energy wasted.

·         More inclined to sports, activities.

·         Significant relief from asthma.

·         Improved performance in athletic events.

·         Normalizes to your ideal weight.

·         Harmonizes our endocrine system.

·         Relaxes our nervous system.

·         Produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity.

·         Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological Benefits:

·            Builds self-confidence.

·         Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behavior.

·         Resolve phobias and fears.

·         Helps control own thoughts.

·         Helps with focus and concentration.

·         Increase creativity.

·         Increased brain wave coherence.

·         Improved learning ability and memory.

·         Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.

·         Increased emotional stability.

·         Improved relationships.

·         Mind ages at slower rate.

·         Easier to remove bad habits.

·         Develops intuition.

·         Increased Productivity.

·         Improved relations at home and at work.

·         Able to see the larger picture in a given situation.

·         Helps ignore petty issues.

·         Increased ability to solve complex problems.

·         Purifies your character.

·         Develop will power.

·         Greater communication between the two brain hemispheres.

·         React more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.

·         Increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance.

·         Higher intelligence growth rate.

·         Increased job satisfaction.

·         Increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones.

·         Decrease in potential mental illness.

·         Better, more sociable behavior.

·         Less aggressiveness.

·         Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction.

·         Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills and pharmaceuticals.

·         Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation.

·         Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia.

·         Increases sense of responsibility.

·         Reduces road rage.

·         Decrease in restless thinking.

·         Decreased tendency to worry.

·         Increases listening skills and empathy.

·         Helps make more accurate judgments.

·         Greater tolerance.

·         Gives composure to act in considered and constructive ways.

·         Grows a stable, more balanced personality.

·         Develops emotional maturity.

Spiritual Benefits:

·           Helps keep things in perspective.

·         Provides peace of mind, happiness.

·         Helps you discover your purpose.

·         Increased self-actualization.

·         Increased compassion.

·         Growing wisdom.

·         Deeper understanding of yourself and others.

·         Brings body, mind and spirit in harmony.

·         Deeper level of spiritual relaxation.

·         Increased acceptance of oneself.

·         Helps learn forgiveness.

·         Changes attitude toward life.

·         Creates a deeper relationship with your God (higher power).

·          Attain enlightenment.

·         Greater inner-directedness.

·         Helps living in the present moment.

·         Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love.

·         Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego.

·         Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”.

·         Experience a sense of “Oneness”.

·         Increases the synchronicity in your life.

“Meditation has made me happy,

loving and peaceful – but not every

single moment of the day. I still have

good times and bad, joy and sorrow.

Now I can accept setbacks more

easily, with less sense of

disappointment and personal failure,

because meditation has taught me

how to cope with the profound truth

that everything changes all the time”.

                              

                               - Sharon Salzberg -