Meditation is a group of mental training techniques. You can use meditation to improve mental health and capacities, and also to help improve physical health. Some of these techniques are very simple, so you can learn from books or articles; Others require guidance by a qualified meditation teacher.
What is Meditation
Most techniques called meditation include these components:
1. You sit or lie in a relaxed position.
2. You breathe regularly. You breathe in deep enough to get enough oxygen. When you breathe, you relax your muscles so that your lungs are well emptied, but without straining.
3. You stop thinking about issues and everyday problems.
4. You concentrate your thoughts on some sound, some word you repeat, some image, some abstract concept or feeling. All your attention should be pointed at the object you choose to concentrate.
5. If some foreign thoughts creep in, you just stop this foreign thought, and go back to the object of meditation.
Different meditation techniques differ according to the degree of concentration, and how foreign thoughts are handled. By some techniques, the objective is to concentrate so intense that no foreign thought at all.
In another technique, the concentration of more relaxed so that foreign thoughts easily arise. When this foreign thought is found, someone stop this and get back to the pure meditation with ease. Thoughts that arise, often going about things you have forgotten or suppressed, and allow you to rediscover hidden memory material. This rediscovery will have a psychotherapeutic effect.
the effects of meditation
Meditation has the following effects:
1. Meditation will give you rest and recreation.
2. You learn to relax.
3. You learn to concentrate better on problem solving.
4. Meditation often has a good effect on blood pressure.
5. Meditation has beneficial effects on the inner body processes, like circulation, respiration and digestion.
6. Regular meditation will have a psychotherapeutic effect.
7. Regular meditation will facilitate the immune system.
8. Meditation is usually ordered.
The difference between hypnosis and meditation
Hypnosis may have some relaxing and psychotherapeutic effects similar to meditation. However, when you meditate, you are in control of their own; by hypnosis you let some other person or mechanical device control you. Also hypnosis will not have a training effect on the ability to concentrate.
Simple form of meditation
Here is a simple form of meditation:
1. Sit in a good chair in a comfortable position.
2. Relax all your muscles as possible.
3. Stop thinking about anything, or at least try not to think about anything.
4. Breath out, relaxing all the muscles in your breathing apparatus.
5. Repeat the following in 10-20 minutes:
– breathing in as deeply as you feel you get enough oxygen.
– Breath, relax the chest and diaphragm completely.
– Every time you breathe, think the word “one” or another simple word inside yourself. You have to think of the word in a way that prolonged, and that you hear it inside you, but you should try to avoid the mouth or voice.
6. If foreign thoughts enter, stop these thoughts in a relaxed manner, and continue to concentrate on breathing and the word you repeat.
As you continue this meditation, you should feel steadily more relaxed in your mind and your body, feel that you breathe steadily more effectively, and that the blood circulation throughout your body becomes more efficient. You may also feel the increasing mental pleasure throughout the meditation.
The effects of meditation on illness
As with any kind of training, meditation may be exaggerated so that you get tired and worn out. Therefore you should not meditate so long or so concentrated that you feel tired or mentally emptied.
Meditation can sometimes cause problems for people