More and more everyday the term meditation is used, but not many people really understand its real meaning. Meditation is a deep state of relaxation, where you are completely de-concentrated. Many practice this form of relaxation, but not everyone does it the same way. In fact, there’s various types of meditation, most which originated in ancient religious and spiritual traditions. These practices offer many benefits from helping our health, improving our mental state and growing us spiritually. Therefore, it is encouraged that everyone takes the time to meditate. Thus, the number of adults who practice this state of mind is still very low. According to the National Health Interview Survey only 8.0 of US adults (18 million) used meditation, …show more content…
The 5 major categories are Buddhist meditation, Hindu meditation, Chinese meditation, guided meditation and Christian meditation. Each of these main class have several sub-categories. Buddhist have several ways to practice meditation Zazen (zen meditation) is a popular one. This is basically a focus on yourself, it's been threw thousands of generation along the West side, India, China, Japan and Asia. When practicing this, you are seated and must keep your spine completely straight to help with with deeper breathing. Secondly, Buddhist will also use Vipassana or better known as a mindful meditation. This traditional Buddhist practice dates back to the 6th century B.C, to perform this type of meditation, every moment is analysed without dwelling on any certain occasion. The Hindu population also has a various amount of ways of practice, one of them being Mentra. The fundamental part of it is the word or syllable used. This word is repeated a numerous amount of times to insure proper focus of the mind. Hindus also holds the oldest meditation tradition this form is called Yoga. Yoga means “union” and dates back to 1700 B.C. Many different forms of Yoga a few being, third eye meditation, chakra Meditation and many other ways. Chinese often practice by using Qigong (Chi Kung) which is a martial arts training. This is when deep breathing, slow body movements and …show more content…
Everybody is only giving one body, therefore it’s important to take care of it. Meditation can improve one’s health by relieving stress related diseases. Such as: high blood pressure, insomnia, chronic pain, headaches, skin disorders, respiratory problems, IBS, PMS and mild depression. David Creswell Carnegie Mellon University's "When an individual experiences stress, activity in the prefrontal cortex — responsible for conscious thinking and planning — decreases, while activity in the amygdala, hypothalamus and anterior cingulate cortex — regions that quickly activate the body's stress response — increases.’’ Meditation also improves the mental health, when meditating the brain waves are put into a very relaxed alpha state. This is also a practice of self care which means the participants self esteem, self worth and confidence is increased. According to The Art of Living practice of meditation: anxiety decreases, emotional stability improves, creativity increases, happiness increases, intuition develops, gain clarity and peace of mind and problems become smaller. They also say that meditation sharpens the mind by increasing focus and expands through relaxation, a sharp mind without expansion causes tension, anger and frustration. An expanded consciousness without sharpness can lead to lack of action/progress and the balance of a sharp mind and an expanded consciousness brings perfection.
Proponents of the Transcendental Meditation program initiated by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have expressed their ideas in various web sites on the World Wide Web, through pages such as The Transcendental Meditation Program at http://www.tm.org and the Scientific Research on Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program of the Maharishi University of Management at http://www.miu.edu/TM_Research. In these sites positive messages are conveyed about the benefits of meditation to its practitioner within the physiological, psychological, sociological, intellectual, and interpersonal realms. Within these sites, the web-browser is presented with an abundance of information relating the vast array of health benefits offered to an individual through the regular practice of what is described as the simplest, most natural form of awareness--what practitioners of the technique term "transcendental consciousness." Through this technique, its advocates assert, one can:
However, meditation is not as common within Buddhism as most believe. There is a large assumption “that Buddhism and meditation go hand in hand”, but the majority of Buddhists have focused on “cultivating moral behavior, preserving the Buddha’s teachings (dharma), and acquiring good karma”(Braun 2014, p.1). Meditation and Buddhism are often assumed to be one and same, but this is also not true. As Buddhism has gained popularity among lay people it’s practices have changed Buddha’s teaching of the middle path has adapted to meditation being “possible in the city” rather than with monks in jungles and caves (p.4). As seen in Burma, in less than 75 years Buddhism and meditation were able to grow “from a pursuit of the barest sliver of the population to a duty of the ideal citizen” (p.5). While meditation is not the core of Buddhism it has encouraged the growth of Buddhism as it’s practice of mindfulness has been inspiring an approachable model (p.6). Meditation and mindfulness are easily manipulated to secularization, but still have significance in Buddhism and following the patterns of your
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).
Over twenty-five hundred years ago, Buddha Guatama practiced meditation and came to what is known as “The Four Noble Truth,” an important principle in Buddhism (Elder, 2010). This principle informs the reader of what suffering is and how affect is. This is a great example of how valuable meditation is- on the very first session ever recorded, the awareness that came from it would later be the foundation of a new religion. This proves how powerful meditation can be. Furthermore, some form of meditation can be found in various religions. Although the styles, techniques, and ideology behind the meditation can vary per religion, personal transformation is the key goal (Modi, Singh, 2012). Today, in Western society, mindful meditation (a form of meditation) has grown in popularity, used for relaxation and to help treat those who suffer from mental illness’ and mood disorders. Viewed as alternative medicine for the mind and soul, it is beneficial for our emotional and mental
Today, meditation is used as a way to improve healthy living, reduce stress and relax. While it is primarily meant to focus the mind and bring you to enlightenment, these other goals are perfectly fine ones as well.
05 May 2014. Barbor, Cary. " The Science of Meditation.
OK. So you’ve heard, that meditation is beneficial for you, maybe you’ve read lists about the advantages of meditation. A ton of different kind of meditations are on-line, and you found several resources, articles, blog posts about the theme to select from. These articles state, that the meditation has countless benefits, which are also proven by scientific research. You can believe them, since eminent scientists carried out extensive research on this subject. And they suggest, you should try them, and of course you should practice it each day. Every day - or you won’t have those benefits.
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.
When one thinks of meditation, what comes to mind? Does one think of group of 1970’s hippies sitting in a circle singing about peace? How about relaxing music being played? How about trying to form one’s body into a pretzel-like shape? What if meditation has nothing to do with the background music being played or what position one’s body is in? Meditation is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the act or process of spending time in quiet thought” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meditation). Meditation is just simply sitting in a quiet room and thinking about one’s life. The act of meditating is much simpler than many people think. Through deep concentration and relaxation, meditation becomes an altered state of consciousness.
The first grant proposal addressed the effects of meditation on life-span cognitional developmental processes. From my understanding, there is a strong connection to the mindset and self-awareness, as one chooses to mediate for their own reason. Based on the informed information, meditation is used to decrease stress and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The provided background information and predicted research study will help determine the pros and cons of the process, using the meditation techniques.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). (2010). Health info. Meditation: An introduction. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm
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
Meditation is not a time devoted to thinking or reflecting about oneself, but a time to redirect one’s thoughts and emotions away from the outside world and onto something simple, such as the wind or one’s own breathe. By learning how to meditate, an individual can learn how to react appropriately to “the circumstances one finds oneself in, i...
It is well known and proven that over time the benefits of meditating on a regular basis promotes the development of inner calmness, connectedness, focus, flow, a clear clarity of mind, a focused and more stable grounded concentration, along with coherency of thought, increased creativity, being more open and receptive to receive insights, solutions to problems and new ideas, a balanced and harmonious centred inner equilibrium, a relaxed happy body, mind and spirit, which in turn assists as a preventative tool that creates and maintains positive overall vibrant health and wellbeing.
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.