Eric Gift Okeoghene

MEDITATION: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW There are few exercises that have become synonymous with spirituality and mental development as much as the act and art of meditation. in fact, physical exercises can be said to contribute as much to the development of the body as meditation contributes to the improvement of the mind. Hence, we can define meditation to be an attempt to keeping the mind fit, by thinking deeply or enforcing your mental concentration on a restricted range of topics. The purpose of meditation, however, cannot be restricted to a particular reason. The reason and effects of meditation differs depending on the person doing the exercise, as such, it could range between developing a better perception of things in your environment, calmly gaining more insight by sorting through thoughts feelings and emotions, to getting into a more relaxed mood by staying quiet. Nevertheless, meditation is undoubtedly beneficial. By how much it is beneficial is documented by recent scientific data that proves meditation as a solution to various chronic sicknesses, not limited to heart diseases, depression, and severe pain. Admittedly, it is easier to find the following as the reason why people meditate: Relaxation An inevitable advantage of meditation is the relaxation it offers. This was explained by researchers Herbert Benson (Harvard University Medical School) and Miriam Z. Klipper as “an opposite, involuntary response that causes a reduction in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.” In their book titled “Relaxation Response” after studying people that practice transcendental meditation. On this ground, we can confirm the inevitability of the relaxation that meditation offers. This relaxation effect cannot be as important as it is to people in this modern day. The sheer pace, roughness and pressure people are under makes the need of a way to let it all out (or relax), a very necessary requirement for survival in this world. Without which, your health might be the thing to suffer. Hence, if you want to carry less baggage of stress while enjoying deeper sessions of relaxation, meditation can be a way to go. Of course, all these benefits and more can be achieved by just meditating for 15 minutes! Health Just like said above, scientific evidence has emerged over time to confirm the healing effects meditation has in a lot of unique but negative medical situations. Examples of such situations include the cases of meditation being a way to subdue higher blood pressures, the fact that proper immersion in the art of meditation improves in the blood circulation in the human body, lowering the cortisol levels and heart rate (which reduces the likelihood of having a heart attack) or having lesser perspiration and sweat due to the relaxation you enjoy as your respiratory rate equally reduces. Meditation has also been discovered to be a useful weapon against anxiety as well as serving to provide a feeling of security. The health effects are numerous indeed, with many yet to be pointed out, especially with its effect on the brain and immune systems of human beings. Self-Improvement Survey don’t have to be carried out to tell you that, meditation, even with all these benefits – its healing effects – people do not pursue meditation for better physical health. In truth, meditation does not make you a better version of yourself by doing it, but those who do it become better people as the exercise exposes your thoughts, emotions, memories and reactions to yourself and becomes a platform or an interface for you to scrutinize yourself after you have studied the lengths and breadths of your behavior. The eastern monks of Buddhist belief preach meditation as the only way to cut your ties with the things that are not in you power to control. This, they believe, will lead us to the highest satisfaction derivable from practicing mediation consistently which is a clear mind that can never be perturbed (inner harmony or perpetual Zen). All in all, the principal objective is to restructure your thought processes to be calm, positive and understood by you (to create a chance for your self-improvement). In the pursuit of this, here are a couple of details and tips that might pop up as you delve deeper: The meaning of mindfulness The skill of being present, an ability that stands as the measure of the amount of concentration you can offer to a topic, duty or task. The most important requirement Ironically, one of the most important tools you need in your locker before meditating is resilience. You need to know that meditation is an art that cannot be perfected. Instead, it demands our consistency. Therefore, when you begin your meditation, it is important that you don’t lose hope when you’re distracted once or twice, keep at it! People with a balanced grip on mindfulness and resilience in meditation understand that meditation is not an exercise limited to a particular pose or other, you can do it while carrying out your daily tasks, without being a master. As such, the Buddhist see the art of meditation like sports in the sense that we should understand that there are different ways to meditate, each one of which requires a different degree of focus and a different set of skills. Written below is what you need to know about the various types of meditation. Meditation of Mindfulness This type of meditation has a western origin, as such, it has a more stricter focus on thoughts and its patterns. The idea, as mentioned earlier, is to place yourself as a spectator in your own mind. Watch the movement of the various thoughts that cross your mind without given a verdict on any of those thoughts, emotions or feelings. By doing this, you observe the repetitions and arrays and then realize the configuration of your mind. With the passage of time, while practicing this technique of meditation, you will notice how quick human beings tend to file judgements of different situations into classes like good, bad, unpleasant, stupid etc. becoming more aware of this behavior will instill in you a sense of balance that will be a base for your calmness in the future. Meditation of Transcendence One of the most common meditation techniques where you chant a prepared line (this could be a phrase or word in any language or even a sound) uttered in a specific way. This should be done for at least 15 minutes every day, in a relaxed position with closed eyes, with increments in the time allotted to the exercise the more you get used to it. The goal of this technique is to achieve a calm mind. The advantage, is that this calmness, comes with little effort or concentration. Meditation by Guidance The guide (a teacher or assistant) in this method makes use of visualizations and mental projections to lull the mind of the person doing the activity into a state of calmness. Sounds, pictures, textures and smells are used to stir up a feeling of security and calmness. This method requires a lot of customization to suit each personality. This is because certain sounds, smells or even pictures that can calm some people down can revive traumatic experiences for others. Vipassana Meditation This ancient Indian meditation technique served as the root from which the method of mindful meditation was birthed. Usually done and taught within ten or more days, the over 2,500-year-old tradition exploits some strict rules during its execution that serves to build up the humanity in the people meditating. The rules could disallow vices such as dishonesty, lust (thus, sexual activities are prohibited), envy (as such, theft is to be avoided) or foods and beverages such as alcohol or intoxicants should be avoided. The Vipassana meditation works like the mindfulness meditation as it also requires a deep inward look to lead to self-improvement. Unlike the mindfulness technique, however, the Vipassana technique is aimed at connecting the physical body and the mind in such a way that they are in tune with each other. The Loving and Kindness Meditation this is one of the most positive forms of meditations. It is all about making positive and optimistic confessions, sometimes in a chant. It begins by you wishing yourself well and declaring positive things about you future. After doing this, you change the nouns and pronouns from a personal target mode to a declaration about friends, acquaintances and family. Some schools of thought even add your enemies to the list. At the end of it all, you generalize the chant by directing the well-wishes to everyone in the world. Chakra Meditation This technique is based on the belief that there are spiritual nodes in the body of humans called chakras (Sanskrit for ‘wheel’). They are seven in number, each with a different color, the technique is done by focusing on these colors to connect the body and mind as in Vipassana meditation. Yoga The past two decades especially, have seen this meditation technique come to the fore as the most commonly used type of meditation. it entails using various poses to get your body relaxed with the added advantage of getting a more flexible body. With good health, psychological security, self-improvement and relaxation as few of the by-products of the art of meditation, it would be an error on my part not to charge you to begin your meditation journey. Good luck!