Our day-to-day activities and schedules make us restless. We are not getting sufficient time to remain on our natural self. This leads to several disorders such as stress, tension, irritation, etc. To treat this, you need to spend more time with your inner self and experience spirituality. And the way to do it is meditation.

What is Meditation?
Meditation basically means to actively concentrate on your own thoughts and your sense of your self. It is a sustained effort to calm both your body and your soul. It involves sitting in a relaxed position and clearing your mind. You may choose to focus on a sound, like ‘ooommm’, or on your own breathing. For thousands of years, monks and mystics have been meditating to enhance their connection to the divine. By connecting with higher positive energies, you can lead your life in a healthy and successful way. Historically, it was simultaneously originated in both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions.

How does it work?
When you body is under stress its releases stress hormones like norepinephrine. These hormones increase your heart rate and blood pressure. But meditation interrupts that flood of stress chemicals, so you don’t feel on guard or tense. It also reduces your body’s responsiveness to the stress. In short it helps you to manage stress.

What are the benefits?
Benefits of meditation are manifold however the primary benefit is in the elusive healing transformation that happens, not only in the mind and emotions but also within the body. It can contribute to an individual’s psychological and physiological well-being. Here are a few benefits to get you started:

Reduces anxiety and stress: Meditation helps to reduce stress as it teaches you to switch off from the worries that can plague you through the day. It activates the left pre-frontal cortex, while reducing activity in the right pre-frontal cortex of the brain. As the left frontal cortex is associated with calmness, peace, happiness and other positive feelings you get reduced stress level and improved mood. This has a domino affect on your body by decreasing the tightness of your muscles, lowering your blood pressure, and increasing the number of “feel good” endorphins.

Decreased heart rate: Meditation has been found to be particularly helpful for the heart. Meditators have been found to have a lowered heart rate. This helps to reduce the workload on the heart. The reduction of heart rate during meditation was found to be greater than the reduction resulting from sitting quietly with eyes closed.

Lowers blood pressure and increases blood flow: Meditation has proven beneficial to people with high blood pressure by bringing down their blood pressure to acceptable levels. Several studies, however, have shown that relief from high blood pressure diminishes or disappears entirely if meditation is discontinued. Blood flow was shown to increase almost 200%, especially in the frontal cortex during meditation. Meditation has also been shown to significantly improve blood circulation.

Reduces chronic pain: Chronic pain can systematically degrade the quality of life. While, causes of pain may be physical but the experience of pain is entirely in the mind. Meditation has been shown to be very effective in helping with pain management. Research has shown that it can lead to 15 to 20 percent reduction in pain. Although meditation may not eliminate pain, but it helps people cope more effectively.

Cures insomnia: People suffering from Insomnia can benefit to a lot of extent with meditation. There is an improvement up to 75%. Insomnia is a common result of stress. When a person meditates, there is a physical as well as mental relaxation. So meditation helps to relieve stress and also to treat insomnia.

Respiratory diseases: Meditation involves learning correct breathing techniques. Asthma, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) restrict breathing and raise fears of suffocation. Thus by learning to breathe correctly, one can see a stark improvement in the condition on a person suffering from respiratory disorders. Especially, Asthma patients should consider meditation as it improves the flow of air to the lungs.

Stomach disorders: Meditation can also improve irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers etc. Deep breathing and meditation leads to a relaxation of your abdominal muscles, which may lead to normalization of bowel activity.

Fights depression: Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and isolation lead to depression. Meditation increases concentration, self-esteem, spontaneity, creativity, and depth of awareness. Many people use mediation to fend off depression.

Meditation is food for the soul. It is through meditation that you create the causes for the release of the bondage of this loveable reflection of God within you. With all of the health benefits that meditation possesses, it is also related to the fountain of youth. So while technology and medication don’t provide the answer to finding happiness and bliss, meditation clearly is a solution for increased health, energy, connection, peace and love in your life.