First of all, meditation is designed to find harmony with one's own "I", make one's life more spiritual and meaningful, find the path to the Higher Consciousness and establish a connection with the Lord. Let us make a reservation right away that meditation does not belong to any sectarian rites, its benefits are obvious. In fact, in all religious movements, believers meditate - these are prayers, rituals, everything that helps to keep in touch with the Higher Mind.
What is meditation
Translated from Latin, "meditation" means "to reflect", "to ponder". This is a whole series of mental special exercises that are used in spiritual, religious, he alth-improving practice. As a result of classes, a mental state arises that allows you to rethink yourself. During meditation, a person enters into an alliance with his "I", which allows you to establish contact with the source of wisdom and light, the entire universe. Acquisition of the integrity of the personality, in general understandingits essence - all this gives meditation. The benefit lies in the fact that through an altered consciousness (trance) a person is able to gain control over his emotions, feelings and thoughts.
During meditation, a person focuses on the essence of the object, completely immersed in it. Thinking at this time is attached to one idea, and the mind returns to it again and again, after any wandering or deviation. Gradually with practice comes the ability to concentrate your mind on one object, to control the course of your thoughts. They stop wandering and getting confused in the head. The highest form of meditation is the ability to control the mind, the release from the constant habit of thinking about something. This leads to supreme bliss, freedom of mind, awareness, clarity and serenity.
In the Western world, meditation appeared thanks to the Indian Maharishi Mahesh Yoga. The current worldwide organization teaches transcendental meditation, the simplicity of the technique and effective propaganda bring meditation to everyone.
What is the use of meditation
After mastering the technique and believing in yourself, everyone can meditate. After several successful sessions, a person easily finds contact with his own "I". Proper meditation helps in this. Its benefits are as follows:
- The process calms the mind, takes away depression, fears, aggression.
- Reduces stressful situations in a short period.
- Meditation makes it possible to stop the meaningless flow of fuss, to look into your soul,inner world, feel your involvement in the divine.
- Increases self-esteem and improves emotional state. Gives bursts of joy and vigor.
- Meditation has a positive effect on the nerves, heart, reduces blood pressure.
- Immune system strengthened.
- By meditating, a person gets rid of cravings for things, thereby simplifying his own attitude to life.
- The level of awareness of one's own actions and deeds is increasing.
- Meditation eventually teaches a person to perceive everyone as they are, to feel unity with all people, eventually to love all living things.
- Creativity develops - this is the benefit of meditation, the reviews of many talented people confirm this. Many who have experienced the meditation technique note that in this way they got out of the captivity of the past and began to appreciate life here and now.
- Meditation provides answers to many vital questions and fills the existence on this earth with joy.
- Finding our own "I", we find happiness. An open heart to the world makes us one with it.
The main types of meditation
There are two main types of fundamentally different meditations:
- The first type is "meditation on emptiness". This type of meditation is very difficult. It consists in complete calmness and complete mental silence. Here you need to completely exclude all thoughts from your head and just observe the emptiness. This type of meditation leads to complete "enlightenment", awareness of the essence of everything.existence.
- The second kind of meditation is meditation on "one" or one-pointed. Here you will need to focus all your attention on one thing, completely concentrate your attention, contemplate, listen or pronounce something. The meaning of this kind is to gradually immerse yourself in "meditation on the empty", from which even greater benefits come.
Dynamic meditations allow us to clear our unconscious limiting attitudes, our emotions associated with something accumulated in childhood and adolescence. We grew up, the settings are outdated, but the emotional garbage remains. You need to get rid of it and purify your energy.
Subspecies. Active and passive meditation
What is active meditation? The monotonous repetition of various physical exercises or some kind of stress leads to the fact that the thought process is blocked. The person goes into a trance. Often active meditation is performed in dance, when the muscles work in the same rhythm, are involved in one monotonous process.
Most meditation can be classified as passive. Here a person takes the most comfortable position and begins to plunge into his own world. This state should be achieved without any emotional and mental activity. An example of such immersion is the meditational form of traditional Indian yoga. In a deep trance, a person is able to expand his own consciousness, after a few sessions, the benefits of meditation are felt. It is based onmantras, simple formulas. The psyche calms down naturally, peace of mind sets in, immersion in oneself. The body in this state completely relaxes and, as it were, plunges into the waves of the ocean.
Revealing and Meaningful Meditation
During revealing meditation, a person consciously relates to the existing reality. In this case, a consciousness is formed that relates to the current reality, in this case, this is the benefit of meditation. Whatever you do: walk, sit, lie down, you must be completely captured by this action.
Meaningful meditation. Immerse yourself in natural meditation will allow the contemplation of fire, water, clouds, and much more. Based on this state, specialists have created forms of meaningful meditation. A natural object or phenomenon is used as a starting point in one's own immersion. The meditator fully comprehends the essence of the phenomenon and the relationship between man and nature occurs.
Also, photographs, drawings, images can be used as subjects in meaningful meditation. A person, focusing on the meaning of the picture, dissolves in it and learns the deep meaning.
Meaningful meditation can be musical. Listening to beautiful music, a person opens his imagination, draws different pictures and discovers a world of new sounds, as if from another world.
