Meditation was a spiritual practice for thousands of years. Meditation helps you to relax and reduces stress. It helps to focus your mind away from all the worries and reduce anxiety. It helps to calm your mind and achieve mental peace. It is increasingly recognized that your mental health is correlated to physical health. Meditation moves you into a peaceful state. As you meditate you focus your mind, helping you to improve your concentration. Meditation can help to reduce all the stress related ailments. As one of the reasons for heart disease is stress, the chances of the disease are reduced.
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Meditation Wikimedia Commons:Tevaprapas Makklay |
To Control your Thoughts
It is said that everything is in the mind. Controlling your thoughts is not easy. You get irritated very easily. But meditation helps to switch off the mind completely. It helps to blank your mind, away from all the worries for some time. It can be said that meditation brings your unruly mind into control.
Detachment
You may get irritated by what another person says. Most of these things may be minor. But they keep flooding your mind, even when you try your best to keep them out. Meditation helps you to focus your thoughts away from all these irritations.
Happiness is said to be a state of mind. Meditation helps to keep the negative thoughts out of your mind. It helps you to discover the source of happiness. As meditation makes you oblivious to the circumstances, you will be much happier.
Concentration
To succeed in any endeavor, concentration is extremely important. When you study, concentration is everything. In sports you need to focus your mind, whether it a game of chess, table tennis or boxing. Meditation is beneficial to students, sportsmen, musicians and even painters. Creativity needs ability to focus for long periods.
Meditation in the olden days was the preserve off sages and saints. It helped them to focus their mind on god. But the modern day techniques can be applied to tame your mind and bring it to a focus away from all the irritating thoughts. Meditation is a method to achieve mental and physical well being.
Benefits of Meditation
- Helps to lower the oxygen consumption
- Decreases the respiration rate
- Slows down the heart rate and increases blood flow.
- Brings in a deep sense of relaxation
- Brings down high blood pressure
- Helps to relieve emotional distress
- Helps to reduce symptoms chronic diseases
- Helps to reduce pain
There are several methods of meditation
- Mindful meditation
- Spiritual meditation
- Focused meditation
- Movement meditation
- Mantra meditation
Mantra Meditation
Mantra is a word or a phrase which is repeated continuously during meditation. Mantra mediation has been practiced by Hindus and Buddhists for thousands of years. The most common mantra word chanted by Hindus is “om”. It has been evolved over thousands of years. The continuous chanting of the mantra helps to bring your mind to a focus. Another common phrase repeated by the Hindus is “om namah shivaya” which translates into “I salute god Shiva”
The most important part leaning meditation technique is to persist. To start with, you will find it very difficult to focus. As you close your eyes try to focus your mind, the mind wanders away every few seconds. As soon as it does, bring it back. As you start to practice, it slowly starts to focus. It may take single minded effort to achieve your goal. It is necessary to meditate at least half an hour every day to reap the benefits.
Some of the steps to be followed for mantra meditation are
- The ideal time for meditation is early morning as soon as you wake up
- Take a shower, wear fresh clothes and sit down in a clean and quiet place
- Squatting position is ideal. But can be practiced sitting on a chair also.
- As you close your eyes and start to chant the mantra of your choice. It could be any phrase. But with “om”, it would be easier to bring your mind to focus.
- Concentrate on an imaginary object like a lamp in your mind as you chant the mantra
- As you start meditation hundreds of thoughts erupt in your mind. As it does, bring your mind back to focus.
- Keep doing this once a day for weeks and months.
- Finally you will be able to concentrate for half an hour without your mind wandering off.
The stress levels come down and so does your blood pressure. You will begin to feel healthier. You will feel more at peace with yourself and your work.
Now you have started to reap the benefits of meditation. Your concentration levels will improve. You will feel relaxed and will be more productive at work.
