Meditation and its many forms has been used years and years for spiritual, and relaxation purposes. While the more traditional Buhdist or Tibetan monks meditate to obtain a higher spirituality or to lucid dream; meditation has also been used for both clinical populations and the general public to treat stress and stress related conditions, as well as to encourage better health. Numbers of hospitals now days offer special programs and courses in meditation to patients seeking treatments other than medication to relieve their ailments or to better their general well being. There has been a growing amount of meditation across large numbers of conditions such as chronic pains, anxiety, stress, improving heart health, boosting mood and immunity, and resolving some pregnancy problems.
There still remains an uncertainty about the differences between the many different forms of meditation such as. In the practice of Concentrative Meditation, the objective is to concentrate on a single object, such as a sound, an image, the breath, or a flame. Through the training of constantly returning concentration to the focal point, the mind develops the ability to remain calm, stabilized, and grounded. Many western meditation teachers start amateurs with this practice, most commonly focusing on the breath. In some advanced practices a state of ecstasy may be achieved.
In Open Awareness the goal is to open the mind into a wide awareness of whatever is happening without a specific focus. Often this awareness is compared to a flowing river with objects floating by or a sky with clouds . The ability to be present with whatever happens is developed through this practice.
Mindfulness is the most popular, widely used, and widely researched m...
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...hi is an ancient Chinese tradition that is practiced today as a graceful form of meditation. It involves a series of movements performed in a slow, concentrated manner often associated with deep breathing. Tai chi is also called tai chi chuan, a self paced system of gentle physical exercise and stretching. Each posture flows smoothly into the next without pause (unless it was our class, we weren't so smooth), ensuring that your body is in constant motion. Tai chi has many different styles. Each style may have its own smaller focus on various tai chi methods and principals. There are also different versions within each style. Some may focus on the maintenance of health, while others focus more on the martial arts side of tai chi. Whichever one of these meditation forms you use they all have their pros and cons. Chose whichever one you think may benefit you the most.
There are five studies which investigated individuals who meditate and physiological changes with their bodies. These studies mainly focused on parasympathetic and sympathetic activities, cardiovascular activities, and immune activities. Most of the research has centered in investigating the nervous system itself.
Meditation is an important psychological practice that protects the brain against aging as well as enhancing an individual’s ability to learn new things. This practice achieves this through sharpening focus, lessening stress, lowering blood pressure, and relieving chronic pain. Generally, it helps a person to experience greater calm, connect with deepest feelings, and challenges tendencies of self-judgment. Consequently, meditation leads to open doors for actual and accessible happiness for an individual. According to Salzberg (2011), meditation is basically training an individual’s attention in order to become more aware of inner workings and external incidents (p.7). After becoming more aware of inner workings and external incidents, a person can choose his/her actions towards things that are visible. While each global religion incorporates some kind of thoughtful exercise, meditation in today’s world is usually practiced separately from any belief system.
Meditation allows for you to relax, slow down, and become more aware of yourself and your environment. By meditating in a quiet place with no distraction, you are able to greatly limit the information that is constantly entering into our brains. This information gives us a train of thought that is very difficult to be halted, because it is in the nature of our brains to analyze any information that we have coming in from our senses like what things we are seeing with our eyes and what we are hearing with our ears. By limiting the amount of information that is entering into the brain, we are able to separate ourselves from the mind that is analyzing all of that information and to become aware of it.
Although meditation has been used for spiritual growth, recently it has become a way of finding a peaceful bridge between stress and the fast paced world around us. It has become a way of taking time out of all the distractions and stress that occurs in our lives and relaxing and finding ourselves. Some other uses of meditation include healing, emotional cleansing and balancing, deepening concentration and insight, manifesting change, developing intuition, unlocking creativity, exploring higher realities, and finding inner guidance.
People with GAD dwell on their worries excessively, give to much attention to their fearful thoughts, and respond emotionally to negative images. Meditation can help the person to step back from these thoughts, emotions and images and view them as an observer watching from the outside this helps to reduce the stress response and put negative thinking into perspective. Meditation helps control of physical tension by inducing the relaxation response (Wilson, 2009).
Though Buddhism has long been a disciplined and strict religion since its’ beginning in the 3rd Century, it has recently gained positive utilitarian use within the psychological and neurological fields of science. Programs dedicated to improving and helping the lives of those who suffer from mental illness have started to incorporate the use of meditation as a form of treatment. Meditation is enforced in many schools of Buddhism as a method, or a way of life, to becoming enlightened. With growing qualitative and quantitative research on meditation, it becomes more evidential of the positive and life changing impact meditation serves in improving overall health of the mentally ill. Additionally, meditation can be implemented as a preventative
Meditation is an age-old practice that has renewed itself in many different cultures and times. Despite its age, however, there remains a mystery and some ambiguity as to what it is, or even how one performs it. The practice and tradition of meditation dates back thousands of years having appeared in many eastern traditions. Meditation’s ancient roots cloud its origins from being attributed to a sole inventor or religion, though Bon, Hindu, Shinto, Dao, and later, Buddhism are responsible for its development. Its practice has permeated almost all major world religions, but under different names. It has become a practice without borders, influencing millions with its tranquil and healing effects.
Research of brainwaves implies that meditation can definitely improve health insurance and wellness of the person. Neuroscientists discovered that individuals who meditate can change the mind activity to various regions of the mind. This type of change lessens the results of anxiety and stress. For this reason this type of person more happy and calmer than ever before.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). (2010). Health info. Meditation: An introduction. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm
The Transcendental Meditation technique is a simple, natural, effortless procedure practiced for any amount of time, usually 10-20 minutes in the morning and evening, while sitting comfortably with the eyes closed. During this technique, the individual's awareness settles down and experiences a unique state of restful alertness. As the body becomes deeply relaxed, the mind transcends all mental activity to experience the simplest form of awareness, Transcendental Consciousness, where consciousness is open to itself. This is the self-referral state of consciousness.
What are your thoughts, views, musings and experiences etc. regarding meditation? As we all can learn from each other when it comes to sharing ways of creating a healthy, happy and vibrant life work balance.
By utilizing a set of research methods, that inducts different types of mindfulness meditation training programs, and advanced mindfulness practitioners to matched control, with a capitulation of detection that enhance our understanding of the nature of mindfulness. While providing insights that will help me to target symptoms and populations that are likely to benefit from mindfulness meditation
Yoga could be described as the practice of holding different poses, and using diferrent breathing techniques that strengthens the mind and body, by bringing the practitioner into a new state of awareness. The practice of yoga increases blood flow to internal organs, brings more oxygen to the cells in your body, while strengthening and calming the nervous system. There are many different types of yoga. In the United States the most widely practiced form is known as Hatha, which is a combination of poses taken from all types of yoga b...
There are thousands of different varieties of yoga, which is how it helps a large sum of people in a diverse number of ways. One style is called Ananda. This yoga gains control over delicate energies in the body. It helps spiritual growth while it releases unwanted tension. The Ananda poses are designed to bring energy upwards to the brain, and through these poses, harmony is brought to the body, mind, and emotions (Cook).
First, I will present the research of the physical effects that meditation has on our body’s major internal systems and other common physical chronic conditions. Secondly, I will discuss how meditation practices can impact one 's mental and emotional health. Lastly, I will offer a definition of spirituality and how meditation can bring positive spiritual results.