The Power of Meditation

Written By Stacey Chillemi

Freelance writer

 

Meditation is when you focus your attention to help you feel calm, relaxed and stress-free.  Meditation gives you a clear consciousness about yourself as a person and a clear understanding of your life.

The health benefits of meditation have been recognized in Eastern philosophies for thousands of years. Meditation is now widely practiced with the idea that it has positive effects on health.

The two most commonly used meditation techniques are concentrative and mindful.

• Concentrative meditation focuses on a single image, sound, mantra (words spoken or sung in a pattern), or your own breathing.

• Mindful meditation does not focus on a single purpose; rather, you are aware of all thoughts, feelings, sounds, or images that pass through your mind.

Mediation helps you to relax. Meditating is very is to do.  .Most of us has done meditation by participating in conscious relaxation, such as a relaxing bubble bath or a quiet shower.   Maybe during an exercise class or when you felt tense and you took a couple of deep breathes to com yourself down.

Mediation starts by paying attention to our breathing. You start by focusing completely on our breathing takes our minds away from the "thousand thoughts that fly through out our head during the busy and stressful schedules that we have" these thoughts constantly tries to enter our mind each day and block up from relaxing and being calm.

You need to clear your mind of all thoughts, clear your mind and relax through you breathing techniques.  The process of meditation takes on its own energy.  You will begin to feel a sense of peace, serenity, calmness, eventually opening yourself to new insights.

Too much stress, stress reduction, relaxes, and let it go, detach. Our lives are filled everyday with fast, stressful, fun and exciting events. It is also challenging, trying, demanding and frightening. Our lives produce stress, emotional reactions, anxiety, worry and anticipation. As humans we can handle what our limit allows us too.  Everybody’s limit is different.

The key is to learn how to deal with your stress and not let it get the best of you. One big mistake that we all make is that we neglect ourselves because we have become so preoccupied focusing on everyone else that we forget about ourselves.

The first step to eliminating the stress in your life is learning to take time out for you.

1. Take a hot bubble bath for fifteen minutes. Also, place an oatmeal bath in the water.

2. Lie in the bath tub and close your eyes, take four deep breaths slowly.

3. While you are taking these deep breaths clear all thoughts from your mind. Focus on the feeling of the warm water touching your body and the breathing techniques that you are doing at that moment.

4. Think about something positive and pleasant. Envision something that makes you happy. Focus on something that makes you feel good about yourself.

5. Let go of any negative thoughts that you have stored in your mind. Just to think about one thing that makes you feel good about yourself.

6. Take four more deep breaths relax for a minute and get out of the bathtub.

7. Get dressed, go to a quiet place and sit on the floor. Close your eyes and slowly bend forward, relaxing any tight muscles that are causing you tension. Bend to the left, stretching your arms as far as they will go, then stretch to the right, repeating the movement.

8. Take five more deep breaths and say aloud "I have the patience to change myself and become the person I want to become in life." Say, "I am not going to let the stress I feel control me."

9. Repeat step seven and eight

10. Take five more deep breaths and listen to yourself when you're doing this exercise.

Concentrate on yourself while doing this exercise. Do not let any distractions impose on your quiet time. Do not think about anything except this exercise and the techniques it involves.

Popping an antidepressant isn’t going to make your stress go away for ever.  Taking a pill will make you fill better temporarily then when the pill wears off; reality sets in and we go back to our lives just the way we left it.  The trick is learning to deal with our inner emotions.

We must search inside ourselves. This is where the practice of meditation comes in.

If you develop a daily routine set some goals and become committed to practice.  During your meditation time you may "leave the moment." A feeling of separation exists where the mind is clear, clean and blank. You will still hear sounds around you, but they will not get in the way with your meditation.

Sometimes you may cry.  You may not even be aware of what is making you cry. It is your own emotions having a voice of their own. Sometimes you may feel a smile across your face -- that is contentment showing itself. Sometimes you may fall asleep and awaken truly revitalized.

There is no right or wrong conduct during your meditation. This moment of mediation (time for yourself) is your time. Everyone needs to give themselves personal attention. This is a self-care activity; loving oneself.  Remember if you don’t take care of yourself, you cannot take care of the loved ones around you.

The peace and joy felt by those who meditate enters the world for all of us as positive energy. People mediate to change and strengthen themselves.  Mediations help you look at life in a positive way.  You need to say to yourself, “OK, I’m going to commit myself to mediation I am not going to be lackadaisical. 

This is the first step to entering the world of mediation.  Believe in mediation.  Believe in who you are.   Be thankful each morning that you can wake up and feel the warmth of the sun and the beauty that surrounds us all.  Begin you mediation with that.