What is meditation? People may think meditation is something strange and mystical, but it's not. Meditation is a very simple thing that anyone can do. You sit there and do nothing. Literally nothing. Well, even nothing has got to be something... but speaking in a sense of the normal daily life, meditation is like doing nothing: you sit and stare! You can stare at a point on the wall, on the table, or anywhere (yes seriously, stare). Or if it's too weird to stare you can close your eyes and turn your attention on your breathing. The goal is to quiet your mind, that is for advanced meditators; or for novices, to be aware of what's going on in your mind and not get lost in all the mind-chatter that our minds do. Did you know for most of us, our minds constantly chatter at any given moment? It's popularly referred to as the monkey mind.
How does meditation work? It's got to do with the emotions that we have. Where do our emotions come from? Thoughts. Our thoughts precede the emotions. You think of something, and if it's something pleasant you'll experience happy feelings; if it's something unpleasant, you'll experience distress. How meditation works is simply by addressing the root of all emotions: thoughts! They say that our minds think up to 90,000 thoughts a day! Well the numbers don't matter, the point is that we do think a lot of thoughts in the 16-hour waking period. There sure is plenty of room to think many thoughts in a day. Realise too, that some thoughts go by so quickly you don't even realise you just had a thought!
Why would I want to do this? It may not be immediately apparent, but your emotions play a part on your body's well-being. If your emotions are constantly out of whack, chances are your body's physiology would not run very smooth. One simple example could be when you're angry, your blood pressure goes up, which is not good for your health. Some stress may manifest as physical/physiological symptoms that you don't even realise the cause of them being from your bad, and perhaps suppressed, emotional state, commonly referred to as psychosomatic disorder.[1] Some even claim that most diseases are psychosomatic, to a certain extent.[2] I was a firsthand witness of a psychosomatic disorder sufferer. It was confusing for this person at first, as medical diagnoses do not show anything wrong. The illness however is negatively affecting this person's health and work life.
So there's a pretty good reason to meditate. If you want to try, do just 5 minutes a day to start out. Do nothing, just concentrate on a spot on the wall, or turn your focus on your breathing. Do it regularly, everyday. Increase the duration once you get a bit more used to it. You can get up to an hour, or even more. There's no limit, it's whatever you feel comfortable with. All this will train your mind into the habit of being aware of your thoughts throughout the day and eventually minimise or stop the mind-chatter. In the beginning you may not be able to really stop thoughts and the mind-chatter, but you can be aware of them, not identify with them and let them go. Meditation trains us when something unpleasant crosses our mind, we can simply recognise it as a mere thought, detach from it and let it go, hence not let it turn into a negative emotion. Use something like the following logic: "I was okay before this particular thought came along so why it should be any different now? It's just a harmless thought." All in all, meditation will train you to deal with pesky thoughts skillfully–recognise, accept, and let-go. Just like learning how to drive or any skill, it will take time to get this skill to become your second nature.
Finally, here are some documented benefits of meditation:[3]
So there's a pretty good reason to meditate. If you want to try, do just 5 minutes a day to start out. Do nothing, just concentrate on a spot on the wall, or turn your focus on your breathing. Do it regularly, everyday. Increase the duration once you get a bit more used to it. You can get up to an hour, or even more. There's no limit, it's whatever you feel comfortable with. All this will train your mind into the habit of being aware of your thoughts throughout the day and eventually minimise or stop the mind-chatter. In the beginning you may not be able to really stop thoughts and the mind-chatter, but you can be aware of them, not identify with them and let them go. Meditation trains us when something unpleasant crosses our mind, we can simply recognise it as a mere thought, detach from it and let it go, hence not let it turn into a negative emotion. Use something like the following logic: "I was okay before this particular thought came along so why it should be any different now? It's just a harmless thought." All in all, meditation will train you to deal with pesky thoughts skillfully–recognise, accept, and let-go. Just like learning how to drive or any skill, it will take time to get this skill to become your second nature.
Finally, here are some documented benefits of meditation:[3]
- Decreased heart rate
- Lower blood pressure in normal and moderately hypertensive individuals
- Quicker recovery from stress
- Enhanced synchronization (that is, simultaneous operation) of the right and left hemispheres of the brain (which positively correlates with creativity)
- Reduced cholesterol levels
- Decreased consumption of energy and need for oxygen
- Deeper, slower breathing
- Muscle relaxation
- Reduction in the intensity of pain
- More happiness and peace of mind
- Less emotional reactivity; fewer intense negative emotions and dramatic mood swings
- Increased empathy
- Enhanced creativity and self-actualization
- Heightened perceptual clarity and sensitivity
- Reductions in both acute and chronic anxiety
- Complement to psychotherapy and other approaches in the treatment of addiction
Footnotes:
[1]. "psychosomatic disorder." Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2012
[2]. "psychosomatic disorder." Patient.co.uk., Web. 15 Jan. 2012
[3]. S Bodian, Meditation For Dummies 2nd Edition, Wiley Publishing Inc, Canada, 2006, pp. 38-40
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