So, what exactly is meditation?
Meditation in simple terms is essentially a mind-body technique where your total attention is focused on the present moment in a mindful sense, your pattern of breathing and your mind. This has the effect of accentuating full awareness, a sense of well-being and consequently acts to reduce any stress or feelings of anxiety. This carries the long-term benefit of maintaining a healthy body and mind and thereby significantly improving the probability of a pharmaceutical free life.
Although the goals of meditation remain the same, it may be practiced in a number of ways including:
• Breathing-based meditation
• Visualisation meditation
• Mindfulness
• Mantra-based meditation
Whatever the form of meditation that is appropriate for you, it is important to remember that it may be practiced anywhere you are able to maintain awareness of yourself and your surroundings.
What are the benefits of meditation?
The benefits of meditation to your physical and mental well-being are numerous and include:
● Reduction of stress
According to a recent respected study, meditation improves levels of stress, through calming of the mind and controlling emotions. This moderates the body’s levels of the steroidal hormone cortisol, which is released in situations of stress. The long-term chronic effects of raised blood cortisol may include damage to your cardiovascular, immune system and gut health. Meditation has also been shown to be effective in the management of stress-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and fibromyalgia.
● Management of depression
Meditation has also been shown to help to radically reduce the symptoms of depression through its practice of mindfulness and control of emotions. One recent study in particular that over a three-month period of practicing meditation and yoga there were significant improvements in the symptoms of depression along with a general sense of well-being and improved capabilities in managing stress.
All this without any medication!
● Lowering blood pressure
Meditation has been shown in studies to be particularly effective in reducing raised blood pressure (hypertension). This is particularly applicable when practiced alongside an effective exercise regime and a nutritional, balanced diet. This positively impacts on the development and onset of such conditions as cardiovascular disease and strokes.
● Enhancing health of the immune system
Through moderating the body’s response to stress, meditation has been shown to prevent or treat a number of conditions associated with a cortisol-mediated compromised immune system. Such conditions include fatigue, chronic pain and cardiac disease.
● Improving sleep
Research has shown that meditation may improve the individual’s ability to fall asleep and the quality of the sleep. This is through the calming effects of mindfulness and “living in the moment” which prevents the struggle to sleep because of worrying about the events of the past day and the thoughts of tomorrow. For this reason, meditation may be an effective pharmaceutical free treatment for insomnia.
So, where is a good place to look further into the wonderful world of meditation and to find out which type would be of interest to you?
So, where is a good place to look further into the wonderful world of meditation and to find out which type would be of interest to you? Having assessed a number of sites providing free guided meditation exercises – this being a perfect starting point – I was particularly impressed by the free resources offered by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
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“TO BE TRULY FREE – BE PHARMA FREE”