First of all, meditation is called upon to find harmony with one's “I”, to make one’s life more spiritual and meaningful, to find a way to the Higher Consciousness and to establish a connection with the Lord. Immediately make a reservation that meditation does not apply to any sectarian rites, its benefits are obvious. In fact, in all religious movements, believers meditate - these are prayers, ceremonies, all that helps to keep in touch with the Higher Mind.
What is meditation?
Translated from Latin, "meditation" means "to ponder," to "ponder." This is a series of special mental exercises that are used in spiritual, religious, wellness practice. As a result of classes, a mental state arises that allows you to rethink yourself. During meditation, a person makes an alliance with his "I", which allows you to establish contact with the source of wisdom and light, the entire Universe. Gaining the integrity of the personality, as a whole understanding of one's essence - all this gives meditation. The benefit lies in the fact that through a changed consciousness (trance), a person is able to gain control over his emotions, feelings and thoughts.
During meditation, a person focuses on the essence of the object, completely immersed in it. Thinking at this time is attached to one idea, and the mind returns to it again and again, after any wandering or rejection. Gradually with practice comes the ability to concentrate your mind on one object, to control the course of your thoughts. They stop wandering and getting confused in the head. The highest form of meditation is the ability to guide the mind, freeing oneself from the constant habit of thinking about something. This leads to the highest bliss, freedom of reason, awareness, clarity and serenity.
In the Western world, meditation came about through the Indian Maharishi Mahesh Yoga. The current world organization teaches transcendental meditation, the simplicity of technology and effective propaganda bring meditation to everyone.
What is the use of meditation?
Having mastered the technique and believing in himself, everyone will be able to meditate. After several successful sessions, a person easily finds contact with his own "I". Correct meditation helps in this. Its benefits are as follows:
- The process calms the mind, carries away depression, fears, aggression.
- Removes in a short period from stressful situations.
- Meditation makes it possible to stop the meaningless life stream of fuss, look into your soul, inner world, and feel your involvement in the divine.
- Increases self-esteem and improves emotional state. Gives flushes of joy and vivacity.
- Meditation has a positive effect on the nerves, heart, and reduces pressure.
- The immune system is strengthened.
- By meditating, a person gets rid of cravings for things, thereby simplifying his own attitude to life.
- The level of awareness of one’s own actions and actions rises.
- Over time, meditation accustoms a person to perceive everyone as they are, to feel unity with all people, to love all living things over time.
- Creativity develops - this is the use of meditation, the reviews of many talented people confirm this. Many who have experienced the technique of meditation note that in this way they got out of the captivity of the past and began to appreciate life here and now.
- Meditation provides answers to many vital questions and fills the existence of this earth with joy.
- By gaining our own “I,” we gain happiness. An open heart for the world makes us one with it.
The main types of meditation
There are two main types of fundamentally different meditations:
- The first type includes meditation on emptiness. The kind of meditation is very complicated. It consists in complete calm and complete mental silence. Here you need to completely eliminate all thoughts from your head and just watch the void. This type of meditation leads to complete "enlightenment", awareness of the essence of all existence.
- The second type of meditation is meditation on the "one" or unidirectional. Here you will need to focus all your attention on one thing, to fully concentrate your attention, to contemplate something, listen or pronounce. The meaning of this kind is to gradually immerse yourself in "meditation for nothing", from which comes even greater benefit.
Dynamic meditations allow us to clear our unconscious limiting attitudes, our emotions associated with something accumulated in childhood and adolescence. We grew up, the installations are outdated, but the emotional trash remains. You need to get rid of it and cleanse your energy.
Subspecies. Active and passive meditation
What is active meditation? The monotonous repetition of various physical exercises or some kind of stress leads to the fact that the thought process is blocked. Man is immersed in a trance. Often, active meditation is performed in dance, when the muscles work in one rhythm, are involved in one monotonous process.
Most meditations can be classified as passive. Here a person takes the most comfortable position and begins to plunge into his own world. This condition should be achieved without any emotional and mental activity. An example of such an immersion is the meditation form of traditional Indian yoga. In a deep trance, a person is able to expand his own consciousness, after only a few sessions the benefits of meditation are felt. It is based on mantras, simple formulas. The psyche calms down in a natural way, spiritual tranquility sets in, immersion in oneself. The body in this state is completely relaxed and as if immersed in the waves of the ocean.
Revealing and meaningful meditation
With revealing meditation, a person consciously refers to existing reality. In this case, a consciousness is formed that relates to the current reality, in this case, this is the use of meditation. Whatever you do: walk, sit, lay, you must be completely captured by this action.
Meaningful meditation. The contemplation of fire, water, clouds, and much more will allow you to plunge into natural meditation. Based on this state, experts have created forms of meaningful meditation. As a starting point in your own dive, a natural object or phenomenon is used. The meditator fully comprehends the essence of the phenomenon and there is a relationship between man and nature.
Also, photographs, drawings, images can be used as objects in meaningful meditation. A person focusing on the meaning of a picture dissolves in it and learns a deeper meaning.
