Meditation is a simple practice yet such a phenomenon with many health benefits for our body and mind. We are consumed with life events as there are always constant background noises from our mind and our surroundings. Meditation is a simple phenomenon that for a single moment, when I am not doing anything, I find myself just at my center, utterly relaxed. In silence, meditation dissolves the space in between that helps me being closed to my core being. It has many benefits in creativity, heart health, brain health and it actually can increase our intelligence which is the capability to look into problem solving.
Many scientific studies show that regular meditation can reduce anxiety attacks by lowering levels of blood lactate which causes fatigue. It reduces general stress and stress-related muscle tension. Also, it can lower clinically significant levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Meditation boosts the immune system functioning because it increases the activity of “natural-killer cells”, which kill bacteria and cancer cells. In addition, it increases the level of serotonin to lower the symptoms of depression, obesity, insomnia and headaches. A lot of wellness centers introduce meditation in post-operative healing because it assists the body’s regenerative powers, the process of detoxification and of elimination. Overall, meditation can provide stress reduction which is significant in maintaining health and retarding the aging process.
*Coronary Heart Disease:
In a study in November 2012 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, they tested the claim by meditators that a meditation practice helps them stay healthy. 201 people with coronary heart disease were given options to take a health education class promoting better diet and exercise or to meditate. Researchers followed up with participants for the next five years and found that those who took the meditation class had a 48% reduction in their overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death. It’s still an initial study that needs more researching but a promising one how we can cope with medical conditions holistically.
*Creativity:
Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands looked at the way of two types of meditation such as: focused-attention (deep breathing) and open-monitoring (where participants focus on the both the internal and external.) This affected two types of creative thinking: the ability to generate new ideas and solutions to problems. In a study published in April 2012 in Frontiers in Cognition they revealed that the participants who practiced focused-attention meditation did not show improved results in the two creativity tasks. However, those who practiced open-monitoring meditation did perform better at task related to coming up with new ideas.
*Processing Information:
Researchers at UCLA wanted to study the brains of people who had been meditating for years, versus those who had never meditated or who had only done it for a short period of time. They took MRI scans of 100 people: half meditators and half non-meditators. They were fascinated to find that long-time meditators showed higher levels of gyrification (a folding of the cerebral cortex that may be associated with faster information processing). In a study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in February of 2012, they shared that, the more years a person had been meditating, the more gyrification their MRIs revealed.
*Credits to ahajournals.org and frontiersin.org.
⚠️Disclaimer: Meditation is not a replacement for medical treatment. Please consult with a physician or other healthcare professional before any changes in daily activities.
*If you have any questions regarding to meditation, please feel free to ask me anytime. 😊🙏❤️
This is very interesting and informative Koko, so thanks for going to all this trouble. I’ve always seen meditation as calming the mind as you quite rightly say thoughts rush through our mind like a raging torrent sometimes causing inner turmoil whereas a calm mind is inner happiness.
I will share with you all what I do to calm my mind and that’s sit comfortably preferably outside in nature and I look at a single flower or leaf and really look at it and my mind focuses totally and then I notice the subtle difference in leaves and flowers on the same plant and I’m bang back in the present.
Another thing that I do when the past starts to haunt me is I consciously look over my shoulder and ask well where is it? As it’s gone and I’m worrying about history instead of the now and meditation gives us the opportunity to live in the everlasting now which’s so elusive but it reminds us of what’s really important as the past is the past and yet we hold on to bad experiences as if they are prized possessions which’s like poisoning our selves slowly and little by little.
Whereas meditation and feeling positive to others liberates us from this cycle of self induced suffering.
So thank you for this inspirational post. 🙏
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Hi Jerry,
Thank you for sharing your meditation experience with us. I’m grateful and joyful to be able to bring awareness of how meditation can bring us such calmness and serenity back to our lives. We can’t control thoughts as they run on their own but by understanding this, we learn how to meditate the right way is being a watcher not a participant. We will see all the turmoils of the mind dissolved slowly by themselves.
