What is meditation?
Meditation relaxes the body quickly and calms the mind. It is based on simple principles and is remarkably easy to do. When you meditate, you detach from your habitual thoughts by focusing on the sensations of the present, and there are many techniques to help you do this.
Once you understand how it works, meditation becomes easy to integrate into your life. You can destress rapidly in less than a minute by meditating 'on the spot'. You can calm yourself down while walking, shopping or doing household chores. Longer sessions will relax your body to the point of sleep and make the mind delightfully still and clear. And you could relax in order to fall asleep when you need to.
Meditation is ideal for anxiety and stress-related illnesses. By turning on the 'Relaxation Response' it takes you out of the stress zone and restores the body to balance. If you can relax at will, you'll find your whole body functions better and you feel better. There is abundant medical research supporting this finding. Meditation is particularly good for insomnia, hypertension, migraines, fatigue, pain, digestive problems and chronic illness.
Yet meditation offers much more than relaxation and better health. People often feel more centred and 'present', and in control of their lives. Because their minds are calmer, their thinking becomes clearer and more productive. They find meditation enhances their sensory awareness and appreciation of beauty. The daily difficulties become easier to manage, and life can become unexpectedly fresh and lovely again.
In brief, people meditate:
- to relax, destress and fall asleep
- to improve their health
- to remain centred and aware all day long
- for an inner stillness, detachment and clarity
- for well-focused and imaginative thinking
- to cope with unavoidable pain and sadness
- to find happiness, beauty and meaning