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What is Meditation - How to Meditate
Knut Holt
Meditation is a group of mental training techniques .You
can use meditation to improve mental health and capacities,
and also to help improve the physical health. Some of these
techniques are very simple, so you can learn them from a book
or an article; 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 out, you relax your muscles
so that your lungs are well emptied, but without straining.
3. You stop thinking about everyday problems and matters.
4. You concentrate your thoughts upon some sound, some word
you repeat, some image, some abstract concept or some feeling.
Your whole attention should be pointed at the object you have
chosen to concentrate upon.
5. If some foreign thoughts creep in, you just stop this foreign
thought, and go back to the object of meditation.
The 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 intensely
that no foreign thoughts occur at all.
In other techniques, the concentration is more relaxed so
that foreign thoughts easily pop up. When these foreign thoughts
are discovered, one stops these and goes back to the pure
meditation in a relaxed manner. Thoughts coming up, will often
be 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 upon the blood pressure.
5. Meditation has beneficial effects upon inner body processes,
like circulation, respiration and digestion.
6. Regular meditation will have a psychotherapeutically effect.
7. Regular meditation will facilitate the immune system.
8. Meditation is usually pleasant.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HYPNOSIS AND MEDITATION
Hypnosis may have some of the same relaxing and psychotherapeutic
effects as meditation. However, when you meditate you are
in control yourself; by hypnosis you let some other person
or some mechanical device control you. Also hypnosis will
not have a training effect upon the ability to concentrate.
A 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 well as you can.
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:
-- Breathe in so deeply that you feel you get enough oxygen.
-- Breathe out, relaxing your chest and diaphragm completely.
-- Every time you breathe out, think the word "one" or another
simple word inside yourself. You should think the word in
a prolonged manner, and so that you hear it inside you, but
you should try to avoid using your mouth or voice.
6. If foreign thoughts come in, just stop these thoughts in
a relaxed manner, and keep on concentrating upon the breathing
and the word you repeat.
As you proceed through this meditation, you should feel steadily
more relaxed in your mind and body, feel that you breathe
steadily more effectively, and that the blood circulation
throughout your body gets more efficient. You may also feel
an increasing mental pleasure throughout the meditation.
THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION UPON DISEASES
As 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 may sometimes give problems for people suffering
from mental diseases, epilepsy, serious heart problems or
neurological diseases. On the other hand, meditation may be
of help in the treatment of these and other conditions.
People suffering from such conditions should check out what
effects the different kinds of meditation have on their own
kind of health problems, before beginning to practise meditation,
and be cautious if they choose to begin to meditate. It may
be wise to learn meditation from an experienced teacher, psychologist
or health worker that use meditation as a treatment module
for the actual disease.
Knut Holt is an Internet consultant and marketer focusing
on health items. Please go here to find anti-aging supplements,
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Article Source: http://www.hotlib.com/articles
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