It is very interesting how you calm your mind by focusing totally in the difference of each flower or leaf. In the East, we call it “third eye” which is inward and by doing just that, you open up your inner journey with your third eye, and then other senses start opening up as you can emerge yourself beautifully, silently in your own inner world, your core being.
It is so important how you consciously put your past behind. You are absolutely right, meditation gives us the opportunity to understand what we have is this moment and what we do with this moment will give birth to the next moment in our life journey. Only in the utterly silence, in meditation, we can destroy that space between our existence and truth, we can stay closed to our authenticity.
We can’t buy inner peace and only us can make it happen. Happy meditation Jerry! 😊🙏☯️🌺
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Thank you and thats interesting about the third eye, you are also right as the best things in life are free as we cannot buy health or happiness either. You enjoy your day now Koko. 😊
Thx for sharing. Meditation 🧘♀️ that’s what I need to do
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You’re welcomed Happenstances. I’m glad you give meditation a try. Please don’t feel discouraged at the beginning as it can be overwhelming for some. Even for 10 minutes silencing the mind is so powerful. Happy meditation Happenstances! 🤗🙏❤️🌺
Hi Happyman4, thank you for sharing your meditation experience with us. I am the same way as I like meditating first thing in the morning. You do your morning breathing exercises is a great way to invigorate your energy level up, open up your lungs and provide oxygen to your organs. Yes, all meditators take shower time as meditation time also when water cleanses our body, our mind. I’m so glad you don’t have to rely on medication for anxiety and incorporate meditation into your daily routine. Happy meditation Happyman4 ! 😊🙏☯️🌺
So many benefits to meditation🙏😁. I've heard the arguments against meditation like an "empty mind is the devil's work shop" and "nature abhors a vacuum". You are showing us this is absolutely false. An empty mind brings us closer to the source and rejuvenates us. Makes up happier, healthier and more intelligent. It has to be right.
If you are just meditating for the benefits of it you will not gain as much out of it. It's like if you only walk for exercise. You should just enjoy the act of walking, the sights, the smells, the birds and the people walking by, etc. Then your walk will have a meditative quality. The reason you are meditating will affect the quality of your meditation. It has to be a time where you are losing the ego. If there is greed in you it will act as a barrier and you will feel very frustrated when you try to meditate. When you are not, meditation is there. Beautiful post as always Koko😁. Thanks for raising awareness on this most important subject. 🙏❤🤗
You’re welcomed. 😁👍 We know when our mind is occupied with invalid thoughts will destroy our whole being. There are so many horrible symptoms such as upset stomachs, insomnia, cortisol stress hormone, high blood pressure... come with troubled mind. Scientific proof showed how meditation can slow down brain waves and increase the gyrification of your brain which make you more intelligent and a great problem solver. Great point on incorporating the beauty of nature in meditative walk as we can enjoy the beauty of this universe and the silence, calmness of our mind.
You see, people are frustrated with meditation because they do not understand and create 1000 and 1 techniques of meditation when the fundamental thing about meditation is simply be a witness, not a participant. When you are not doing anything at all, bodily, mentally on no level when all activities have ceased, you simply are; just to be, that’s what meditation is. Whenever you can find time for just being and drop of living in dreams. What do I mean dreams? Thinking is dream, contemplation is also dream, mumbling affirmation is dream. As I wrote in my post; even for a single moment, you are not doing anything, and you are just at your center, utterly relaxed, that is meditation all about.
I know you understand what I'm talking about perfectly🤗. I'm just elaborating on your points😁👍.Yes the healthier you will be the less your mind is filled with quotes, affirmations, dreams or whatever(no matter how holy you think it is). It is all about waking up from the dream and returning to our true nature. We have lost contact with ourselves and meditation is needed to reconnect.🙏
You are absolutely right! 🤗 When I meditate I live in the now. I embrace each moment and make the best out of it. We can’t change reality and through silence, calmness of my being, I can feel refresh and ready to tackle on any problems I might have. I cut through all the illusion of my mind by meditating. Being my authentic self is very important for me as I can feel free and joyful with my being and the people I love in my life journey. 👍😁🙏
Yeah I totally agree with that. An empty mind is very useful. If your mind was very cluttered with thoughts and worries, you will feel very drained of energy. If you're able to clear your mind a little, you'll find you will have more space. That's why in the morning after a restful nights sleep you feel refreshed because your brain had time to rest and replenish and absolve any neurotoxins that has built up during the day before.
