Studies show that meditation offers many medical and spiritual benefits. Meditation reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, strengthens the immune system, and alleviates pain. No longer an exclusive treatment of alternative medicine, many major medical health centers and hospitals offer meditation for patients and the community. In addition to its health benefits, meditation is vital to greater self awareness and personal development.
Personal Development Benefits
The paths to life purpose and a balanced life are smoothed and accelerated by meditation. Meditation opens the pathways to inner wisdom where true life purpose resides, awaiting the opportunity to delight and enlighten.
Learn How to Meditate
For many in the Western culture, meditation seems mystical and impractical. Meditation conjures up images of robed mystics, ceremonial facilities, dimmed lights, spiritual music, and burning incense. Meditation may seem beyond the practical ability of those with busy jobs and family responsibilities.
Meditation, however, is not difficult, though there are a few stumbling blocks for the novice. There is only one absolutely necessary tool of meditation: intent. Lighting, music, and ceremonial trappings can be helpful in setting the mood, but one can learn to meditate in the midst of a crowded airport or in a busy office.
What Is Meditation?
Meditation is simply a quiet, focused mental state that allows a person to experience the present moment and the magical experience of life. Meditation is not a doing thing, it is a being thing, simply being alive and being aware of it, personally experiencing being alive.
Learn Meditation
There are thousands of books, DVDs, and articles teaching many, many forms of meditation. That is because there is no one best way to meditate. The human mind is very active, processing thousands and thousands of thoughts each day, perhaps each hour. To quiet the mind and focus it on just one thing, a breath, an image, or a blade of grass is something foreign to most people. That is why there are so many ways to meditate. Each person has to find a way that works.
Breathing Meditation
An excellent way for the beginner to learn to meditate is to concentrate on one's own breathing. Breath is life, but the act of breathing is so automatic, governed by subconscious and instinctive neuromuscular activity, that most people lack awareness of their breathing until something interferes with it.
Begin this meditation with conscious intention. The following affirmation may help. "I am relaxed and focused only on the present moment, noticing each breath and the life it brings me."
To focus attention on the present moment and the act of being alive, notice each breath. Take a deep, slow breath and notice how it feels to inhale, to hold the breath for a few seconds, and to exhale. Feel the inherent life supporting act of being alive and breathing.
Whether one uses meditation to reduce the stress of a busy day, to cheer up from a brief bout of depression, or to reflect upon the meaning of life and life purpose, daily meditation is a useful tool in a balanced life.
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Jerry Lopper - IPPA member, business and engineering degrees. Jerry's passion for personal development shows in 5 books, hundreds of articles & ...
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