Substantive meditation can be musical. Listening to beautiful music, a person opens his imagination, draws different pictures and discovers the world of new sounds, as if from another world.
Objects for concentration
In some types of meditation, you need to choose an object for concentration. Most commonly used concentration:
- On my own breath. You need to focus and watch your own breathing. Each time, meditation becomes clearer and clearer.
- On a candle or its mirror image. Sit in front of the mirror, light a candle in front of you. Relax, not think about anything, but just watch the fire or with your own eyes. This is how meditation on the candle goes, the benefits are felt soon. The body simply flows into nirvana.
- On an internal sound of its own. You need to sit comfortably, relax, and silently listen to the sounds in your own head. Soon you will hear a subtle sound - an echo of the flowing energy.
- On the mantras. Used mantra in Sanskrit. The variety is transcendental meditation.
- To the chakras. Each chakra has its own sound, color, taste, smell and image. It focuses on them.
- In the air that touches the nostrils when exhaling and inhaling.
- On the heartbeat.
Meditation process
For meditation, you need to completely relax. The most important aspect of the session is total relaxation. Every muscle in the body must become free. Next, you need to fully concentrate on breathing or on some subject of meditation, music, the rhythm of your own heartbeat. Thoughts need to be completely turned off. If the concentration can be maintained, then at the same time thinking about something else simply will not work. Our brain is constantly thinking about something, and at first getting rid of thoughts is hard enough, but this can be learned. This will take some time.
Then stay in a relaxed state without any tension. If thoughts cannot be turned off, do not get upset, fight them and get angry. Just start following them and watch their flow from the side, like an uninteresting film. The main task at this stage is to remain indifferent and ignore all thoughts. If they appear in the head, do not show interest in them. It’s very difficult to turn off the internal dialogue, it requires intensive, long practice.
At the first stages, learn to observe thoughts from the side, it is not necessary to drive them away from you. After all, this is not the only meaning that meditation contains. The benefit will come from the fact that even for a short time you can relax and indifferently watch your problems. You will understand how insignificant they are in the vastness of the universe.
The brain, its performance and mood
The benefits of meditation for the brain have been proven by many studies. In Belgian schools, a test was conducted in which 400 students took part. The followers of the meditation program already six months later confirmed the fact that they did not know the feeling of fear and anxiety. In these adolescents, all signs of possible manifestations of depression disappeared.
Similar studies have been conducted at the University of California among patients with depression. Conscious meditation reduced dysfunctional beliefs in life, its effect on the body worked even better than antidepressants. By the way, they only drown out the symptoms, but do not cure the cause of the disease.
The benefits of meditation for the human body are also proven in other directions, here are just a few of them:
- Help treat postpartum depression.
- Adjustment of mood and anxiety disorders.
- Removal of panic attacks.
- Increased concentration of gray matter in the brain.
- Reduces the need for sleep and enhances psychomotor alertness.
- Reduces alcohol and drug addiction.
- In the brain, the generation of gamma waves is enhanced.
- The body becomes sturdier and stronger against pain.
- Pain is better than morphine.
Body and health. Relations
When meditation is conducted, the health benefits are felt even in the most advanced cases. The most popular method - transcendental meditation - has helped many patients, and this is also confirmed by studies in the largest research centers and institutes:
- Metabolic syndrome decreases.
- Life expectancy is increasing.
- Blood pressure decreases.
- The risk of atherosclerosis is reduced.
- The risk of coronary disease is reduced.
- Cholesterol control.
- Help in the treatment of epilepsy.
- Support in the fight against smoking.
- Clarity of thinking appears.
- Increases resistance to harmful factors.
The state of rest not only of the body, but also of the mind - all this gives meditation, the benefits for the body of which are invaluable.
As for relationships, here the process of meditation gives rise to a feeling of empathy in a person, a positive attitude towards all living things, reduces the desire for social isolation, loneliness. Raises mood, increases compassion, reduces anxiety.
The harm of meditation
And yet there are controversial issues that meditation raises. The benefits and harms here are the same coin. According to some researchers, untrained meditation can be harmful. Initially, having experienced the bliss of unity with the higher "I", a person can become addicted to the process of meditation, like a drug. This is simply addictive.
In order to achieve the highest levels of meditation, experienced yogis have come to this for decades. In the process of meditation, the composition of the blood changes, the level of endorphin rises, but the level of oxygen can decrease, the heart rate and the number of heart contractions change.
It is not in vain that in oriental cultures and religions only dedicated people and clergy are allowed to meditate. They argue that for Europeans this is too serious and complicated a process.
As for the brain, scientists have proved that changes occur in the process of meditation. It was found that people with injuries in the right parietal part reach a state of transcendence faster. The brain of meditating Tibetan monks was also scanned. It was found that areas that regulate attention were most active. At the same time, the posterior parietal zone was completely passive, there is a bundle of neurons responsible for orienting the body in space. That is why during meditation a person feels a reunion with eternity, loses a sense of reality.
The question of the benefits and dangers of meditation is always open, but the facts remain facts. Everyone can decide for himself whether his mind is ready to make a reunion with his eternal "I" or is the psyche still weak for such a step?