Meditation

6 Health Benefits of Meditation

For hundreds of years, meditation has been used around the world as an effective way to deal with a lot of psychological issues and achieve relaxation. During the olden times, the Himalayan monks used meditation and discovered loads of benefits that it offers. Nowadays, more and more people are turning to this technique for spiritual purposes. Let's take a look at some major benefits offered by this spiritual approach.

1. Management of Anxiety and Depression

According to many studies, meditation can help you deal with many issues, such as depression and anxiety. In a study involving more than 3500 participants, the researchers concluded that the technique was helpful in improving the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

2. Strengthened Immunity

Another study proved that breast cancer could be avoided if muscle relaxation exercises are done on a regular basis. One study done on patients over the age of 50 showed that these techniques can help trigger the lymphocytes that can make your immune system stronger. As a result, the body becomes stronger against tumors and viruses.

3. Management of Blood Pressure

If you practice meditation, you can reduce your likelihood of suffering from high blood pressure. A report released by the British Medical Journal showed that patients that mediated on a regular basis had normal blood pressure levels. The experts believe that this practice can make your body less responsive to many stress hormones including cortisol.

4. Achievement of Emotional Wellness

If you went through a tortured past, you may not be in a healthy emotional state. Fortunately, meditating on a regular basis can help you achieve your emotional balance. As a matter of fact, your health and emotional balance are linked with each other. If you are not in good emotional health, you won't be able to do your best whether it's your routine house work or office work.

5. Relief from IBS

IBS is short for the Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This disorder is one of the most common bowel disorders. Patients who have IBS show many symptoms, such as weird bowel behavior, cramps, abdominal pain and bloating, just to name a few.

It's interesting to note that around 15% of men and women around the world have this disorder. In the United States alone, there are around 45 million people who live with this health disorder.

With routine relaxation techniques, It's possible to reduce the symptom of IBS and lead a peaceful life.

6. Happiness and Overall Wellbeing

Maria Camara PhD, a psychotherapist, says that meditation can help you get in touch with your actual inner qualities. You can reach your true potential if you accept who you really are. Plus, this practice can help you work with your thoughts. So, we can say that mindfulness is associated with happiness and peace of mind. Without peace of mind, you can't achieve anything in life. In fact, if you don't have peace in your life, you can't maintain your good health either.

In short, if you want to enjoy all these benefits, we suggest that you start your meditation practice from today. There are many techniques that you can give a go to in the beginning.


 The Most Difficult Task Within Meditation

Meditation is a complex art form. It consists of skills within skills and challenges within challenges. All of them are valuable, as they train your mind to function in a smoother, more effective way.

One important task is probably the most difficult. Everyone comes from different histories and personalities, so maybe you find this easier than others do. Having said that, most of you will struggle with this at first.

It isn't holding your attention stable.

It isn't quieting your mind in a relaxed, easy way.

What is it? It's nothing short of accepting your thoughts without judgement.

Judging your own experience is human. It's even useful - I won't deny that. But most, if not all of your suffering comes from this place.

At some point in your childhood, you experienced a series of sensations. Someone said you looked angry (and to cut it out and cheer up). In that moment, your young mind labelled a sensation as anger, and accepted a judgement of it.

This happened throughout your life. Sensations paired themselves to labels and judgements because that's what society told you.

There are cultures where anger is seen as a character flaw and others where it's a sign of a strong spirit.

You might not think this labelling and judgement applies to everything. After all, babies cry at the slightest discomfort, let alone pain. Surely we can agree that pain is a bad thing.

Maybe. And yet how you respond to pain changes how it feels. As Buddhism teaches us:

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Don't believe me? The entire S&M culture thinks very differently about pain. They experience the sensation and then judge it in their own way.

This is what's so challenging about this. We're used to judging, labelling and assessing our experience. Is this ache worth checking out? Am I hungry or just tired? What would make this meal even better?

It's hard enough to suspend judgement on physical things. Thoughts are abstract. Separating them from your judgements is not easy.

This is worth it, though. Imagine losing all of the negativity around an experience. No one is freer than someone who genuinely loves their prison.

What's the technique for accepting your own thoughts?

Radical acceptance.

Whatever floats through your mind is good, proper and perfect.

When meditating, you don't want a tumble of distracting thoughts, but you don't violently suppress your thinking. As always, you release your thoughts in a calm and gentle way.

Do this while you're accepting your thoughts for what they are and you'll unlock incredible wisdom.

This radical acceptance is a valuable tool for life. When you trust your own mind, everything in life becomes easier.

It's a key ingredient in self-hypnosis, too.

Ultimate Focus And Awareness

There's a state of mind that sounds corny but is absolutely sublime. Colours are richer, sounds fascinate you and you can sense the air as it caresses every part of your skin. When people talk to you, you hear everything that they say and don't say. It'd be overwhelming if it weren't so pleasant.

Have a few moments like this and you'll never doubt meditation's benefits again.

It's a state of hyperconnectivity and hyperawareness. Reality floods your mind in slow motion. You feel everything, which sometimes means you miss the big stuff. That's only because you're tuned in to the tiny things you used to ignore. In time, you learn to integrate the two together.

That's where the magic lies.

If you're confused, that's my fault. It's hard to properly describe this experience. A much better approach is to experience it yourself. It's a great state to be in. Everything seems new, fresh and interesting. A bug crawling across a leaf is captivating while hedonism becomes quaint and irritating.

You should enter this state. I'm struggling to tell you why, so I'll move onto how.

Your body floods your mind with information. One of the roles of your unconscious mind is to block and monitor this stream. This is why you don't feel the shirt on your back but if an ant bites you, you feel it immediately. Anything important or predictable demotes itself to your background awareness. Your conscious mind is then free to focus where it chooses.

The first step to hyperawareness of the environment is awareness of the self.

You can focus on individual parts of your body. Pay attention to your hands or your lower back. Notice everything this part of you tells you. If you're new to meditation, this is a nice warmup.

Then you can expand your awareness to cover more of your body. The key is to avoid straining yourself. How much can you notice while remaining relaxed in your mind?

You can increase your coverage by practising this over time. The more you focus on large parts of your body, the more you'll absorb each time. If you want to speed this up, alternate between broad areas of focus and focusing on a single part of your body.

In time, your awareness grows to encompass your entire body. Some people find this easy while others take months of training to reach this. Whatever is right for you is right for you.

Once you get to this stage, or at least close to it, shift the exercise. Instead of seeing how much of you your attention captures, see how long you can hold this awareness. Noticing your entire body takes a lot of mental energy, focus and discipline. It takes even more when you keep your attitude calm, relaxed and accepting.

Hold your awareness for as long as is comfortable.

The aftermath of this state is indescribable. I tried to capture it in words and struggled. All I can say is that, if you can become aware of your entire body, noticing your environment becomes trivial.