Objects to focus on
In some types of meditation, you need to choose an object for concentration. Most commonly usedconcentration:
- On my own breath. You need to focus and watch your own breathing. Each time the meditation becomes sharper and clearer.
- On a candle or your mirror image. Sit in front of a mirror, light a candle in front of you. Relax, not think about anything, but just watch the fire or with your own eyes. This is how meditation on a candle goes, the benefits are felt soon. The body just goes into nirvana.
- On the inner own sound. You need to sit comfortably, relax and silently listen to the sounds in your own head. Soon you will hear a subtle sound - an echo of the outflowing energy.
- On the mantras. The Sanskrit mantra is used. A variation is transcendental meditation.
- On the chakras. Each chakra has its own sound, color, taste, smell and image. Attention is focused on them.
- In the air that touches the nostrils when exhaling and inhaling.
- On the beating of the heart muscle.
The process of meditation
For meditation, you need to completely relax. The most important aspect of a session is complete relaxation. Every muscle in the body must become free. Next, you need to fully concentrate your attention on breathing or on some subject of meditation, music, the rhythm of your own heartbeat. Thoughts must be completely turned off. If you manage to maintain concentration, then at the same time thinking about something else simply will not work. Our brain is constantly thinking about something, and at first getting rid of thoughts is quite difficult, but this can be learned. This will take some time.
Nextstay relaxed without any tension. If thoughts cannot be turned off, do not get upset, fight them and get angry. Just start following them and watch them flow from the side, like an uninteresting movie. The main task at this stage is to remain indifferent and ignore all thoughts. If they appear in your head, do not show interest in them. It is very difficult to turn off the internal dialogue, it requires enhanced, long practice.
In the early stages, learn to observe thoughts from the outside, it is not necessary to drive them away from yourself. After all, this is not the only meaning that meditation contains. The benefits will already come from the fact that even for a short time you can relax and indifferently observe your problems from the outside. You will understand how insignificant they are in the vastness of the universe.
The brain, its performance and mood
The benefits of meditation for the brain have been proven by many studies. A test was conducted in Belgian schools, in which 400 schoolchildren took part. Six months later, those who followed the program of meditation confirmed the fact that they were unaware of the feeling of fear and anxiety. In these teenagers, all signs of possible manifestations of depression disappeared.
The same study was conducted at the University of California among patients suffering from depression. Mindfulness meditation reduced dysfunctional life beliefs, and its effect on the body worked even better than antidepressants. By the way, they only drown out the symptoms, but nothingdo not treat the cause of the disease.
The benefits of meditation for the human body have also been proven in other ways, here are just a few of them:
- Help with postpartum depression.
- Mood regulation and anxiety disorders.
- Removing panic attacks.
- Increased concentration of gray matter in the brain.
- Reduces the need for sleep and promotes psychomotor alertness.
- Reduces alcohol and drug addiction.
- The generation of gamma waves increases in the brain.
- The body becomes more resilient and stronger against pain.
- Pain relieved better than morphine.
Body and he alth. Relationships
When meditation is done, the he alth benefits are felt even in the most neglected cases. The most popular method - transcendental meditation - has helped many patients, and this is also confirmed by studies in the largest scientific centers and institutes:
- Metabolic syndrome decreases.
- Life expectancy is increasing.
- Blood pressure drops.
- Reduces the risk of atherosclerosis.
- Reduces the risk of coronary disease.
- Cholesterol control.
- Help in the treatment of epilepsy.
- Support in the fight against smoking.
- Clarity of thinking appears.
- Increases resistance to harmful factors.
The state of calm not only of the body, but also of the mind - all this gives meditation, the benefits for the body of whichinvaluable.
As for relationships, here the process of meditation gives rise to a feeling of empathy in a person, a positive attitude towards all living things, reduces the desire for social isolation, loneliness. Uplifts mood, increases compassion, reduces anxiety.
The Harm of Meditation
And yet there are controversial issues that meditation raises. Benefits and harms are sides of the same coin. According to some researchers, meditation can be harmful to an unprepared person. Initially, having experienced the bliss of unity with the higher "I", a person can become addicted to the process of meditation, like a drug. It's just addictive.
It takes decades for experienced yogis to reach the highest levels of meditation. In the process of meditation, the composition of the blood changes, the level of endorphin rises, but the level of oxygen may decrease, the heart rate and the number of heartbeats change.
It is not for nothing that in Eastern cultures and religions only dedicated people, clergymen, are allowed to meditate. They argue that this is too serious and complicated process for Europeans.
As for the brain, scientists have proven that in the process of meditation changes occur in it. It has been found that people with injuries in the right parietal region achieve a state of transcendence more quickly. The brains of meditating Tibetan monks were also scanned. It was found that the areas that regulate attention were the most active. At the same time, the posterior parietal zone was completely passive,here is a bundle of neurons responsible for orienting the body in space. That is why, during meditation, a person feels a reunion with eternity, loses the sense of reality.
The question of the benefits and harms of meditation always remains open, but the facts remain facts. Everyone can decide for himself whether his mind is ready to make a reunion with his own eternal "I" or the psyche is still weak for such a step?