Absolutely right Kainan, I usually meditate first thing in the morning with deep breathing as it can invigorating my level of energy up also. Opening all airways and oxygen supplies to our cells. I do meditate through out the day. Once you understand what is meditation you can go on 24/7.
a comfortable posture is very important. Not just for how you will feel sitting down but also being in the best position anatomically to breathe in and out opening up your chest and airways
Well you know how important of our posture in general as we are aware not having sluggish or slouching over position. 😂 No out of alignment 🙅♀️🙅♀️🙅♀️🤣😂😅
You better or you will have to see a chiropractor every week. 😂 well actually it is recommended to see chiropractor once a month to realign our body as we unconsciously are out of alignment. 😅
This is something that I've read about for years and have not put into practice until two years ago. Even from the very start I could feel the tension in my body. I had never really truly noticed it before. And I thought to myself "Wow! I've been carrying this around for so long." I started off and stuck with guided meditations for quite a while, and now I've moved on to sitting in silence. I like to do it outside of course when the weather is sunny and there is a gentle breeze. I hear the birds chirping and the cars zooming by, and those are cues for myself if I lose the breathing and fall into a storyline. I typically feel very rested when I meditate and when I open up my eyes right after, it's like the trees look brighter if only for a moment. But I think the biggest difference it's made is away from the sitting, just during the day when any stressors arise, I'm able to tune into my breathing right away and not get bogged down by the what ifs. I'm really happy and grateful that I finally got into this practice
Hi Kainan, I’m so glad you meditate so often now as you see your quality of life improves tremendously. Regarding to all the background noises, you just need to understand what meditation is and you can keep going with meditation. You can become aware of the way how being can remain undisturbed then you can slowly start doing other things. Just keeping alert that being is not disturbed, that is the second part of meditation. First learning how just be and then learning little actions such as cleaning the floor, taking showers, preparing your snacks... but keeping yourself centered and then u can do complicated things. For instance, I’m talking to you now but my meditation is not disturbed. I can go on talking but at my very center, there is not any ripples, just silence. So meditation is not against action, it is not about you have to escape from life; you learn a new way of life that you become the center of cyclone. Your life will go on the most intensely with more joy, with more clarity, more visions, more creativities but yet you are aloof. Be a watcher, seeing everything is happening around you. You are not a doer, you are a watcher that’s the whole secret of meditation. You become the watcher, doing everything normally, you can do all things from small to big things. Only one thing is not allowed that is your centering so not be lost. That awareness that watchfulness should remain absolutely unclouded, undisturbed and that is the right way of meditation. Happy meditating Kainan! 😁🙏🌺❤️
I think that will come with more practice. Right now, I can still get worked up over some small things. And that is perfectly ok. But it is taxing on the body as it accumulates. I'm not wanting the meditation to do that for me; if it happens gradually great, if it doesn't, that's fine too; that's just the kind of person I am. I'm not gonna look for anything because just sitting there is enough.
Kainan it is important to understand the concept of meditation. I tried to explain my best about it. It is a matter of remaining centered if you can look in as a witness. 👍😁
Yes I absolutely agree. We are talking about the same ideas. Being the watcher and not much else. It's not about seeking. Whatever arises is what we pay attention to. Don't have to take it off the conveyor belt. It's gonna come around again and again. That is the practice.
I’m glad you understand that. As a matter of fact, try watch how anger dissolves when you just watch it but not repressing it. Meditation is such an amazing tool for us to stay so grounded and so much bliss within. 🤗
Yes I've heard that can actually be a side effect from the meditating. Because as you work with the anxiety or any other ailments with meditation, the anger will work itself out on it's own. One benefit will translate itself into another and I've actually noticed that for myself without even working on anger
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