Meditation – Think Physical Health

Nothing strange or entirely new when I say that Meditation has been around for centuries. Practiced by many to be able to give to the world. To have gratitude and love for others, when at peace within yourself. Can you imagine the fact that the meditation alluded to here, is one that brings self-awareness. We didn’t always need to slow down.

A comforting thought if you are new to meditation is, (according to Bill Harris the creator of a technology that duplicates the brains states experienced by long time meditators), that it is not true that in order for you to meditate properly your mind must be still, rather ‘The end result of years of meditation is a still mind, but the process itself is often one of upheaval, with lots of thoughts and lots of distractions’[i]

In traditional meditation, you must focus on something (such as a mantra, the breath or a prayer) in order to create the brain wave patterns of meditation. Focusing slows the brain wave patterns into a meditative state, which is why we are wanting to focus on stillness and silence.

So why does it take so much effort to go there and achieve. Because we up against our conditioning that we live by now, the chatter and constant that has become the familiar, not the silence we deeply desire. It is really hard because we are not used to it. We have to use mental muscles we didn’t even know existed. But in the long run the quality of life for those that have adopted this practice have the ability for a strong level of peace and inner control tenfold that of those that don’t practice.

Early on in your meditation practice you can come up against two main obstacles of agitation and dullness. If the agitation causes you to loose the desire to meditate, you have to bring it back gently and are likely to be able to keep going. However dullness is harder with the threat of sleep creeping in. Instead of being able to focus on the meditation we find we are nodding off. The Dalai Lama speaks about countering these 2 problems with mindfulness and awareness. Staying in the present after all is the purpose of the practice. [ii]

Making Meditation as part of your daily routine, finding a good time of the day and staying with that is very important to build it into your life and to have success. Making the point of everyday is certainly going to give you the greatest gains instead of 2 hours on a weekend. The consistency is flexing those muscles and conditioning them. Its okay to miss the odd session although limiting the practice only comes to limitations. Over months and then years the change becomes more profound, the agitation drops away and you will forget it was ever there.

Here is the part when you realise that meditation is actually capable of helping you link up your personal awareness to your emotional intelligence. And the higher your emotional intelligence, the better for you and everyone in your life. A valuable note is that many people who remain calm in the face of trouble; remain modest in times of excellence; have a meditation practice in their life.

With the case stacking up even the world of science now has positive reviews to give on meditation. In case you didn’t know, this same fraternity used to question the validity of meditation as a healing tool; but they now embrace it and even recommend it. Emma Seppala, for example, is a PhD holder who has done plenty of scientific research from her base at Stanford University, and she has plenty of advice to give about the benefits of meditation.

As far as your health goes:

1) Meditation strengthens your immune system

2) It helps dissipate pain – whether it be physical or emotional

3) It works on inflammation at a cellular level, effectively reducing it significantly

4) Dramatically alters gene expression “turning off” hundreds of genes conducive to the onset of disease while “turning on” hundreds of genes conducive to health [iii]

5) Extends lifespan by the action of repairing telomeres the endings of chromosomes. While stress has been found to depress telomerase levels, meditation is one of the lifestyle interventions which increase their length[iv]

[i] Harris B; Thresholds of the Mind; Oregon Centerpointe Research institute 2003 Print Pg45

[ii] Michie D; Buddhism for Busy People; Sydney Allen & Unwin 2007 Print Pg 33-39

[iii] Rufers Johnson; Self Healing Meditation for a abundant life Print

[iv] https://www.naturalnews.com/037199_meditation_science_longevity.