How Does Meditation Help A Person?

Meditation is a beautiful and peaceful journey to the stillness within. When you quiet the mind and enter the silence of your own soul through meditation, you experience a restful vacation from the things that don't necessarily serve you much of the time.

The constant barrage of worrying, planning, rushing, and fretting that most of us deal with in heavy doses on a daily basis is the very thing that raises our stress levels to a point of compromising our immune function and overwhelming us mentally and emotionally. The societal expectations we have to produce and perform and to be successful at all things can, at times, take us to the breaking point physically, mentally, and emotionally. Being in a state of meditation allows you to transcend the distractions of thoughts, emotions, and physical pain. Meditation allows you to go beyond into a state of just being. It is in this state of pure being that you access your higher self and connect to a universal flow of knowing and intellect.

Following are five simple steps that will get you started in your practice of meditation.1. Choose a quiet space in which you can regularly meditate. It doesn't have to be an entire room. You can play soft music or light a candle--whatever gets you in a relaxed mood.2. Sit comfortably. If you aren't comfortable sitting on the floor with your legs crossed, sitting in a chair with your feet on the floor is perfectly fine. Sit with a straight spine, your head even, and your eyes closed.3. Begin with three deep, cleansing breaths, breathing all the way down to the base of the spine, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. Then begin to breathe normally.

4. Start to let go of all thoughts by focusing on the inflow and outflow of the breath or by repeating, silently, a simple mantra over and over. The mantra could be something like "I am healed," "I am whole," or "peace." When a thought pops into your head, put your attention back on your breath or the mantra. Make sure you don't focus on the meaning of the mantra because that becomes a thought.

5. Try to practice your meditation regularly. Twice a day is very beneficial--once in the morning and once in the late afternoon or evening. One half hour per session is ideal, but even if you can only work fifteen minutes, each time, into your day, you will still enjoy wonderful benefits. InshaALLAH

Meditation can have a very profound impact in your life by just meditating 10 minutes a day.

It can benefit you physically, mentally, and spiritually. Even if you are just looking for benefits in one realm of your life, the others will be impacted in a very positive way as well.

In my own experience, I can tell you I only meditate for about 10 to 15 minutes each day. Since Ive started meditating, I have become much calmer in the face of stress, more compassionate with others, and less agitated when I drive. I have also become more and more interested in learning about spirituality and developing my intuition. I strongly recommend meditation to you. If you want to learn more about it, you can check out my profile and get a link to sign up for a free 5 day meditation course.

Best of luck to you,

Sonia Gallagher

According to scientific research, it's been found that the meditation process counteracts the effects of the sympathetic nervous system - the one that decides whether to "fight or flee."  Whereas the sympathetic system dilates the pupils and gets the heart rate, respiration and blood pressure up, the parasympathetic system that is activated when we meditate, has the opposite effect.  

When you meditate, muscle tension decreases, blood pressure drops and for some extraordinary yoga practitioners, temperature and basal metabolism rates even drop during a prolonged meditation.

The other two significant things that happen when you meditate: The oxygen needs of your body are reduced when you are in a highly relaxed state and your brain waves change from the busy beta waves to the blissful alpha waves.  Not bad, right?

Check out levitatingmonkey.com for more about the benefits of Yoga.

Meditation is quite a useful technique having a deeper proclivity towards nurture than nature. It is a technique that is meant to capture attention and refocus it in a way that generates and accentuates a state of consciousness that is different from before. A type of meditation known as transcendental meditation, a person is made to iterate a mantra, over and over again, concentrating his / her full concentration on it until he / she reaches a state where no outside stimulus works on his / her senses and the state of consciousness of the person reaches a whole different phase.

This refocusing rationale of meditation is a universal phenomenon nevertheless its mode of application differs from culture to culture, sometimes even from person to person. Because of this variation, different cultures have developed their unique methods of changing the states of consciousness. Although the need for meditation and the rationale behind its application still remains a universal need.

It very much depends on what you consider meditation to be. In the modern world it has become a buzz word. Much of the meditation taught by western yoga and taichi teachers actually increases ignorance and distraction.
These techniques where you are encouraged to create pleasant fantasies like walking through forests etc., may be nice and relaxing but just strengthens the minds habit to wander. If you observe the mind it is always chasing after the endless objects of our senses, running up stories endlessly. We say 'I am in control' but the truth is that we dream about the past fantsise about the future so much that we completely overlap the present moment. We are rarely ever here and now.
The past is finished the future hasn't come yet. All that is real is now. To benefit minimally from meditation, it should be a practise that brings you present, calm and clear. It should develop your mindfulness and awareness. With this calm and clarity there is then the possibilty of realising some real wisdom that can gradually free you. Bliss is nice but still only a temporary experience until complete enlightenment.
In truth, you should find a qualified teacher. There are many in the Buddhist centers. It is usually free.

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Meditation holds a key to help us live the life we want to live. It changes us as a person, make us calmer, more relaxed, happier even. Our health also improves and so does our general well being. When you meditate you will instantly feel better because muscle tension decreases and blood pressure drops.