Meditation – soothe your mind, body and soul

Meditation can help you find self-peace. As well as help you gain or maintain control over your problems.

Meditation is one of the most ancient healing practices. Its spiritual side formed a part of all great religions of the world, especially Buddhism and Hinduism. Today many still use meditation as a way to improve their spiritual selves, but it is also being practiced to relieve stress, improve general health and quality of life.

Meditation involves a collection of mental techniques used to bypass normal thoughts and brings about free-flowing attention that helps calm and restore your mind and body. Unlike sleep and other forms of relaxation, meditation helps to quiet your thoughts and allows the entire body to relax but at the same time keeps you fully mentally aware.

There are two key principles involved in any type of mediation. You must first focus on a simple phrase, word (one syllable), image or just breath with a rhythm. This will bring you to a state of relaxed awareness. Next you must passively forget all other thoughts and distractions. Once the mind is focused on a single thing the brain will automatically switch off the body’s ‘fight or flight’ mechanism, stop reacting to your surroundings and thus become calm.

The most common focal point used is the mantra, a simple word or sound repeat quietly to oneself to block out all other thoughtsc. Words that may be used are ‘love’, ‘one’ or ‘peace’. Ancient ritual sounds with spiritual significance are also common, such as ‘ohm’.

Put on some comfortable clothes and find a calm, quiet place that is well ventilated and with soothing lights. Then, simply sit comfortably, close your eyes and concentrate on your mantra. It may be repeated to yourself or out loud and should be synchronized with a slow, relaxed breathing pattern. Your breathing should be rhythmic and balanced. This will help relieve tension, pain and anxiety.

You may find it easier to concentrate if you simply count each out-breath or each in- and out-breath, there is no need for your breathing pattern to be regular. However, try to match your counting to your natural breathing pattern.

Imagery meditation involves focusing on a thing of beauty such as a candle or flower.

Disregard all other thoughts is not very easy. You should not get your mind to concentrate but simply think of only one thing and hold your attention on it. This is why it is best if outside distractions are kept to a minimum. When other thoughts enter your mind, just let them pass without giving them any attention and return quietly to your focal point. Your ability to stay focused longer will obviously improve with practice.

Brain waves associated with meditation are known to occur during sleep. Thus, meditating allows the mind to stay alert and clear the body enjoys deep relaxation similar to that, which occurs in deep sleep. The sympathetic (action) nervous system gets switched off and the parasympathetic (resting) system fires up. Therefore, all the body’s systems can normalize and this produces the perfect environment for healing to occur. Regular meditation is also proven to help creativity and productivity, especially at work.

Several methods of meditation are Buddhist where you concentrate on happy times in your life. Transcendental is taught by a teacher and involves using a secret mantra that must not be relieved to anyone. The Christian method involves concentrating on a prayer or moral to obtain a better understanding it. Clinically standardized method is based on tradition meditation but is void of any spiritual associations.